Market's Slow? Review, Regroup, Renew!
Yes, the market's slow right now. Real estate is being bought and sold, but the holidays are upon us and people staying at home.
Am I depressed? NO! This is a wonderful break from the rush, rush, rush. I find this a great time to review, regroup, and renew.
Review:
- What are my buyers doing? How long have I been beating on each buyer, and who does it make sense to give the old heave-ho?
- Which sellers have I been pestering for so long without any action? See 'ya!
- Which ads don't work? Which 800 number extensions draw no calls? Which postcard and email campaigns stink? Open the emergency hatch and jettison them!
- How effective are my open house, just listed, follow-up practices? Tune them up!
- What are my leads-to-appointments-to-listings-to-closing numbers? How to improve them?
- How is my progress away from all print advertising and forms to all-digital advertising and forms? Make it happen!
Regroup:
- Get things filed away and in order so everything is close and hand and I have plenty of everything
- Get those paper forms digitized and (with the new Acrobat 8) automatically change paper forms to interactive forms. The Acrobat 8 is terrific! Scan your paper form in, automatically recognize the text so it's editable, and the software figures out where the date entry fields should go. Shazzam, paper to online enterable forms!
- Toss out the old, dirty signs and riders. Get fresh, great looking ones.
- Think about the type of people I want to work with, stop chasing every lead, work with only high-potential people
- Get rid of the money-wasting print ads, brochures, and tired old marketing practices. Create new ones!
Renew:
- Step back, realize why I got into this (freedom, I control my worklife, the gambler's high inherent in the job, no boss hanging over my head, the chance to help people find somewhere they love to live in)
- Take in a few movies (that I never have time for when real estate is hot), have a few drinks, sleep in late one weekday morning per week, take the kid out of school early and go for ice cream.
- Clear the head, get my goals back in focus, get my systems streamlined and perfected, get ready to rock when real estate comes back in the new yea