Want to Increase Your Production in 2024?

Question: What do all real estate top producers have in common?

Answer: they typically have one, maybe two high efficiency systems that drive their transaction flow.

Less is more. They’re not doing 25 different things to fuel their transaction flow. Rather they find those one or two lead gen/lead conversion systems that work for them, and then work the heck out of those systems. 

For example, there’s an agent I worked with in the coastal Carolinas region that’s doing 100+ transactions per year. He primarily works Expired Listing leads and found he had a knack for connecting, getting in front of them, winning their business and getting their deals closed at an efficient clip. Ultimately he built a system where he goes out and “bags and tags” listings, then has a listing coordinator and a transaction coordinator to handle all the minutiae and rote activities, freeing up the agent to focus almost exclusively on client acquisition and deals - the money making stuff. 

Another Agent I coached does four high quality client appreciation events annually, and that nets her roughly 20-30 transactions per year. She makes a few phone calls during the week, but the bulk of her lead gen has been taken care of from those events, and 95% of the activity is inbound and comes to her versus her having to go out and hunt for it. It took her years to build up her sphere to get to this point of productivity with the client appreciation events, but she is now in a position where she has great balance and quality of life and gets to work with clients that are eager to work with her. 

The takeaways are that these agents are not only leveraging systems that have a high payback factor per unit of effort applied, but they also found systems that fit well with their personality in how they like to meet and connect with people, and how they like to work. For example, the sphere agent that is super people and relationship oriented would have a tough time getting ahead working Expired listing opportunities, much less knocking down triple digits in production annually with those types of leads. And the same goes for the systems-based agent that would probably struggle with the heavy relationship work where the sphere agent thrives. 

At the end of the day, it shows that it’s not so much that it’s about working FSBOs and Expired leads, or Sphere contacts, or internet leads, or finding that “holy grail” system. Rather, it’s about finding what works for you and getting deep with it. 

Look at what you’re doing with your lead generation and lead conversion systems. Be deliberate about intention and outcome. Measure, listen and feel. Are your systems working for you? For each unit of effort applied, are you getting a worthwhile result? Are your lead gen tactics aligning with your skill set and any natural advantages? As you’re working your systems, assess the ease of connecting with people and converting them. If you feel like you’re pushing on a lever that’s really not paying you back, continue exploring and look for those right systems; or if it’s the right system but isn’t super efficient yet, make sure you’re optimizing to get the right results.

In addition, think of an approach where you spend 30% of your time and effort building opportunities and 70% on getting those opportunities closed. The reality of real estate is that, once you’ve converted someone to a client, there is a whole bunch of work on the client service end that has to be handled (getting your clients under contract, all the time, effort and energy to get the deal closed and keep it together, putting out fires, etc.). If you have high labor intensive systems that require a ton of time and effort just to build opportunities, you may not be leaving enough bandwidth to handle client services and getting your deals closed. If you feel like there’s never enough hours in the day - this could be you. 

You can take a lot from top producers, even if you don’t want to be one. Are your systems efficient enough? Are you expending a ton of energy pushing on levers that aren’t paying you back? Are you working systems that complement your personality and how you like to meet, connect and convert prospects? If you’re not where you want to be, follow the northStar set by top producers to get your business building activities dialed in.