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8 Differences Between Good Agents and Great Agents

 

Someone asked us, “What is the biggest difference you see in agents doing a high level of production versus agents doing an ‘okay’ level of production?” In a nutshell, it’s a comparison between those who are doing good and doing great. There is no one answer for this, as it depends on a variety of factors. Today, we’ll explore 8 of them.

Putting Out Fires vs. Looking For Opportunities

Those who are doing good spend the majority of their time servicing a deal, a client, and putting out fires. Most of their days are consumed with putting out fires. They do this by checking their emails and files to see what fire they need to put out for the day.

Those who are doing great wake up and look for opportunities. They spend most of their time with lead generation, thinking about ways and taking action in looking for these opportunities. Then, they finish the day servicing their business.

To-Do Lists vs. Priorities List

 

Those who are doing good are experts in creating a to-do list. The to-do list, however, is a slippery slope. The challenge here is that most people with to-do lists hardly ever get something done.

Every day, they start with a to-do list they never get done. In the end, they don’t accomplish a lot. Thus, these people lose energy and motivation after a long day.

Those doing great create a priorities list. It doesn’t need to be long; five priorities or less is enough. Meeting these priorities means more opportunities once you complete them.

Goals-Based In The Past vs. Stretch Goals

Those who are doing good create goals based on what they believe they can achieve. What they believe they can achieve is based on what they have done in the past. That’s selling yourself short.

Those who are doing a higher level of business create stretch goals. If they did 20 deals in the past, they would aspire for 50 this year. But they don’t just talk the talk. They will achieve that by creating a business plan.

They figure out daily what actions are necessary for reaching that stretched goal.

Thinking vs. Taking Action

Those who are doing good spend a lot of time ensuring they don’t fail. They either overthink, overwork, or procrastinate. This is why people fail to start something. They focus too much on the finish line.

Those doing a high production level are always going for gold. They take action and accomplish.

Dreaming vs. Achieving

Both categories dream about what they want to accomplish, but those who are doing high levels of production execute. They believe in their dreams and take action. You can achieve what you can dream.

Unstructured vs. Routinary

Those who are doing good will “wing it.” They don’t have a routine. They do whatever they want in the morning and then check their emails. There is no structure.

High producers have tons of routines and rituals. They may have varying activities every day, but it’s the routine that’s important.

This does not necessarily point to what’s in the routine but more to the routine itself. An example is waking up at the same time every day despite performing different activities and tasks each time.

Being Emotional vs. Logical

Another difference between the two is their reactions to problems and negative feedback.

Instead of attacking others and being emotional about it, high performers take a deep breath, put the problem-solving on the schedule, and go with it.

On Prioritizing Lead Generation

Good producers always try to fit lead generation within their day. Meanwhile, the top producers are trying to fit their day around lead generation.

One thing you should notice about the list is that top producers do things more effortlessly than good producers. Their routines are easier to do and accomplish.

 

There are many differences between good and great agents. However, one commonality between all of them is that great agents are forward-thinking.

They consider the future with every step rather than ticking boxes off a to-do list or living out an unstructured work life.

Consider adopting a forward-thinking attitude and the 8 qualities that come with it in order to go from a good to a great agent.

 

 

Published on Jul 3, 2022 under , , ,

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How to Manage The Shift

How to Manage The Shift

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Admit That It’s Real


We all know that things are changing and there’s a lot of uncertainty in the stock market and economic inflation. You must first start by admitting that it’s okay. The market is going to be different now than it was before. Get ready for what needs to be done to find opportunities in this shifting market.  

Take 30 Minutes and Hit Pause 


Before doing what needs to be done, you need to take a step back for 30 minutes and just think about your business. Write down five things you must adjust, assuming the market is shifting.

This gives you time to think. People are always rushing and are constantly stressed out, and having a break will give you time to be creative. Do this during the morning when your mind is still fresh. 

Set a New Daily Contact Goal


Talk to at least 20 people a day and just check in with them and see if they’re curious about whether the value of their home has changed or not.

See if they have questions about what is happening in the market. You could be a good resource if you open up the conversation. 

Get a Coach


If you’re in coaching right now, the big question you have to answer is, “Are you showing up for every call?”

And, if you don’t have a coach yet, who can be your coach?  

The problem in hot markets is that even though they can afford to have a coach, they do not do anything the coach says.

On the other hand, when the market is down, few people are getting into coaching because they are afraid they cannot afford it. Those that do show up and follow the coach thrive in a shifting market. 

