We’re moving. Selling a house, buying a house, and moving across the country. It seems like a ridiculous time to do this, I know, but it’s hard to live in New Mexico while running a business in Chicago, so it has to be done. For a business geek, it’s a really fascinating time to watch the behavior of real estate agents – even really good ones – who are adjusting to their first slump in years. Or, not.
I imagine there’s a certain complacency that develops when houses sell themselves for ever-increasing prices over many years. It’s one thing to have a lucky easy sale. When you work really hard every day for success and the universe throws you a bone once in a while, you know you’ve been lucky. You celebrate, you’re grateful . . . and you get right up again in the morning and work hard, because you’re under no illusions that there will be another bone thrown today.
Our particular real estate agent seems to be struggling to master the new dynamic. She’s good, so she’ll get her act together, but not fast enough to keep from frustrating our hopes of selling quickly. She’s not hungry. In fact, she seems to be accepting this as a sort of down-time. Maybe she’s tired – heaven knows, the market has been non-stop for a long while. The problem with that is that as her customers, we need her to work smarter and harder than usual – not take a nap.
None of the economists can quite agree whether or not we are headed into a recession now. But one thing is for sure – it’s not time for any of us to take a nap! The reality is, it’s never time to take a nap. But there are some things we should do at the top of a cycle, and other things we should do at the bottom of one. For instance, at the top of the cycle is the time to invest in infrastructure and operational improvements. We can actually back off marketing a little at the top of a cycle, and benefit from the growth that is handed to us. Many businesses get that part wrong, enjoy being flush in the cash drawer, and push marketing because they feel like they can “afford” to.
When the cycle swings back down again, it’s time to capitalize on the operational improvements that were made during the flush times. And it’s time to push marketing. Why? Because when the cycle swings down, it swings down for consumers too. Your customers will need to be reminded to do business with you. And since most businesses get the bottom-of-the-cycle-behavior wrong, you can steal their customers while they’re not marketing.
The old tricks aren’t working for our real estate agent, and we’re not seeing many interested lookers come through. I’ll share with you the advice I resisted giving my realtor (though I did let her know my concerns). Make three lists:
First list: All the things you are currently doing to find and keep customers. Assuming they're working, keep doing these things.
Second list: A list of new methods you are not currently using to find and keep customers. Prioritize this list and start to implement now.
Third list: All the things you did to improve your operations and margins over the past few years. Make sure you are capitalizing on these things.
Seem silly? Simple maybe. But not silly. It’s just an easy method for consciously identifying that it’s time to switch gears, and then putting a plan in place to do so.
Now please – cross your fingers that our realtor decides to do something similar some time soon.
(c) 2007, Andrea M. Hill
