How to Improve Your Prospecting Strategies, Habits, and Mindset
There are 101 ways to prospect as a real estate agent, and you probably know most of them. If you don’t, we've covered the many popular real estate prospecting techniques before (you can check a few of them here, here and here). Common prospecting activities include sending out postcards, calling your friends and family, and passing out your business cards at local events. Basically, real estate prospecting is everything you do to find new leads for your business.
You’ve heard it all. You’ve seen it all. But this post isn’t about popular prospecting techniques.
Instead, in this post, we discuss how to fine tune your strategies, habits, and mindset so that you can be more effective when prospecting.
Let’s begin.
To become successful at prospecting, you must turn it into a daily habit. In order to turn prospecting into a daily habit, you must do it each day without fail for at least 21 days. And that includes weekends.
While cold calling on weekends sounds risky, there’s no law against it. As long as you call between the hours of 8 am to 9 pm, you can call 7 days a week. Be sure that the caller is not on the Do Not Call List.
Learn about safe cold calling practices for real estate professionals here.
Sure, it seems a little personal to call on the weekends, but the benefits of doing so mean that the person on the other end of the phone will be more relaxed and less rushed. Plus, you won’t have to fight against as many distractions.
Make prospecting into part of your everyday routine and it will become second nature soon.
Time blocking is one of the best things you can do to organize your day. There are several ways to time block, but the basic method is to divide your work day into chunks of a set length of time – typically at least 20 minutes, but sometimes multiple hours. Then, assign one type of task to each block (such as cold calling, meeting, marketing, emailing, etc.).
Time blocking has three main benefits:
First, time blocking prevents you from multitasking. Multitasking is a myth because you're not actually doing multiple things at once. Instead, you're switching rapidly from one task to another and losing productivity with each switch. By multitasking, you could lose up to 20 minutes with each shift. However, when you time block, you don't need to multitask. Instead, you'll work on one task (or a complimentary set of tasks) at one time, which allows you to be way more productive than if you were constantly switching back and forth.
Second, you can focus more. Going along with the above benefit, time blocking allows you to truly devote all of your mental energy to one task for a finite period of time. That concentration allows you to get way more work done than if you were only working at the task intermittently.
Third, time blocking prevents procrastination. When you know that you should be doing a specific task at 3pm, it's hard to blow it off repeatedly.
Blocking off your time and obeying a set schedule everyday may seem boring, but it’s the secret sauce to success.
You need to get active on social media, if you aren’t already. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do social media.
Let’s start with the wrong way.
The wrong way is to post on social media whenever the mood strikes you.
But the right way is to post on social media consistently. If you want to build a community on social media, you should post every day.
Of course, posting every day can be difficult when you’re juggling many other tasks. There are two ways to ensure that you post daily on social media. The first way is to add this task to your time block. The second way is to set aside one day each week to create a full queue of social media posts and then schedule them to post at set times throughout the week. You can use a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule your social media posts.
You’ve probably been avoiding this, but now’s the time to roll up your sleeves and learn about online marketing.
A lot of agents don’t take the necessary time to truly understand how search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and pay per click (PPC) ads work. But you’re operating a business in the 21st century, and it’s high time that you know how to use modern marketing tools.
You don’t need a PHD in online marketing, but you do need to learn the basics so that you can improve your prospecting. Just taking a weekend to learn each of the following will help you, especially if you put what you’ve learned into practice.
Here are our beginner-friendly guides to online marketing for real estate agents:
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Real estate is a people-oriented profession, but some of us need to work on our people skills. And there’s no shame in admitting it. After all, we can’t all be crowd surfers.
But we can all be more approachable. And by improving your disposition, you will become a better real estate prospect.
So what’s the secret to becoming more approachable? Here are a few things you can do more of when prospecting:
Smile - Check your facial expression when you’re prospecting (even if you’re on the phone). A smile, or at least a pleasant expression, can soften your presence and make you feel more approachable.
Make eye contact - Don’t make excessive eye contact. However, when you’re speaking, maintain eye contact with the prospect at least 50% of the time. And when they’re speaking, aim for eye contact around 70% of the time.
Adopt an open body posture - Don’t slump. Don’t cross your arms. Don’t put your hands in your pocket. And lean back a little when sitting or standing. This creates a more open presentation.
Use the other person’s name - When you naturally use your prospect’s name throughout a conversation, you accomplish two things. First, you’ll remember their name. Second, the prospect will feel a stronger connection with you.
Listen and take a genuine interest in the other person - People can tell when you’re silently waiting to speak and when you’re genuinely listening to them. Be sure that you’re actually listening to your prospect—and taking notes so that you can continue to build a relationship with them.
Last, but certainly not least, be sure to prioritize yourself every single day. You won’t be successful at prospecting or at building your business if you’re burning the candle at both ends. Schedule time for yourself every day to do what brings you joy and fulfillment. Even devoting as little as 30 minutes for “me time” can stave off the mental exhaustion that quickly leads to burnout.
You already know the basics. Use the above tips to fine tune your strategies so that you’re even more effective at generating new leads for your real estate business.