The secret is out - real estate agents don't sell houses!
Ummm question....Will you buy a $1,000,000 house from me? Pretty please? With sugar on top? No? ....But it has beautiful imported bamboo floors and travertine tile bathrooms? Still No? That's what I thought.
That's the truth my friend. Yes, while our real estate licenses may say "salesman" or "real estate sales" and we're still referred to as "sales agents" in our industry, the fact is that we don't actually sell properties. So what do we do? Let's dive into that a little deeper.
There are a lot of consumers out there that still believe that real estate agents are pushy salespeople that can magically talk them into buying a large asset. This mentality is extremely false....well at least to a degree. Are there some pushy salespeople out there? Yes, there definitely are, but I don't run across many of them anymore. I, personally, prefer building relationships with clients. However, not all real estate agents are built this way. We all run our businesses differently and if that's your schtick as an agent, have at it. It's just not mine.
Part of that is because I don't agree I can "talk" anyone into buying something for hundreds of thousands of dollars that they don't want. There are simply way too many variables within a real estate deal for that to happen. People can't just lay down a check and walk out today with a house, it doesn't work like that.
There are hurdles for them to get through and it's a large decision. Purchasing a home or property is one of the largest financial decisions that someone ever makes in their lifetime. It's not a split-second decision like deciding to buy a new pair of boots that are on sale. It's a completely different thought process that is very lengthy for the average consumer.
Even though we don't "sell houses," we do sell something though. We sell our abilities, our talents, our skills, our personality, and our commitment to our clients. We sell ourselves and our individual real estate businesses. I want to point out the difference here because it's ourselves as a person that they trust and our businesses on how we run them in order to accomplish our client's objectives. We are the face of our businesses and clients will remember how you ran their transaction.
Another thing that I want to distinguish here is that you are not your brokerage. Yes, we enjoy our brokerages, but we need to be building our businesses irrespective of the brokerage we belong to. Yes, we still need to follow law and policy and have their name, logo, or whatever requirements are necessary, but it can't be all about them. At some point, it has to become about you.
This is where I see some agents struggle in their careers. Early on, they are building their business and leaning on the brokerage, that's normal. However, they get so caught up in deals that they forget to step into the role of being the focus of their business. If they grow to become unhappy within the brokerage and want to leave, they start to feel trapped because they feel they've built everything around the brokerage's image.
Don't get stuck in this thinking and don't blame your brokerage for this. Your brokerage didn't force you to do that, even though they may benefit. You did it, voluntarily. I usually see this type of behavior with agents that push off updating their marketing, get leads solely from the brokerage, etc., and use the excuse of not having enough time to change their behaviors. At some point, we have to take responsibility for our businesses and ourselves.
So if you're currently in that situation, how can you fix it? To start with, set up incremental business review points. For example, schedule 1 day per quarter of the year that is a "Business Review Day." Go through items like marketing materials, social media, client presentations, lead sources, marketing plans, etc. Tweak them as needed to focus more on you and your business accomplishments, not the brokerage stats. Yes, you'll still need your brokerage info, logo, etc., but it'll become more about you and your real estate business and less about the brokerage.
This practice helps to keep you more realigned in thinking like a business owner and not just like an agent doing transactions. So many times I've seen agents leave a company only to be set back in their business for 6 months or more. They get frustrated for whatever reason with their brokerage, they feel trapped, they abruptly leave, and then they spend the next 6 months or more spending time getting their real estate business back on its feet because they made it about the former brokerage and not about themselves.
To be honest (#realtalk), I actually believe that if you do this quarterly review practice, your likelihood of feeling trapped at a brokerage decreases exponentially. I think you're more apt to make better future business decisions if you ever do decide to change brokerages and not just leave based upon emotion. This is maturity as a business owner my friend.
Maturity as a business owner is a process, especially in the real estate business, and you won't get there overnight. If you're persistent, resilient, and patient, you will get there though. Just give it time and build slowly and steadily.
Keep Shining On ~ Your Real Estate Coach,
Amanda
