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Hi! This is Christina with Leads and Leverage, and I help real estate agents create more time, make more money, and enjoy the journey.

Today is going to be a little bit different, it’s more like a “fireside” chat if you will. We are going to have a little chat today because this issue comes up all the time.

I hear from, I think, everyone single one of you, you are really frustrated with the market because you can’t seem to find leads or you feel like you aren’t getting quality leads when you do any of your lead generation, you feel like the leads that you are getting are junk leads, etc., that kind of concept.

I really just wanted to chat with you today because I guess here’s the crux of it, that when it comes to growing your business; now I’m speaking specifically to you as real estate agents from a fellow real estate agent. I’m speaking to you on that level.

At the same time, this goes out to every other business, every other type of business out there, we would all, every single person who’s ever owned a business or who currently owns a business, who wants to own a business, we would all absolutely, absolutely love it if we could put out an ad and get a phone call and write a contract or put out an ad and get sales.

Want Quality Leads? Give Value!

That’s what we want. We want “quality” leads. We want “real” leads.

Alright, so, here’s the thing about this. In a dream world and notice I said “dream” world. In a dream world you’re going to be able to just open up your doors to your business, maybe run an ad or two and you are going to get business.

You are going to get closings. You are going to get people who want to use your services, right? But we don’t live in a dream world. We live in the real world.

And so, you have to modify what you’re doing. You have to set up your lead generation so that you actually get the results that you hope to get from it.

See, our job is to reach out and help people. Every single business, that is their job, whether you are a trucking business, whether you are a coffee shop business, whether you are a real estate business, it doesn’t matter.

Your job is to get out there and build an audience of people that would be interested in using your services and that does not happen, I mean, it used to happen once in a while just running an ad but the way it happens now is that you actually have to go out and give value.

At this conference this week I keep hearing that “give value,” “give value,” “add value” and that’s what I tell you but then I realized that you don’t really know what that means.

What does it mean?

Because you think, “okay, I’ll be a really great agent for them, I’ll be a really great this for them,” “I’ll be a really great whatever for them” but here’s the reality to that – in order to add value, you have to solve people’s problems. You have to figure out what they want and help them get that.

And again, that’s probably creating questions in your mind about what exactly that looks like but here’s the other piece to this. That means in order to lead generate, in any type of lead generation, you have to get out there and make connections.

Build An Audience on Facebook

You have to build your audience and I don’t have my graphs here to show you but you have to build your audience on Facebook and build an audience around the lifestyle of living in your area.

You build that audience and then you help that audience. You help them with their problems. You help solve with their need and sometimes, some things you are going to do you are going to fail miserably.

Some Things People Don’t Want To Hear.

I’ll guarantee you right now this video will not do as well as all of the other videos that I’ve done that are like little hacks to get stuff and you want to know why it won’t do as well? Because it comes right down to personal flipping responsibility.

The problem is not the leads. The problem is not the quality of the leads. The problem is not that they are junk leads because they’re not junk and they’re good quality.  Every single lead you get whether it’s from Zillow, whether it’s from your Facebook ads, whatever it’s from, they are not junk.

The problem is you so I’m going to get into this. The problem is you. You expect to be able to put up a little banner and get a sale.

It’s absurd to even begin to expect that! I don’t know why nobody in our industry is really teaching that!

People are teaching “just put an ad out, put an ad out!” I’m watching this conference and people are talking about “what’s the best ad,” or “what’s the perfect ad,” “what’s this,” “what’s that?” And I’m like “that’s not how you do it.”

This is why email marketing doesn’t work. This is why people’s ads on Facebook aren’t working because that is not how it works.

We think that’s how it should work. We think it should be that easy but you know, those “quality” leads that you want, those non-junks leads that you want, all of the leads that you are getting, they’re quality. All of the leads that you’re getting- they are real.

They are not junk but again, it’s how you’re handling it. It’s your expectation. It’s your understanding. People are not going to go “oh, look, you put an ad out there! Come list my house.”

You have to build a relationship with them. You have to put an ad out there but the ad is not “hey, want me to list your house?” The ad is “hey, have you thought about selling? If you have, here’s a checklist that I give all of my sellers. Just download it here.’ You get their email address, they get the checklist.

