It’s very difficult to innovate in real estate, so the real innovation is to your fingerprint and your voice to the business. In one of the most content-packed interviews, real estate trainer and consultant Chris Angell shares his strategies for farming, building a tribe around common interests, finding your format and adding value to your farm so you OWN your farm.
Takeaways + Tactics
1. Don’t focus on the technology - focus on yourself first
2. There are only three ways to capture content - writing, audio and video
3. Stop talking about real estate - nobody cares
Because of the information age, our industry has shifted from a sales industry to a consulting industry. -Chris Angell
Resources & Links:
25 Nugget of Essential Social Media Wisdom
High-Tech / High-Touch Farming - Our complete farming video training course, 10 modules covering all aspects of picking your farm, cold and warm prospecting, with 2 bonus videos on little-known ways to use Zillow and working events in your farm.
6 Steps to Picking The Best Farm- Free resources including a Farm Decision Matrix, B2B Visibility Campaign and a 30 Day Launch Plan
Chris started by sharing one of the most important insights we’ve ever heard - That the information age has transformed real estate from a sales industry to a consulting industry. Unfortunately, almost all the real estate training out there is sales-focused: scripts, closing techniques, persuasion, overcoming objections, etc. Nobody is training agents on how to behave and attract people like a consultant.
Then Chris shared the only question you’ll ever need as a consultant - “What’s important to you about that?” and explained why you must have lead gen systems turned on so you can be a consultant instead of a salesman. “Your consistency is what makes something work,” Chris explained. “What’s important to keeping lead gen turned on is having a format that you can sustain.”
So how do you decide how to market yourself, especially to a farm? Instead of copying, look first at who you are, not the technology. Are you task-oriented or people-oriented, do you need immediate results, or do you like endless tweaking of mechanics to get a result, etc. Then you can look at the format to capture the best way you produce content, whether it’s writing, audio or video.
Next, look at the content you put out into the world. Is it valuable? Would people miss it if you stopped putting it out there? Is it so good people would be willing to pay for it?
“Stop talking about real estate - nobody cares - you must speak to people in terms of a common interest that has nothing to do with real estate.” Chris added, “We have to get upstream from the transaction and start building real relationships with real people about things we both like.”
Finally, Chris outlined some of his strategies for owning the visibility in your farm and creating the story in those homeowner’s minds that you’re the hardest working agent in their area. Summing up his approach, Chris explained, “A lot of people get into real estate to help people, and they’re made to feel stupid - we are not speaking to people based on how they’re wired.”
There were too many great quotes from this interview to pull them all out, so go back and listen to this interview over and over. Chris’ approach can completely revolutionize how you think of farming (and marketing in general), allowing you to build your business based on how you’re wired. Stop listening to traditional real estate coaching. Find your voice, find your format and start building your tribe!
Show Highlights
3:00 Chris’ background in real estate and transition out of managing 200+ agents to consulting
6:25 Q&A: How to respond to an objection for a Zillow Make Me Move seller who thinks they’ll make more by waiting till next year
10:40 How the information age has changed the industry from sales to consulting, and why consulting is focused on questions - not persuading clients to buy or sell
13:05 Why overcoming objections creates resistance - it’s better to open up clients with great questions and honest conversation
15:00 It’s hard to be a consultant when you’re hungry - put lead gen systems in place so your basic needs are met - how this frees you to have higher level conversations with clients
16:32 The only question you ever need as a consultant
19:30 Why most people fail by copying what works for others - why real estate isn’t as hard as we make it
22:55 Why your farming and marketing must start with who you are - rather than starting outside of yourself
24:31 You don’t have to create custom content for every platform - find your platform, then just repurpose the content after you’ve created it
26:10 “Your consistency is what makes something work. What’s important to keeping lead gen turned on is having a format that you can sustain.”
27:40 First, think about who you are, not the technology. 31:30 Three ways to capture content - writing, audio or video - and how to reach people by building a tribe around an idea completely outside of real estate
33:30 Stop talking about real estate and get upstream from the transaction
34:38 Your database is too small - why you need to build a larger tribe around your common interest to sustain your business - why you can’t build engagement around real estate - The Engagement Algorhythm (E= L.I.S.T)
38:55 Agents are looking for gimmicky and cheesy ways to let people know we’re in real estate because we haven’t been taught a better way to connect with people
41:20 Why your marketing efforts must add value to the space - the litmus test for your marketing and farming materials
50:33 How to OWN the visibility in your geo-farm - why you should hold 3 one-hour Open Houses during the week rather than just one on the weekend - the difference between layered farming vs linear farming
52:45 Rules of thumb for number of homes and turnover rates in your geo-farm
57:02 Traditional real estate caoching is advice from high D’s that only works for other high D’s - we are not speaking to people based on how they’re wired
58:11 It’s very difficult to innovate around real estate - the real opportunity for innovation is in how you bring your fingerprint and your voice to the business
Guest Bio
Chris Angell is a real estate consultant and trainer based in Spokane, WA. Chris sold real estate himself for 6 years, ran a KW office for over 5 years, overseeing 200+ agents before founding his consulting firm. Chris also has a farming training product called Groundswell, you can learn more and get his 6 Steps to Picking the Right Farm at Farmchecklist.