Why Content and Data Mean Everything to Grow Your Business
Anytime I can expose people to great ideas makes me so happy.
So I was practically giddy to share special guest speaker Mark Roberge at our recent Team+ Retreat in Boston, a private event exclusively for our Team+ coaching members.
Mark is the former Chief Revenue Officer at HubSpot and author of the fantastic book, “The Sales Acceleration Formula.” He’s a content marketing genius and one of the brightest minds I know.
I’m extremely happy to present him to you on this episode of the #TomFerryShow.
Watch the show above for the full story, while here in the blog I’ll break down five great tips gleaned from our conversation.
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Tip #1: Use the Data!
One of Mark’s biggest messages regarding real estate growth is that we need to be more data-driven in everything we do in sales. That includes hiring, training, managing, etc. The good news is sales is one of the most highly quantifiable pursuits out there, so it makes it easy to track real estate metrics to evaluate our effectiveness.
Mark says if you want to sleep better at night and bring more predictability to your business, it’s essential that you track and measure your numbers. Doing so will give you more control and give you insight into whether or not you’re on track to hit your goals.
Tip #2: Recognize the Internet Changed Sales Forever
The sales process has changed significantly since the advent of the Internet.
Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in real estate.
Where people once were forced to speak with a salesperson to find out about a house, now all that information is online. That means your role needs to go beyond telling people about “the product.”
Mark says you need to “step up and connect” instead of just pushing your product. Even when you’re talking about a house, you need to deliver your message in a way that a website cannot.
Tip #3: Split Your Content 1/3 vs. 2/3
When it comes to your content marketing, Mark says many agents are missing a huge opportunity.
In fact, he called it “One of the biggest opportunities I don’t see real estate agents going after.”
It’s not enough to simply design your real estate business plan around creating your own content. That stuff should comprise one-third of your total content output, Mark says.
The other two-thirds should be promoting the content of prominent local thought leaders, industry experts, and the like.
Mark advises to make a list of 10, 20, or 50 people in your area who have a strong following – whether it’s the mayor of your town or a local journalist – and promote their stuff.
This achieves two important objectives:
- If you do this consistently, over time you’ll establish yourself as a source of local information… as someone people follow to stay abreast of everything going on in your local market.
- It creates favors from people with influence. These people with big followings are likely to promote your content when you have valuable information to share.
Tip #4: Strive to Fulfill Mark’s 5 Traits of Great Salespeople
In Mark’s book, he identifies 5 traits of great salespeople. How many of these do you possess?
- Coachability
- Curiosity
- Prior Success
- Intelligence
- Work Ethic
He defines coachability as having an “openness to coaching and the ability to apply it,” saying some have one or the other, but the ideal is both.
How coachable are you?
Tip #5: Get Out of Your Own Way!
Your ability to grow your business is limited by how much you need to be involved, Mark says.
“Whatever your business is dependent on you is your blocker to scale,” he says.
To test how much your business relies on you, play out various scenarios if you were out of the picture. What would break without your direct involvement… in one day? Three days? A week?
The more you can automate and delegate, the greater your ability to scale your business!
Tell me your biggest takeaway in the comments below!
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