..and you know that there will be plenty of agents out there who will follow that advice.
As many of you know, Seth Godin was the Keynote Speaker for the 2008 Keller Williams Convention (or as we Keller-ites like to call it: Family Reunion). This was the same message that he gave us … right up front … Quit. This is what he calls Plan A.
Seth just posted about this event, in fact… Advice for Real Estate Agents (quit now!)
As those words echoed throughout the room of over 8,400 agents, my smile broadened as my eyes scanned the semi-dark room in search of reactions. Boy! Did I ever see reactions! Some agents had the look of “Huh? What did he just say? I don’t get it. [scratching head]. Some agents looked appalled that someone at a real estate conference would offer such advice, and I knew that they were about to tune out the rest of what Seth had to say. Some agents had the relieved look on their face – relieved that someone had just given them permission to quit. (Then there were a few out there, smiling, like me. Why? Because they knew.)
It was in that very moment, that Seth’s point was made.
We are in a market where, according to Seth “the agents who built their business on low interest rates, easy money and speculation (the order takers) have left the building.”
So, now what?
The real estate agents who have not heeded his initial advice, what he calls Plan A, can now take part in Plan B, without the competition of from the “order takers” (the agents who have just followed (or plan to follow) Plan A) of the recent market. Although competition is dwindling, the now smaller group of Plan B Agents has a hefty hill to climb, though.
(I shall call Plan B Agents “we” now, as I am certain that if you are reading this right now you are not of the Plan A variety … In fact, you may even be a Renegade Realtor®, in which case I love you all the more…)
Anyway, we now have the opportunity to transform what it means to be a Real Estate Agent. (Or, is it a duty?)
We now have the opportunities to become REAL EXPERTS – Superstars – at what we do. He spoke to us about how there is a “Superstar Shortage” in almost ALL businesses, real estate included. Right now, no one really stands out and actually IS the BEST. So many real estate agents claim to be the best, but really just blend together in the so-called-top-producing-agent-look-at-my-Glamour-Shot-13-years-ago- picture-on-my-business-card/bus-bench/glossy-magazine-throw-a-sign-in-your-yard- and-forget-about-you-but-do-you-like-my-turquoise-polyester-suit-and-fluffy-hair kind of way.These are all the agents that need to (and probably will) follow Plan A. Leaving a wide-open playing field for all of us Plan B agents.
Seth goes onto say, in his recent post, that we can now “become the source of information, the watercooler, the person to turn to” by honing our focus to hyper-local permission-based marketing. Gone are the days of dominating an entire city with your face on a bus bench.
One way to become a “watercooler agent” a successful Plan B agent, is to become the Mayor of Your Zip Code … a wonderful way to start becoming hyper-local. From there, why not build a hyper-local community blog? I started one for the Greenhaven neighborhood of Colorado Springs over a year ago and I have become more than the “mayor” … I have risen to dictator, er, I mean near-president status. I am the go-to for ALL things even remotely related to real estate in Greenhaven. And it only takes a few hours a month (yes, a month) to keep up with it.
Seth goes into other great ideas on how to be a great hyper-local, permission-based Plan B Agent, and his post is a Must Read.
So I ask you: Are you a Plan B Agent?
If so…
- Are you SURE you have what it takes to seize this awesome opportunity to be a SUPERSTAR in today’s real estate market?
- How are you focusing your efforts on becoming Hyper-Local?
- What are you doing RIGHT NOW to dominate your hyper-local market?
- Is this all in your business plan?
- Are you REALLY in it for the long haul?
If you answered “no” or “nothing” or “not sure” to ANY of those questions, I am afraid you ARE a Plan A agent, which is just fine. There are probably bigger and better things for you out there. And not everyone can be a SUPERSTAR Real Estate Agent.
If you answered “yes” … or even better, “YES!!!” then we are all in it together. With the competition going down, we can really help each other attain Superstar status. The community of Plan B Agents (us) can not only continue doing what we have been doing, here in the blogosphere, but now we can, and NEED TO, skyrocket all these things that we are reading about into each other’s lives and businesses. We are in this together and can DO this together.
We can ALL be Superstars.
(Photos taken from Seth Godin’s presentation at our KW Convention.)
