6 Things You MUST Do To Survive This Market
Whether or not you realize it, as a licensed real estate agent, YOU are an entrepreneur. An excellent resource for entrepreneurs is Inc. Magazine. My latest copy just arrived in my mailbox.
The cover article is an interview of Jim Collins – author of Good To Great and Built To Last. What’s fascinating is that he is passionate about entrepreneurs and views those two books as being about entrepreneurship – even though the subject matter is huge, publicly traded companies.
The interview outlines some key evolutions through which entrepreneurship has progressed since 1979 – the year of Inc. Magazine’s first issue:
Entrepreneurship can learned:
Once perceived as a trait that one is born with, now it is understood that entrepreneurs can be taught, groomed and cultivated. Courses in business schools as well as an abundance of other resources – books, magazines, videos, mentor programs – attest to the truth that entrepreneurs are made, not born.
Entrepreneurship isn’t just for mavericks anymore:
The attitude in 1979 was that entrepreneurship was for mavericks. Entrepreneurs were crazy, creative people that weren’t quite normal. Today, not only are entrepreneurs socially acceptable, they are practically viewed as heroic!
Building a business used to be about building a better mousetrap:
Nowadays, entrepreneurship is about developing a better process. There are lots of better mousetraps and companies with a great process no longer focus on just one mousetrap – but keep adding more and more mousetraps as they come along. It is much more important today to create a better process that will produce MANY mousetraps over time.
Web 2.0 has created the phenomena of companies becoming movements:
According to Jim Collins, there are 3 stages to every business:
1. Have a great idea.
2. Build a business to implement that idea.
3. Build a great company that can implement MANY great ideas.
However, some companies become something even bigger than themselves – they become a movement.
We all know it when we see it – customers that are raving product fans and tell all their friends about it. That is when a company becomes a movement.
So how do you go about creating “raving fans” for YOUR business?
1. Your business is much bigger than you – and it is more than about “just making money”. You must think from your customer’s viewpoint – how can you best serve them? What do they need? How can you be of help?
2. Determine who benefits most from what you are offering and identify a niche.
3. You want to talk to your ideal prospect in THEIR language by creating an organic Unique Selling Proposition from the bottom up.
4. Provide your ideal prospect with the valuable information they are looking for. This can be done quickly and for free if you utilize social media.
5. Using social media tools such as Facebook or perhaps a blog, create a community. Create “excuses” for the members of your community to contact you directly.
6. Once they “raise their hand” by communicating with you, move them to your private database. Continue strengthening your relationship with them by communicating to them as an “Insider”. Once your ideal prospect feels confident that you or the service you provide are “for real”, they will begin “spreading the word” for you and become your sales force!
Real estate has always been about the relationships. With focus and intention, today’s technological tools allows for faster community building. Be true to your vision to serve to the best of your professional ability; communicate that vision often. As sure as day follows night, you will find yourself at the center of a robust, business generating community of raving fans.
For 3 quick tips on how to make YOUR business go viral, go to www.NewMarketLeaders.com and watch a free video now.
