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The President of the United States gets 100 days to prove himself. You get less. A lot less. 

But like the President, what you do in the early days of your new career will largely determine whether you sink or swim. 

This is a time of opportunity for you. A chance to start fresh. A new beginning. But it’s also a time of vulnerability. You’re a stranger in a strange land–with just a few dollars in your pocket. 

The stakes are obviously high.

Failure in the early days of your career can spell the end of a promising business. So this post is not just about exploiting opportunities and advancing your career. It’s also about preventing failure.

Therefore, your goal should be to arrive at critical mass as rapidly as possible. If you succeed in this, you’ll free up precious time to focus on business development.

Follow these 10 critical strategies and you will inevitably exploit opportunities, prevent failures and advance your career.   

1. Promote Yourself

First and foremost, make a clear break with your last job. Quit it if at all possible. Part-timers are crummy real estate agents. 

Then, hit the ground running. Announce to everyone you know–including your old boss and co-workers–that you are a real estate agent. What you want is immediate traction. This means reworking your network.

Furthermore, learn everything you can about real estate. And start sharing that information. On a blog. In a newsletter. At networking events.

And most importantly: watch out for people who want to hold you back.

2. Accelerate Your Learning 

If you aren’t a reader–become one. Fast. If you aren’t a learner–get over it. You’ll need to become one if you want to succeed in real estate.

Now, if you have trouble learning or find reading boring, do this: view it as an investment. Imagine every hour spent learning is a possible $100 down the road.

Furthermore, to be systematic about learning, you’ll need to define your learning agenda. You’ll need to find the best sources of insight (this could be designations, coaching, conferences or mentors. Or all of them). What’s always helped me when I want to learn something is to adopt a learning plan. This will work for you, too. 

3. Match Strategy to Situation

Always diagnose the business situation you are entering before you create a strategy. Is it a hot market or a sluggish market? Urban or rural?  What are the challenges and opportunities? Should you play offense or defense? What are the right skills needed to lead? 

Also, understand the history, the people and the culture of your market. This can be some of your best clues on how to succeed in your market. 

4. Nail Down Early Wins

While there are a lot of ways to build credibility, early wins is certainly one of the best. 

What is an early win? Great thing about early wins in real estate is that you get to define them. An early win could be getting a buyer for a piece of property your company’s best salesperson has been having trouble selling. Or it could be as small as meeting key leaders in your city. 

Early wins involve rewards not just for your clients or co-workers–but for you, too. But whatever the win, make sure it’s a tangible result. Something you can measure. 

5. Negotiate Success

How do you build a productive relationship with the people you work with–whether clients or co-workers? There are several do’s and don’ts.

First, the do’s. Take responsibility for making every relationship work. Clarify expectations ealry and often. Negotiate times for action. Aim for early wins important to your clients and co-workers. Pursue relationships with people your clients and co-workers respect.

Second, the don’ts. Never trash the past. Don’t avoid communicating with your clients or co-workers. Never surprise them. Never approach them with problems only. Never run down a checklist. Never try to change the people you work with.

6. Get Alignment from Key People

Think of yourself as an architect for your business. You’re the one who’s responsible for making sure your business is productive, effective and efficient. And that the important people in your business–the one’s who are going to help you succeed–are behind your strategy.

This includes all the obvious people: your boss, partner, manager and co-workers. But believe it or not, this also includes your spouse. He or she needs to be on board with you are doing. Otherwise, expect grief.

7.  Build Your Team

I can honestly say that the number one way to grow a business is to build a team. In other words, delegate work. Rock star agents probably not so much, but other successful agents move rapidly to add people to their team because they realize they can accomplish more when they have a group of people working as one on a compelling vision. 

8. Create Coalitions

Sooner or later, you will need the support of peers–whether you like them or not. That’s why it’s so important to identify supporters and opponents, and then figure out how you can influence them.

This might mean you’ll have to humble yourself and act kindly toward someone you can’t stand. If that makes you want to hurl, think about this: one act of kindness now could lead to a strategic advantage in the future. One act of defiance now could lead to a stonewall–and a critical failure.  