Use Tech Tools To Increase Your Bandwidth


You’ve got one of the most powerful features in CRM out there with the workflows. It helps you connect with more people; this means more business. Connect and talk to at least 30 to 40 percent more people to do the same amount of business.

Don’t let your business go down just because the number of transactions in your market goes down.

Bandwidth means the number of people you can talk to within a certain period of time. Using technology and having an ISA will increase your bandwidth because you can communicate with more people in the same amount of time.

Rewrite Your Schedule and Eliminate Anything You Cannot Track a Positive ROI From


Look at your schedule and all the things you consistently write there and ask yourself what your ROI is. If you have a hard time answering that question, you need to think twice about whether that needs to be in your schedule.

Re-evaluate your schedule and eliminate stuff that doesn’t contribute to investments’ gains.

Get an Accountability Partner


Do so and set your goals. You can have two or three accountability partners to help you stay on track. Having an accountability partner will motivate you on days when you don’t have a hundred percent in you. The sizzling hot market can make you create bad habits and lose focus.  

Work on Your Mental Endurance


You need to have the mental endurance to stay the entire day. Talking to 20 people a day is no joke. Stick to the game and avoid all distractions that come your way.   

Work on Your Physical Endurance


This is a good time to get back in shape because you will be needing that energy and stamina. Having good physical endurance makes you think more clearly and perform better. The physical side really helps the mental side. One way to break the pattern of lack of motivation is to start increasing your physical strength. As Tony Robbins would say, physiology dictates your psychology.  

Know Your Numbers To Know Your Market


As the market is shifting, your market knowledge becomes more valuable. Start separating yourself from the rest of the market. Gather all the data to have conversations with people about what’s happening at the local or national level, stock markets, interest rates, or inflation because people are talking about this now. You need to be able to have intellectual conversations with sellers and buyers on these topics. 

Remember: your job is to be able to find the data that makes the buyer comfortable moving forward. These buyers know all the news around them, and you need to present the data that will otherwise make them feel confident about buying. Your job is to bring certainty to a world full of uncertainties; that’s what they need right now.

The shift doesn't mean the market has completely flipped...

 

A coach is an investment.

 

Tech, Tools, and Real Geeks

 

Calculate your value per hour.

 

Mental Endurance

 
Coaching SEO Keeping It Real Real Estate Lead Generation IDX

The Power of SEO and Area Pages w/ Bob McCranie

 

 

The Power of SEO and Area Pages With Bob McCranie

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Do you want more lead traffic to your website? In this latest episode of Keeping It Real, we explore the latest SEO best practices with Bob McCranie. Bob is the Broker Associate & Team Owner at Texas Pride Realty Group - HomeSmart Stars and an expert on utilizing SEO best practices and Area pages in his strategies.

Join host Frank Klesitz, CEO of Vyral Marketing, in breaking down the strategies and best practices behind a robust, high-conversion online presence in today's evolving digital landscape.

Bob on Why Real Geeks:

 
 
 
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Bob on Organic VS Paid Advertising:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

If you need some help optimizing your site, tips on how to turn up the volume on your current lead flow, insight into different strategies that have provided wins for agents across various markets, -- Check out Bob's Area Page lead generation strategy!

Bob on Optimizing Your Real Geek's IDX Website:

 
 
 
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Bob on Attitude & SEO:

 
 
 
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Bob on virtual companies & online work:

 
 
 
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Top 3 Ways to Generate Lead Traffic & Boost Your Sale Funnels' Visibility in Your Market

Bob, a Brokerage Associate & Team Owner at Texas Pride Realty Group - HomeSmart Stars, shares the techniques and strategies he deploys to increase overall visibility to prospective clients in his market. 

According to Bob, he deploys three unique strategies to get leads. These strategies roughly refer to attraction marketing, SEO & optimizing his website based on popular search engine optimization guidelines, and demographic farming/cultivating his existing audience. 

Let's dive more into these strategies and find out how Bob executes them to get as many leads as possible.

Bob on Attraction Marketing:

 
 
 
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Attraction Marketing

Attraction marketing, also called event marketing, is Bob's number one strategy. This strategy is based on the idea is that you don't have to run Ads all the time or cold calls but have people gravitate towards you because of who you are in the community. In the case of Bob, he's a well-known Broker Associate with long years in the industry. Newer agents can begin working on their community visibility by hosting events. 

