Welcome to this Week of marketing! My name is Jason Pantana your host Today I am the moderator of this conversation and I'm glad you've chosen to watch this episode because it means you're of the mind to crush it this summer and to avoid that summer slump. Uh, if you're new to the Channel please make sure to smash that big red subscribe button and there's a bell right next to it if you tap that. it turns on notifications. So whenever we publish new videos and new conversations just like this, you get notified.

You're the first to know and therefore the first to act upon it. So without further Ado let's dive into this week's conversation. The coach I speak of is my friend my colleague. Mr David Caldwell David how are you man good man I'm super good.

thanks for having me today! Yeah! I'm I'm excited! So uh I was talking with David on the phone the other day and I was like we should be podcasting because the conversations we have together are I Believe Tactical, practical, and useful. So we're gonna try our best today to bring a phone conversation to life through this podcast. And it's all centered around this idea of how do you avoid the summer slump and what are the opportunities that a lot of agents and teams are overlooking. So I'll kick it off with the question David from your Vantage Point As a coach and also as an owner operator of your own brokerage? Uh, where are you directing your clients to focus their efforts and attention in terms of lead generating like now and across the summer? I Think All year my focus has been on how do we create productivity instead of purchase productivity? So many teams are getting their P L's just eaten by buying and buying.

And buying. And buying and buying and trying to buy those bottom of the funnel opportunities versus taking a step back being tactical and creating opportunities that exist in their database. Okay, so let's define database for everybody listening and watching. So for me: database, there's multiple components.

There's layers of it. There's past client SOI There's leads I've purchased. There's people that I've met. It's a culmination of everybody.

and I think we can segment it. but I know today we're going to get in and talk about a particular strategy Equity reviews which I think you can offer to anybody, but they are certainly best with people that we know. All right. So just to recap what you said, you believe there's a problem right now where folks are spending tons of money on the bottom of funnel lead.

Let's define that too. So we're talking about the customer: Journey A traditional sales funnel where there's a top, middle, bottom of funnel, upside down triangle and it signifies the level of intent that a customer is potentially ready to transact. And there's top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel, and bottom of funnel is the best to get. It's just harder to get and I often call those stages not Bottom top and middle.

I I Call them walking, jogging, running to personify and bring to life the mentality of that lead. whether it's a buyer or seller. Are they in a state of their walking? They're just, kind of. you know, open.

Like stretching out. They just woke up. They're exploring the possibilities of maybe transacting. Are they jogging? They're picking up pace? That's the middle of funnel so to speak.

They're researching fact-finding Should we do this or that, or they bought them a funnel they're in Market to make a decision. It doesn't mean they're realistic or anything like that. it just means that their mentality is I Gotta go go go go. And so if you're focused on only Bottom of Funnel leads where effectively, there's no Rapport there's There's no relationship intact.

It requires a lot of strength and skill to convert that lead. and it's fine. I'm certainly an advocate for Bottom of Funnel leads, but your point is, there's an over emphasis on Bottom of Funnel at the expense of what your database you say. So elaborate more on that for us.

Well, if we go back to what you're just talking about, people are running and then they're jogging. and then they're walking. and then they're running again because the news cycle and what's happening in the economy and in the markets right now is taking people forward and backwards. They come to us and they want to buy a house and They don't.

They want to sell a house and then they don't. Hey I want to go from a 600 000 house to a 750 000 house? until I Realize what my new payment's gonna be because I'm going to trade my three percent rate for a six and a half percent rate. and what I'm finding is people are putting. you know they're over marketing the market I'm over marketing the market in my own business.

but there's over marketing the market with a long-term emphasis and the remarkable Mark short emphasis. We were just talking about a particular lead source that I've been working that in 2021 was profitable in 2022 was not in 2023 has cost me a very large, uh, annual mortgage payment. basically. so for me, it's time to Pivot out of that particular lead source and focus on creating opportunities with the people that know, like and trust us or the people that have an awareness of us that already have in our database already on our email list.

Hey quick Sidebar If you're looking to double down your skills in terms of social media and video Marketing In terms of email marketing to work your content, build relationships if you're looking to make a stronger presence for yourself on Google and Market buyers sellers can look for the best Realtor and then read the reviews of your customers saying it's you. If you're looking to double down on those marketing channels, then make sure to check out our courses. marketing. Pro They talk about all three subjects: Email marketing, social media video local SEO through Google There's a link in the description with more details.

