A Very Happy Realtor

One day I received an email from a former client. He wanted to see me.

He's a very successful realtor here in Toronto, ON. He has been my coaching client in several occasions.

I replied his email and made the appointment and as soon as I arrived he, excited, said:

"-I needed to go to New York, to a Real Estate International Conference, just to confirm that the 4 points strategy that we designed for me, was the right one. You're a genius!" (Yes, from time to time people tell me that.)"

The only thing that I could say was: "Good!"

He continued:

-"Yes, do you remember?"
-"Not all of it but..."
-"When we had our coaching sessions, we designed a selling strategy because I didn't have one. I was going through a revaluation period and I needed some grounding. Since then, I've been applying it with great results and, when I attended the Inman Conference in New York, I participated in several seminars inside the conference. You know, a lot of very successful realtors from several places but mostly from the United States, gave seminars to share how did they built their successful careers and the 'know how' that they shared was mostly what we talked about in our coaching sessions! OK, let me tell you..."

-"Please!"

-"The first part of the strategy was that I needed to chose one: residential or commercial. I was starting to open my market because I thought that that could have brought me more clients but, given my experience and knowledge, we agreed, that I should focus only on one and I decided to go for residential only. I closed the commercial side. And that was a relief. And in New York they kept repeating: focus, focus focus! The second point of the strategy that we created was, and I remember it clearly because it hit my notion of doing business, to focus only on one, maybe two, neighborhoods. That it wasn't business running all over the place. I was hesitant to start with and I didn't like it but it paid off. And guess what? Several speakers, repeatedly said exactly the same: focus on one neighborhood max two. The third one and I didn't think that I needed to do that but again, as soon as I started I got results. The third point of the strategy was to walk the neighborhoods that I have chosen and introduce myself to the people. You know, this is difficult but I remember that the speakers repeatedly said the same: it is something that we should do, walk our neighborhoods, always, as if the neighborhood belonged to us. Walk, introduce yourself, make them feel your presence. And it has been quite an experience because, of course, we have gotten a lot of rejections but at the same time we have sold several houses. The last point was, and that, let me tell you, I didn't believe you. Why? Because, writing a blog about my neighborhoods, mostly about what happened there but less about real estate? Sounds crazy isn't it? Well, that, I didn't do it. Sorry, I didn't even tried it. But I was surprised to learn in the conference that several very successful realtors have a blog and they write about what happens in their neighborhoods: schools, restaurants, movies, events and more. And one seminar was about that precisely: the blog and what to write there. This realtor suggested that if we are going to be their representatives, we need to know what happens there because if people are looking to buy there, they can read it in the blog and contact us because we are the experts of that zone. Makes sense! So that's it. I needed to go to New York to confirm that the selling strategy that we created for my business was the right one, and maybe I'm exaggerating because before I went I started to apply these strategies with great results but when I listened to them there, I felt not only excitement but a confirmation that I was doing the right thing. Thanks!"

-"Well, thank you for telling me this. So now you have confirmation from two sides: your results and New York. Congratulations! Thanks!"

The Four Parts of the Strategy:

1. Chose: residential or commercial. Why? Because this realtor didn't have any experience doing commercial so based on that and in that he still had a lot of opportunities in his own area of expertise, he decided to focus on residential.
2. Focus: Put his efforts in only one, maybe two neighborhoods. He was all over the place and he wasn't known nowhere. Yes, he was already successful but he realized that following made more sense. He chose two neighborhoods and started to work them with great results. Specialization pays. 
3. To walk them: now that he has chosen his neighborhoods, he needed to walk them. This means, that he needed to knock door to door to introduce himself to the people living there and maybe, this was the best part of this strategy. He made himself known by going door to door.
4. Write a blog about the neighborhood that includes mainly info about what's happening there not about real estate. And this was difficult for him because then he needed to know more about the place that he was going to serve as realtor but he was going to be his representative.

These strategies were designed in several coaching conversations with me. They were crafted according to his situation and his goals for the coaching process. This may not be an universal selling strategy for realtors but some of these points could be used together or separately as selling strategies.