When I’m coaching, one of the most common mistakes I see agents make is never taking the time to create a real estate lead generation plan that really works for them. They jump from strategy to strategy, never finding the right mix that generates enough leads.
The solution is to create a lead generation plan that leverages your unique personality. Today, we’re going to help you create a custom plan that fits your personality and fills your pipeline with leads and referral opportunities.
Assessment: Determine Your Unique Sales Personality
Your unique personality should be the key consideration when selecting strategies for your lead generation plan. Have you ever considered that there may be a lead generation strategy that aligns with your goals, past experiences, and personality? You don’t have to like or enjoy every lead generation strategy—some are going to be better for you than others.
How to Determine Your Unique Sales Personality
Using the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator and the DiSC Assessment, I created the 16 Strategies for Sales Personality Assessment. This assessment is designed to help you learn about your unique sales personality, which will help you become a more effective, successful, and happier salesperson.
Take the free 16 Strategies Sales Assessment on my website, 16 Strategies.com. It should only take five minutes.
Now that you have a better understanding of your unique personality, let’s go through my five-step formula to create a plan that is just right for you.
My 5-Step Lead Generation Selection Formula
With this 5-Step Lead Generation Selection Formula, you’ll create a lead generation plan that you’ll actually stick to. If you’re ready to start creating your plan today, download the Lead Generation Plan Worksheet.
Download the Lead Generation Plan Worksheet
1. Begin With Your Goal
When it comes to getting leads, a goal is simply a destination with a deadline. It defines where you want to go and when you want to get there. All of the decisions you make about your real estate business must align with your goals.
As a coach, I’ve found that when agents aren’t achieving the results they want, it’s usually because they are out of alignment with their goals, or even worse, they haven’t set concrete goals. They then find themselves jumping from idea to idea and strategy to strategy with no real plan.
How to Set Concrete Goals & Actually Get Results
Setting concrete goals is as simple as asking yourself three questions. Don’t skip this step! The answers to these questions will form the blueprint for creating your lead generation strategies.
- What do you want to achieve? (Be specific!)
- When do you want to achieve it?
- How long do you have before you must produce income?
Now that you have set or refined your goals, we can take a closer look at your sales personality, which will help you select the best mix of strategies to deploy.
2. Match Your Strategies to Your Personality Type
You have your results from my 16 Strategies Sales Assessment. If you don’t, go back and take it! This information will help you select lead generation activities that align with your strengths and reconsider the ones you might find challenging or emotionally draining.
The Success Cycle
We all can “flex” out of our personality for a period of time. However, when we stay out of our preferred strategies for too long, we become stressed and irritable. This is one of the main reasons new agents fail so often—they spend too much time working outside their comfort zone and burn out.
The secret is finding lead generation strategies that align with your personality and don’t require you to flex out too often. When you do, you may find that you actually enjoy lead generation. Your positivity will lead to more appointments, and more appointments lead to more contracts—which generates inspiration, excitement, and passion.
It really is that simple. I call this the Success Cycle.
The key to remaining in the Success Cycle is engaging in lead generation that you naturally enjoy—activities that are in sync with your unique personality.
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3. Identify Your Available Resources
Putting together the right lead generation plan means taking a serious look at your resources. Every agent has unique experiences and opportunities that will help create success in sales. You just have to figure out what they are and how to benefit from them.
How to Identify & Assess Available Resources
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who do I know who can help me reach my goal faster?
- Specifically, what can they provide or teach me?
Next, consider your education and work experience. School and work provide both skills and knowledge to help you achieve your goal. Ask yourself:
- What advantage do I have from my education to help me reach my goals?
- What knowledge from my work experience can help me achieve my goals?
- What skills have I already developed from my previous experiences?
- What other experiences benefit my real estate goals?
Lastly, identify what lead generation opportunities you have: tools, systems, and resources in your company or association. To identify these resources, ask yourself:
- What lead generation systems does my company provide?
- What lead generation education is available to me?
- What other resources can provide lead generation systems, tools, and education?
Define Your Budget & Brokerage Resources
You’ll need to consider your budget in your lead generation plan. Some lead generation strategies are more expensive than others, so be sure you’re adhering to a careful budget.
Research and utilize resources that are offered by your brokerage, like lead management systems, FSBO (For Sale By Owner) and expired leads, advertising, and consumer apps.
Now that you have identified your unique resources, we can discover the lead generation options available to you—and how they work with your budget.
4. Explore Lead Generation Options & Costs
It’s simply impossible to cover every lead generation strategy available to agents, but we’ve compiled 37 Underrated Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas for 2022 to get your wheels turning.
Choosing the right mix of strategies can be overwhelming. To make it easier, I categorized the strategies by active and passive, cost, time commitment, and lead quality.
Active vs Passive Lead Generation Methods
Active lead generation methods are strategies where you control the result. For example, calling FSBOs (For Sale By Owner) to get listing appointments is active because you can continue to call FSBOs until you find a seller willing to meet with you. You control your lead-generating actions.
