Over the New Year “break” I listened to Seth Godin’s Startup School Podcast. If you’re creating anything in 2015, it’s definitely worth a listen.
In one of the first episodes Seth Godin talks about 3 types of revenue worth pursuing.
The revenue of business, revenue of trust and attention, and the revenue of referral.
I thought I’d take a little more time to talk about the latter two today.
Revenue of Business
The revenue of business is the revenue that you generate when you close escrow on a property. You have a buyer who submits an offer on a property, the offer gets accepted, you open escrow, a couple of weeks later, escrow closes and you get paid on your commission.
But as you lay out your revenue goals for 2015 it’s worth analyzing where all of your business came from in 2014. I’d start by creating a business plan and reviewing your 2014 metrics before setting your 2015 goals.
Trulia has a great 2015 Real Estate Business Plan template.
As you work through the business plan try and as you analyze your revenue from 2014 focus on the following …
What were your top lead sources in 2014?
What lead sources closed the fastest?
What lead sources cost the most money? And did any of these close?
Overall, what where your biggest challenges in closing deals in 2014?
What were your biggest successes?
As you answer these questions it’ll start to become more and more clear what business opportunities you should dismiss (i.e. which lead campaigns to cut) and which business opportunities you should focus more on moving into 2015.
Don’t just start the new year with big audacious goals. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to set big goals. But it’s even better to analyze your performance from the previous year and establish a good baseline so that you can attack your goals in a more efficient manner.
Revenue of Trust & Attention
Consumers do business with people they know, like, and trust. Which begs the question, how is a person going to trust you?
As you think through all of the leads that you need to generate in order to hit your goals in 2015, think about the following …
How will they trust you?
Where will they find you?
Does your website look professional and trustworthy?
Do you have reviews online?
Do you regularly publish new, helpful content?
Do you work for a recognized brand name?
Stop worrying so much about your website traffic and analytics and worry a little bit more about what you’re going to do, or what you’re going to change to start generating some revenue of trust and attention.
Maybe your website isn’t generating any leads because it looks unprofessional.
Maybe your website isn’t generating any leads because you haven’t published any new, helpful content.
Maybe your website isn’t generating any leads because you don’t have any reviews.
Blogs are the most effective and low risk trust building tools. But before you spend any money on any pay-per-click or traffic campaigns, make sure that you’ve invested some time in creating a professional looking and trustworthy website.
Solicit reviews from previous customers and publish those with confidence online.
Regularly write helpful content targeted at both buyers and sellers.
Invest in a good design.
The more you invest in generating revenue of trust & attention, the more business revenue you will generate as a result as well.
Revenue of Referral
As you work on your 2015 Business Plan and outlining your lead sources from 2014, referrals should easily be one of your top lead sources.
Are you delivering exceptional service to your buyers and sellers every step of the way?
Are you asking for a testimonial or referral at the closing table?
Here’s a great way to ask for the referral the next time you get to the closing table …
Ricardo, working with you was an absolute pleasure. As you know, it’s important to me to make sure that you have been happy with the level of service that I provided. After all, I have built my business on delivering exceptional customer service. That said, if you have friends, relatives, or associates who need a great real estate agent, would you feel comfortable referring me to them? Do you know of anyone that I should be talking to right now?
Hit Your Revenue Goals in 2015!
You’re not going to hit your revenue goals in 2015 with a transaction mind-set. Meaning, don’t just focus on one transaction after another.
Focus on generating the revenue of trust & attention and the revenue of referral every step of the way.
Continue to do the things that help you generate trust and attention from potential new customers.
And continue to deliver exceptional customer service every step of the way and always, always ask for the referral!
Here’s to a great 2015!
Many new agents fail to start tracking their business while focusing so much energy on getting business and this hurts them later on down the line. Track EVERYTHING. What worked. What didn’t work. Why it didn’t work. Ask your clients during the transaction about your service. This will help you improve your service to their friends and family that they refer to you.
Angelo: TOTALLY agree with you! They’re transaction oriented. Only focusing on one transaction then the next. Without putting any thought into all of the other metrics you mentioned.
I think it’s absolutely critical to analyze lead sources. What closed. What didn’t close. What closed the fastest. Why?
What strategies didn’t work in 2014, what strategies did work. What do you eliminate going forward and what should you focus more on.
Answering those questions is what will up your game in 2015!
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment Angelo. Always good to see you here.