"Lead generation is what selling real estate is all about, plain and simple."
"I have three jobs: Getting a listing appointment, preparing for a listing appointment, and going on a listing appointment,"
"My primary duty is to prospect. Everything else is secondary."
These are direct quotes from real estate agents; some here on Active Rain, others from, well, other places.
Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
That's why we have to go to real estate school and pass a proficiency test? That's why we have a license and continuing education requirements? That's why we pursue various advanced certifications and designations?
Because selling real estate is All About Lead Generation?
Okay, if you want to convince me that part of our job is procure leads FOR our buyers and sellers (that is, buyers for our listings or listings for our buyers), I'll buy that. But it's certainly not ALL we do; in fact, in some ways, putting buyers and sellers together is the easy part. Keeping them together is a whole ‘nother story. And certainly has nothing to do with Lead Generation.
My friends, generating leads is a necessary part of any small-business owner's business model. Whether you're a massage therapist, a dog-groomer, an insurance agent, a dentist, a chiropractor or a real estate agent, you need incoming customers to stay afloat. And it's up to you to figure out how to find those customers and do what it takes to lure them in.
But that doesn't mean it's your job. It's how you stay in business so you can DO YOUR JOB and make a living doing it!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, Jennifer. Who cares? What's your point?
My point is that our clients deserve better. Sorry, but they do. How would you feel if your veterinarian appeared to place a higher priority on finding new customers than on figuring out what's wrong with your beagle? What if your CPA seemed to care more about building his business than on doing your taxes correctly? Doesn't it annoy you when a service provider you hire seems more interested in getting referrals from you than in providing the service you hired him to do?
Our buyers and sellers deserve our full attention. They deserve to be our top priority. And until we give them our full attention and make them our top priorities, we'll never enjoy the professional respect we so long for. And as long our industry considers our primary duty to be lead generation, we won't deserve it.
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When it's presented that way, it sounds very cold and no caring shed. But truly, that's not what they mean? As dry as that???
Business with this mindset can survive. But they thrive on getting new businesses and use them like a revolving door.
You know I know that's not right. But each to his/her own, right?
Loreena - the agents who have made these comments MEAN IT - as far as I can tell. They truly see real estate as primarily a sales career (like selling medical supplies or replacement windows) and real estate is just their product of choice. And yes, it IS cold and uncaring. And repulsive to me, frankly.
And yes, they can survive - that's not in question. I guess maybe that's my point, even. I'm not saying they will fail - they may not - but they aren't serving their clients OR our industry. And it makes me mad.
You are so right, Jennifer. It is really annoying when a financial planner,etc. is more about getting some names from you than building a relationship with you and then possibly getting referral from their expertise.
Real Estate is what ever you want to make it, I think. Those that get the job done and serve their customers well, will succeed and profit. Others will not.
There is always a Yin and Yang to everything we do. A better way is to balance your approach to work. We are in the people business and clients can tell how sensitive you are to their needs. Get those leads but be a person who cares about their customers also.
Gabe - I disagree that you can't succeed and profit by treating real estate as a sales career. Agents do it every day, much to my dismay, especially when they're on the other side of the table from me and I'm doing all their work because they're out pursuing their next client and/or have no clue how to actually manage a real estate transaction.
Paul - every self-employed person must generate leads, and must learn that balance, I agree.
JoAnn - Yes! As a consumer, I want to believe that I'm the most important person in the world to my service provider.
Jennifer. Lead generation is the one activity that we should be doing every single day. With out it we have no business. Having enough leads will solve just about every problem that agents and brokers have. Therefore I do rank it as the most important thing that we do. Lead generation IS my job. Without it there would be no sellers or buyers to take care of.
BUT...once I have the leads taking care of my customer/clients is next.
Now having said that we should concentrate on the things that we enjoy doing and that we are good at. Leads can be bought. Handling sellers and buyers can be passed off to our agents. For me I like generating business and I like working with sellers. All of my buyers get passed off to others.
The beauty of our business is we can design it around our strengths.
Veterinarians, accountants, attorneys, etc. have a long road to be licensed to operate their business.
Real estate agents need only to take a short course of instruction, pass a simple multiple choice test and join a brokerage and they're in business. It takes far more training and experience to be licensed as a plumber than a real estate sales person.
There are far more real estate agents per capita than veterinarians. If they don't generate leads and referrals, they have no business.
Like everything else...if you do it in moderation it works. We have a saying at our firm "Hour of Power" so that you know you need to spend at least an hour on this activity.
