Slump to System: Back-to-Basics Blueprint | LeadingLane Podcast | Ep 75

I know that you're a serious buyer or a serious seller, right? Like, I think that's awesome. Like you make a joke out of and position it differently. But I think a key thing here too is it's not difficult to go and find people and difficult to get these leads, really. It's the next step of what are you actually doing with it, what's the action afterwards? And people are so hyper focused on that instant gratification of let me get this, let me get this lead. I hurry up and I need a contract. But it's again, going back to that system. Like you're not putting them into anything. You're not having continuous conversations thereafter. But one of the things that changed how I look at working with people and having these conversations with people is, you know, when you, when you don't want to come off salesy, like you were saying earlier, they're going to ask you, but don't say I sell real estate. Tell them your passion of why you are in real estate. Right. Like, what I do is I'm very passionate to be able to help people find the dreams, you know, their, their, their next home or whatever it is, whatever your pitch line is.

Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast for Real Estate Pros by Real Estate Pros with your hosts, Ashley Frederick and Stephen Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic and, and raw perspective, you found it.

All right, welcome to the Leading Lean podcast. Today we're going to talk about sometimes there's struggles in sales and real estate, right? And you don't have a whole bunch in your pipeline. And to me, this is the emotional roller coaster of sales, of you ride the waves and then when you get down into the valleys right the way in the dip, and it sucks and it's hard to get yourself out of there and you go into this frantic panic mode of trying not to drown. And I had somebody reach out to me and said, what? What do I do? Do you have any suggestions? How do I get leads? How do I get, you know, how do I get deals? So let me flip that, Ashley, that were asked of you, and I'm floundering. I need, I need clients, I need deals, I need contracts. What in the hell do I do? What would you tell me to go do today that doesn't cost me any money?

Two things. One is you have to be seen, which I talk about all the time. Like, get your butt out of the office and get to where you're going to see people and start having those conversations. So I think that's what amazes me is the amount of people that like real estate and sales is a social world, right? And we joke about it because like you and I have talked like I'm, I'm tapped out of people today, like enough peopling for today, right? But that's where we get our people from is when you actually interact with humans. So it's super easy. I mean, it's as simple as a coffee shop. Like, sure, that might cost you $3, but work there for four hours, you know, I bet you five people walk through that. You know, maybe you have like a little, you know, something about your franchise on the back of your computer or something like that that other people might stop and ask you. So I think it's as simple as getting out, going to a networking event, right? And people always say like, I don't know what to talk about. And I think it's like super simple things. And this goes back to a ninja selling, but it's the forward questions, you know, it's family, occupation, recreation and dreams. So normally I think someone else asked me not too long ago, like they don't want it to sound like if someone new that they've met, they don't want to sound like salesy, like I'm in real estate, so how do I get to that conversation piece? And I also, like a lot of times if you don't know them, like one of your first questions to them should be what do you do for a living? And then they'll tell you. And then most people mirror you, so then they're going to ask you like, what do you do for a living? And that wasn't salesy you they just asked and you were able to tell them. So you have to start having conversations. And the second thing is your phone is your sphere, is your lifeline. So whoever you're in touch with, right, like it's simply asking for a referral. So you can go back to anybody that's you've closed with anybody you're currently working with. Like just checking in to see how things are going, you know, what are they, how do they say it? Referral is the best compliment that I can receive. Do you know anybody that's currently looking to buy or sell? And I think that when you're talking about this roller coaster of sales, when we're at this high part where say like we're in the middle of five transactions right now, I think that a lot of people are so focused on that and I understand that's a lot for people that that is new for that can be super overwhelming. But when you then forget about the basics because you're at the height of the moment, then that's kind of where you have this dropout. So it's really about creating systems too that, right. That help you stay in flow with your people, stay in touch with your people. So for me like the quickest things are getting out and being seen, having those conversations and touching base with your people that will know someone is looking to buy or sell.