Then, you take that email address and that email address you use that email address and every single week you send them an email around value. You let them get to know you as a person and then you give them value at the same time.

The perfect example; these videos that I am doing every single day, these are all value related. These are all focused on answering your questions, helping to solve your problems, help you overcome your stumbling blocks.

None of them are like “hey, buy my stuff!” I mean, like towards the end, I might mention the member stuff but you can do this without the membership.

It takes more work,, it take more time, absolutely, but you can do it without joining the membership. But even those, even my members, members in there are like “oh, I’ve been doing this blah, blah,blah” and “oh I want this.”

It takes time, six, twelve, eighteen months to get people, get that pipeline going and to build relationships with them when you’re selling houses. That’s how long it takes, sometimes more.

So there is no place, no place, no place, that when you go do it, you  get instant leads. There is not.

There will always be a teeny tiny percent of stuff that’s instant, absolutely, because you just happen to be in the right place, in the right time but it’s impossible to time the market, The real estate market or the stock market. It’s impossible to be at the right place, at the right time and build a business from it in that regard. It is possible if you have brought them into your email community, if you have brought them into your audience and you can help them.

The Lies You Tell Yourself

So until you flip your thinking about “well, these are junk leads” or “these aren’t quality leads,” I’ll tell you right now, there are people who are killing it with Zillow leads.

I don’t like Zillow. As an agent I never once, I never paid for Zillow. I never did anything with Zillow. No. I do not like them. I do not want a middle man in my business, didn’t need them. I knew how to get my own leads I knew how to lead generate. Zillow is there for the lazy agents who don’t know how to lead generate, who aren’t actually interested in building a business. That’s what Zillow is for. That’s what Trulia is for. That’s what Realtor.com is for, right?

Here’s the thing- the agents who are using those, not all of them, like half of one percent, there are agents that are killing their lead conversion from those leads.

You know why?

Because they know that every single lead is not a junk lead. They just know that it’s a “not now” lead and you have to keep nurturing, to build and nurture that relationship over time.

So, am I saying go do Zillow? No. I’m saying that any lead that you get, if you meet somebody in person, if you get a referral, any lead you get, we have this expectation that if they don’t answer us on the first call or if they don’t respond on the second call or they don’t respond to an email that they are junk or they are not interested or they are not viable.

That’s a lie that you’re telling yourself because you don’t actually want to do the long, hard work of nurturing the lead.

Let me repeat that- when we don’t get an instant response from our first call, our first email, second call, second email, whatever, we say “ah, that was a junk lead” or “it doesn’t work.” That is a lie that you are telling yourself to give yourself an excuse to not be responsible for your lead relationships, your lead conversion.

Yeah, I went there.

All of those leads that you say are junk, all of those people, all those leads that you are getting that you’re not converting- that’s on you because you are not willing to put in the daily, consistent work it takes to email those leads every single week and build a relationship, to learn how to build a relationship via email, to learn what their struggles are as a whole and help them with those questions and help them with their answers.

You are so focused on trying to get them to go see a listing with you or write a contract with you, that you completely miss the, “they gotta know you, like you and trust you first.” You completely miss that.

That is why people, the big guys are saying or supposedly the bigs are saying that you need to get your lead in thirty seconds or less.

I’m like oh really?

We built a business of an average of over two hundred transactions a year. Our biggest year was six hundred and forty-eight and our smallest year was a hundred fifty  something, a hundred and fifty two, I think transactions.

We built that on not responding in thirty seconds or less. We built that over the long haul because our focus was long term relationships. Our focus was a long term business, multi-generational business. That’s what we were focused on so we knew it was about the long haul. We knew it was about the long relationship. We knew it was going to take time.

So when somebody comes and tells you that “oh you can get better leads using CINC or you can get better leads using Kunversion or you can get better leads using TigerLeads or you can get better leads using Zillow, or you can get better leads doing it yourself, whatever, it doesn’t matter where you’re going to do it because if you still have that mindset that they’re junk leads and they are not available right now, it’s not going to work for you. It’s not going to work for you.

Think Through The Long Haul

Someone who is willing to think through the long haul and know that it’s about lead generation and lead conversion, someone who has that mindset, who is going to slog through the crap, it doesn’t matter what you put in front of them. It’s going to work for them.

