The only silver bullet in real estate sales

We all want to find that secret weapon that brings in bucketloads of listings and sales. The prospecting approach that consistently generates appointments, or the script that has owners racing to sign our listing authority.

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We get attracted to new marketing ideas and jump into strategies thinking "Maybe this will be the one..."

Real estate professionals are dream clients for marketing agencies selling Google ads, newspaper profiles, billboards and bus backs. Hope springs eternal in our eyes and we'll spend thousands of dollars searching for that silver bullet which makes our lives easier and brings in the big bucks.

Reluctantly, I must tell you that in my experience, these 'silver bullets' are usually nothing more than expensive experiments, or even worse - vanity projects masquerading as marketing.

The only real silver bullet in real estate is leverage.

Leverage - "to use (something) to maximum advantage"

If you want to grow your income and/or free up your time, leverage everything you do to achieve maximum benefit.

Specifically, leverage your past success, your time, and your marketing.

Leverage every sale

Are you doing everything you can to turn each of your past sales into new listings? Use these 9 ideas to leverage your success into more business:

1. Write a short case study detailing how you achieved your last sale.
2. Take that case study, print it and deliver it to the closest 100 neighbours.
3. Email your local newspaper. They often print standout local sales results.
4. Text every owner in your database who lives in the same suburb and let them know what the property sold for.
5. Call or text every open home visitor to let them know what the property sold for.
6. Search your area for similar properties and let them know you have buyers who missed out.
7. Talk to your team to find out who has a similar property in their pipeline.
8. Share the case study with all past appraisals from the last 12 months.
9. Put a list of recent sales in your email newsletter.

For a complete breakdown of each idea, including templates and scripts, check out this guide:

Leverage your time

Delegate low-probability buyer appointments to a buyers-agent in your team, or another agent in your office that needs the opportunity. That way, you can focus on more dollar-productive activities like connecting with potential sellers or undertaking listing reviews with current clients.

You don't need to hoard every opportunity. Have an abundance mentality. Refer low probability leads to other agents in your office and focus your time on finding good listings.

For advice on adding a buyer's agent to your team, check out this guide:

If you have too many admin tasks on your plate, it might be time to consider hiring a personal assistant, this guide will help:

Leverage your marketing

There is no need to come up with new content ideas for each different marketing medium. One single Agent Monday article can be used in at least 12 different ways to increase your profile and generate listings.

Consider one of our feature articles like '5 reasons not to sell your home privately',

You can...

• Add it to your email newsletter
• Print and drop it as a newsletter in your farm area
• Run a direct mail campaign to private sellers
• Turn it into a podcast
• Drip feed 1 reason a day on social media (5 posts total)
• Turn it into a video and post it on social media
• Add it to your website as a blog post

You can find even more options in this guide:

You don't need to do all of these, 1-3 options (done consistently) are plenty. The key message is, you don't need to create new content all the time. There is no need to reinvent the wheel in each different marketing medium.

Rather, you need to create systems to ensure that you are building leverage into your business.

Leverage your sales, your time, and your marketing and your business will take off.

How does one implement leverage?

I can hear what you're thinking:

"That's great Andrew, but how do I actually make this happen?"

Action step: Create a weekly checklist.

Include marketing activities from each leverage section above. For example, your checklist might include:

• Send my email newsletter with an Agent Monday article
• Drop that same article as a printed newsletter to 200 houses in my farm area
• Drop 100 case study flyers around one of my past sales
• Refer low-probability buyers to another agent
• Complete 2 listing/vendor review meetings

For more on checklists, check out this guide:

Keep it simple to start with. Don't try and do everything at once. And forgive yourself if you have a crazy week and nothing on your checklist gets done.

A smart approach could be to build one new habit/idea into your business each month or two and stop adding more once you find the right mix for your business.

Remember, consistency is more important than volume.

500 newsletters delivered every fortnight to the same farming area will get you far better results than 10,000 newsletters sent out once a year.

Pick a level of activity you can stick to most weeks, and make it happen!