1st 7 Weeks
I get this from the agents I mentor.
What do I do first?
Well, it depends. What do you want? Do you want to work by referral or are you going for transactions? The assignment is different depending on the answer.
I wanted to work by referral but wasn’t sure I could, as a new agent. I had folks telling me I couldn’t do it starting out but I felt that just wasn’t true.
It’s not.
You can work by referral from the first day unless no one trusts you now. It’s OK if you’re new. If they trust you and you share how there are lots of folks supporting you in the office, they will trust you to do a good job.
That’s what I’ve done for 16 years (today is my anniversary for getting my license) and I’ll do it until I decide to retire. I’ll teach it to the agents who want to learn and help them anyway I can. It’s just me, giving back for all the folks who have helped me.
So, what do you do if you want to work by referral?
Here is the list for the 1st 7 weeks as a new agent:
- Decide what you want to do. Week 1 you need to figure out how much money 💲 you need to make. Create a business plan and focus on the right things. It’s pretty simple math but if you want to see a Gross Commission Income of $100,000 and the average commission in your area is $6000, you need 17 closings. That is very possible if you have a database of about 100 close connections. There is a lot more to the understand and I’ve written about it before but that is how you get to a GCI number. One key point, it’s not about how much you make. It’s about how much you keep. Working by referral is the most cost effective way to do this business. By far! No leads to buy, no billboards, no advertising. Save your money.
- Gather a list of everyone you know. 📃 That is week 2. Write down their names and see how many you have. I’d say if you’re working in the area you’ve lived in for a while, getting to 100 is not hard. Dump your phone first, list everyone on Facebook and LinkedIn that you know and see how many it is. Don’t forget hair dressers, barbers, kids teachers, sports connections, clubs you belong to, golf buddies, water aerobics partners, and the list will grow from there. I have a video series of how to capture these folks and what you need if you want to see it. Go here to sign up. I also posted an article about using Google Contacts as a free CRM to start out. Free is good when you start out.
- Week 3 and you’ll need your new business cards, note cards and some stamps. 📭 I presumed you knew to order cards and you can get note cards and stamps at the local store or order online. I would not use company branded cards at this point. You are going to write a note to each person in your database (that’s the list you made in week 2) and announce you’re a new agent and ready to help. Simple is better and you enclose 1 card so they can contact you if they want. Handwritten notes will always get opened and it’s certainly better than a post card or letter that looks like junk mail. Don’t skimp on the time this takes. It is the one thing that will guarantee they know you’re in business.
- Week 4 is phone calls. I can feel your eyes roll from here! 👀 Stay with me though. You’re not going to call and talk about you. You’re going to talk about them. What are they up to? How are the kids? Are you going on vacation soon? Listen for ways you can help. Use Facebook for ideas to talk about. It’s not called stalking if you are sincerely looking to help them. It’s about the relationship at this point. You can ask about the note you sent if they don’t bring it up but that’s it. You will not be putting them on the spot.
- Week 5 is all about learning your market. 🏡 🏠 🏠 🏡Go preview houses in the area you want to work in. I’d suggest seeing 5 houses a day for a while and you’ll get a great sense of what’s selling, what it takes to list a house and if you have a buyer or two you’re helping by now, you’ll have some info to share. You don’t have to wait until week 5 to do this but you need to be doing it my now.
- Sort and qualify your database. I go into a lot of detail in the videos but you need to know who is likely to refer you and focus 🔍 on them first. Not everyone in your sphere of influence will work with you. Some know other agents, related to other agents or just don’t seem to be the sort who refer anyone. If you want to know what to ask them go watch the videos. It will make perfect sense.
- Week 7 and you’re on your way to working by referral. By now you have a clear goal, a database of folks who have said they’ll refer you and you just need to stay in touch in a consistent manner. 5 calls a day to folks you know, 5 handwritten notes in response to conversation and referrals and continue to see the new inventory in your market. If you master this you’ll have a great business and never have to make a cold call.
That’s it. That’s the list for your 1st 7 weeks. Most agents don’t or won’t do this and most agents fail inside of 3 years. Most agents chase FSBO or called Expired listings because that’s what the broker tells them to do. Door knocking seems really popular right now too. So much time, too many NO’s and there is a better way. Everyone tells new agents they have to do this stuff or you’ll fail. I’ve heard it myself and I decided if that is what everyone does and most fail, I needed to do something else.
Check out this blog. See what I’m sharing and you’ll get a different perspective. You can hang out here as much as you want for as long as you want for free. No charge. If you sign up for the tools and tips I share, we’ll stay in closer contact and you won’t miss anything. It’s up to you.
Are you going to do what everyone else is doing or will you try something else?. Something that works and I can prove it.
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-616-1578 Direct
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