Since I earned my real estate license, I've settled into a role as my team's lead generation specialist (among other odd jobs.) It fits in well with my previous experiences as a psychology teacher, writer, and marketer. In order to learn more about how others generate leads, I've spent months poring over other agents' lead generation "battle plans." I've noticed a few trends. Specifically, there seems to be four types of agents or, on a larger scale, agencies.
The Four Types of Agents
- Traditionalists: This group is comprised of mostly experienced, aging agents that have been in the field for more than a decade. They rely on the classic real estate agent skills that were developed before the Internet dominated the market. The Traditionalists advocate ideas like door-knocking and cold calling; they still take out classified ads in newspapers and plaster their picture on park benches. Their lead generation methods are hopelessly outdated, but that fact is disguised because they get a ton of referral business based on their reputation as a competent agent. After all, they HAVE survived in a cutthroat business for a long time. They passed the "survival of the fittest" test. A key for this group - their methods are worthless to young agents for lead generation, but do have some value. Those skills teach the basics of persuasion, which is an important foundation for sales.
- Charlatans: Okay, many of these people aren't "charlatans" in the sense they're selling us snake oil. This group consists of agents that have discovered (or more commonly "copied") a particular gimmick for lead generation, gave it their own twist, and are now selling the method itself instead of real estate. These are the people that are constantly trying to sell their methods to other agents, usually with grand promises their "revolutionary" method is the golden goose that will push agents to the next level. The Charlatans rarely deliver on the promises, especially over time. The reason is simple - their methods require novelty and are only novel for a short time before everyone else adopts it, thus ruining the method. Amusingly, the charlatans produce enough marketing material to make it ridiculously easy to reverse-engineer their methods, which is exactly how we generate a lot of our leads right now at a fraction of the cost they would otherwise charge. These people make a good living off the many, many agents fighting to establish themselves. Speaking of those agents...
- Sheep: Sheep are the masses of agents that don't generate enough income to actually survive, let alone thrive. Most are newer licensees. They almost always team up with and learn from Traditionalists, OR they pay the Charlatans large sums of money to generate leads. Most of the sheep eventually get discouraged and fail as they lack the drive or creativity required to develop their own battle plan.
- Innovators: These are the folks that really fascinate me, mostly because they're secretive. These are agents that are using a truly unorthodox strategy to generate leads. These agents are typically younger and successful. They seem to thrive where everyone else fails. Wisely, they do not publicize the methods. They are not flashy. They understand their methods are the reason they're successful, and they know the advantages conferred by the of the unorthodox strategies would disappear if others copied them within their particular market. This group is very easy to identify as they generate high volume but keep a very low profile.
The Quest to Learn from the Innovators
Since I am tasked with generating leads, I spend an inordinate amount of time studying methods. Identifying, learning, and reproducing the Charlatans' methods doesn't take much time, so I spend most of my time hunting down and talking to the Innovators. Unfortunately, they're an elusive bunch that do not like publicity. Luckily, I'm a charming guy. :-)
I've managed to talk a few of them into revealing enough of their methods to shed light on their battle plans,but none were willing to give me the whole picture. Over the coming weeks when time allows, I'll document a few of their stories here on the Realty Beaver blog. To protect them from their competition getting wind of and copying their methods, I'll use fake names and only approximate locations.
Stick around; it'll be fun. I'll share stories of the agent that created a mathematical formula to find buyers, an agent that bribes secretaries, and an agent that uses the paranormal. Per each individual's request, I'll omit many of the behind-the-scenes details, but it should be interesting nonetheless. It'll be a fun journey!
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