Lessons from the trenches - Strong Week of Sales Makes Me Reflective

14 years ago

This was one of my strongest sales weeks in quite awhile, since I managed to get three new contracts in place with three separate buyer clients.

I remember when I was starting out in real estate back in 1997, and one of the owners of the company I worked for mentioned that he had spoken with a top producer who said:

"Keep working at this business. Over time, the clients will begin to fall in your lap from various places - friends, past clients, your current marketing. It all pays off at some point."

These were (and remain) wise words.

Obviously, I have had my share of slumps to deal with in real estate. Amazingly, it seems like we pretty much always have one during a Presidential election year. However, this industry has been very good to me, and I feel blessed to still be standing after what has arguably been one of the toughest periods for home sales in a LONG time.

So what happened this week for me? Where did these buyers come from, anyway?

FAMILY - Whenever I have helped family members in the past, I always look at these as freebies, because I am never concerned about loyalty issues. I helped my wife's sister and her husband purchase a new home which is about two minutes away from our house (bonus!).

PAST CLIENT - To me, this means that I did my job correctly the first time around. I love working with past clients, because we both know what to expect already. This is the ultimate compliment, and I don't mean that in a salesy way.

ACTIVERAIN - I was contacting a couple of months ago by a super-nice guy who had been reading my blog for quite some time. In fact, he had already settled on Pflugerville based on the stuff he read in my posts and on the fact that I have lived here for 14 years myself. Yesterday, he and his wife contracted to purchase a new home in the same neighborhood as my sister-in-law (see above).

We get a LOT of our sales from our website and (now) from my blog. I have often said that just about any form of marketing will work if you are consistent with it. If you think about this carefully, that means that NO marketing idea is necessarily a bad one, as long as you are prepared to stick it out until it starts producing results.

What's the flip side?

If you are embarking on any new type of marketing, regardless of its medium (internet, mail, print, etc.), don't quit too soon! You might be on the brink of success when you throw that idea away. This almost happened to me with our Austin real estate website (www.austintexashomes.com). Right when things started to seem futile with my SEO efforts, I was blessed with incredible placement on Google which has resulted in tens of millions of dollars in sales since that day.

The same thing goes for blogging. I have seen some of my friends give up on this tool far too early, leaving probable money and certain effort on the table. These are two of my favorites from my library of over 800 posts since I started writing:

Blogging is a Long-Term Strategy with the Potential for Short-Term Results

Are YOU a part of the revolution? If not, be prepared to be left behind by those who are.

If you've been following my blog for a long time, you have likely already read these. If not, I would encourage you to take a couple of minutes to check them out. I hope you find some measure of inspiration there. :)