you do NOT need to lead generate!!!

Really, you do not need to generate leads.

What you must do:  generate clients. 

How do you do that? Develop and nurture relationships. 

Then what? You wait. That's the problem. You have to take action every day and every week, yet that activity often does not directly lead to business. Or at least it doesn't feel like it in the moment.

However, if you jump ahead to the agents who have been in business for decades, who sell a good number of homes, make very good net incomes, and also have a life - they all have a database. Most of them do not "lead generate" - they nurture their database. 

This week I was again out speaking with agents. At the end of my workshops, I ask in what area they think they need the most help. And, again, the biggest response I got:  they need/want help with lead generating. I shake my head - at myself! For doing a lousy job during the workshop! My whole message is to raise your standards as a professional, stop chasing leads - and instead build trusted relationships. Yet, at the end, when I ask what is the one thing they need the most help with: lead generation.

To be fair, I do get lots of other answers: creating a schedule and sticking to it, learning how to have higher quality conversations, and how to develop and keep a stronger mindset. Those are GREAT things to focus on! 

Nevertheless, "how to generate more leads" continues to come up - a lot. Sometimes someone will write, "generate more business", and that really is what I believe people are mischaracterizing as "lead generating." What agents really want right now (well, always, but definitely in a market where transaction volumes have decreased significantly) is more business. They often are simply not producing at a level that can sustain their financial needs.

Now here is the really bad news: there is almost nothing you can do right now to "do" business. Yes, there are some things that are going to increase the odds of you running into someone who needs help buying and selling right now. But the #1 thing you can do - by a long shot - is to systematically develop and work a database of trusted relationships.

But agents (and maybe you?) don't want to hear that.

Surely there is some system, some tool, some trick they can employ that will get them business... right now! What about all those people I hear who are doing lots of business with the "_____" program? (fill in the blank with the one that comes to mind for you)? They are getting leads and business right now!

Unlikely.

Do you remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Aesop tells of a race between a fast but often-distracted hare and a slow but relentless tortoise. Readers are supposed to be surprised when the tortoise manages to defeat the hare, coining the phrase “slow and steady wins the race.”  The tortoise and the hare parable has lasted centuries because it is true. 

The race of real estate is a long race - think two, three, or four decades. Except that real estate agents want to get paid this month to pay their bills and well...this is not a job! This is not a retail business selling widgets! This is a relationship and advisory business. If you want to make real money in real estate then start building relationships that are worth that kind of money. Stop wasting your time with shortcuts - otherwise, you are simply another distracted hare playing a game you cannot win.  Tortoises win the race of real estate, and they do it (often) quietly. Methodically.  Week in and week out.

My suggestion:

1. Every week spend three to six hours working in your database nurturing your existing relationships.
2. Every week spend three to six hours finding new people to develop relationships with. 
3. Then you can spend as much time (and money) as you want to buying leads, chasing leads, or whatever other schemes you think will work (but most of the time won't!)

If you have less than 100 people in your database, then step 2 is about finding more people to put in your database. Just 1-3 people each week. Slow and steady.

If you don't have a database, or you have a database with hundreds of people you don't know - spend time every week cleaning that up!

A list of leads is worthless. A database full of clients is priceless.