The real estate industry landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years, with lots of hills and valleys to navigate. In order to successfully traverse the potentially tough terrain of 2023 given the heavy decrease in buyer activity, certain things need to be included in your plan. If you’re like most agents, you’ve already begun to strategize for the upcoming year. But maybe a roadmap would be helpful, especially one from the top coach in real estate. Inflation is real, inventory is real, buyer demand is down, interest rates are up, and that creates a very noisy real estate environment that only professionals can navigate,” says world-renowned coach and bestselling author Tom Ferry. Recently on The Walkthrough, Ferry shared a roadmap agents can follow to start strong in 2023 and sustain success all year long. Here are six of his best tips. It’s important to set goals, but trying to accomplish too many at a time won’t get you the results you desire. What are the three most important measurable results you wanna produce in 2023? What are the three big things? If you have one or two or three max, you are more likely to achieve your outcomes instead of saying, ‘Here’s the 28 things that I wanna accomplish.’ So, the biggest part for you is to make very certain that you’re picking the right three,” says Ferry. Although the market has been volatile, Ferry says that how you see the overall market shouldn’t change, but your response to it must be adjusted. This will determine whether you sink or swim. What’s gonna change is the tactics, the messaging, the market knowledge, the market insight. So, it is truly the rich and the rest, and those that are doubling down on what’s working and effective, releasing the stuff that is no longer effective, adding one or two more pillars, are going to cremate the market in 2023. Regardless of how hard it’s gonna be, they’re still gonna win. And a lot of other people that struggled during the pandemic are gonna struggle even more because they’re just unable to make the pivot, to make the adjustment, to acknowledge that the market’s the market, and it doesn’t matter what you say.” In this slower climate, it’s more important now than ever to stand out from the crowd. Creating and maintaining a connection with your clients is paramount in order to stay in the forefront of their minds. How are you expressing to your community that you are the expert? That you are the agent of choice? And that they can make a clear separation between Courtney over here, who I respect and admire, but I do more than Courtney, without saying, ‘I do more than Courtney.’ Because you can’t be that agent that just goes, ‘I’m number one,’ because everyone’s like, ‘How could you all be number one?’ says Ferry. Is it my email marketing? Is it my video? Is it my direct mail? There’s no one way to do it. You gotta do everything. You can’t be myopic in a descending-transaction marketplace. You’ve gotta be doing five or six different marketing initiatives that put you at the center of attention.” Figuring out a way to make money without spending any is a feat, but for certain strategies, all you need to invest is your time. For example, Ferry points out that “prospecting of any type” can pay off with little cost. I go on Instagram, and I say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be live today at three o’clock. You should join us,’ or, ‘Hey, I’m working on such and such. Who do you know?’ That’s prospecting in 2022 and 2023,” Ferry says. He also adds that reaching out to have casual conversations with past clients about current real estate trends they can relate to is also a form of prospecting. He shared this sample conversation idea to have with past clients: I read this article, and I don’t know if you saw it, but it actually stated that around the time that I sold you guys a house in June of 2020, 25% of the buyers that bought a home during that time essentially hated the experience, right? And, what was more interesting inside this article, and maybe you’ve experienced this, is that 80% of the people that bought a home during the pandemic admitted that they compromised in their home purchase. And I was thinking about you this morning, and I just wanted to ask, ‘How’s the home working out for you?’” Ferry refers to these as the “magical seven” – the top seven things that you consider mandatory in order to continue to improve and grow your business. Doing these things consistently creates a pattern of behavior that becomes second nature and will be crucial in accomplishing your goals. If there were only seven things you could do every day – your seven daily disciplines, your seven non-negotiables – I wanna know, what are the seven things that move the needle in your business? Now, it could be ‘I got a powerful morning routine because I understand that if I feel good, I perform good. So I gotta do things that make me feel good.’ So, that could be one. Number two, I would make the argument for, if you’re not in the MLS, studying the market, looking for correlations, and creating a daily update video, Instagram Reel, Facebook Live, TikTok, you know – wherever your tribe is – about the market that day, like, that would be number two,” says Ferry. But one thing Ferry strongly recommends is having a thorough knowledge of the local market. It’s more the discipline of, so when someone says, ‘How’s the market?’ Well … ‘Condo market? Low-end market? This side of the valley, that side of the valley? Which market are you talking about? Are you a buyer? Are you a seller? Are you an investor? Are you a renter? Help me understand.’ Because you know all of it – because you’re paying attention on a micro level to what’s happening in your market.” While we don’t really know what the future holds for 2023, there are things that you can work on personally that will have a direct effect on your business. One of them is being more intentional about who you allow in your space. You cannot afford to spend time with energy-sucking vampires. So if you’re spending time with the old metaphorical two crabs in a bucket, someone who’s always pulling you down – or worse, you’re trying to constantly lift them up, and they’re fighting for their lack of success – people gotta get involved in their own rescue. Because you can’t surround yourself with toxicity right now. There’s already too much in the environment. There’s already too much in the world. So you gotta get that team around you of people that are, like, cheerleaders and ready to go,” says Ferry. As we get closer to the new year, one thing Tom says we have to do is recognize that where the market is right now is temporary. I’m gonna focus on my 10-year vision of my business, my three most important goals in 2023, and I’m gonna remember that what we’re going through now is a micro blip in time.” By putting in the time now to get your mindset right and hone those fundamental skills, you’ll be more prepared to navigate whatever lies ahead in 2023.1. Zero in on your vision
2. Change your approach
3. Build your brand by being the go-to expert
4. Prospect however you can
5. Identify your top priorities
6. Change your mindset