Cindy in Indy
JA - That would be excellent if "regular" customers needed my services maybe 3 times a year, or 4 in a pinch, No mailings, no market updates to email and no doo-dads to send, we'd see each other in person and get down to business. Ours typically reach out only every 4 or 5 years maybe. Possibly a stipend is in order?
Lead generation is a segment of our business...but no, it isn't why I got my license. In that first year or two, yes, a new agent has to find the warm bodies. But then make taking care of those warm bodies the #1 priority.
Maybe those agents who do nothing but prospect have a team who then takes care of the clients they DO get?
The big teams in our office, have one specific person who lead generates so I guess that works because someone else handles the people part. I think its a fine line you have to time block and make sure you take care of your clients while finding more to fill your pipeline. *I have to say I hate cold calling though* I like your philosophy on scripts and everything else I've read and been reading. Have a great Monday
I agree that our TOP priority is helping our clients. Lead generation is part of getting clients, but not the only reason we are in business. If we spend all of our time getting leads and then not paying any attention to them, then we lose them and make zero money IMHO :).
Making a client happy and educating them on the process is why were in business and in my opinion, the best lead generation tool to date :)! Great post as usual!
They go together - first one must get the lead, convert it, then work with it - and at that point "it" is not a lead anymore but a client that one must take very good care of.
I wonder the ratio of AR posts, directed at other members, relate to lead generation or marketing of oneself as opposed to the business of actually doing the work of real estate (marketing property, local expertise, etc). I'd bet that it's 10 to 1 or more.
Obviously, lead generation is important but it's far from "all" that I need to do.
Jennifer as a new agent I have heard that to be successfull in Real Estate you must get listings, and to generate listings you must generate leads. I feel that if you dont take care of your customers than you wont have leads to generate. In a down economy and in a small town I am gettting leads but only because I have taken care of my customers who have referred me to other leads. I beleive that if we provide the best service we can to our custonmers than the leads and the sales will take care of themselves. As I said I am new to this profession but I think it is all about taking care of our customers like no one else. Service not sales. As always I appreciate your perspective.
I'm not sayin' that you shouldn't prospect. Of course you should. But if we can, as an industry, start celebrating taking great care of our business as our first priority (I know, I know my favorite soapbox) instead of celebrating taking great care of our prospecting schedule, lots and lots of good can come from that - including paychecks.
Julia - I used to participate at another forum where the ONLY topic of conversation was lead generation. No one EVER discussed the niceties of real estate representation to the point where I got the feeling none of these people could possibly actually be doing any business! Because the actual process of managing a real estate transaction is every bit as interesting (more so) than simply generating leads...
A caring rant that suggests polarity of opinion is necessary. Prioritizing appears to be the issue, and this, by definition, can change at any time. Some,by choice, then become specialists.
Jennifer - lead generation is what gets us to doing our "job". I disagree with those that say that lead generation is first and foremost, and that clients can wait the one, or two or three hours that we are doing our daily lead generation. Existing clients should not have to wait in line while we look for new clients.
Jennifer,
I agree wholeheartedly. Because our clients are more than numbers. I think the real estate paradigm requires specialties, niches and places where realtors can practice what they love to do in life and business.
Lead generation must be done on a daily basis but I have broken it up into several categories/phases:
Lead generation
Lead Conversion
Education Phase
Appointment
Contract/Negotiation
Escrow
It's really difficult to excel at all of those above categories. I have found (with my experience from team lead) that many break down with one or two of those categories and then that is why we have a bad rep with the general public.
All categories are important to tend to. I find when I am insane with the escrow phase (which warrants complete attention,) I STILL must find time to prospect or lead generate otherwise my pipeline will be dry when all of those escrows close.
I often hear the LIST LIST LIST mantra, and hear agents say they only list properties and hate to work with buyers. Well my thought to that is: Why would I list a house with some one that doesnt plan on selling it? At least thats they way they make it sound!
We need to generate business YES, but we need to know the ins and outs of our business and make the transaction a happy one for all involved, or that next lead certainly will be that much more difficult to stumble across!
Reminds me of a phase I went through with a boyfriend in university. If we were sitting opposite each other at a table at a restaurant, he'd spend more time looking past me, scouting the room to see who was coming and going than he would looking towards me and having a real conversation. I dumped him. And I'd dump any service provider who did the same thing. At the very least, I'd never refer them.
you are right Jennifer. it amazes me how some do not ever look for leads and then complain when they get none. I am constantly lookfing for new sources of clients. Thanks for the post
What Tanya said! That is an excellent analogy...and sums up my feelings perfectly.
