You’re Making Calls and Sending Cards, But It’s Not Working

Why is it that sometimes clients seem to show up without us doing anything, and other times we doing everything right, and yet, the phone isn’t ringing?
Ever feel like it’s working for everyone else, but not for you?
I can’t tell you how many meetings I have been in with agents raving about how busy they were, and I wanted to crawl under the table because I had nothing going on.
Here’s what I know after 20 years in real estate:
We all go in cycles. My business cycles tend to run the opposite of everyone else. Sure enough I would see those same agents a few months later, and they had the same look of panic in their eyes that I had at our previous meeting. But this time, I would be the one who was gloriously busy.
Here’s the part that most agents forget, though, and why they struggle.
Results are not linear, and they take time.
Results are not linear:
Meaning rarely do I call a client and they give me business on the spot. Rarely does someone call and say “I just got your postcard in the mail and had to call you to sell my house”. But the calls do come. Don’t worry so much about trying to connect the dots of who you call, and where the business comes from. It can be counter productive.
Results take time:
This is the key to the delima I posed at the beginning. When those clients show up magically, it is from the phone calls, cards, etc that you sent 60-120 days ago. When you are making calls and not getting results, it’s because you are at the beginning of the cycle, and it’s a building process. When we get busy we stop doing the things that bring in business, which is why we struggle with the feast / famine cycle of the business.
Stay the course.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been diligent about making phone calls etc and felt like it wasn’t working. Then all of a sudden, right about the time I was ready to give up, something happened and the clients started rolling in at a wonderful and surprising rate.
So don’t give up. Keep at it, knowing that you are closer than you think. The difference between agents who success and those who struggle is the ability to push through the fear and frustration and keep going.
To your success!
Nicole
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