Brand recognition is the name of the game when it comes to positioning yourself in your local market. Just like national companies compete to be number one in the public consciousness, you must systematically market your personal brand to earn precious mind share among potential home buyers and sellers in your chosen market. This is where a good lead generation program comes in. Unfortunately, many agents make two costly mistakes in lead generation: They underestimate the importance of building their personal brand and they are not consistent and systematic in their approach.

First, the idea that a company’s brand is as important or more important than your personal brand is simply untrue. The National Association of Realtors® 2002 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers clearly states that more than 90% of sellers select agents based on their reputation, their marketing, and their prospecting and less than 8% of sellers chose an agent because of their company affiliation. These percentages haven’t changed substantially in the last 10 years. So more than anything else, your brand matters!

While conducting research for our recent book The Millionaire Real Estate Agent (Rellek Publishing Partners, 2003), my co-authors and I had the privilege of interviewing 26 of the top 50 agents in the country. Two points stood out:

1. Top agents establish a personal brand and stick to it. Brands, after all, are built through repetition over time; and
2. Top agents are both systematic and consistent in their lead generation efforts.

As illustrated in the book, if you want to duplicate the success of the very best in our industry, you should start by modeling what they do.

This brings us back to the second common lead generation mistake, which is a failure to be systematic and consistent. The top agents we worked with build their local brand awareness by making regular contact with their personal database and their target market over the course of the year. We looked at their lead generation plans (and those of hundreds of top agents we consulted) and created a program which we feel will generate consistent results in any market.

The first people you target are people you have personally met or have done business with. It’s a two-step process. As soon as you get into relationship with these people, you hit them with eight meaningful contacts (personal notes, calls, etc.) over eight weeks. It’s what we call our “8 x 8” program and it’s meant to cement the relationship. After eight weeks, they move into your larger personal database and your “33 Touch” program where you saturate them (through newsletters, emails, call, notes, parties, etc.) with 33 touches each year. It’s cement and saturate.

Overkill? Maybe. But what our research clearly shows is that when you follow this plan, you can expect to get two closed deals (one referral and one repeat) per year for every 12 people in your database. Even if each touch cost an average of a dollar, your cost of sales would be less than $200 per closed transaction!

On the other side of the fence is your targeted market or your farm area. Here the ratio changes and so does the strategy. We’ve found that for every 50 people you touch 12 times a year, you can expect to generate one closed deal from your target market. In our book, we call this the “12 Direct” program. At a dollar per mailing, your cost of sales with “12 Direct” is a more moderate $600 per sale. Not bad.

So my question to you is what does your lead generation plan look like? Do you have a personal brand and are you marketing it to your potential clients in a consistent, systematic fashion? A great lead generation program is neither difficult nor expensive to implement. Like any good habit, it just takes a little patience and discipline over time. According to NAR, about 85 percent of sellers and buyers only meet with one or two agents before they select a REALTOR. So, don’t underestimate the importance of your lead generation program and never neglect it. If you haven't positioned yourself first or second with potential clients, you’re likely out of the running and out of their mind.