Hyperlocal Agents Will Dominate
Home buyers and sellers say local expertise is the most important reason why they choose their agent.
I read a great quote from Og Mandino this week: “Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well.” During this crisis, we have all been dealt a bad hand. How we play it will determine our success.
During this time, listings and sales are down substantially in most markets. With fewer sales, agents who stand out will get a bigger piece of a smaller pie. In the past, standing out meant having better tools and better marketing. Today, standing out means being a local expert and sharing local information that residents find helpful. Use this time wisely to build your brand in your local community.
There are FOUR steps to continue to do business during this crisis:
You must find people who NEED to move. Those who only want to sell will likely wait this out. In uncertain times, most people prefer to wait and see rather than risking making a decision. So how do you find people who NEED to move?
- Have meaningful conversations with people in your sphere. Don’t call to ask them to sell, call to find out how they are coping. Everyone has been affected by this crisis, and everyone knows a friend or family member who is in a difficult situation and may need your services. Be tactful, but explore these conversations.
- Focus on your helping your neighbors. Send flyers to everyone in your neighborhood offering help if they can’t leave the house. Demonstrate caring and compassion to help the neighbors who have helped you. This will instantly build your brand – it fosters trust which will boost sales in the long run.
- Don’t stop marketing into your geo farm, but change the message. Rather than focusing on “do you want to sell”, focus on how they can help by supporting local businesses and charities during the crisis. Be known as the agent who is giving back.
- Double down on your social media marketing. Post inspiring stories of what people are doing to support each other locally. Post stories about how the local real estate market is being affected by the crisis, but put a positive spin on it. Showcase your expertise in a positive light. Pay to boost your posts so more people see them.
You must know what to say to convince someone to meet with you. You need to make people feel comfortable with exploring the possibility of a move with no obligation or risk. People do not want to feel pushed into a decision right now. They need to trust you’ll be sensitive.
You must investigate if now is the best time. Every decision you help clients make must truly be for their benefit, not yours. You must bring hyperlocal market data to the meeting and be able to interpret it for them, so they fully understand the consequences of their choices. There are positive and negative consequences to moving now, and there are positive and negative consequences to waiting. You need solid data to help support their choices. They must be confident that you know what you are talking about and you are not guessing at the price. If you wobble, they will hesitate.
Last, you must follow the rules to keep everyone safe. You need to have a checklist of protocols that you can give to buyers and sellers covering how you are handling every step of the process to ensure everyone stays safe. Every state and province has different rules, and they change constantly, so make sure you update the checklist regularly. Having these checklists ready to go will instill confidence that you have solutions for every challenge your clients will face.
These four steps are critical if you want to continue to write business during uncertain times. If you skip any of these steps, you may have a lot of conversations, but never find people who need to move. You may be able to convince people to meet with you, but you won’t be able to communicate if now is the best time for them to make a move. Prospecting during this time is very sensitive. Every day you should be sharing valuable information in your marketing, your phone calls and on social media.
People must see you as a kind, giving, caring agent who really knows what they are talking about at a local level.
As always, if you have questions or need advice on anything real estate related, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. We’ve got your solution. Let’s start the conversation.
Chris Leader
President
Leader’s Edge Training