3 Ways to Sabotage Your Real Estate Career
With Mary Kelly

Mary Kelly directly addresses camera:

Are you your own worst enemy? The answer is yes—if you don’t have a success and follow-up plan in your real estate business.

I’m Mary Kelly, a leadership expert and executive coach at Productive Leaders in Denver, Colorado. Let’s take five minutes to talk about the top three basic things many real estate professionals aren’t doing that they should be if they want to succeed. Use these action items to inspire yourself to take charge today.

First, many agents sabotage their own success because they don't have a business plan. Ask yourself, who are you uniquely poised to help best? Many agents don’t like to specialize because they think it negates other people. But, specializing doesn’t mean limiting yourself. It means differentiating yourself. 

Start your business plan by determining who you would like to work with and who likes to work with you. Then, account for your time so you know when you’re making money. The time spent on non-income producing activities should be funneled to a virtual assistant or some other administrative helper.  Not to you. Finally, take the time to plan where you will market and network to reach your goal audience. 

For example, if you want to market to first time home buyers, position yourself as the expert dealing with first time home buyer issues. The biggest first time home buyer issue, of course,  is budget. People often say, I can afford the payments, I just don’t have the down payment. So, position yourself as the real estate professional who has professionals, you know,  who can help first time home buyers with their financial concerns. 

A second way I see real estate professionals, and frankly, other entrepreneurs, who sabotage their own success is when they let warm leads get cold. It happens more quickly than you may think. I learned this lesson the hard way. Someone would call me to tell me they were thinking of selling their house. The keyword was thinking. And I would answer, “OK, let me know when you’re ready.” Well, they were ready; that’s why they were calling me! What they were actually saying is, “Walk me through the process so I understand what I can get for my house and how it all works, and, then, I’ll be ready to actually list .” I wasn’t hearing what they were saying. 

If someone is on the fence about listing their home, that means that person is a warm lead, and you should educate them about options. Ask questions about what is prompting the move. Once you understand that, you’ll be better positioned to help that person, and their family.

The third way people often sabotage their success is that they don’t market while they sleep. Now this is positioning yourself as an expert in your field which differentiates you from everyone else. But you have to make it easy for people to find you and get information about your listings, and your services. To do that, you have to be marketing 24/7 using social media, your website and other targeted platforms.

For example, you can link your web presence to your social media streams. You can link your blog to your Facebook and YouTube. Make sure your contact information is easily accessible from your website, and all your other platforms. Include your phone, best way to text you, email and your name. You’d be surprised at how many people who don’t have easily accessible information on their contact sheets.

Here are some other easy ways to market while you sleep:
Number 1. Like I said, Make sure your email and phone number are on your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook page and your Twitter profile.
2. Use a social media tool like HootSuite to send out updates
3. Have a newsletter that is uniquely YOU that goes out on a regular basis.  People don’t need to read it, they just need to hear from you.
4. Link your social media to your website to maximize your search engine optimization.
5. Ask other people in the industry to hyperlink their information from their online articles, to you. Say something like, “My first time home buyers love working with The Gold Medal Team” and, then link that information so it’s just a click away for the reader.  
6. Get a few people per week to ask you a question on social media so you can answer it. Then, ask them to share that thread. 
7. Post information that is shareable. Information should be educational, entertaining, and informative. 

The key for real estate is follow-up. Be that agent everyone wants to work with by focusing your business and marketing carefully and thoughtfully.