I think people over complicate it. They think that there needs to be this huge elaborate event or you have to go spend, you know, thousands of dollars on leads and you know, you don't need to do that. It's so simple. It's a conversation, it's connections, right? It's all about the relationship. And I know I said it multiple times, but it's the, you know, know if you want more con contracts, you need more contacts. And the only difference between contracts and con tax is the R in spelling, right? And so the R is about relationships and it goes continues on from there. Relationships drive revenue. So it's making sure that you're constantly being in contact with people, building the relationships. And it's also I think your energy, like if you are in this constant, I'm going to call it chaos, the worry, commission, breath, whatever you want to call it. And you are in frantic mode. People can feel that your energy, your match, I mean they're going to match your energy as well. So I think it's. Let's take a deep breath. It's okay. And I think it's also like you said, it's recognizing that you're in this, in this suck right now. Right? You're stuck in the suck. And uh, it's time for the systems and really it's now start building those systems. Because if you start building it now and getting consistent and making it a priority versus continuously pushing it off, you should not be in this stuck ever again. You should be able to be very consistent and have your pipeline filled. Um, and you know, I think the other thing here too, when we talk about cells and drives me freaking nuts, we always say, how do I get more leads? How do I get more leads? Like break this down. What is a lead? And we even overcomplicate that. People overcomplicate what a lead is, you know, you know, they're coming from the dot coms or they're coming from an inquiry, they're coming from wherever. And I understand that. But if you get down to the nitty gritty. Leads are people, leads are humans. So let's put the human aspect back into what we are trying to do. And I, I think it's being able to position yourself in a totally different manner when you realize that it's not that freaking complicated and it's just stacking it together into your systems, talking to people and being seen.

Yeah. And I think, you know, if you're trying to think of like some other tangibles, like open houses. Right. So I know that there are some agents that maybe they don't have any listings and they're hungry or they're in there down. I can guarantee you if you asked a seasoned agent if they wanted, if they wanted, if you could do an open house for them, they would more than happily say yes. Right. I have a lot of our new, newer agents do open houses for me, I think that's a great opportunity for them one to practice those conversations. And we always talk about that open houses, which I think sellers have a really hard time understanding. But open houses aren't necessarily for that seller. It'll maybe bring some, you know, awareness to their listing. But nine times out of 10, the people that are coming through the open house are just starting looking or just, you know, curious. But that's a great opportunity to say, are you currently working with an agent? You know, I heard on a podcast, which I thought was a really good note, that I would encourage people when they're talking, it's even when you're talking to that online lead or whatnot, to structure. Like instead of are you working with an agent, structure that question a little bit differently as to has an agent taken the time to sit down with you and go through the home buying process that comes across so different because maybe they have talked to a real estate agent, but that agent hasn't told them anything about the lawsuits, pre showing agreements, buyer, agency, etc. So I think that, you know, if, if you're in an area where you can do open houses, that's a great opportunity to meet potential buyers or even I will tell you, sometimes there are future sellers that are out more or less canvasing what agent they want to work with in the future. And so if they can see you, see what you've done for your setup, that's a really, you know, simple thing. And the other thing is I know that people, everyone has this love hate relationship with social media, but it is what it is and it is the world that we live in, unfortunately. And I'm guilty of it. Like when even though I have a, a brand new client. I normally Facebook stock them first like this a legit person one, right? But it's so crazy to me, like when I've met people before and then they'll be like, oh, I saw on your Facebook page. And I'm like, like, I don't know them, right? But like, my, my profile is set to public because I know people are going to look. But if you never have any real estate news on your, on your feed, like, again, it doesn't even have to be about what you're doing. It can be if you shared someone else's listing or, um, you know, I think if Megan in our office did a cute little reel about putting like post stamps on her postcards and she's like, actually it had like 600 views or something, right? Like, then again, that's frame of reference for other people. Like, yep, Megan's in real estate, so we have to remember that we have to stay in front of people. And those are all things that don't cost money for you to do.

Absolutely. And so like, it's so funny when I have people, like, I don't like social and I'm one of those people too. But when they do videos, I don't like to do videos. I don't like to do videos either. But you know what, I look like this, I sound like this. This is the way I am. This is who I am. This is how people are going to see me. So you better get over it because that's who you are. But when people are like, well, you know, I didn't get a whole bunch of leads off of it or people off of this, you know, reel or whatever I shared. If 600 people saw your reel, when was the last time you were in a room with 600 people all at one time? Like, let's, let's just break that down. You're in front of 600 people, so you're getting seen, you're getting hurt. You know, people are knowing that what you are doing, it's being consistent with it. And I think, good, go ahead. No, you're good.

