The outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted the lives of billions of people around the world, and has brought with it a sense of uncertainty and fear for many real estate agents. My approach from day one has been to look for new strategies and tools that can help my team cope during this time of uncertainty. I actually challenged myself to find ways that we could strategically use this time to thrive and grow in the midst of this challenge.
I will admit, at first it was not an easy task. In the first couple of weeks, right after the schools shutdown, we were getting constant news updates and the fear was growing stronger.
I found myself creating an endless list of things that I just didn’t know. But after a few days of being lost in this fog, I started to create a list of what I did know, and I began to act on that. Instead of letting fear drive your actions, why not step forward with courage and find new opportunities for growth? I choose to find new opportunities for my team to thrive and profit, and I share with you 6 strategies we implemented that have proven to work. Offer clients more value than ever before... Knowing your statistics and having knowledge of what’s going on in your neighbourhood is great. However, now is the time to add more value. Take into account the needs of your prospects and clients. Think of innovative ways you can show up as someone that is a support system for them right now.
You can provide a free list of things to do to improve their home. I have a list for people called “Tips to Increase the Value of Your Home in 28 days”. I am happy to share this list with you, just send an email to dan@danplowmancoaching.com and I will send you this list. You can re-brand it with your logo and name and offer it to your clients. Put your consultant hat on... A great consultant is just that, a consultant not a salesperson. Now more than ever people will trust you if you do this properly. Do not push for a sale too early, provide relevant statistics, knowledge and value for the client first. Know your market performance (pull statistics at least weekly), know your area intimately, keep growing your knowledge base, speak to other professionals like mortgage lenders and lawyers and keep your clients updated on current market conditions. Sales will come naturally when you play the consultant role. Trust me when I say “sales are a natural byproduct of doing the right things”. Adapt to new ways of showing homes... Ask the homeowner to keep all interior doors open, ask that no one be home, ask for disclosure if anyone has been ill before showing. Take gloves, masks, wipes and sanitizer for your buyers. Touch as little as possible, and make sure your clients know that you care about their safety. Pre-qualify your buyers better than ever, be sure clients are serious and have already completed a virtual tour and driven by the area. Send your feature sheets via PDF and ask your clients to print them so you are not handing over paper to them. Adapt to new ways of listing homes... Consider using staggers that are doing remote and virtual staging. You can take an approach of offering a six week coming soon offer then a six month listing. Language is key and set expectation to include we may need to adjust price along the way. Get very clear on the value you are providing, know your listing presentation and the value added services and extra marketing strategies you are implementing. Be confident when presenting your value, people don’t need commission deals they need to net the most from the home sale. I got almost 3% more than the board average last year on my listings, you can too. Trust me, people just want more net profit. Organize your client list... One of the biggest challenges agents have is that there is never any time to organize and input data into a client database. Having a well organized database is really the secret to long term profits in real estate. Now that you have a little more time in your day, use that time to update your database or start your database if you have not done so yet. You want to look for a CRM that is focused on real estate. I am happy to offer you a free demo of Real Estate Flow, this is the database that all of my team uses. You can just email dan@danplowmancoaching.com and ask for a free demo of Real Estate Flow. Continue to develop your skills... Invest in yourself, this is the greatest return on investment you will ever get. There are two types of people, those that blame resources and those that are resourceful. You will want to make sure you are practicing your value proposition, as well as the best language for inbound calls and outbound calls. Make sure part of your daily plan includes sharpening your skills and learning new ones. Think outside the box, things are changing, those who adapt the most will win. Those who freeze and do nothing will stay lost and confused. It’s never the strongest or smartest that survive, its the ones who adapt the best. We can help you, I created the PointOne coaching program for this purpose. Email dan@danplowmancoaching.com and we are happy to let you know more about PointOne. In the midst of uncertain times, we can strategically use tools, strategies and techniques to thrive. By acting in the face of incomplete information and engaging in meaningful actions, we are proactively choosing a path towards profit. Remember doing more deals is just a natural byproduct of doing the right things. Until next time. Dan Plowman “I should not be more excited about your business than you are.” - Dan Plowman
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