Breaking through to your next income tier
There are levels to this real estate sales career:
Tier 1: Rookie. Just trying to survive and get that first listing. You are still an apprentice and there is so much to learn.
Tier 2: Making $50 - 100k per annum. Inconsistent income. Learning on the job. Proactively searching for listing opportunities. Fighting hard for everything.
Tier 3: $100 - 200k. Starting to become an attraction agent. Securing listing opportunities with a mix of marketing approaches. Income can still be highly inconsistent. Can be hard to win listings against bigger teams.
Tier 4: $200 - 400k. You have a marketing machine in place which generates inbound seller leads. Your income is more steady and you may have a support team in place (personal assistant and/or buyers agent).
Tier 5: $400k - 2million+. You have built an attraction business. Sellers in your area see you as the local expert and seek you out. Your income limit is determined by your efficiency, database size, average commission value and size of team you want to build (eg. number of buyer's agents, personal assistants etc).
Which tier are you in right now?
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From my experience, around 80% of salespeople don't make it out of tier 1. Many of them won't secure a single listing and sale. This is not an easy gig! For those that do make it through their initiation, the challenge becomes consistency.
The vast majority of salespeople who make it to tier 2 ($50 - 100k PA) get stuck at that level and can't break through to the next tier. Or if they do increase their income to tier 3 level ($100 - 200k PA), it's temporary and they find themselves flopping between good months and bad months unable to generate consistent commissions. One bad quarter can have them back at square one, scratching their head trying to work out what went wrong.
Getting off the income rollercoaster
The truth is, real estate gets a lot easier once you get to tier 4 ($200 - 400k). At that point, you no longer have to go around chasing opportunities, hunting for business. Owners start seeking you out, which frees up your prospecting time and totally changes the real estate dynamic. Sellers start asking for your advice, rather than thinking you are out to get them, fighting against every suggestion you bring to the table.
Your income becomes more consistent as you are no longer following the standard real estate model:
Prospect -> list -> get real busy -> sell what you have -> back to square one -> start prospecting again.
Sound familiar?
The difference between average and high performers
If you want to break into tier 4 ($200 - 400k) and stay there, this is what you need:
A communication 'machine' (strategy) which allows you to regularly keep in touch with large numbers of people and produces a steady stream of seller leads.
There is a limit to the number of people you can call and meet with each week. And while those daily calls are essential, you also need a way to keep in touch with loads more people, so they (hopefully) contact you when they are ready to sell.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach. This 'machine' could be one of a number of different things (or a combination of them):
- Weekly / fortnightly regular email newsletter that goes to 1k+ recipients (the more people you send to, the higher your income will be).
- Massive social media following.
- Large local networks that you meet with frequently.
- Weekly / fortnightly letterbox drop to 1k+ local households.
If you have one or more of these 'machines' in place and want to grow your income, you need to focus on these metrics:
- Increase the number of people you are reaching (grow your database),
- Improve the quality of the information you are sharing.
- Increase the frequency with which you are contacting them.
To grow your real estate business you have 2 key jobs:
- Build a database. Make sure everyone you come into contact with knows you are in real estate. Add more people to this group each week.
- Show everyone that you are proficient at selling houses. Repeatedly demonstrate to that database that you understand the market and are an expert in your local area.
The key prerequisite to achieving those two goals is building a list of people with whom you can regularly communicate by email and phone.
Send them info about the current market, recent sales, interesting stats and content that helps them make better real estate decisions.
Stick to that, and the income will take care of itself.
Ready to take the next step?
If you would like help installing a communication machine/strategy for your business, book a coaching call today. Together, we can get you where you want to go.
If you'd rather take the DIY approach, check out our deep dive into marketing plans for real estate sales:
Andrew Duncan
Wait, do real estate email newsletters still work?
Email newsletters are still the most effective marketing method you can employ to generate listings. Why? They are high leverage. You can contact thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Email newsletters are also low-cost, and super time efficient. You can find time to send an email newsletter even when your schedule fills up and your other prospecting activities fall by the wayside.
The challenge with email newsletters has always been, how do you come up with the content?
At Agent Monday, we provide you with pre-written newsletter content. Informative articles for buyers and sellers that are quick to read (500 - 800 words) and designed to work in every market.
These are white-label articles. Which means you can take them and use them as your own.
Send them to your database and/or post them online to grow your position as THE go-to expert in your area, while also driving appraisal and listing enquiries.
Looking for content to generate appraisals?
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Andrew Duncan
