#29 RE Prospecting - The Relationship Business

Hi ,

I used to end my days feeling like I was spinning. Busy all the time, exhausted by 7pm, but when my wife asked what I actually accomplished, I couldn't give her a straight answer. 

That's when I started keeping a simple journal. Not some fancy productivity system, just five minutes at the end of each day asking myself a few questions: Who did I actually connect with today? What did I do that moved the business forward? What worked, what didn't, and what would I do differently? 

Not because the questions were magic, but because they forced me to be honest. I realized I was confusing activity with progress. I was checking boxes instead of building relationships. Before you close your laptop tonight, write down one real conversation you had and one thing you're proud of, even if it's small. Especially if it's small. That's where growth lives.

Here’s a story and a lesson I was going over with one of our Y Agents this past week. I remember sitting in a seller's living room while they told me their home was worth $75,000 more than anything that had sold in their neighborhood in the last year. 

They had their reasons (like all sellers do LOL), the upgrades, the memories, the Zillow estimate. I could have nodded along and taken the listing. A lot of agents would. But I pulled up my laptop and we looked at what actually sold together. Not what was listed, what sold. When they saw the house down the street with the new kitchen went for $925K and theirs still had the original 1990s oak cabinets, the conversation shifted. It wasn't me versus them anymore. It was us looking at evidence together. The goal isn't to win the pricing argument. 

The goal is to be the agent who told them the truth, served them well, and still helped them get where they needed to go. Next time you're in that conversation, try this: Ask them, "If you were buying today, would you pay this price for this house when you could get that house down the street for the same money?" Make them the buyer for five minutes. It changes everything.

Let’s pivot quickly into online leads because the common saying in our industry is that most leads aren't ghosts. They're just not ready yet. That person who filled out a form at 11pm in their pajamas to see more photos of a listing, they're not a buyer ready to talk. They're browsing. And when we call them twice and they don't answer, we label them as a ghost and move on. But the big win comes from a different mindset. The agents who win are the ones still in the conversation when "not ready" becomes "now." 

The lead is hottest the moment they click submit. Your phone should buzz and you should respond before they close the tab. But here's the key, lead with property, not process. They didn't inquire because they wanted to discuss their needs. They wanted to see a house. So give them what they want. Then, stay in their inbox with value. Not "just checking in", that's not a strategy. Send them a new listing that's similar. Send them a market update about the neighborhood they searched. Every touch should answer one question: why should they care?

I’ll leave you with this…with all the noise in our industry right now, the acquisitions, the market shifts, the technology changes, I keep coming back to the same truth: clients don't hire brokerages. They hire you. 

The name on your business card matters less than how you show up. Your consistency, your follow-up, your service, that's what wins. I've seen top producers crush it at big brokerages and boutiques alike. The common thread is always the agent, not the logo. So here's my challenge to you this week: stop worrying about the things you can't control and double down on the things you can. 

Make one more call. Send one more thoughtful follow-up. Have one more real conversation. The agents who will thrive in any market are the ones who stay consistent, stay human, and keep showing up. Technology is a tool to amplify your relationships, not replace them.

At the end of the day, this is still a relationship business. Just be a good human, love people, make them feel good when they meet you, and the rest follows. That's the whole secret. There is no hack. 

There's just you, showing up, every single day.

Keep building,