The other thing with that is that just because people aren't interacting doesn't mean they don't see it. So the amount of people that will say something to me like, oh, I saw you in Michigan last weekend, or oh, I saw you just close on that really nice property. Like, they never commented or anything, but it's. They thought, right? So they are still knowing what's going on even though they're not interacting.

Well, what was the ant that said, oh, thanks for stalking me. I know that you're a serious buyer or a serious seller, right? Like I think that's awesome. Like you make a joke out of it and position it differently. But I think a key thing here too is it's not difficult to go and find people and difficult to get these leads really. It's the next step of what are you actually doing, doing with it, what's the action afterwards? And people are so hyper focused on that instant gratification of let me get this, let me get this lead. I hurry up and I need a contract. But it's again going back to that system like you're not putting them into anything, you're not having continuous conversations thereafter. But one of the things that changed how I look at working with people and having these conversations with people is, is you know when you, when you don't want to come off salesy like you were saying earlier, they're going to ask you, but don't say I sell real estate. Tell them your passion of why you are in real estate. Right? Like what I do is I'm very passionate to be able to help people find the dreams, you know, their, their, their next home or whatever it is, whatever your pitch line is. And it's positioned differently that shows them you're, you're human and you're not just saying, hey, do you want to buy or sell real estate? And the other thing that I wrote down here is it's again how you respond. But when you're at the coffee shop or people are, you know, at the grocery store or wherever they're going to stop you, typically the number one question, if they know that you're in real estate, they ask you how's the market? Instead of just saying oh, it's great, or oh it's slow or whatever it is, ask them a follow up question. Well, that depends. Are you looking to buy? Absolutely. Are you looking to buy? You're looking to sell, are you looking for a rental or you want to invest? Because all four those are totally different, different markets. Which one? And then all of a sudden the.

Price points are different markets.

Absolutely freaking lutely. Like you are engaging them and you are making them stop and think. Because if they say oh no, I already have a house, I don't need to buy, all of a sudden you just categorize this person like you need to put that little mental note that Ashley already has a house. So that means it's either going to be that she's looking for an investment or she's eventually going to sell. So now I know when I go back to my CRM, I'm able to then say, I need to reposition this or where does Ashley live? Can I do some deep dives and provide her some information or send her a CMA or whatever else, like however you want to approach it next. But it's positioning the question differently to them, identifying who they are and what market they're after and then having continuous conversations consistently afterwards to follow up with them.

I think you make a good point about, you know, what you're doing with them after you get the contact information. So I think a lot of times people will just like take an incoming call, they'll write down the information and then they'll say, I'll let you know if anything happens to come up. And then that note goes somewhere where we have, you know, numerous CRM type systems where I've put people in to get alerts. And it might be like a year of me just sending them alerts and then all of a sudden the right house pops up and they call me and I did nothing. I just made my system work for itself. You know, the funny thing is, is I think maybe three years ago I had someone that was referred to me by a friend. They told me that they were looking for. They kind of told me what they were looking for. A little bit of a rural property. They weren't currently rural. I put them on alerts. I mean, I can see, like, I can see when they open emails. Right. So I've been getting these alerts that he's been looking at these houses for years, but never, never hear from him. Whatever. I just always assume he's going to reach out. Well, lo and behold, he reached out last week and he is moving out of the area. Right. But I was in his inbox like every week for the last three years with new listings and. Right. Like they didn't think that they were going to be relocating out of the area, but a job change happened and I was the first person that he thought of. So. Right. My intentions to put him in that program were for him to buy a new house and I'm gonna end up.

