I watched a China TV series, An Jia (安家), that focus on the lives of property agents in Shanghai. The show speaks a lot about family values, moral and the hardship property agents faced in Shanghai. It is a very meaningful and encouraging TV series. I like it and I recommend you to watch it. The series reflect a lot on property agents in Singapore, the difficulties and challenges all of us face in this dynamic industry that is constantly evolving. You will agree that the real estate industry is getting tougher and tougher ever year. In order to more than survive and not to get left behind by this ever changing world and society, you and I must not press the various Stop buttons of business. There are a number of things we should not stop doing.
Don't Stop Communicating With Your Clients
Communication is the key to good relationship and success. Often the breakdown or cessation of communication will lead to failure in relationship and business. The real estate industry is a people business. People are often changing in their thinking, life-stages and behavior.
Knowing your clients and their family, what has changed and will be changing in their lives, and constantly in touch with them are important.
Many times, after a sales is completed, do you still keep in touch with them with "Happy Birthday" message, market updates, season greetings, etc? Do you take extra steps to build more than just a transactional relationship, but a long lasting and meaningful one?
To be honest, building a long lasting and meaningful relationship takes much effort and I would think many agents, including me, will find it challenging to do, especially when some clients are unappreciative or even nasty. If you can be accountable with someone you trust in the agency, like your leader, mentor and other team-mates, sharing your experiences and listening to others experiences and ideas, you will find the whole process easier.
So if you are willing to do this, you can gain not just future sales, but client-turn-friends.
Don't Stop Prospecting
Many times when I collected my commission after the sales is completed, I would always feel good and thought to myself that I can close more deals after this. Nothing can be furthest from the truth. The day you collected commission is the day that business deal ends, which means no more new business and no more new commission. In order to have new business, there is no rocket science, you need to have new leads and new clients constantly.
Lead generation and prospecting are the lifeline of any business. Unless you intend not to expand your business, and going into maintenance and retirement mode, you need to keep building up your lead and clientele base. This is actually easier to say than to do. The world is ever changing, human behavior is always changing. This makes lead generation and prospecting a uphill task to maintain and improve. This lead me to the next point.
Don't Stop Learning New Things
The ways to conduct our business, to reach out to prospects, buyers, clients are ever evolving. New ways and new methods are constantly being introduce and becoming main stream. Old ways are often renewing to be more effective. For example:
Gone are the days clients look for properties on newspaper.
Selling properties is no longer so simple by putting up ads on digital portals.
Conducting viewings are evolving to virtual tour.
To upgrade from HDB flat to private condominium, the prospects will need more than just transactional service. Agent need to be able to give professional consultation, plan for the prospects' finances, timeline, leveraging, exit strategy, etc.
And the list goes on. In order to keep up, you need to keep learning new skills, new methods and new ways. On top of learning, you need to practice. Practice may not make you perfect, but it will make the things you learn becoming more permanent in you. You will also need to renew the way business is being conducted. It will be more helpful to have a visionary and farsighted mentor or leader to always able to advice you on what to change, what to learn and what new things to put into practice.
Don't Be Comfortable
From the previous point, I am sure learning new things and changing new ways to conduct business are never comfortable.
One of the greatest enemy of progress and success is staying in the comfort zone. Staying in the comfort zone can give us that sense of success and security, telling you "you have arrived" and "you know it all". This is very dangerous and often to lead to pride. There was a saying that goes "pride comes before any downfall". So keep pushing yourself. Get out of comfort zone. But this is tough if you are doing it alone. One of the best ways to help you get out of comfort zone is having someone to be accountable to. Have a leader or mentor, who constantly challenges you, pushes you and encourages you to grow beyond yourself. It will definitely help more if you have like-mined peers who will push and encourage each other on.
I must say, above pointers are easy to discuss but not easy to do. So this lead me to the last point to conclude this blog is:
Don't forget your "Why"
Why did you join the real estate industry in the first place?
Why did you want to earn the money?
When you wake up everyday, and when you start to do all the above, keep the "Why" close to your heart. Guard it from discouragement and don't let it be affected by failures and bad experiences. Let it be the fuel to light up the motivation everyday. Write it down some where you can see it constantly. Tell your loved ones, trusted associates, leaders and mentors so they can also be the one to always encourage you and see you through.
I hope the above can help you in your business and align your focus to what is more important. I will leave you with this thought:
Major on the major, don't major on the minor
If you like to understand more on conducting a successful real estate agent business, leave down your contact below and I will be in touched with you.