With passive lead generation strategies, you can’t control the result. For example, marketing is passive because you can’t control how many people contact you on a given day.
| ACTIVITY | ACTIVE/PASSIVE | Cost | Term | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Events | Active | $$$ | Long | Cold |
| Client Events | Active | $$$ | Short | Warm |
| Trade Shows | Active | $$$ | Long | Cold |
| Private Dinners | Active | $$ | Short | Hot |
| Lunch & Learns | Active | $$ | Short | Warm |
| Coffee/Lunches | Active | $$ | Short | Hot |
| Telemarketing | Active | $$ | Long | Cold |
| BNI Group | Active | $ | Long | Cold |
| Pop-by | Active | $ | Short | Warm |
| Door-to-Door | Active | $ | Long | Cold |
| Open Houses | Active | $ | Long | Hot |
| Call Network | Active | 0 | Long | Warm |
| Billboards | Passive | $$$$ | Long | Cold |
| Radio/TV | Passive | $$$$ | Long | Cold |
| Newspaper | Passive | $$$ | Long | Cold |
| Internet Ads | Passive | $$$ | Long | Warm |
| Farming | Passive | $$$ | Long | Cold |
| Podcast | Passive | $$ | Long | Warm |
| Blog/Vlog | Passive | $ | Long | Cold |
| Networking | Passive | $ | Long | Cold |
| Volunteering | Passive | 0 | Long | Cold |
| Social Media | Passive | 0 | Long | Warm |
Some strategies can be both active or passive, depending on the activity. For example, having a booth at a local bridal show is considered active if the agent engages with prospects. But, if the agent just stands behind the booth, waiting for the prospects to engage, it’s considered a passive strategy.
36 Clever Real Estate Marketing Ideas for 2022
Prioritize Your Optimal Lead Generation Strategies
Begin by reviewing and ranking the lead generation strategies that fit your personality. Next, create a list of them organized by cost and lead conversion time. Ask yourself these probing questions:
- What are lead generation strategies already available to me?
- Do I have access to free or discounted lead generation strategies?
- What is my budget to spend on lead generation systems?
Let’s put it all together and create a blended lead generation plan that includes everything we just discussed.
5. Create Your Custom Lead Generation Plan
Now that you have reviewed your goals, deepened your understanding of your personality, uncovered resources, and analyzed options, it’s time to select the best strategies for your lead generation plan.
You should choose at least three strategies—but no more than four. Like the legs of a table, your business can’t stand on just one or two strategies—a table is stable with three legs but stronger with four.
Pinpoint Your Pillar Strategy
At least one of the strategies you select should be active, which ensures that you will have the ability to generate leads even when times are slow. We call this your Pillar Strategy. You will need to hold yourself accountable to your Pillar Strategy on a weekly or monthly basis.
Choose Your Support Strategies
Your Support Strategies work to enhance your Pillar Strategy, and they can be a mix of active and passive ones. Remember to take into consideration your resources, budget, and the time your overall plan will take to convert leads.
As part of your overall plan, you should manage your sphere of influence (SOI) database by contacting leads, following a marketing plan, and holding small events. Managing your SOI database will ensure a consistent stream of repeat and referral clientele.
Use this list of questions to guide you in designing your own unique lead generation plan.
- Which lead generation strategies are available at low or no cost to me?
- Which lead generation strategies do I already have experience with?
- Which lead generation strategies excite me?
- Which lead generation strategy is in alignment with my personality?
- Which lead generation strategies have I already tried?
- Which lead generation strategies did I enjoy or dislike?
Real Estate Lead Generation Plan Worksheet
Now that you know my step-by-step formula, it’s time to put it into action! Download the lead generation plan worksheet and create your own custom real estate lead generation plan.
Download the Lead Generation Plan Worksheet
How I Developed the Lead Generation Plan That Transformed My Career
I have had several different lead generation plans in my real estate career. My unique strength is educating people, and my preferred method is speaking to groups. Writing and public speaking allow me to work within my strengths and achieve my goals.
A few years ago, I ran a real estate investment group and was often a guest speaker at other groups. Offering education was my Pillar Strategy. My other three strategies were managing my SOI database, advertising investment properties, and seeking out business-to-business opportunities.
The advertising generated leads who were then invited to hear me speak about real estate investing. The customers generated through the speaking and advertising were presented as potential buyers to homebuilders and banks with foreclosed properties. In the four years I ran this lead generation plan, my team and I closed on more than 2,000 homes!
Over to You
Now that you have completed your custom lead generation plan based on your personality, resources, options, and most importantly, your goals, you’re set up to accomplish something great! If you want to deepen your understanding of how the strengths of your personality can help you be successful in sales, I invite you to read my book on sales personalities.
Do you have a lead generation tactic we didn’t mention here? We invite you to share your success stories in the comments. If you’re an active agent, join our Facebook Mastermind Group to learn and share with other agents nationwide.
Tell us about you so we know what to send.
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