Last week we featured Jack Miller on the “Michael Meier Show for Real Estate Rockstars.” Jack is well known in the industry as someone who consults for brokerages and agents for his company, T3 Sixty. T3 Sixty is the largest management consultancy for residential real estate and the largest publisher of industry research, with 250 brokers personally consulted by Jack himself. Each year his company publishes five books to help industry professionals grow and succeed.
Back in 2009, MEIER Real Estate broker / owner Michael Meier needed a CRM salesforce with a customized solution, so he called up a resource but ultimately wanted more help. He was later recommended to contact Jack in Texas. Jack was instrumental in offering advice and gave Michael his full attention and expertise without compensation. Throughout the years he would always offer free advice and a couple years later, Michael saw Jack’s name in the press when Compass bought out its first brokerage in Washington. He was inspired to call him again, they met and the rest is history.
Through Jack, Michael learned that T3’s whole business model revolves around developing leaders for the real estate industry and helping them grow and prosper off of their specific Agent Archetype. What are the Four Agent Archetypes you ask? See below.
The Four Agent Archetypes:
It’s important to first acknowledge that there’s so much noise in the industry with people telling you what to do in order to be successful. What’s missing is the connection between the methods and the actual person, and how to leverage yourself based on your unique skill set. Lots of agents end up failing because they keep trying new techniques without mastering what they’re good at first. That’s why it’s so important to identify what type of agent you are so you can thrive on that and build a strong sales practice.
The Prospector
The Prospector is someone who makes money by prospecting, or by actively being on the hunt to find people to do business with. These are the agents who are good at looking for people in specific situations; people they know they can help. Some examples include calling up expired listings, For Sale By Owners (FSBOs), the new divorcee who needs help selling their home, etc. Whatever situation people are in, the Prospector is good at handling it.
Prospectors don’t need to know these people, and this makes them good at picking up their businesses and moving to different markets. They turn data and info into sales and transactions. They take advantage of purchased lists and are really good at being focused and controlling their time. They sometimes use direct mail marketing to help out. A lot of coaches, such as Mike Ferry, specifically teach this type of skill set.
The Networker
Networkers make their money by networking, or being in contact with lots of different people. They are the ones who are actively out in the community meeting with people. These are the people who are great at public-facing roles and being involved in the community, such as soccer coaches and contributors for a charity. They don’t spend a lot of money on their businesses or use a lot of fancy technology because they’re a natural when it comes to meeting with people. People know they can trust you if you’re a Networker.
The Networker has a very high conversion rate amongst the people they know. If they tried to be feeded Internet leads, they wouldn’t be as successful in their conversion rates.
The Converter
The Converter is someone who’s a master at converting leads into clients. This is a very popular need in today’s technologically advanced society. Converters use money to generate and attract people to them through different advertising programs. They’re happy with their low conversion rates because they know they’ll always have one or two deals come out of the hundreds of leads they pull in.
Converters are good at sticking to the scripts and following up. They’re very mechanic. This is another portable quadrant, where masters of this skill set can pick up and move and still be successful because leads are leads. Converters spend a lot of money and use special tools to convert their leads.
The Marketer
The Marketer is someone who uses branding and marketing technologies to grow their businesses. They attract people to them by building credibility within a certain specialty of the industry. They might stick to a certain type of building or a specific neighborhood. They’re the go-to person or expert in their sector. They maintain low advertising costs and high conversion rates.
Marketers can benefit from translating their marketing skills into sales skills. Since marketers know their audience so well they can guess what the customer is thinking, what they ate for breakfast and what they do wrong out of habit, they can capitalize on that. They can use their marketing knowledge to help their network and create things that are valuable. For example, they could create a tip sheet on the Top 10 Mistakes First-Time Home Buyers Make in New York. It’s important to create your first marketing piece and continue building your marketing library.
Sometimes people might start off in one quadrant and move around into others as they progress throughout their careers. Michael Meier, for example, began his career as a Prospector. He would cold call a certain amount of people each day asking if they wanted to sell their home. Later he worked with lead-generator platforms and would convert leads into sales. Now he acts as a social media expert, or as a Marketer, and demonstrates his expertise to help agents become more successful. That way he could stay in touch with them and act as a Marketer.
Marrying the Prospector or Converter with a marketing plan in place is advantageous for any agent going through this maturity cycle. For example, when you’re cold calling and you start jotting down email addresses, now you can effectively include these leads into your marketing efforts. It makes prospecting so much more effective. But this can only be done when you master one quadrant first and over time develop others. Some agents never develop all four, and that’s okay.
Advice for New Agents
Identify a mentor with a mature business in order to cut back on the trial-and-error period. You will move your business forward the fastest if you’re around successful people in the industry with a proven track record and try to emulate them. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the real estate industry.
How MEIER Real Estate Coaches Agents Toward Success
At MEIER Real Estate, we help agents evaluate which archetype quadrant they’re in. If they are Converters, we will help them with systems and customer relationship management (CRM) programs to improve their conversion of leads. If they’re good at cold calling, we will help them source lists and scripts. For marketing-minded agents, we have a tremendous library of Marketing Guides to instruct and help them succeed faster when they follow our proven blueprints. A lot of our agents are finding success with lead generator programs, such as Zillow. There’s something we teach here for every type of agent.
Like a lot of mature agents, Michael Meier — who worked on the No. 1 sales team in New York City — has dabbled and succeeded in each of these four quadrants. As a Prospector, for example, he was called the FSBO King. Today Michael is known for bringing a strong marketing and social media savvy focus to MEIER, which he created so that his own agents could benefit from his experience and implement the systems he used to succeed in each of these areas. With the right technology, the right scripts and the right mindframe, both new and experienced agents can learn how to master these skill sets.
Our philosophy at MEIER is to show real estate agents systems that work and coach them toward success based on their natural talent and desire to succeed. Coaching and mentorship is a big part of what we do. We make it our mission is to teach agents to build sustainable businesses. Michael likes to say, “We don’t give agents fish, we teach them how to fish,” so they can sustain themselves and their entrepreneurial growth.
Have any questions about the industry or looking for advice on your social media goals? Want to recommend someone you think could add value to our show? We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at Info@MeierRealEstate.com or visit our website at www.MichaelMeierNYC.com.
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Watch the full show here: Which Agent Archetype Are You?
Don’t have time? Watch the highlights below:
What Is an Archetype and Why Is It Valuable?
Demonstrating Expertise as a Marketer
The Maturity Cycle of an Agent
Make sure to tune in every Thursday at 4:30 p.m. for new guests on the “Michael Meier Show for Real Estate Rockstars”!
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