9. Keep Your Balance

This is the real estate killer–unending work. Seven day work weeks. Midnight closing times. Going into the office on holidays. Allow this to happen and you will burnout, or worse, lose your family. 

Take stock, set limits on your business and be disciplined. For example, you could have a goal for a four-day work week. Or a four hour work week. Whatever your plan, stick to it.

10. Develop Everyone

If you follow the previous strategies you should be well on your way to reaping a rewarding real estate career. However, you’re not done.

Don’t forget about the people around you. Make it a plan to develop every member on your team into a leader. Help those in your peer or mastermind group to grow. Help client’s achieve success outside of buying or selling a home. Ask yourself: whose life can I accelerate?

If you want more help on making that transition between jobs, read Michael Watkins The First 90 Days. 

Did you find this article useful? If so, leave a comment. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.

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Has this ever happened to you? 

You spend the weekend hunched over your computer writing and designing a postcard to announce a new listing. On Monday, you spend one hundred dollars to print the postcards. On Tuesday, you spend an additional fifty to mail them.

But nothing happens. What gives?  

The Reason Your Advertising Doesn’t Work

The reason your advertising doesn’t work–whether it’s a billboard or email newsletter or postcard mailing–is simple: you never test. 

Testing, especially for you DIY real estate marketers, is critical if you want to find out what works. And make it even better. 

But all good tests start at the same place: a good test strategy. You must know where you are going before you begin the trip. And to do that, you must ask the right questions. Otherwise, at the end of the test, you are lost in an ocean of data.

To avoid that conundrum and to stop wasting your time and money, follow these four critical ways to test. 

Creative 

Creative tests involve experiments with the copy, cover treatments, envelope size and envelope copy. These tests tend to be the easiest to conduct. And offer a popular way to increase response.   

A common test is to write two entirely different pieces of copy. One uses fear and the other uses pride. And the whole reason you went after these two emotions is because you’ve studied your prospect and profiled him. (Remember, writing is one of the best skills you can practice and hone.)

Another common, easy creative test is envelope copy. Try one envelope with a teaser like, “You will never sell your home, unless…” and the other envelope with no copy at all. If you find out the teaser copy pulled in more response, then roll it out to the rest of your list.

Or test and refine the teaser copy. Your call.  

Offer 

Most real estate marketers go after offer tests after they’ve tinkered with the creative. These tests involve promotions–or a combination of promotions–to increase response. 

An example of differing offers can be as simple as “Sign with me and I’ll let you use my moving van” or “Sign with me and I’ll pay your moving costs.” You’re looking for what motivates people–service or money.

Offer tests help you understand what drives response and are an efficient way to work your list of prospects. 

One thing to watch out for when conducting an offer test: make sure you account for the full cost of the test. Examine how the test impacts your profit and loss in the long run. That means don’t forget to include all costs for owning a moving van, if that’s your offer.

Timing and Frequency

Another big question real estate marketers like you need to ask is “When and how often should I mail/email/advertise/etc.?” 

The answer to that question will help you to determine if an aggressive pay-per-click campaign or ad placement does better in getting more customers for a small investment. Or it will give you the value of an incremental mailing.

Do you get more response when you send out an email on Monday morning or Monday evening? Do you get more response when you email them twice a week for three months or once a week for six months? 

Those are the kinds of questions you need to ask. 

Keep in mind, you need to wait to the end tests before making a judgment on your test. Especially when it comes to long-term tests. If your incremental mailing is six months, wait six months.

Lists

Testing lists is a basic must-have in your marketing plan if you want to acquire new prospects and clients. But the questions you need to ask aren’t as cut-and-dry as the previous tests. You’ll need to think deep on this.

For example, which zip code responds better to an appeal on prestige, success or fear? What neighborhood will accept a flat-out advertisement versus a more editorial style advertisement?  

However, investing time in figuring out the right questions to ask will reward you well. In addition, you must experiment with just a portion of a list until you find the right combo of other factors. Once you do, then roll it out to the rest of the list. 