All right. So Database you know I Think about what Tom Ferry says Tom always says there's two groups of people. the people you know and they know you and the people you don't know and they don't know you and so the bigger group is the ones you don't know. But when you look at where business comes from, you can't dispute the National Association of Realtors They do a report every single year in terms of how do buyers and sellers identify the agent with whom they choose to work.

Whether it's the buy side or the list side, and it's roughly half the two-thirds of all deals. The consumer found their agent by way of repeat or referral. So if I'm looking at those two groups of people, it's the people that I know you and you know me. These are neighbors.

These are friends, family, past clients. They're locals. They're potentially leads with whom we've established relationship. But it's the difference of relational mindset versus a transactional mindset.

And so your focus with your clients has been. hey, we got to work harder on the database. Uh, in the Green Room you made a comment about, uh, what did you call it it was Tam focused Can you build on that idea? Yeah, And if we if we switch it, it's like um, high probability. lead generation is one of the things I've been really into.

so we talk about two-thirds of the transactions. that's where the Tam is the total addressable Market is in proximity and the people that we know we are selling advisory like if I'm on an airplane and someone asks what I do for a living I say I'm a professional advice giver because that kind of gives the whole bucket of being a professional real estate agent and being a coach. But most of us were just searching for new and new and new and new. and I'm trying to get all my clients to think of advisory.

kind of like farming with a long-term mindset. When we Farm we get come listens and we're always stoked and we're surprised we got them. Shouldn't be a surprise that we got them because if you're doing the activity over and over and over, that's the result you're going to get. If I go advise the people that I know on real estate and be the realtor of choice.

I'm gonna get transactions I'm going to get referrals I might not get one to a listing today from someone with a three percent interest rate. It doesn't mean I won't get it five years from now, but it's going to align me with that person and give me a higher probability of earning a referral. Why do you think you made the comment that a lot of Agents struggle Or they're not consistent when it comes to working their database? Why Yeah, there's this word in real estate that gets thrown around all the time Now to like not be salesy, right? You hear sales and every time I hear that I'm like, you know we are selling people our services. We're selling them on why we're the best and when we cringe at words like that or that phrase I Think it keeps people from just being proactive into this really passive but proactive mode like a lot of people are passively proactive instead of just being proactive and going and building relationships.

So as a coach, that's my major. Focus I mean Tom says it all the time right now, right? Conversations, appointments, conversations, appointments, conversations, appointments. I Can wait for my phone to ring or I can make someone's phone ring and I don't always have to look for the sale when I make the phone ring I Could just be building a relationship I could be working to earn a referral I can just be reminding them that I'm The Logical Realtor of choice when there's a need. Yeah, so let's just zoom out for a second.

So here's what we covered so far. There's a huge focus in our industry about bottom of funnel leads. There's no I've got no qualms with that except at the expense of working the Tam the total addressable market around you work in the relationships around you. A lot of Agents Avoid working those relationships despite knowing that they're the number one source of business buyers and sellers.

It's repeat referral business. It's the top seat no matter what. But despite that, perhaps due to the sense of I don't want to exploit a relationship I don't want to be overly salesy I would make the argument this is about keeping people informed I mean imagine for example this is a silly analogy and it probably breaks down. but I'm like imagine you've got a bunch of clean, warm towels at a pool and everybody's freezing and they're all wet and like I don't want to get I don't want to offer them a towel I mean what if that makes me look too salesy like they need it, they need it.

It's useful to them right there. And I Think about the the turbulent kind of marketplace we've been in for a while now with ups and downs and you talked about: the consumer is walking, jogging, running, jogging again, walking again, jogging again, running again and it's just kind of going back and forth with the marketplace adjusting. I Think the case to be made right now is we've got to keep the consumer informed about for instance, what's happening with values which which is which leads me into asking you to talk about your strategy of the annual Equity review and how are you and your coaching clients using that as a primary tool to build relationship with your database? Well, you know what's funny because I If you remember I'm sure I called you because I talked to people about this forever I'm like I'm getting clients to do in-person unsolicited CMAs but that's not sexy I'm like we have to title at something we have to like. name it something to get people to latch onto it and I remember we I'm pretty positive we have that call at some point, but it's really clear that when you're in relationships with people and when you're advising when you're making sure people know you're the realtor of choice, that when you give you get you know when you give value you can ask for a referral.

But all I'm trying to do as a coach is get all my clients to go into their database and have proactive conversations about the market. In a proactive conversation is me calling and asking if you would sit down and talk about the market. and if you don't have time that's fine. Let me email it to you and then let's have a quick conversation about what it means.

