Real estate is an extremely demanding career path. There is a whole lot that needs to be done consistently on a daily basis. There is an expectation to respond to phone calls, text, email and manage your social media account. However, only few of these things are actually revenue generating activities that you must focus on as a Realtor®. This post will discuss the Top 7 Revenue Generating Activities for Realtors®.

Note: This article contains 1,796 words and 1 image, with an estimated read time of 7minutes.

1. DEVELOP A PLAN

Developing a plan is crucial to your success as a Realtor®. It is very easy to become reactive instead of planning out your schedule. When this becomes the norm, you lose control of your carefully thought out schedule, rather than being in charge of the situation. This often results in missed opportunities, a lack of eagerness to complete the task at hand and loss of focus and concentration. This also leads to less productivity.

Do not start your day, month or year without a plan. All successful Realtors® have a plan. Having a plan in place is more likely to lead to positive results instead of just floating around, doing things without a schedule, and being easily distracted. Developing a plan creates good habits and helps you get into momentum. This momentum helps you to stay on the path and provides a constant flow of business and in turn, revenue.

You need to approach your business with a sense of purpose. Lay out a specific plan that details how you plan to reach your goals. What are the lead measures that you need to take action with to get you to your goals – think about, “do all roads lead to Rome” (so to speak)? Without a roadmap, you will lack direction and end up wherever the wind blows you, as well as being easily distracted, with other non-revenue generating activities.

Start planning for success right now. Plans are your navigation system. They will get you to where you want to be and will also guide you if you veer off course. In the absence of a plan, you will lose sight of your most important things and not being able to put first things first. 

2. LIST REVENUE GENERATING ACTIVITIES

These activities are the most important daily activities. Write down a list of primary activities that will help you to generate new business, everything else is secondary. Prioritizing is critical to achieving this; it allows you to focus on the important stuff leading to an energetic, productive and creative day.

Before going to bed, create a list of revenue generating activities that you want to start with the next day (prospecting, lead generation, mailing etc.) and rank them in order of importance. In effect you’re setting yourself up for a productive and successful morning. This will also be helpful for you to go to bed knowing exactly how your next day will start and quiet a busy mind. If you choose to do your business by design and not by default, you can focus more on what you truly want: more business.

Some activities worth including in your revenue-generating activities list may include:

• Connecting with your sphere of influencers/referrals; going through your CRM/database with past clients and network, asking for referrals and new connections.
• Cold Calling; expanding your network and connections.
• Door knocking; have a plan for which area and how you can provide value for potential sellers
• Calling expired listings; get in front of it with a revised plan of action.
• Answer your phone; it is alarming the number of Realtors® out there that don’t answer their phone. All deals are done during a conversation.
• Social media; use the tool that your prospects are using, Instagram, LinkedIn, and/or Facebook. Also, “like” and add comments. Prospects know who’s liking their posts and who’s commenting. This adds to credibility and visibility.
• Ask past clients for Google Reviews; have you ever gone out for dinner at a new restaurant before reading their reviews from past customers…? Most people want to know what others have to say about you (personal brand) and your services.
• Blog; create or leverage other blogs that speak to the problems and deep-rooted issues your prospective clients face and then offer your expert knowledge on solutions. You can’t sell pain relief medication to someone who isn’t in pain, so focus on those that need a Realtor®.

3. DEVELOP SCRIPTS

Eliminate trials and error from the process and develop workable scripts that will help you navigate the terrain of the real estate business. This will also help to ensure you deliver a consistent level of service. There is a reason why a Big Mac tastes the same no matter which McDonald’s you go to. They use a checklist, a tool that allows for consistency.

Don’t ever fall behind the curve, continue to set new goals. Remember that the real estate business is constantly evolving; policies are being introduced, updated or changed completely. Although the market might be slow, there are still properties that are being sold every day!

Using scripts will also allow you to exam your personal brand and how you chose to run your business, provides clarity and will help you make better business decisions. If change is required you will know specifically where the change is required without operating from a knee-jerk reaction or wasting money on external products and services you may not need.

Some scripts worth developing:

• Buyer script; converting buyer leads into in-person appointments
• Seller script; converting seller leads into in-person appointments
• Social Media script; converting buyer/seller lead inquiries into phone or in-person appointments
• Open House script; converting lookers (prospects) into in-person appointments
• Expired Listing script; converting to active listings
• Listing Presentation script; outlining what success would look like for the client
• Follow up script; outlining opportunities and effective farming
• Objections script; handling objections from prospective clients

Remember, you cannot manage what you don’t measure.

4. SCHEDULE PROSPECTING

When hunting for prospect, it is crucial to work with a schedule. Time blocking your schedule for prospecting allows you to stay focused on a specific task without becoming overwhelmed.

You should endeavour to block time on your calendar for activities such as active prospecting, following-up on leads etc. It is recommended that you spend a minimum of two hours daily prospecting, preferably in the morning. How do you feel when someone calls you at the end of the day offering to sell you a product or service? Right!

Schedule your time in terms of the number of people you plan to talk to daily. Then if you realize that you have some down time, check off items on your to-do list. You can make a few quick follow-up calls or respond to e-mails. The most important thing is that you don’t allow work to pile up. A simple rule is this: If it is not in your schedule, it’s not important, and it’s a distraction. 

5. GROUP TASKS

To improve efficiency and consistency it is important that you accomplish your tasks in groups. Do a chunk of your initial calls, follow up calls, offers, mailing at the same time. You will expend more time and energy switching between tasks if you mix them up. So, list out all the tasks you want to complete, then carefully group out the tasks in a logical sequence. There is something to be said about continuity and efficiency.

When you’re done with the groupings, schedule the largest and most challenging groups for your crunch time when you have the most energy and the other least challenging activities towards the end of the day.

6. E-MAILING

There are always going to be inquiries, texts and e-mails to respond to so it is important to regularly schedule time during the day to respond to them. I suggest you shouldn’t start your day with checking e-mails – I know what you are thinking, blasphemy. At times this activity may be a distraction to other tasks on your to do lists – that is why scheduling it for a later part of the day is crucial. Think about it for a second, how many times have you woken up, rolled over, grabbed your smartphone and start reading e-mails? Then next thing you know all the things you had planned first thing in the morning is now by the wayside for later or never completed, because one thing led to another, etc.

Planning to review and respond to e-mails later allows you to get your day starting off right. And if you are the type of Realtor® that is easily distracted by incoming e-mails, perhaps you should close down the program or remove the notification. Getting that out of the way is an important process so that you can free up your time for other essential revenue generating activities.

7. TRANSITIONING

Give yourself time to rest throughout the day to maintain focus. The brain does not do well moving from task to task no matter how great you think you are as an efficient multi-tasker. Allow your brain to rest after completing a task before starting another.

You can go take a walk, grab a coffee with a friend, stretch or complete a mini mindfulness exercise. This may feel like a waste of time, but you will realize that your mind will be sharper, your energy renewed and you will make up for that time with increased productivity.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Take a cue from successful agents and implement these strategies today. Focusing on these activities takes constant determination and perseverance. However, keep in mind that your success as a Realtor® rests on doing these things.

As you build up this framework, you are taking steps that will drive you closer to your ultimate goal, increased revenue. I challenge you to implement these Top 7 revenue generating activities for Realtors® for the next 14 days consistently. Share with me your progress. I promise you, the change you will see in just 7 days will be remarkable.

 Invite Kyle to speak at your next Brokerage weekly meeting!