As the real estate market turns and interest rates continue to rise, it’s more important than ever for you to strategize about ways to be a better agent.
Thinking about ways to make more money and increase your happiness, grab and redirect more attention from your community to you even during a potential recession, starts with analyzing your strengths and what you need to do differently.
Good agents help their clients. Great agents are seen as the go-to expert for all things real estate, engaging with their clients and perceived as charming and helpful.
So, what type of agent are you?
To figure out what type of agent you are and how to become the agent you want to be, you need to do a SWOT analysis of your business and your brand.
What Is A SWOT Analysis
Taking a hard look at your business, what you do well, and what you need to improve upon is part of becoming a great agent.
Look, when you’re starting it can be hard to know how and where you’ll get your first, second, or third deal and where you can build from to create a sustainable business.
Becoming the go-to expert means understanding more than just the market. But first, you need to understand what it is that sets you and your brand apart.
A SWOT analysis is a strategic way to look at your business. It is an acronym that represents your areas of strength and areas for improvement.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that you see in your real estate business. Taking a hard look at those things can help you create a strategy to overcome those hurdles and become the agent you wish to be.
Conducting a SWOT analysis can help you leverage information about your market knowledge and instincts to make educated guesses for short-and-long-term growth in your business.
STRENGTHS
Think about what you do well, what strengths you have, and what you provide that other agents don’t, can’t, or won’t.
Focusing on your strengths and using those as an advantage in your marketing is crucial.
Strengths can include:
- Your market knowledge
- Market Expertise
- A strong sphere of influence
- Community Connections
- Positive brand identity and reputation–especially with positive online reviews
- Any leverageable assets
Think about any strengths you may have. For example, if you have a solid social media presence and know how to use video, then focus on that aspect of your marketing.
Or maybe you’re in a lot of community organizations. Well, find a way to network at these events, make your brand known, and let people know who you are and what you do.
WEAKNESSES
Weaknesses are the things holding you back in your business. It could be knowledge-based, experience, comfort levels, organizational skills, or something else. Think about what you could do differently, and you will have a starting point for your weaknesses.
Weaknesses may include;
- Inexperience
- New to the profession and the market
- Changes in team and staffing
- The limited sphere of influence
- Negative online reviews
- Bad brand identity and reputation
- Inefficient marketing, cost overheads, and other expenses
If making videos seems like a major problem for you, don’t think about having a YouTube channel to start. Instead, use my video technique–you’ll see a drastic improvement in engagement.
The key is to think about areas you’re not the most comfortable with, areas of your business that need the most amount of work, and focus on turning those weak points into strengths.
OPPORTUNITIES
What about the market do you see either right now or in the near future that provides you with some opportunities to grow your brand and expand your business?
Opportunities are based on your market, the market trends, and the areas you think will present you with unique spaces you can fill.
Opportunities include;
- An influx of new businesses to the area
- Investment opportunities
- New housing developments in the area
- New markets opening-up
- New home buyer initiatives
- New commercial or industrial developments in the area
- Local transportation initiatives
- Demographic changes
- Lower Interest Rates
- Tech Innovations
In every change, in every challenge, there is an opportunity.
Are businesses moving out of town?
That’s an excellent opportunity to position yourself as a listing agent.
Or perhaps it’s March, and you live in a Navy town. Guess what? Soon, those families will be given their orders, meaning you could position yourself as a listing agent as well as a referral partner for their move, getting you opportunities to make two deals with one client.
Maybe there’s a low inventory of homes in your area. That’s an excellent opportunity for you to work with investors to see the rent potential if you position yourself as the expert for their type of needs.
THREATS
What about the current market and outside forces do you see that can derail your business?
What are things that can challenge or even destroy your business?
Threats are things outside your control that can negatively impact your brand and business.
Threats may include;
- Industry changes in the local sector
- Rising interest rates
- Market shifts
- Economic downturn predicted
- Loss or transfer of significant labor pool
- Technological innovations
Some opportunities begin as if they are threats. How you perceive and position your brand is what determines if you’ll have an opportunity or not.
For example, a seller's high inventory and higher interest rates are unsuitable. But instead of looking at it one way, consider ways you can make a listing more attractive to buyers in light of those factors.
You could do a video marketing campaign that you can market out to everyone in your sphere. Don’t forget to reach out to agents in your local market as well as any referral leads you may have in your network.
In other cases, threats are out of your control. But even then, there is a way to position your brand to be successful if you understand the threats and see the cracks that exist.
How To Conduct A SWOT Analysis On Your Brand
When conducting a SWOT assessment, you need to be able to take a hard look at your business and see A) what you do well, B) what you need to improve, and C) things that may be threats at first but also may provide opportunity.
When you conduct your SWOT analysis, get some outside help and opinions to inform your data better.
For example, you may ask other agents and your broker for feedback on your SWOT.
Conduct polls with former clients, asking for input about what they perceive as your strengths when you represent them.
If they’re up for it, ask for criticism as well. If they don’t respond with any criticism, the gaps between what they detailed as your strengths will shed some light on weaknesses.
Profitable Efforts Versus Non-Profitable Efforts
Every thought and choice we make leads to one of two outcomes. Often those outcomes lead to actions, and those actions become either profitable or non-profitable efforts.
Your SWOT analysis should include looking at the activities that yield the most results or set you up for future developments.
What Are Profitable Efforts?
There are three main types of profitable efforts;
- Activities
- Habits
- Tactics
Basically, these three efforts are things you can do that create time and energy. They free up mental energy and give you results because of the action and momentum, generate revenue, or develop events that generate revenue.
Non-Profitable Efforts
On the other hand, unprofitable efforts are those activities, habits, tactics, and choices that steal time and energy and deplete mental, increasing insecurity, confusion, and procrastination that leave you broke, stagnant, and stalled.
When conducting your SWOT, one of the areas you should look at is whether your actions lead to opportunities or take away those opportunities. Actions that lead to opportunity is a profitable effort, and those that don’t will be non-profitable ones.
Use The Data To Be A Better Real Estate Agent
Once you’ve compiled all the data you can with your SWOT analysis, the tricky part is incorporating that data into your business practices to become a better real estate agent.
The first thing you should do is find a mentor or coach. A mentor is a person, often in your own brokerage, who has more experience than you and is willing to show you different strategies and systems that have worked for them in the past.
On the other hand, a coach is somebody you hire to guide you and help you build your own strategies and systems.
After finding a mentor or coach, the next step is establishing a routine. Setting routines make habits, and habits are activities you do without thinking about.
Learning to utilize technology to grow your brand and expose your business is part of the strategy you should build with your mentor and coach and fit into your business routines.
Finally, be engaging with your leads, prospects, and clients.
Real estate is a relationship business, so the better you create and nurture relationships, the better your brand will be.
Taking stock of your entire business and you as a real estate agent utilizing a SWOT analysis will give you the insights needed to become a better agent and grow your business. A mentor and coach will help you take that information and help you establish systems and strategies to become even more efficient in your business.