But we know it's going to be better if we're belly to belly. We know it's going to be better if we're sitting at the office or if we're sitting at your home and we're just going through some questions, uh, simple things that are happening in the marketplace. So you know that I'm you know the advisor I Think a lot about the financial advising industry because I have a financial advisor and I trade stocks on my own. But the staple of that industry is an annual review to go over your net worth and your goals.

and this is the exact same thing. Okay, so keep going. You've got me very peaked now with interest. Okay, so once a year, who should agents be and they can do this this summer right? They can really initiate this process over the summer.

So who are they offering an annual Equity review to? Let's start with that. Well, I'd say that the first thing you do is you have to make a list of who you'd want to give it to and it's easiest to give it to pass client and that's why, right? Those are almost certainly the first yeses you're going to get to, but we offer to everybody. I'm going to offer it to you as an open house. You know when I'm trying to create conversion, create an appointment.

That's something I might offer to one of the neighbors. It's something that I run as a YouTube ad I have a pending sale right now that is a YouTube ad offer of an equity review I offer to everybody. but if we're just going to make a list and start with who we should offer it to offer it based on proximity. First, the people that we know that two-thirds of Market that are likely to transact with you, but you could just go down the list in your database.

You can make this offer to everybody who owns a home. How would you encourage the agent watching who's maybe fearful of sounding salesy to make the offer for the annual Equity review? How should they approach maybe a past client or a sphere of influence contact in terms of offering it in a way that doesn't sound pushy or as if it has a certain outcome they want in mind? Yeah, so if if I were calling you and you're one of my past clients and after we got past the pleasantries and did like a you know a Ford type call right? like just so you could check in, how are you doing I'd be like you know Jason One of the things that I'm offering all my clients is an annual Equity review and what it is. It's just a 30 minute to an hour conversation about what's happening in the market. I Want to make sure you have Clarity on which direction the Market's going though.

If an event comes up and you wanted to sell that you would know that you'd know the direction or whatever you know the outcome is they're trying to talk about. It gives you the opportunity to ask me questions about what's going on. You know, really? it'd just be great to get together and talk. So it's really a service.

It truly is a value proposition because you know we talk about being salesy. but at the end of the day. I I Encourage agents to help ensure that your your book of business your network is informed about the marketplace. Otherwise they're out there making decisions or failing to make decisions because they're ill-informed and it's incumbent on you to be the agent for life for your past clients and sphere and keep them informed about the marketplace so that in the event they decide they do need to or want to sell, they can do so with the right information and then not unfortunately, make a decision that doesn't bode in their best interest, right? Yeah, and it's interesting because people get really hung up on like well, what what should I say or what should I send or what should I do And I've seen this done a tougher, a ton of different ways, right? Um, You Coach Ken Pozak.

He did it basically in a text message. Here's a value range and our Facebook groups I've seen people that have sent it as Flyers Nothing replaces face to face right. face to face is the best way to do it. but you can give a value range.

You can do a neighborhood CMA You can get really intricate with it. There isn't a wrong way to do it, we're just proactively having a conversation about the marketplace you know. referencing. Tom All these marketing tactics.

All these conversation tactics that he's talking about right now. they have one thing in common. You're proactively talking about home values. That's right.

And and that's the conversation to be had. Because that's the reason for the we're walking. We're jogging. We're running.

We're walking again. We're jogging again. It boils down to where value is going, where rates going. when's the right time to make a move or not what's going on And you know I would make the argument that that when people feel scared or they feel uncertain about where they're going, they're going to choose a limbic system response.

It's either going to be a fight, flight, or freeze kind of response. And there's a lot of folks out there who maybe you don't recognize that they feel stuck because they don't know, Maybe they're outgrowing their house, or they have some need that would put them in a position where selling would make sense, but they don't feel like it's a good time based upon what they hear in the news. and therefore I say it's incumbent on you to be the one to keep them informed about what's actually happening at a local level. And when you look at it like that, it's a complete service, not salesy.

No, When rates were low, we could ask someone you know what their dream house looked like and maybe we could help connect the dots that they could actually move up into that dream house. And right now it's nice just to go give our clients certainty that home values on average in the Portland metro area have not declined. You know over the last 12 months they're up almost three percent. In the last 26 of 30 years we've seen home value appreciation of course.

So being able to lend our clients certainty and really be some of the only agents in the marketplace that are having that conversation, it does make us stand out. and I see that through the ecosystem and it's a whole bunch of other coaches have tested this. The reality is, this is a strategy that works. You know I want to call back to Basics strategy but it's not a basic strategy, but it is a foundational strategy it is.

