5 Top Tips For Real Estate Agents To Increase Sales From $50k to $500k in 2023 – Or Even More!
Please note: This article will be a waste of your time if you’re happy earning an average income; however, if you’re looking to double, triple, or even quadruple your income, then reading this article will likely be the best investment you’ll ever make.
Have you ever considered that you are capable of increasing your real estate sales from $50,000 to $500,000 - or even more? Well, the good news is that you are capable, and all you need to do is apply a few simple strategies to your business.
Earning half-$1 million in sales commission is not unusual. I have witnessed so many real estate agents doing that over the last 20 years so let’s discuss what you need to do. Obviously, you need all the typical qualities and habits of other successful real estate agents like great people skills, a good work ethic, time management skills, and so on, but there are a few other things you can do to help up-scale your business and increase your income.
Just considering some of our tips below may make you feel uncomfortable, but in order to increase your income you’ll need to move outside your comfort zone, because that’s where real growth begins.
Here are my 5 top tips on how you can substantially increase your income –
1. Create a Team
By recruiting either new agents, or new partners with lower producing agents, you can quickly up-scale your business. The new additions to your team would be responsible for handling lower-value tasks associated with the sales process, such as attending viewings, HDB appointments, collecting commissions and so on. Their effort and experience would determine their commission.
In one of my previous blogs “10 Common Mistakes Made by Underperforming Real Estate Agents” I mentioned that, during my first 5 years of making robust sales, I burned out from working long hours simply because I didn’t hire an assistant.
One of the simplest ways of upscaling your business is to hire an assistant to handle the lower value and nitty-gritty tasks, freeing you up to spend more time doing the higher value tasks. It can be difficult to maintain an objective view of what high-value is when you’re bogged down with low value work.
Low Value Tasks: These might include –
o Answering phone calls from advertisements
o Arranging viewings for cold buyers
o Arranging handyman for rental units
o Posting advertisements to digital portals
o Scheduling the printing and distribution of flyers
o Summing up leads for daily follow-up
o Submitting transactions to agency
o Routine prospecting, such as telemarketing, mass emails, and messaging broadcast
o Buying gifts for clients housewarming
o Sending birthday and greeting cards
High-Value Tasks: These might include –
o Learning new prospecting methods
o Attending sales training
o Presentation for exclusive listings
o Producing listing videos
o Networking with high net worth clients
o Conducting investment seminars
o Negotiating and closing deals
Ernest Hemingway: “Never mistake motion for action”
2. Charge a Higher Commission
Have you considered why most real estate agents charge a normal ‘standard’ industry commission? Some agents believe they should. And if this is true, why do some agencies offer a small, fixed fee or a ridiculously low commission? And also some clients do bargain for a discount for the ‘standard’ industry commission which make it not standard anymore.
We all know that general medical practitioners and specialists charge different fees because they have different skills and experience. Lawyers have different fees and charge their clients accordingly; as do restaurants that sell the exact same dish.
The truth is that different professions with different experience and skill levels have different charge-out rates. Combined with good branding, some are charging much higher rates compared to the normal ‘standard’ rate.
The real estate business is no different. If you have a good track record of selling homes at higher prices or perhaps you use a more aggressive marketing plan to help clients sell their homes, then you too can charge a higher commission. Keep in mind that it’s easier to charge higher commissions if you get testimonials from clients that have used your services.
3. Focus More on High Value Deals
Your efficiency must be increased if you want to up-scale your business. We all have limited time and energy. Wasting valuable time and energy on time-consuming low value deals will keep us from achieving higher sales.
The basic principle of success is to focus. Focusing is the difference between agents who are successful and those who are not.
If you’re currently working on rental deals, switch to sales. If you’re currently in the HDB segment, change to the private sector. If you’re operating in suburban areas, change to urban areas. Focus on deals where you can earn more commission. For example, many top achievers have been focusing in new projects in the last 3 to 4 years as developers are paying high commissions to real estate agents.
You need to avoid this pitfall and stop doing low value deals. Sure, low value deals will keep you busy, but they’ll also prevent you from closing high commission sales. Spend your time on work that matters most to you.
4. Invest More in Prospecting
A good rule-of-thumb is that you should be spending between 20% and 30% of your total yearly revenue on business advertising campaigns. However, if you’re currently up-scaling your business, this figure should be higher.