Selling their house, staying top of mind. You know, these are things that we hear all the time in real estate. You know, I had another client yesterday that I was on a call with and he was talking about how his agents want to do, you know, be a part of the chamber and they want to get involved. And he was asked by one of the Agents like, well, what do we talk about? Like, how do, what do I, what do I do when I'm there? And when we were on the call, he was like, I didn't know what to say because I, I don't know what, what do you do? You know, like. And he's like, it's so simple. But it just threw me off that somebody actually asked me that direct. So again, this conversation, you know, went, went through. And I think it's yes, showing up is one thing, being seen is one thing. This goes in line with exactly what we're talking about. And yeah, you can get their contact information and you can put them in your CRM system, but if they're going to a chamber event, let's call it business after hours or whatever it is for your chamber, and you met this person. They don't, you know, maybe it's their first time too and they don't know anybody else. Couldn't you put them in your CRM system, send them a text message a couple of days before the next chamber after hours, whatever event and saying, hey, Ashley, met you at the last one. Are you going to this one? Would love to connect with you there. Again, like that's not salesy, that's relationship. And you may like this person, they may not like doing networking just as much as you don't like talking to people and networking. And now you have a battle buddy to go into this chamber event and they are now you're, you know, giving back to your community as well. And so think about if you do those types of systems, not, not so hyper focused on just alerts or just newsletters or you know, the just listed. How do you make it impactful for that person to be seen, to be heard and to be felt valued by you? And you know that ultimately they're going to be your connector. And I think that's maybe what it should be is that instead of looking at people as leads, can we start looking at people as there are connectors to our next deal versus this deal?

Well, I think too, you know, like I really like to do things to do in Marshfield. So like that's part of my monthly newsletter because one of biggest pet peeves is when someone says there's nothing to do in Marshfield, it's like nails on a chalkboard because there is plenty to do. So right, I send them a newsletter. There's a middle, like maybe a couple of bits and pieces about real estate, but I'm trying to gain their value in that. Like there are things to do here. There are places that my family can spend on the weekends or those types of things. So it's adding in that resource, if you will, and if going back to ninja selling. But there's a story in there where he talks about, like, he met someone at a networking event and they had already just. They just purchased a house and it was great, you know, all of that. He met him anyway, put him in his CRM and then would do like, hey, I thought you. I mean, this states the story a little bit. But hey, I knew you were into town. I thought I had send you a map. Like sent him a hard copy map. And then it was like two weeks later and he was like, hey, I didn't know if you knew about this, you know, new event that's coming up in town. So it was like this process of how he was just giving him information about town and then they became like fast friends. And then I think it was like, fast forward five years. He sold his house when he relocated, right? And it's just because he. And I think he said he had like, never heard from his realtor after that and couldn't remember their name. And I'll tell you that, right? Not every transaction you have is it going to be the warm fuzzy, like, we're going to be friends forever. But I think if you make that genuine connection with people and care about them and like, so this weekend is Dairy Fest. So it's June Dairy Days. So we have this big festival and parade and wait till you see our outfits. It's going to be a good time. So someone just moved to town. They just closed on their house this week. And I think we're at the final walk through. And I guess that's always one goal for me is that when people are moving to town, I really want to get them acclimated to town. So I don't want them to be like, they move here and then they're a homebody because they don't know what to do or where to go or anything like that. So my goal is really to get them entrenched in our community so that they, you know, become a kind of part of the community and don't leave. So then I said to them about Dairy Fest and he's like, what's Dairy Fest? And then I told him all about it and he's like, oh my gosh, we're going to go. Well, so today I had Caitlin stop at his house and put the pamphlet in his mailbox of all the activities this weekend. Right? So like, that's just, like, little things you can do to make sure. Because then I'm going to run into them this weekend, and then they're going to be like, thanks for having us. And then they're going to have an opportunity to meet new people or see other people that they work with. So it's just trying to find ways that I think you can make yourself just memorable to them. Or if you were new in town, like, what would you want someone to do for you? Like, would you want someone to reach out and be like, hey, did you know? There's this or there's that, but just staying in touch with people. But I mean, at the end of the day, it's about having conversations. You just have to have conversations and you have to stay in touch with your past people. I mean, I think I talk about 95 of my business comes from my sphere. And so that's also, you know, we talk about social media, but I think maybe another good term of that is social proof. Right. So it's social media, but it's social proof that, like, people are seeing what you're doing that they're seeing. So same thing. It's. It's also for my other clientele to. Sometimes people will randomly be like, are you still in real estate? And I'll be like, I have you watched anything or seen anything? But Right. Sometimes when you're doing other things, like speaking or whatnot, people tend to think like, oh, you gave up real estate? And I was like, no. Like, not at all. So you have to just stay engaged so people remember that you're their contact and you're the one that wants to help them. But it's giving those pieces of information of, like, who's a good painter, who's a good plumber. I love when people call me, like, two years later and they're like, hey, Ashley, our water heater went out. Who should we call?

