Successful lead generation is not about making hundreds of calls and paying through the nose to find potential clients. Here’s a method for building a system to attract desirable clients.

Following conventional wisdom on lead generation is a shortcut to a quick exit from the business.

I suppose you could call me a contrarian, or maybe just someone who challenges conventional wisdom. I’ve actually done it all my life. My parents told me I had to “work hard” to be successful and I thought: “Nah … why not work smart instead?” 

Everyone told me I was making a terrible decision when I left the practice of law to be a real estate agent, but most of my former attorney buddies are miserable, and I’m having a blast (don’t tell them).

Which leads me to real estate and everyone’s favorite topic: lead generation.

I’m here to tell you that 99 percent of what you’ve been taught about real estate lead generation is flawed!

And if you follow the “conventional wisdom” that’s being taught out there, you’ll go broke and take a shortcut to a quick exit from the real estate business.  

I’ve lost count of how many agents “start” using one of the “old-school” prospecting methods and then quickly give up, move on to the next one, and so on. 

You know what I’m talking about, just call expired listings for a week. It doesn’t work. Then call FSBOs for a week. It doesn’t work. Then door-knock for a week. It doesn’t work!

And it’s usually because they’re doing everything backward.

All of the self-proclaimed gurus and coaches in real estate might still be teaching the same, regurgitated strategies that have been around for over 30 years, but good luck with those strategies today!

Think about it. If all of this “old-school” stuff really worked, why would so many agents be getting out of the business? If you weren’t already aware, the attrition rate in real estate is terrible, and most agents don’t make it.

Make it so that clients come to you, and not the other way around

Successful lead generation is not about having to continue to make hundreds of calls a day or knock on doors for the rest of your life. It also isn’t about spending thousands of dollars for a year or more just to see if you can get some traction in a neighborhood.

Instead, I believe in client attraction, which is all about identifying your ideal clients and then creating a system that brings them to you on a daily basis, so you don’t have to go out and chase them.

This type of approach has some really awesome unintended consequences.

First, you go from chasing clients and working with people that you really don’t want to work with, to working only with your ideal clients and rejecting everyone else.

Second, because you’re working only with your ideal clients, the referrals you get from those clients are also more likely to be your ideal clients, so you get more of what you want and less of what you don’t.

Think about your life, what makes you happy and client fit

As an example, when I first started selling real estate, I realized that I wanted to make my business fun by combining one of my passions with real estate. The passion I chose? Golf.

Here’s what I knew — I enjoyed playing golf, it was easy to talk about real estate while on the golf course, and most of the people I played with either owned property, wanted to buy or sell property or knew someone who would be a great referral for me.

As a result, the system I created to attract these ideal clients into my business was to set up regular golf games where I invited people to play with me. These people became clients and also referred other ideal clients to me.

There were also some unintended benefits of my system. Many of the people I played golf with ended up doing business together or building relationships outside of our golf game, and they were grateful to me for making the introduction, which usually resulted in more referrals.

All of that led to my ideal clients being attracted into my business, and referring more ideal clients my way. In a very short period of time, playing golf became the foundation of a great business that was predictable, profitable and fun.

For you, first think about who you want to work with in real estate. If you’ve already done transactions, just think about your best deals and ask yourself what stood out? Who were your favorite clients? What types of transactions did you enjoy the most?

Then think about how you can consistently attract them into your business, and create a system around it. The system could be online or offline (or both), but the idea is that the system continues to attract your ideal clients into your business.

Then, execute! Plans are great, but the money is in the execution! 

Work your plan daily, have fun, and make sure to add accountability into your life and business to make sure you continue to do what you’re supposed to do every day, even when you don’t feel like it.

Create a system of client attraction that gets you more new clients today — not tomorrow, next month or next year.

Danny Batsalkin is the Founder of the DSCVR Real Estate Network, the only complete real estate business solution for agents. Connect with Danny on Facebook and Instagram.

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