Hi Jennifer -- Well said. I know I need leads to stay in business, most agents do. My view is that I insanely focus on each and every client so much so that as Seth Godin would say, they become your sneezers. If I can create wildly happy references who go out of their way to recommend me, let alone repeat business, I find that a much more effective use of my time, satisfying the client to the complete best of my ability, to lessen my need for lead generation, and that is the largest way I try and secure future business. I also keep in touch with past clients, bla bla bla, and other stuff, but that is my core focus.
Jennifer--I agree with you. My primary job is take care of my existing Clients and give them my full attention. I take care of my Clients and give them the best service and then they generate leads for me with referrals and repeat business. To me it's about building strong, lifelong relationships and then everything flows from that.
Thanks,
Mario
You're absolutely correct Jennifer. Lead generation IS an important aspect of the real estate business, and a certain percentage of an agent's time should be spent on that daily. But if we treat our current clientele well, the leads will come easier via referrals from happy clients. Good post and best of luck to you.
"If we can, as an industry, start celebrating taking great care of our business as our first priority ..." I completely agree with that. However, without lead generation, there will not be enough business to take care of. So of course lead generation is focus number one.
There is a lot of overlap between your philosophy and the lead generation approach. It's just expressed in a slightly different way.
I think prospecting for numbers is fine, but once you get those "numbers", you have to treat them like humans.
If you don't generate leads, you are soon out of business. It does not have to be one or the other. You can generate leads and still provide exceptional service to your clients.
Seriously!
As I see it we have two distinct jobs to do, Prospecting and Selling. Prospecting a) generate the leads, b) filter the prospects from that lead pool, and c) stay with those prospects until they are ready to buy or sell. Then we sell. selling is simply matching a buyer with a home that will meet their needs. Is one more important than the other?...I never thought of it like that. They are both important and I cant have a business without them both
The way I see it if we do a good job prospecting we dont have to sell; our prospects (now clients) buy. And as has been pointed out in other comments, If we do a good job selling, we dont have to prospect either.
This perpetual motion machine is an ideal business model, but for me is still just a dream. I still have to feed the machine with new prospects. So for me prospecting is my first priority
Jennifer...
My primary job IS lead generation! But I have team agents to handle the customers and clients so I make certain that they are in good hands and thet they get professional service. You point is well-taken.
Hi Jennifer,
Excellent point. If you take good care of the clients you have and build a good reputation, the leads do come. I would take a good lead that was referred to me over five that came via some lead generation system.
~Lisa
I really don't think you mean it is either/or?
We do need to prospect every single day, it is hopefully at least 2 hours. Let's see out of the 12 I work most days, that is a small, critical amount.
OOOhhh...love this one...I definitely understand Jennifer's point...lead generation is how agents get to do their jobs...but it's not what their job is. Their job is to sell real estate and have their clients' fiduciary best interests at heart in the process. The lead generation is part of "running your business", but it isn't what you were licensed to do. And it's often best outsourced..."Do what you do best and outsource the rest!" But the agents are correct too...without someone doing that lead generation...there wouldn't be anyone to sell to. A doctor is licensed to practice medicine, but without someone telling the patients to contact Dr. X (whether thru referrals or yellow pages ads, etc...), there would be no one to play Dr. with!!!
sometimes I feel like I spend more time doing prosepecting or ways to prospect more than anything
I could not agree more with you.
I think it is the right balance, good customer service and also prospect/lead generate. If the client/customer do not receive high quality service, there will be no referral or testimonial of a good job. Reputation is very important in this business.
Jennifer - This is definitely a valid point. Even if we do great lead generation, if we don't care of the clients, they won't be ours for long, nor will they give referrals which are much easier than lead generation. We have to take care of them and do right by them.
Of course Jennifer - the fact that the same people who say its all lead generation and nothing more are the same people who compare us with doctors and lawyers (justifying the fee) makes total sense! And yes, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek.
You make a good point. We do need to prospect to get business so that we can take care of those buyers and sellers that we are fortunate to work with. Prospecting can also benefit our sellers if we are looking for buyers for their home..However, if we really did spend more time on our clients and listening to their needs, we would probably find that doing real estate the way we did 4-5 years ago by throwing it on the MLS and websites and hoping for the best is not working. By listening to their needs, we may come up with more effective ways to help them find ways to get out of the home they are in and buy another one.
Ruthmarie - LOLOLOL! That's exactly right! On so many levels! Love it.
Couldn't agree more. In a service industry, doing the best job we can for people every day and truly caring about them will lead to referrals anyway--our service should be the top priority and at the end of the day we will get the referrals we deserve.
I really like Tanya Nouwens' comment and analogy, Number 23.
Jennifer - Too many agents chasing too few clients creates the focus on lead generation vs. service.