Bob on the fun of event marketing:

 
 
 
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You can draw people to you by hosting events, posting about them on social media, and generally being a social connector. It doesn't have to be a real estate event, but any event that serves as a lure to connect with people.

Bob on marketing his events:

 
 
 
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Some of the events you can host include:

  • Kite Flying, BBQs, & Outdoor Events
  • Theater Events, Movie Nights, DriveIns, Concert in the Parks, etc. 
  • Recycling Events, Food Drives, Community Service Events, etc.

Bob on building collaborative events:

 
 
 
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Starting successful community events takes consistency and patience. Make a schedule and stick to it when promoting your events. You can put up physical signs around your area. Put up flyers at your local coffee shops and gyms, and utilize social media ads. These have proven very effective no matter which markets you are located in. 

Bob on using creative postcards for marketing:

 
 
 
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Putting in a constant effort will build attendance over time, and before you know it, you will have collected a community of regulars at your events that can also serve as a potential client base. Networking greatly helps get leads, even if not by a massive count at first.

Your Website

Bob on the importance of having your own IDX website: 

 
 
 
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Bob on making IDX websites work for you:

 
 
 
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The second and perhaps most important is internet marketing, specifically SEO. Your primary medium is your Reel Geeks website, which helps you draw in more organic leads. You still run Google ads, which brings you steady business.

However, you must have a website to lead your potential leads and provide them with the information they need.

Of course, just having a website is not enough – you need area pages. Bob stresses the importance of area pages and being specific about where you want your leads to go. He combines social media and SEO, focusing locally on his pages.

No one looks for real estate in the main city. People always look for the suburb or neighborhood they are looking into.

You create business pages for each suburb of the city you're covering. Each page must have a call to action that takes the reader to the actual area page on your website. It has to lead to the direct page for the city or suburb, not the homepage. It helps to pre-fine all searches as much as possible, directing leads where they want and giving them satisfaction.

 

Bob's Take on Ads & Real Leads

 
 
 
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How Bob Determines His Area Pages

 
 
 
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Building a Backlink Strategy

 
 
 
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Backlinks & Area Pages

 

 
 
 
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Demographic Farming

Bob's last strategy has to do with demographic farming, which is about cultivating or nurturing your lists.

Using Funny Postcards in Demographic Farming:

 
 
 
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In this example, he developed his holiday list using postcards sent creatively and in good fun. For instance, he would send a holiday postcard in June or Valentine's Card with a humorous caption. Of the many postcards he sent, the most creative and successful is the tagline, "No, I don't want to buy your house." Bob doesn't want to buy your house, but he can sell it at a 30 to 40% better price than others in the market. The idea is to keep it fun, so people will look at the cards or mail and know what Bob has to offer.

Per Bob's experience, the strategies that can help you bring in leads are – attraction marketing/events marketing, SEO and area pages, and demographic farming. Add them to your process, and you can turn up your current lead flow to the highest volume.

 

Keeping It Real Real Estate Lead Generation

How To Generate Seller Leads in Low Inventory Market w/ Lisa Chinatti & Jason Posnick.

How-to-Generate-Seller-Leads-in-Low-Inventory-Market-w-Lisa-Chinatti-1

We are excited to welcome back one of our favorite guests, Lisa Chinatti, for this episode of Keeping It Real. Lisa is a top producer based in Westford, MA, with over ten years of Real Estate experience. 

Jason Posnick, the Sales Manager for the Chinatti Realty Group, also joined and has an enormous passion for developing others, solving problems, and conveying positivity into people’s lives.

The market is hot right now. A shortage in housing inventory has been a problem faced by real estate agents for years. As times change, you also need to adapt and learn how to generate seller leads even in low inventory areas. Lisa gives you her tips and shares what she and her team are doing to maintain their seller lead flow.

Lisa and Jason break down the most effective approaches to 5 different lead sources and how to create a plan that meets your needs regardless of which market you are in.

 

 

 Online Home Value Leads

People want to know what their home is worth. For this, they usually go to a landing page or web form where they have to input information that will help them discover just how much their home is worth in the market. How do you lead traffic to this page?

Lisa shares that the best way to get online home value leads is to be diligent with retargeting and email work. Some strategies you can do to approach this lead source is to also take advantage of Google Pay-per-Click (PPC) and Google My Business.

Having a lot of photos and geotagging them will increase your visibility as Google tends to favor local experts. Google reviews will also help drive traction, as well as links to your other content or social media pages.  

