Broker owner Deb Siefkin writes that the answer isn’t always “more, more, more.” For real estate agents who are experiencing a downturn, it may be time to do something different.
Most agents are not stuck because they have stopped working. They feel stuck because nothing about their job changes. They’re making phone calls, posting videos and hosting open houses, following a system they’ve been told will work. Still, the business is not moving.
The gap between effort and results is something no one really explains
The industry’s default answer to an economic slowdown is almost always the same. Do more. More conversation. Even more content. Generate more leads.
And that’s enough for a while. Instead, gaps begin to appear. There comes a point where further activity stops creating momentum and starts exposing something else.
The real constraint is not the effort. it’s an interpretation
Most agents navigate conversations without a clear read of what’s actually going on inside. Buyers say they can’t find what they like. My agent heard that I needed to see more homes.
But what it means is often something completely different. They may not have faith in their price point yet. You may be comparing homes that you weren’t supposed to compare. They may not know what is most important.
Therefore, the agent will respond in the only way it has been taught. More screenings. More options. More movement. And the client is not only overwhelmed, but even more overwhelmed.
If the signal is misunderstood, the response is useless. it deepens the problem even more
This is where the plateau actually forms. Not because the agent isn’t working, but because it’s solving the wrong problem.
Most real estate training prepares agents for the process. How to write a contract. How to negotiate. How to manage your timeline. However, clients do not come into the process ready to act.
They walk in feeling anxious. The timing is unknown. Not sure about trade-offs. It’s unclear what they actually decide.
The moment that determines the outcome occurs before the transaction begins. And if that moment is not guided well, then everything that follows will be more difficult than it needs to be.
This is something that most agents don’t realize. Client hesitation is no coincidence. It follows a pattern. The client goes through stages before taking action. They move from noise and confusion to discovery, clarity, and ultimately a decision they can commit to.
Those stages are not always obvious from the outside, but they are almost always present.
Agents who remain stuck tend to treat all stages the same. They move toward the next step regardless of where the client actually is. When the client resists, it is classified as a motivation issue and the response is more pressure or more activity.
Agents who break through do something different.
Slow down the conversation just enough to understand what’s actually going on. They start asking better questions.
What is this client trying to solve? What are they up to that they haven’t said yet? What does clarity look like for them now?
And they do things that most agents are not trained to do. They structure decision-making. Clarity is not something the client brings to the table. That’s what powerful agents create.
That’s the shift.
From correspondence to guidance. From reaction to interpretation. From moving the process forward to shaping the decision itself.
When that happens, everything downstream begins to change. The show becomes more focused. Conversations become more direct. You’ll feel more confident about your offer.
Not because the market has changed, but because the way of thinking has changed.
Momentum in this business doesn’t come from movement. it comes from the direction
That’s why so many talented agents are stuck around longer than necessary. they are doing their job. They just do it without a clear structure of what actually drives their decisions.
Once you give that structure, everything downstream begins to change.
Deb Siefkin is a practicing broker and founder of RightSize Realty Associates. Connect with Deb on LinkedIn and Instagram.