Conclusion

Asking the right questions is the key to effective testing. And once you find out which list responds to the right copy, creative and offer you’ll become a rock-star real estate marketer.

Did you find this article useful? If so, leave a comment. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.

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For the overworked, overcommitted and all-around overwhelmed real estate agent I have one piece of no-nonsense advice for you–that really works. 

Learn to make people talk about you.  

Last week I wrote about the two most productive lead generation activities in real estate marketing that several Baylor University researchers discovered–referrals and IVR technology.

To piggyback on that discovery, I’m going to zero in on referrals this week and IVR technology next week.   

You’ll Make More Money. Simple Enough?

Referrals are by far the most effective leads you can find. They don’t cost anything and they come with a substantial recommendation from a past client, friend or family member.

Referral leads are ready-made leads. They are leads that require nothing more than for you to bump them into the basket.

But it’s not really that simple.

It does require diligent work with clients, providing divine customer service–the kind of service that people only dream about. But when they do experience that kind of care, they can’t believe it, and they can’t stop talking about it.

Sound like a far-fetched dream?

It doesn’t need to be. Just follow these 7 practical steps to creating a great referral business and in less than six months you’ll unlock a majestic mountain of fresh, ready-to-buy or sell leads.  

1. Provide Astonishing, Jaw-Dropping Service

The first step is to provide a high level of service in the first place. If the service is not exceptional, no one will send any referrals. This goes back to the idea of divine customer service. 

But in my experience what most clients want from you is consistent feedback. (Has that been your experience?)

When your clients feel you have communicated with them clearly and regularly and beyond their expectations, their level of satisfaction goes up. Clients can overlook other errors at times, but lack of communication is rarely forgiven.

Achieve a satisfying level of communication with your clients and you’ve found the first key to generating more refarrals.

2. Ask Past Clients for Referrals 

A second, but simple step toward obtaining referrals is to ask for them.

There is no substitute for actually prospecting for referrals. Picking up the phone and communicating with your past clients is crucial.

3. Ask Current Clients for Referrals

Third, do not forget to ask your current clients. (Tips two and three can be summed up this way: ask every client.) The people you are currently working with can be your best referral sources.

The ides is to strike while the iron is hot.

They’re telling everyone they meet that they are either buying or selling. They are in a fit of anxiety, eager to talk to people about buying or selling a home. Their whole conversations revolve around their current activity in real estate.

So, you want to hit these people early on when their excitement is high.

4. Create an Automatic System to Cultivate Past Clients

Understand you must consistently contact your past clients in order to achieve success in referrals. Creating a program that helps keep you in constant contact with your past clients will yield the best results.

You will receive a good 80 percent of your referrals from 20 percent of your past clients. 

5. Track, Monitor and Measure Referrals

Make sure to effectively track who is sending you the business. You need to know which people to spend the most time, energy, effort, and dollars on.

You might be surprised who is your leading salesperson in the field. By tracking, you can accurately reward the ‘top producer’ of referrals. And people love recognition from others. 

A simple spreadsheet or more complex customer relationship management software can help you do this.

6. Build Something Past Clients Are Proud to Share

Put out the welcome mat. Invite your current and past clients to visit your website to enjoy articles, tips or quizzes.

Also, make it easy for your current clients to navigate your website or blog. Do something on the web that establishes your authority.

7. Identify and Provide What People Want

Finally, the surest way to success is finding out what people want–and then giving it to them. This can even be about finding needs or wants people don’t know they have…and meeting them. Think Apple iPod.

Nobody thought they needed the iPod. But Apple mined their customer base and the world at large and discovered some keen insights that helped them develop the iPod. All Apple had to do was get out of the way after that.

Conclusion

My best advice to you is become something incredible. Become something people can’t stop talking about. Become a purple cow.

Be diligent in identifying and providing what your customers want or need. Pay close attention to what people on the street are saying. Never stop asking, listening, learning and giving.

Once you do this, all you’ll need to do then is get out of the way.

Did you find this article useful? If so, leave a comment. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.

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