85% will be gone in 3 years!
I remember the day I heard that for the first time. 85% of you new agents will be gone in 3 years. I was in a class that was teaching me something new and when I heard that I desperately wanted to be in the 15%. I was about 18 months into my new career in real estate and it was not going as well as I wanted and needed it to. That was about 12 years ago and I made it into the 15% but lately I have been thinking about all that.
That number of 85% still seems to be true in this business in general. Specifics can be a bit different based on where you put your license, the training you get and the people you surround yourself with but overall it’s still true. I think there is a different number for the folks that made it past that first 3 years but I don’t have stats on it. I look around my office of 10 years ago and I see very few faces that span that time.
I have a theory about this.
I believe we run through our friends and family pretty quickly and then we run through our savings and all that takes about 3 years. At that point we have to find more folks to help with real estate and most (85%) can’t or won’t do what we are taught you have to do and they go out of business.
We are taught to ‘be on’ all the time. Wear a nametag, put a sign on your car and make cold calls. Calling ‘for sale by owner’ and expired listings to find people to help but that opens the door to only about 20% of the business out there. I believe most agents won’t do this stuff long term and the few that do hate it most of the time.
I didn’t do any of those things yet I’m still here. I believed at the time my business had to be built on relationships and referrals but I didn’t know how to do that consistently and I was getting so much pressure to do the other stuff it was almost overwhelming. Short version is I found the mentors and coaches who thought like I did and encouraged me to work solely on referrals and relationships and that is how I do business today. Over 80% of all real estate transactions take place with repeat and referral business. If you were able to stay in long enough, you get to that point naturally but I also believe you can do it intentionally, more quickly than is typical and you can do it at a higher level if you get some direction and encouragement.
If any of this resonates with you and you want to talk about the specifics I am happy to do so. I’m not looking to recruit anyone or build my own company but really want to test this theory more and find more folks who think like I do and that’s not limited to the business of real estate. I think it’s any sort of sales actually. Any business that tells you ‘cold calling’ is the way to go can be done better and easier by referral and repeat clients.
If you agree with that and want to explore this thought text me or call me at 678-231-1578 we will schedule a time to meet up or talk on the phone.
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-231-1578 Cell