And I want to go deeper on your comment about working hard to get the the face-to-face appointment. Of course it's if it's Zoom if it's email, if it's texting, we'll take it. I agree with you that the appointment is where the real money is I Would argue that that creates some sort of a small initial commitment of loyalty where because you met with the person face to face, even if they're not going to sell for three more years or whatever it might be, they're going to remember that that you came over, that they met with you and they talked about it with you. and that's going to create some kind of a bond that is for the average person.

significant. it's going to mean something, right? Yeah, and let's be real. even if they say no, you made the offer and that's more than the 10 other age prospecting them actually attempted to do. Not to mention it's Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon You don't know who they're talking to about you, so they may be in a conversation later on tonight where somebody else talks about selling like, well, my agent David just took an hour out of his day to talk to me about my you should talk to David and that's the real I Call it the referral coefficient because simply by being in touch with your past clients and your sphere in your database, you don't know who they're talking to about you.

You don't know what conversations may or may not come up. and the only way to ensure that you are on the consideration set is to be is to have no laps is to be everywhere is to position yourself as their lifetime agent of choice. Does that make sense? And yeah, and in this marketplace where there are less transactions, we know there are less transactions. Everyone's a little bit more aggressive that belly to belly does create easier conversion.

One of the the pending sales I have right now the funnel would be an equity review YouTube ad he comes in we have a listing appointment. We're not the only person he meets with. he's dating multiple agents. They they're not committing to anybody.

It's in a state. they're shopping shopping every time I met with them this, you know. second time, third time, fourth time I Could have just had a phone call with them but I'd be like hey, let's go to your mom's house, let's check in on the progress. let's go back through.

The third time there was where that conversion actually happened. He's like I'm going to tell these other people I'm gonna list with you I was the only one that was showing up face to face after the initial consultation. That means something that's huge. All right, So high level.

We're seeing a heavy focus on bottom of funnel and I and I would also make the argument that because there are fewer transactions, it creates this sense of how do I describe it. Where's my next deal going to come from I need my next deal and it there can. It can feel as if that lead is your best chance of getting that next deal. and I'm not discouraging you from working leads Please I'm not discouraging anybody from working leads.

What I am saying is you can't Overlook Home base. The people around you, statistically speaking, are more likely to give you business than anything else through repeat and referral business. That's just the unassailable math. It's the people around you in proximity to you.

And I would I would look at this strategy of the annual Equity review as okay. what does it look like to be in relationship with my database? Well, it's certainly more than just annual Equity reviews. But starting this summer to say I'm going to commit to initiating annual Equity reviews with the people who are closest to me. That to me, seems like a no-brainer move.

Yeah, you know we over complicate this business. I Think a lot of people think to get a referral, they need to throw an event that's the equivalent of a wedding. and I've been really hot on. You know all I needed to do is call people twice a year.

Just like your dentist calls you twice a year to remind you to get your teeth cleaned, you don't go to a different dentist. I call you twice a year. One of those check-ins is an equity review, the other is just a generic check-in How you're doing a weekly email, a pop by every once in a while. Maybe an annual event.

You guys, that is 99 more than the average agent in the marketplace. Okay, what version is and if you layer in social media and video and they see you on Facebook and Instagram and elsewhere, that's just gravy. On top of it, all of building your brand and creating consideration. Uh, to me, this is a massive this is a massively important conversation.

David I Want to thank you for coming on for talking about the annual Equity Review: I I Think your term foundational is true because you know, putting together cops, being able to intelligently speak to the market, and understanding that that does require a level of expertise. but letting fear of coming across a salesy or pushy prevent you from doing that is not acceptable to me. What's more being so focused on where's my next deal gonna come from? And I'm not saying that's your mindset, anybody. but if that is, and failing to overlook the power of being in relationship to those in proximity to you I Hope that we've encourage you today that hey, this is a practical way to go about solving for that problem.

Any last comments: David Yeah, I mean just on that subject of just not always searching for the bottom of the funnel. We could be in this market for a couple years, and if we are, if we look at everything as farming, if we do the right activities, if we take care of our database, if we take care of our leads that are going from running to walking, this becomes a really beautiful nurture strategy. It's a strategy that wins and over time as you're planting these seeds, you will reap a harvest. Absolutely wise words.

I'd Love to hear your feedback in the comments. everyone, what's working for you, How are you nurturing and cultivating your database for repeat business and referrals? Let us know in the comments. and go check the comments to see what everybody else said. I'm sure it's going to be loaded with lots of goodies.

Thank you so much for tuning in and until next week. This is this week in Marketing.