In the July 5 issue of Realty Times, columnist Bob Hunt points out that in California, new real estate agents are popping up at the rate of 6.5 per hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In fact, if you put all of the agents together, their number would make them the 5th largest city in California.
That’s a lot of competition.
That means that every night, when you go to bed in California, you wake up 8 hours later with 52 more people competing for a piece of the same real estate pie.
Sure, a lot of them will drop out over the next few years. That’s the nature of the business, but that still leaves a lot of real estate professionals out there going after your prospects, your clients and your business.
What’s a simple way to make sure you stay a step ahead?
Working harder isn’t the answer. Long term, it isn’t a very efficient plan and can lead to burn-out pretty quickly.
Plus, there is always someone who will be able and willing to work harder and faster.
A better answer is to work “smarter” and to ALWAYS be asking yourself, “What’s Next?”
What does this have to do with real estate technology?
By using real estate technology to automate your business systems, you can help create the time you need to figure out an answer to your “What’s Next?” question.
This one question, “What’s Next?” is really a catch-all for business building questions like:
-How can I make my service better?
-What new problem can I solve for my clients?
-What were the major problems from my last 10 transactions and how can I redefine or retool what I do to either minimize the chances of those happening again or avoid them altogether?
-What is the promise that only I can make to my clients?
-Why should they do business with me vs. ANY and EVERY option available to them?
-What new niche market can I target?
-How can I improve my marketing systems and improve my conversion rates?
The way you create the time you need to answer these questions and implement the solutions is to automate as many of your other business systems as you can with real estate technology.
Most real estate pros have at least 3 main types of systems:
1. Client Attraction or Lead Generation
2. Client Fulfillment (Doing the transaction.)
3. Client Retention
If you haven’t sat down and clearly outlined each of these three main systems, the concrete steps they contain and the results they are currently producing, now is the time to start…
Once you get that done, it is time to automate using technology by using things like websites, autoresponders, 800 lines, mailing list software, newsletters etc.
Let’s take your Lead Generation System as a quick example…
The point of any lead generation system is of course to get those who want to buy or sell to raise their hands and let you know they exist. But generally, a good number of those folks won’t be top quality prospects for you immediately. The next step is to filter down the results so that you only invest time (your only real asset) into those who are ready to act now… The rest of the prospects get diverted into another system that keeps checking in with them until they are ready to act.
The trick is to get all of that to happen with little involvement from you.
Does that mean that you don’t give your prospects quality service? No… It just means that you strike a balance so that you don’t spend your time running after opportunities until your systems have identified the “hot” prospects.
So here is a question to ask yourself as you go throughout your day as you “do” each of your business activities:
“Have I done this before? Can I automate, delegate or accomplish this in anyway that does not require my hands on attention?”
If you aren’t sure how to use real estate technology to automate your systems, you need to get help.
For once you do, your main priority becomes improving your systems rather than running your business. The systems run the business, you tweak the systems.
All of the answers to the “What’s Next?” question then center around improving your systems or creating new ones.
Plus, by developing your business systems and then automating them to largely run unattended, you have just solved a major challenge in most independent professional type small businesses: you have built equity in your business.
Your systems are your business, and that is where the real value is. The better they are, the less of YOU is required. That makes your business saleable, which means you won’t be having to work for the rest of your life.
That sounds good doesn’t it?