Over the years, average yearly investments in my business have been approximately 30% of yearly revenue; however, the two periods - transiting to team building 2006-2007 and starting a new team in a new agency 2017-2019 - required a lot more investment.
Having more leads and converting them to sales is key to up-scaling your business. It will be difficult to achieve your ambitious growth target if you’re not investing enough in your business.
Many underperforming real estate agents are too conservative; they cut the wrong corners and it ends up costing them more in the long run. Consistent top achievers in the real estate industry are always prepared to spend in their leads generation. As a result, they can (and do) produce very high revenue year after year.
Important: Don’t forget to leverage on social media and develop lasting relationships with your clients. This is a great way to increase your leads and generate more revenue for your real estate business.
5. Improve Your Conversion Rate
Sales is a numbers game. Conversion is one of the key elements in up-scaling your business -you must always be looking for ways to increase conversions at every stage of your sales.
Three important points here –
a) People can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist.
b) People won’t buy from you if they don’t trust you.
c) You need to position yourself as an ‘authority’ and establish your business as an industry leader.
The 5 most common methods for attracting new prospects and establishing authority are -
Blogging: Publishing blog articles on your website will help your site be found by search engines. This way, when your prospective customers search for solutions, they can go straight to your website instead of your competitors. Your regular followers will trust you and treat you as an authority on your subject.
Social Media - Consumers today rely on their social media networks when looking for advice, referrals, and reviews. They look for tutorials on YouTube and expect a business to answer questions on Facebook. They want a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your business on Instagram. A social media presence builds trust and helps increase conversions.
Testimonials: Customer testimonials are incredibly effective. Consumers naturally trust each other more than they trust marketing collateral. Instead of only hearing from you, testimonials allow consumers to hear from other real customers on why the decision they're about to make is a good one. Don’t be shy to ask for testimonials from your clients. This will help you tremendously in increasing your sales conversions.
Follow Up: Not all sales presentations result in a ‘YES’ the first time and you should never take ‘No’ for an answer. It could be that the customer is just not ready to buy at that moment in time. Most salespeople give up after one follow-up - there really are a lot of lost opportunities for closed deals! Don’t hesitate to call your customers back to address their previous concerns, update market trends, and build better relationships.
Sort and categorise your leads to ensure you have the best chance of converting your leads. I used to categorise my leads into three files, namely Hot, Warm, Cold. I spent more time and effort on hot and warm leads while still continuing to connect with cold leads once a month.
Referrals: Ask your customers if they know of anyone who might benefit from your service and offer a discounted rate on theirs and the prospect’s next purchase if the referred prospect ultimately becomes your customer. Grab’s referral program is similar and it works extremely well.
In Conclusion
Up-scaling your business will require courage, a lot of planning, good and reliable partners, and the right systems. And, for the initial stage of growth you’ll need some additional funding.
Take a good, long look at your business and determine if you really are ready for growth. The only way you can possibly know how to up-scale your real estate business is if you take stock of exactly where your business is at right now.
If you need any advice, please do not hesitate to contact me. I’m always happy to share my experiences of up-scaling my own business.
** Please share this article if you find it useful or know someone who can benefit from it. Thank You.
To Your Success,
Gary Chua is the co-founder of Navis Living Group
—A 1300 agents-strong division with Huttons real estate agency, and the fastest growing group in this competitive industry. Gary is also a mentor to many real estate agents and team builders, for two decades and counting.
Before devoting his work full-time to grooming realtors, Gary was himself an distinguished real estate salesperson. He first stepped into the industry at age 30 in Year 2000 and having been Top 50 Achievers in his 5 years of sales, he understands the hurdles and challenges facing both new and experienced agents, and is thus equipped with a wealth of knowledge to aid and teach the property agents whom he takes under his wings.
In 2005, Gary realised that his true calling was to groom and coach the next generation of real estate agents. It was also the year that he consciously diverted almost all of his time and effort into recruitment activities, putting his personal sales aside and taking a hit in his bottom line.
Through sheer grit and determination, Gary's vision took hold as his team expanded, eventually growing to become the largest division in its agency, and also one of the largest in Singapore. It cultivated numerous top producers and achievers throughout the decade—some of whom have clocked in more than S$1,000,000 in commission in a single year, broken many sales records, won many local and international awards, and helped many real estate agents achieve outstanding results and realise their financial freedom.
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