Now, there are some of us that are just like, we have these tech issues, some of us have time issues and I will get into that in future videos because there are solutions for all of that but right now, the mindset that the leads that you are getting are junk or aren’t quality or aren’t ready to convert, they key is they are not ready now so what are you doing so that you’re in front of them, not like exposure or awareness or top of mind bull crap.

I’m talking really in front of them, like really helping them, customer, prospect appreciation things, weekly emails with real value and real help, snail mail, giving them “oh hey you guys, it’s time to blow out your sprinklers this month” or “it’s time to do this for your pools this month.” Give them reminders all related to their lifestyles and their house.

What are you doing to actively stay engaged in their life? I’m not talking sending them crap. I keep wanting to say S-H-I-T because that just says it and I’m not going to say that. I wouldn’t say it in normal conversation so I’m not going to say it now but my head keeps thinking that for some reason today.

We send out this canned crap. We think these “touches” work. We think an ad should be this perfect data. It should work. Guys, the leads that you are generating, whether in person, whether from Zillow, whether through Leads and Leverage; it doesn’t matter where it is. They’re quality and they’re real. They’re just not ready right now or they don’t trust you yet so it’s on you.

I guarantee you, this video will not be as popular as all the other, you know “three hacks to do this,” or “four ways to run that,” or whatever. I guarantee you it won’t, because none of us, none of us, me included, none of us, want to be told “it’s your fault, it’s you because you are not taking the time to learn how to write an email or send an email that’s conversational.

You’re not taking the time because that builds the relationship. You are not taking the time and investing the time in those relationships over the long haul. We’ve all done it.

Why do you think I am now on my page five days a week with you guys? Because I was totally called out on this. I was called out on this by somebody in my Mastermind, like how are you actually nurturing your audience on Facebook?

I was like “ummm… well, I’m doing this, I’m doing that.” She came back with “well, are they liking it? Is it helping them?” Well no they’re not and no it’s not.

So I was totally called out on this, on myself so there are almost fifteen thousand of you on my Facebook business page. I have over a hundred thousand of you in my audience itself and I have tens of thousands of you; I’m not going to say numbers in my email community.

And am I doing a good job of teaching you and helping you and giving you value and inspiring you and educating you? I wasn’t. I was called out on this. So that’s my goal, that is my total goal, to make sure that you are getting that value.

What Are You Doing As An Agent To Give Value?

So what are you doing as an agent to give value? You can totally take what I’m doing and duplicate it but for your market, for your people. Make it work for your life, your schedule, your business, your personality but again, just to let you know, the truth is that the conversion of the leads that you are getting, if you think that they are junk, if you think that they are not quality, that’s a lie you are telling yourself.

They are not junk. They are real. They are quality. You just have not done the job that you need to do to convert them, to bring them over into being ready, willing and able right now.

That’s the truth. Harsh truth but that’s the truth.

And it’s interesting. I’m at this conference. I am really impressed with the people at this conference doing something like this in Coeur D’Alene. It’s pretty much amazing. There’s only like five places that there’s a social media week going on and one is, like…they’re in another countries right now and this one happens to be in Coeur d’Alene. It’s pretty cool to have this here!

There have been some pretty cool people that have come in, a few people that I know, a few people that I’m newly exposed to, a few people that I’m like “what the heck are you teaching, and why?”

First of all, they don’t know the new rules from Facebook. There was one and I was like “ohhh and that just happened this week and you are not even teaching it. Oh not a good thing,” or people that don’t really understand.

There are a couple that are just teachers. They’re not do-ers. So they are teachers and they haven’t actually learned from experience and they aren’t actually teaching from a place of experience they’re teaching from a place of teaching.

I don’t know if that makes sense, there’s that whole mesh but I’m really impressed overall with the conference itself and I’m really excited that we have this here because Coeur d’Alene is pretty phenomenal. We have some some pretty phenomenal people here. It’s just a really kind of an awesome place.

So, I just keep seeing people asking for the perfect ad, all industries, people asking what to do. I have seen a couple of people mention the customer journey. I talk about that with you a lot. I have seen a couple of people mention the different stages. They didn’t say the word “customer journey” but it’s the same thing, different stages that people are in and when to run ads and how to bring them through the stages. That’s the customer journey.

