Are you experiencing “drought” in your sales?

In terms of a "selling career" drought means no sales which is equivalent to no commissions or you get to close deals but not enough to sustain your real estate selling career.

All of us including me at some point in time have experience “sales drought” or even “no sales” at all. I’m very sure many real estate agents at this moment especially the new ones are experiencing “sales drought” not only in some point in time but most of the time.

Photo courtesy of pinksherbet with creative commons

3 weeks ago I called up a real estate agent friend of mine and he is an In-house agent in one of the condominiums along Taft Avenue, Manila. Last time we saw each other was October 2012 when we pick up our commissions with a developer base in Quezon City. The client is mine and I just shared my commission with him so we split up the commission 50-50.

Of course the usual greetings and I asked him how’s going with his sales. He told me not doing well. I just told him just to keep it up but I told him also to make new marketing strategies. He needs to test and re-test his marketing strategy so he will know which is working or not.

Another friend also a real estate agent who stays in Las Pinas City and all her listings are from that place also called me up to say “hi” and ask me how’s my sales. So I asked her first the same question and she told me sales not doing well also.

The problem with her she does not have a website and she just rely on free ads online, manning and giving hand-outs (leafleting) and like what I have said in my previous articles How to grow your money and listings you should include in your website and paid online ads; marketing strategy and the type of listings you sell is very crucial to your success. What my friends are doing are good but not enough to give a steady sale.

I answered them both that as of May 2013 I only have 1 sale (I already got the commission) because it’s a re-sale. I’m also experiencing a “sales drought” as far as my real estate selling is concerned BUT the BIG difference between me and my 2 real estate friends is I have other streams of income that they don’t have.

I just don’t rely on my real estate selling to earn, because I have other streams of income and I have projected this way way back 5 years ago before I started in the real estate industry that not all the time I can close a deal so I need to create a marketing strategy that will augment my real estate selling.

These are the problems most real estates agents encounter and while you are reading this blog maybe you are encountering a “sales drought” as well. They don’t want to sell other products (I respect that) other than real estate properties. I mentioned in my other article that I knew real estate agents who are even more experienced than me in terms of the number of years they are in the business who went back to employment; many went to BPOs because they cannot sustain their sales.

If you don’t want to sell other products other than real estate properties these are my suggestions:

If you rely ONLY on advertising make sure it’s a “paid advertising” because free advertising won’t get you anywhere. Pay for it and be patient. Normally it will take you 2 – 3 months average to get a result. I have talked with many real estate agents who told me they tried “paid advertising” for a month and when nothing happened they stop and just rely on free ads. Who do you think will get more sales; the agent who does “paid advertising” online on a regular basis or the agent who just post free ads and hoping against hope someone will inquire? Well, you be the judge.

If you rely on a website only, MAKE SURE people are seeing your website or else no one will inquire. Your task now as a real estate agent is to see to it that traffic (visitors) are flowing into your website because this is where it all starts. Again be patient, having a good business is not a "quick rich scheme". Test and re-test your marketing strategy whether it's paid ads or website.

Use both strategy and see where you are getting your sales