The business plan should be the centerpiece of all of the agent's efforts detailing and focusing their resources to insure the greatest opportunity for success.
For years, I've taken the slow time in our business between Thanksgiving and the new year to assess what worked this year, evaluate threats and opportunities, set goals for the next year, and develop strategies to accomplish them.
- Develop personal, operating, and marketing budgets
- Describe who your customers are
- Create an elevator speech describing your business
- Develop a plan for lead generation
- Sample Business Plan
- Attend Free Webinar - High Return/Low Cost Marketing
A complete plan starts with knowing how much you need to earn by preparing a personal, operating, and marketing budget. When you take into consideration all of the expenses, investments, and contingencies that make up the annual income goal, you have to develop the plan to achieve it.
Since you can't be all things to all people, you must decide who your customers are and where you can find them. My belief is you choose to work with people you know or those you don't. People you know are your past customers, friends, relatives, and neighbors. Those you don't are everyone else – strangers.
Studies show that it cost five, six, or seven times more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. That is the main reason I recommend working with people you know. Besides, it is more fun and less stressful. If that isn't enough, NAR in its Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers for 2008 states that the majority source of business is referral and repeat customers which would be people you know not strangers.
Instead of composing a traditional mission statement, develop an elevator speech of two or three sentences that will verbalize what you do and for whom. If you can't tell people why they should do business with you, why should they be expected to know?
"I help people buy and sell homes" isn't good enough because everyone who has a license can say that. What distinguishes you from the competition? You need a point of difference and it needs to be something that is difficult to copy by your competitors; you need a barrier to entry.
My suggestion is to use research done by NAR that tells us what the real estate public wants but is not necessarily getting: financial and tax advice to help them make better decisions. This strategy provides its own barrier to entry because most agents don't want to make the effort to become well-versed in this area.
"I've found a niche in residential real estate that really serves my customers by focusing on the tax advantages, financing alternatives, and investment aspects of their homes.
I've developed a Customer Appreciation Program that provides information and services by email to keep them up-to-date in between their moves. My business is so rewarding working with repeat and referrals customers only."
The next step is to develop a plan to market to your selected customer base. Continuing with the strategy that you're going to work with people you know, you need a plan to contact them multiple times during the year using in-person, mail, email, and other ways.
A lead generation plan would put you in touch with each person in your contact list 30 or more times a year. This type of frequency would definitely achieve top of mind awareness so that whenever they think about moving or hear about someone moving, your name will come to mind. Repeat and referral business is our objective.
- Monthly mailing (12 times a year; mail or email)
- Greetings
- Birthdays (1-2 times a year; both spouses)
- Anniversaries (1-2 times a year; wedding and home)
- Holidays (4-12 times a year)
- Reminders
- Daylight Savings time (2 times a year)
- Fly Your Flag (8 times a year)
- Home Maintenance (2-4 times a year)
- Phone calls (4 times a year)
Once the plan has been established, tactics must be put into place to insure that the contacts are made. Specific steps must be put into place with reminders on your calendar that guarantee that things are done when they're supposed to be done. These types of steps are what will convert a concept into a system.
As the ancient Chinese proverb goes, a long journey begins with the first step. Once you've decided to build your plan, maybe the next step will be to download a sample Business Plan or register to attend a free webinar explaining step-by-step procedures for creating a business plan that will deliver High Returns with Low Cost Marketing.