Bring balance to your real estate business with strategies for managing short-term deals and long-term lead generation from coach Darryl Davis.
If you ask 10 real estate professionals what their best lead source is, you’ll get 10 different answers. Here’s a more convenient way to think about it. Stop asking which activities are best and start thinking about what each activity is for.
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Every lead move you make will be paid into one of two accounts: your current account and your future account. Successful professionals in any market continue to fund both.
Imagine a restaurant. Tonight’s cover will pay for this week. If you make a reservation for next month, the lights will turn on later. Great restaurants do both at the same time. You should too.
Current account: pick up the phone
Today, business is anything that can generate conversation and, in some cases, promise. The fastest tool for that is definitely the phone. Email crawl. It’s too late to knock on the door. With a phone, you can have a real conversation in minutes with people who have already raised their hand.
Here we will explain the actual settings. Block out certain days and certain times and treat them as indestructible. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9am to 10am is a good start. Please call me for a full hour. The ones I like to call are for sale by owner, expired listings, and past customers. Because the first two have already told the world they want to sell, and the third already believes in you.
No need to memorize scripts. We need a simple, human opener. If it’s expired, try something like this:
“Hello, I’m Pat from ABC Realty. I noticed that your home has been put up for sale. I’m sure you’re frustrated. I support homeowners in exactly your situation. I want to know what happened so I can honestly tell you if I can do better. Can I have two minutes?”
It’s warm, direct, and doesn’t feel oppressive.
Future account: plant where it already stands
The future of business is all about what pays off later. Neighborhood farming, community events, volunteering, sponsoring a team, serving on a school committee, and sending regular emails. Some cost money, while others just take time. None of it was noteworthy this week, but that’s exactly the point. We plan to fund it next quarter and next year.
3 rules for success
Fund both accounts instead of just one. Now, your business and you are trading deal after deal, living with a clean slate every slow week. All the future work, and while waiting for the harvest you will starve. Select one activity for each account and commit to both. Make consistency non-negotiable. Consistency always trumps intensity. 10 calls a day, 5 days a week will offset the 100 panic calls that occur once a month. The same goes for agriculture. Neighbors remember names that appear many times, not names that appear once. Choose activities that you actually enjoy. This business is mentally draining in itself. If you bolt a method you don’t like, it will never be done. If you’d rather talk than knock, talk on the phone. If an event brightens your mood, work on your room. Fun is what keeps you consistent.
How to weight two accounts
The appropriate combination is not fixed. We respond flexibly to suit the market and stage.
Are you new to the business or are you working on a slow market? Lean strongly into the business now because you need conversation and income right away and you can’t wait two years for your farm to mature. Do you have a healthy and established past customer base in a busy market? You’re already nourished by referrals, so you can afford to invest more in future business.
Reevaluate your balances quarterly, just like you would review any other part of your business.
A balanced week looks like this:
I block three one-hour calls on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings before calling it a day. Future business actions might include opting out of monthly emails or participating in community events. An hour to reconnect with past customers. Not to sell, but to keep you top of mind.
This equates to approximately 5 hours of focused time and allows you to keep both accounts funded without hogging your calendar.
Defend those blocks fiercely. Most professionals struggle with prospecting not because they don’t know what to do, but because the urgent task of processing the current deal always crowds out the important task of generating the next deal. If it’s not on the calendar and you’re protected, that won’t happen.
One more practical note about the rules of fun. This is because it is easy to ignore as software. If you’re afraid of exploration, you’ll find hundreds of creative ways to avoid it. And avoiding it will cost you far more than any previous discomfort. Therefore, design a job that suits you.
Hate cold calls, but love people?Lead on past clients, referrals, and community events. Do you want to be quiet and concentrate? Build a strong email and online presence, and schedule a thoughtful follow-up by phone. There is no single correct system, only one that you actually run each week.
This is your challenge for this week. Before you close this article, pick one current business activity (almost certainly a phone call) and write a block of time on your calendar. Then select one of your future business activities and schedule your first action.
Two accounts, both funded, both consistent, both fun. Then you’ll stop chasing the perfect lead source because you’ll be too busy working two jobs that actually pay you.
Daryl Davis, CSP, is a nationally recognized real estate speaker, bestselling author, and coach with over 40 years of experience in the industry. For more information, visit darrylspeaks.com.
