THE BIGGEST MISSED OPPORTUNITY IN YOUR BUSINESS

Lead Generation

At Mega Camp 2016 Jay Papasan presented Reimagining the 33 Touch where he showed agents the ONE Thing they can do now to close the gap between potential clients and actual clients. Did you know that picking up the phone and being purposeful in your marketing strategy can increase your units by up to 800 percent?

In the upcoming new edition of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent(MREA), the 33 Touch is reimagined and changed to 36 to Convert. During the presentation, Papasan walked attendees through the 36 client touches agents can make each year to exponentially increase their business.

Are Your Leaving Money on the Table?

In recent interviews with more than 200 real estate sales businesses earning at least $1 million in GCI, it was discovered that 90 percent of all their business came from as few as five sources, with repeat and referral business consistently in the top three. “If you want a big business, repeat and referral is going to be a pillar of it,” Papasan said.  Are you doing everything you can to capture repeat and referral business? Chances are there is more opportunity than you realize.

71% Would

In the National Association of REALTORS® annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 71 percent of buyers and sellers surveyed said they would use the same real estate agent again in another transaction. “We do not have a customer service problem,” Papasan said.

17% Do

“But we do have a communication problem,” he continued, as he shared only 17 percent of buyers and sellers actually do use the same real estate agent again. This means agents are leaving 54 percent of potential business right there on the table.

54% Opportunity

There is a huge opportunity to bridge the gap and capture that 54 percent of potential business. Here’s an example of what that 54 percent could do for your career.

An average agent who does nine transactions in their first year and only works within the 17 percent would theoretically grow their business to approximately 120 transactions over a 20-year career. While that’s nothing to sneeze at, it’s also the definition of average.

Compare that to a Millionaire Real Estate Agent who started with those same nine transactions in year one but who successfully captured the full 71 percent in the same period of time. Their business is on a completely different trajectory, building to almost 3,000 transactions over 20 years. That’s 25 times the average!

So the question is: Are you an average real estate agent or a Millionaire Real Estate Agent?

The Strength of Weak Ties 

Papasan further explained that weak ties equal opportunity and can help fill up your database. On average, every person has approximately 150 close relationships/strong ties. These are people likely already in your database. But each one of them has 150 strong ties – your weak ties – waiting to be added to your database. By being purposeful in your outreach to your 150, you can start collecting referrals from the 22,500 weak ties just one degree of separation away.

36 to Convert

The following activities will help you strengthen your strong ties and tap into your weak ones:

4 Telephone Calls Each Year: Telephone calls can have an immediate impact on your business. If you only do one activity, this would be it.

2 Events Each Year: This can be a movie night or social gathering somewhere in town. BONUS: All four calls can be wrapped around these two events. Call to invite them to the events and then call to either thank them for coming or say you missed seeing them. Surprisingly, agents report the “we missed you calls” were actually the most impactful.

26 Bi-weekly Emails Each Year: Keep the conversation going and stay top of mind with bi-weekly emails to your database. An example would be to create valuable newsletters with relevant industry and neighborhood information. When writing content, Papasan suggests you think about what appeals to you and what type of emails you like to receive. Another content idea is a personal real estate financial statement you send to your clients each year to let them know how their home is doing. 

4 Promotional Direct: Think about sending out a creative promotional item with a relevant message that encourages interaction from your database such as a social media campaign connected with the item.

Your Business Is Your Database

As you go forward with implementing your 36 to Convert, think about frequency and your medium; do what works for you, Papasan encouraged the audience. “Be as creative as you can be,” he said. “And by creative, I mean have fun!” Other tips include being consistent and focusing on consistency, not perfection.

You now have lots of great ideas to move forward with to help you get more of the money being left on the table. If you could take just one action that you enjoy that would get you that repeat and referral business, which would you pick? Let us know in the comments section below.

KW associates can watch Papasan’s full presentation on KWConnect.