Right. I mean, you're literally. This is cliche, but as you were talking, like, it's totally fitting. You're literally the hub for your city.

True.

Yeah. Like next home, hub city. Yeah. But you're literally the hub of every connection.

Make a little tagline off of that.

There you go. And you're the person like. And I've always heard, you know, be the mayor of your community, and that's exactly what you're doing. People want the connection. We all want a connection. And to meet people and to do these the right people. We don't need a slew of everybody. Right. But the right People that we like to be around. And if you can be literally that hub and you're the connector for them as well, like if you're, I truly believe, not being woo woo by any means, if you want it, put it into the universe because it's going to come back. So step up. And if you're wanting clients, then what do, how do you connect with them? Put it out there and they're going to connect back with you. It's very, very, very simple. We just over complicate it. We get in our own way. We try to think of something so elaborate and it doesn't need to be elaborate whatsoever.

No, I mean I always tell people a lot of times it's going back.

To the basics 100%. But basics are boring and get the job done though. And let's be honest, it's the boring things that actually turn around and get you the results.

Well, and I think it goes back to what you always say. It's like you're a product of what you did 90 days ago, right. So we're talking about the flows, ups and flows. Like even up here you cannot forget about the back to basics because that's how you get to this lawless because you kind of got wrapped up and so it goes back to time blocking and you have to do, you know, or whatever works for you, but they have to be non negotiable times. Right. Like it's a moment where you put your phone on silent, you have a do not disturb or you go to the cop. Like whatever you have to be willing to put, even if it's an hour, like you have to put that time invested into yourself and your business to truly see outcomes.

And like this isn't Tinder, right? Like this isn't swipe right, swipe left. Like, like this is not online dating. This is not trying the instant gratification. And I think that despite how the rest of the world is right now, like we have to be the part of the change and not, I mean not HR appropriate but whatever. We're not looking for a one night stand. You're looking here, you're looking for a marriage. So let's start finding the systems to, to be able to put in here and stop trying to swipe so quickly and find the quick one night stand. Horrible analogy, but yeah. All right, cool. Well hopefully you got something out of what to start doing or maybe doing a little bit differently or implementing. And I think we can all also understand and learn that systems evolve with you and it is making sure that you change how you are doing things and change how your systems are doing.

So.

So even if you have a strong pipeline working through right now, it, you know, pick up different things on how maybe you can communicate a little bit differently or add on top of, to make life just a little bit easier for you. And if you're in the struggle, systems, processes, procedures.

We're talking about making systems easier. So James shared a post about. Is it called, like, fixer? Oh, it's the AI, yeah. So I did it. It's very strange. So it more or less drafts a response to an email for you. And so, like, I can't have. You'll appreciate it. I mean, like, I keep my inbox at zero now I can't. There's 12 right now, so not bad. But now it creates a draft right away. So that actually drives me more insane than having a, like, inbox. So I can see all these drafts and I'm like, I can't have that many drafts. So then I, like open them and most of them sound pretty. Pretty on point or you can just edit it a little bit. So I think it helped with a list. Like somebody called or a prior client wanted me to come look at their house and like, it. I had already responded. It looked at my calendar and was like, I have an opening at 2. And I was like, well, I mean, I guess I didn't want to do that at two, but that's what it. It's already there. I'll just press send. And like, I went there and we're listing this house in like three weeks. Right. Um, but it's just trying to find that time. So it's like working smarter, not harder. Right? So, yeah, I mean, most of it was. Some of it was like, I'm not gonna open myself up that many. Like, I gave like five times thoughts and I was like, no, thank you. But it's learned, like some of my other responses, which is really interesting. It's only been a week, so shout out to James for posting that, but give it a try. It's pretty interesting.

I love it. And I tell my clients all the time, like, figure out something to trick your brain and that's tricking your brain. Right. If you're struggling a lot of times.

Like, I'll see an email and I'm like, I'll come back to it and then I forget or I'll already like it already drafted my response. Why don't I just press sent?

Yeah, I think that's beautiful. I. I think that I will go download it right now because you know I love so perfect. Well, thanks for tuning in to the Lady Lane podcast as always. Please reach out if you have any questions. If you would like to be a guest on our podcast, we would love to be able to have you as well, and we look forward to having you next time.

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