Circle Prospecting/Door Knocking

While circle prospecting or door knocking are considered older, traditional techniques, they will never die. How to generate seller leads through this lead source requires some timing and knowing the five touchpoints for circle prospecting. These five touchpoints include:

  • On the day of signing the listing

  • Before the listing goes to the market

  • Once the offer is accepted

  • On the day of the inspection

  • When the deal closes

Each of these five touch points necessitates a different message from which you could build your business. Instead of feeling like they’re talking to a company, which may be off-putting, consumers can view you with trust, which will convince them to do business with you.

Buyer Leads From Buyers Who Have a Home To Sell

Using ads strategically in your follow-ups can lead you to discover that a lot of buyers have a home to sell before they can make any purchase. There’s a big chance you can get buyer leads who have homes to sell by marketing Facebook posts towards listings and open houses.

In a low inventory market, it can be effective to market every new listing as a “coming soon.”

However, there are some workarounds that won’t get you in trouble with laws concerning coming-soon marketing. Along with Google PPC, this can prove to be an effective way to generate seller leads.

Google Local Services

When using Google services to generate seller leads, reviews are crucial. Reviews don’t just get you credibility, but they also tell Google that you’re a local business or service, which is more favored by their algorithm. Many potential seller leads also rely on Google reviews to see if an agent is right for them.

That said, building reviews increase your chances of being more visible while also convincing seller leads to contact you directly — especially when they want to know the value of their home.

Agent-to-agent Referrals

Agent-to-agent referrals are all about nurturing relationships with other agents regardless of your industry. Usually, people who want to sell their house will be moving to a different state, so they contact an agent in the state they’re moving to.

This agent can then send you a referral, so you can help them give the client a smooth transition and experience. This is only possible if you build relationships with other agents by giving value and sharing knowledge.

Put Yourself Out There

Learning how to generate seller leads in a low inventory market can take some time, but the effort is well worth it when you start generating an incredible amount of leads.

Begin by putting yourself out there and taking advantage of online tools like Google PPC, Google My Business, social media marketing, and email marketing.

Real Geeks' Real Estate Cost Per Lead Breakdown

Throughout our masterminds, exchanges with real estate industry professionals on The Keeping it Real podcast, and our every day, — a metric that everyone agrees is key to formulating your route to success as a real estate professional is the cost per lead metric.

Understanding your cost per lead metric will help you assess the amount of inventory in your market, understand your clients’ and prospective clients’ needs, assess where clients fall in their buying or selling cycle, and better understand your market. With your cost per lead metric, you can create a budget and a plan for any market or season you find yourself in.

Fill out the form below to receive an instant download of The Real Geek’s 2022 CPL Report that breaks down the cost per lead in the top 10 most prominent markets of the last year, the top 10 lowest cost-per-lead markets of the previous year, and the cost per lead breakdown of the 50 largest markets of the previous year.

Through our work managing Google and Facebook ad accounts for hundreds of real estate teams across the USA and Canada, Real Geeks can get a unique perspective of the market as a whole. Based on what we’ve seen, now is the best time in history to start investing in PPC leads.

Once you have assessed the cost per lead in your market, there are many ways to apply this metric to your strategy. Last week's Keeping it Real: How to Generate Seller Leads in Low Inventory Market w/ Lisa Chinatti & Jason Posnick, Lisa and Jason address the current issue of low inventory markets. As well as, break down the most effective approaches to 5 different lead sources and how to create a plan that meets your needs regardless of which market you are in.

 

 

In addition to constructing a strategy in response to low inventory markets and examining different lead sources, lead flow is also a factor to consider. If you have a small real estate team or have become overwhelmed with the number of incoming leads, you can deploy a texting assistant like Real Geek's Robin Geek AI to your workflow. Also, check out Keeping it Real's: How to Hire a Virtual Assistant to Cold Call Homeowners for Seller Leads w/JP Wells.

 

 

If you are getting started with building a workflow, check out: 4 Drip Campaigns You Can Activate Today and Get Huge Response, where Greg Harrelson & Abe Safa break down their favorite drip campaigns you can activate today using your Real Geeks workflow library, as well as a drip campaign of their own. 

There are plenty of ways to take your cost-per-lead metric and create a bulletproof lead workflow that works for you or your team. Check out our Keeping it Real: Bulletproof Real Estate Lead Follow-Up Plan w/ Brendan Bartic. We sat down with Brendan to discuss how his Denver real estate team sold 230 homes last year. He broke down his "bulletproof" real estate internet lead follow-up system.

