Bernice Ross shares strategies that combine niche marketing with high-level AI to power your business-building engine into a development and production superpower.
The headlines are full of all the tips you need to build your real estate business.
There are headlines about Claude everywhere, all promoting “Here’s exactly what you need to do.” ChatGPT still reigns supreme in large-scale language models (LLM). Perplexity is great for getting local, comparable sales data. Grok is the only LLM designed to work with real-time data (think self-driving cars and space travel), allowing you to get what’s happening in places like X (Twitter) in real time.
This is all well and good, but it’s missing something you should do before opening an AI application.
For over 30 years, I have been training agents in business planning. The core of this training is understanding where your income actually comes from and creating 1-3 niches around that proven source of income.
One fact has remained constant since I started in this business in my 20s. That said, almost all top producers belong to a very specific segment of the market, where they are recognized as local experts. Especially when both traditional search and AI search ask, “Who is the best agent in this space?”
Jimmy Burgess’ recent column on what you need to do to be found by AI is valuable. But before you write that profile or do anything else, you should first dig deep into your personal business and identify exactly where your business is coming from.
10 questions to answer to find your niche
What are the top two price points you sell to? What are your top two productive lead generation sources? (Open houses, referrals, door knocks, websites, social media, video, expiration, FSBO, etc.) What are the top two age groups that are hot right now? What two types of households do you typically attract? (Single men, single women, married people with kids, empty nesters. Please specify size.) What are the two types of careers/jobs that most of your clients have? Have you represented more buyers or sellers? Where are most of your clients from? (Local, which state, country?) What are the top two regions that sell the most real estate? Please be specific. List at least three things you have in common with your customers. List at least three things your clients have in common.
This is a sample business planning spreadsheet that I have used in training for years. This may take some time to complete, but it is essential for success before opening your AI chatbot. reason? Identify your greatest strengths based on your work.
This data is your starting point to share with your chosen LLM, as it tells them more than just words about who you are and what your business is really like today. (Include the last closed sale in the past 18 months, or the last 25 closes).
This is an example from a past client of mine. (The abbreviations mean:
Total amount = $12,356,000
*Key sources: PCB = past customer purchases, PCL = past customer list, PCR = past customer referrals for new business, Sphere = referrals from SOI
**Family type: C-kids = couples with children at home. Married couple = no children at home. Single = unmarried M or F, or unmarried. MW Divorce = Representation of a Divorcing Man or Woman
The last two rows show the categories in which this agent generated the majority of its business. in particular,
Her home sweet spot (36%) was between $500,000 and $630,000. The second sweet spot (24%) for her condos was between $210,000 and $295,000. Her largest source of business (48%) came from past customers. She has a very clearly defined niche based on the age of her customers. 56 percent were between 40 and 50 years old. Of her total transactions, 44 percent were with single or divorced women, and 56 percent worked in the high-tech industry. 60% of her business was property listings (32% Oak Hill homes, 28% Playa condos). Note that she did business with Indians three times. I suggested that she double down on her marketing to this group. She did so, earning a $2 million listing and $4 million sale.
Convert this data to a prompt
The benefit of this is that you can start with actual operational data, rather than guessing what your niche “should” be.
Once patterns become clear, those insights can quickly be translated into prompts to create “AI-readable trust.” Here are five prompts you can copy and use right away.
Self-introduction prompt: “Please write one sentence about my work history as a real estate agent with a primary niche of high-tech professionals in the $210,000 to $630,000 range in the Oak Hill and Playa area, with a focus on 40-50 year old high-tech professionals, especially single women and women in transition.” Content prompt: “As a real estate agent specializing in high-tech professionals and women in transition in these areas, with an emphasis on helpful, local, non-commercial posts. Create a 30-day content calendar.” Review Prompt: “Write a warm email to a recent client asking for a detailed review.I am a real estate agent specializing in tech professionals, single women/women in transition, and 40-50 year olds in the Oak Hill and Playa area.” YouTube Prompt: “Write a warm email to a recent client asking for a detailed review.” YouTube Prompt: “Write a warm email to a recent client asking for a detailed review. As a year-old tech professional, and a real estate agent specializing in single women and women in transition, please give me 8-10 ideas for titles and descriptions for YouTube videos.” India Expansion Prompt: “Create 3 sample LinkedIn or email messages to expand my tech niche to Indian customers.I have already completed 3 transactions with Indian customers and would like to build real relationships.”
AI is powerful, but you can only amplify what you share with it. First, do your homework by identifying your actual production niche using the production profile above. Once you have these details (and the AI can read the spreadsheet), you can see where the real opportunities lie in your business.
When you provide that level of clarity to AI, you can stop the guessing and start building a business that not only helps search engines find you, but also allows AI to recommend you.