There are all kinds of different elements going on here today and so it’s been kind of cool, yesterday, today and tomorrow to be here with this. But the big thing, this is why today was so unorthodox and why today I didn’t actually have a bullet point and why it’s not a fancy title and why I’m telling you the topic today and the fact that I basically told you the reason you’re not converting your leads is your fault and nobody else’s. This video is not going to be pushed out as well. It’s just not because a lot of you don’t want to hear this.

I get it. I don’t want to either and I have to speak it and I’ve been convicted of it.

So you are seeing a shift, you are seeing a shift from me in everything. If you are a member inside our membership you are seeing my next metamorphosis I guess, a shift inside with just like “let’s get through this, let’s get you trained, let’s get you moving.”

You are seeing a shift if you are not a member, in what I’m teaching you, what I’m giving you, how I’m approaching you, how I’m helping you because I’m trying to pull your actual questions and answer them for you.

If you are in my email community, you are seeing seeing a shift in that. It’s all about helping and letting you know where your next steps will be.

If you are in our Facebook for real estate agents group, you are seeing a shift in that. It’s all about helping you get to the next level but  helping you trust me and helping you get to know me and know what I have to say and what I teach and whether it holds true or not. Do I do what I say I am doing? Do I do what I am teaching you to do?

I realize that I’m on an international scale vs a local scale but the overlying strategy, the overarching strategy is absolutely the same.

You solve problems. You answer questions, etc. Then you get them to opt-in to your email community and with your email community you give a little bit more and they get to know you and the over time you let them know the behind the scenes.

Share Pieces Of  You With Your Audience

You have them follow you on Instagram so they can see your crazy Instastories and know that you are a real person that has adopted four kids, who has had thirteen cats over the last twenty years and six dogs over the last twenty years. We have have nineteen animals over the last twenty years but you get to know these things and no we don’t have then all right now. We tend to adopt them older and they die and we adopted all four of our boys and we traveled for a year and a half in our RV. What we do, how I work, all this kind of stuff.

I know when I watch people, I get new ideas from them. My best friend mentioned something to me. She goes “you know, you’re such an inspiration.” And I said “why?” And she was like “well honestly,” she and I have traveled a couple of times to a couple of events together and we shared a hotel room. I don’t share hotel rooms with anyone other than my husband but she’s my best friend, so absolutely, I will share a hotel room with her when we’re traveling but here’s the thing.

She said and it was such a little thing and I was like “I should probably do more behind the scenes!” She said “you know what’s really neat is when we go and we check into a hotel room, you like immediately unpack and move in.  You put your stuff in drawers, you move away and everything” and I’m like “yeah, I just do that because I want to be less chaos, I want to be comfortable in my space” and I only carry a carry-on even when I’m gone. Even when I did the ten days in three states last year or the year before. I still only took a carry-on, that’s all I take.

But she said “that inspired me” and I said “why did it inspire you?” And she said “ because it made me look at something that I’m doing or not doing and look at it and evaluate it and go ‘would doing that release stress in my life? Would it help me feel more settled? Would it this, would it that?’” And I’m like “oh okay” and she says “you need to share your behind the scenes more.” So I was like “okay, I’ll share my behind the scenes more.” So I will, absolutely because I realize and it’s such a big, fat “duh.”

I realize that I look at other people and I go “oh, do they do that? Oh that’s a really good idea” or “oh, they organize like that? That’s a really good idea or they prep themselves like that? Oh I like that.” And I’ve even gone “Oh, they do that? I wouldn’t do that or I’ve done that. I didn’t like that.” And I like watching that.

So are you sharing those pieces of you? Are you? Are you sharing that out with the world, with your audience specifically?

See that’s the thing. We can dread lead generation. We can dread cold calling if we have something that we are giving of value and we know that we are calling to give them value, that’s first and foremost in our mind.

Also, the other benefit is that we stay “top of mind.” I hate that phrase but we do. We stay in their thing and that we are going to get people who are going to say “yeah, I want to use your services or yes I want to do that.”

So if you feel like this is a tough one but it needs to be put out there share it. I challenge the few of you that are watching this who actually got to this point, share this video. And let’s see what happens with this. That’s all.

It might be your fault or your inaction that is not converting the leads but you can change it and I hope I give you some ideas on how to change that in today’s video.

Featured Download

The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.