 

 

If you’re spending money to generate online buyer and seller leads and are not happy with how many people respond to you or book an appointment, you’ll learn how to improve your results with our Keeping it Real: How to Convert More Online Buyer and Seller Leads to Appointments w/ Anna Krueger.

 

 

Coaching Greg Harrelson

4 Drip Campaigns You Can Activate Today and Get Huge Response

Greg Harrelson & Abe Safa break down their favorite drip campaigns you can activate today using your Real Geeks workflow library, as well as a drip campaign of their own. 

 
 
 
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Mind the capture to contact ratio.

“So many people focus on the conversion ratio between the contracts that they get meaning: their new leads and the contracts that they write – But I’ve always believed that there's a different ratio you got to focus on … All of us want to write more contracts … but sometimes don't realize how to influence that number.” [Greg Harrelson]

“How many [leads] are you actually talking to? Within those conversations, you are able to determine where those people are in their buying or selling cycle, which gives you a much clearer picture of whether your Ad spend is working or not. It gives you a better picture of how full your pipeline is, which will help you make better decisions.” [Abe Safa]

This is particularly important to keep in mind, especially when using this first drip campaign.  

Buyer leads no contact after the first attempt

“This one campaign, in my opinion, we have tracked more influence on our ROI and our conversion, because of this one campaign.” [Greg Harrelson]

The campaign: 8 steps. 8 messages. 48 hours. 

Regardless of which drip campaign strategy, you adopt the goal of all outreach should be to personally talk to as many of your leads as possible. 

“My opinion is we shouldn't use auto-responders … I understand sometimes we are on appointments and we cannot take calls … but I’m not a believer in using auto-response all the time … I rather you be the person that communicated to them. ” [Greg Harrelson]

Greg and Abe both suggest using the Double-Dial technique (Call a lead – if they don't pick up, then hang up and call them back immediately.) This will help your pick-up rate tremendously as most people who screen their calls pick up on the second call. Both Greg and Abe note to always double-dial prior to deploying any drip campaign. 

Buyer leads- inactive last 6 months

“We kick off this workflow every single week to anyone who meets [the] criteria, and there's not a week that goes by where these two things don’t happen: 1: We identify a lead that we can now work with that we thought was inactive. 2: We identify a lead that we thought was inactive but was active and bought through our competition.” [Greg Harrelson]

Set the leads that purchased with someone else up on a market report for where they bought and they can later become a seller.  

“Just because someone is inactive in your account, Let’s not assume they are inactive in general. I assume they are active, I’ve lost their attention, and I need to win it back ” [Greg Harrelson]

Select this workflow from the Real Geeks library, set the advanced search filter to: all leads inactive last 6 months, and begin the workflow. This workflow gives more attention to the leads you already have, bringing your ROI up and your cost per lead ultimately down. 

Buyer Leads - Active Buyer Unresponsive (no follow-up)

 
 
 
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This is for those leads who are active, you can see their actions on your Real Geeks site, but they are not picking up the phone whenever you call them. 

This workflow is 5 messages over 24 hour period. 

“Every person that we call a lead, I believe someone else has the same lead if not  3 or 4 more websites have the same lead … You’ve got to do something to stand out and this workflow would be a way we would do that. ” [Greg Harrelson]

General | Follow up Workflow to database

Unlike the above, this drip campaign is not found in the Real Geeks workflow library. Greg and Abe both use this workflow in-house. 

This simple workflow consists of two text messages, and one email. The messages whether text or email should contain a video component.

“You really need to start incorporating some video in your texts, in your email templates, in your workflow templates, because that really helps you stand out. ” [Greg Harrelson]

Greg and Abe both highlight the use of the Real Geeks’ video tool where you can embed introduction videos, FAQ videos, and other information you want to send your leads in text and email templates.  

“When it comes to using workflows don’t get attached to their response … I see a lot of agents get frustrated when they get a lot of ‘No’s … all that means is they're not interested at this present moment. The whole objective of using these workflows is to get someone engaged in a conversation … Engage them over time and then be there when they are ready.” [Abe Safa].

Ultimately, adapting each one of these workflows and personalizing them with embedded content of your own will not only extend the reach of your pipeline, but it will assist in maintaining and providing value to the relationships in every part of the buy and sell cycle. 

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