Welcome to Mike Ferry TV. It’s the week of October 28th. The good portion of the year is done, but as I talked to Dan Mumm a couple of days ago, it’s not too late to do deals that still close before the end of the year. Obviously, most of the transactions are done in November. December will have a late closing date or early 2025. So what I did two weeks ago is I did a program in Florida called Finishing Strong, and I actually changed the name of the last minute to Finishing Strong and Starting Fast, because everything we talk about today and next week really is going to not only allow you to finish strong if you choose to, but also get you a good start for 2025. So, I put together ten thoughts, and I’m going to cover five of them this week and five next week. And let’s see if these thoughts can resonate with you, help you finish strong and start fast for 2025. The question, of course, is always the same. Are there going to be sufficient deals in the US and Canada for me to accomplish what I want to accomplish? I haven’t seen the final figures for the US or Canada as to how many transactions are going to be expected for the year, but it’s going to be down less than last year. We all know that the city of Las Vegas, where we live and operate from, has probably lost 35 to 45% of their transactions over the last few months. But the good agents and a lot of the Mike Ferry trained agents here in town are still doing the same level of production.

1) During the months of October, November, and December do more lead generation/prospecting than you’ve ever done before this year

It’s just there’s less people competing for the transactions. So, here’s five thoughts on finishing strong and starting fast. Number one, I wrote down, during the months of October, November, and December do more lead generation slash prospecting than you’ve ever done before this year. Increase the number of contacts by 25 to 50% because two things are happening simultaneously. There’s less transactions available, but there’s way less agents participating. So, if we increase the number of contacts we have, we’re creating an opportunity to increase the number of transactions we do.

2) Expand your market area

But then second, I wrote down, expand your market area. Too many people are too confined, whether it be a neighborhood that you seem to have some success in or possibly a geographic farm territory of 5,600 homes expand the marketplace. You know, almost no place in North America is the cities. So, defined that there’s nothing close to that city that you’re operating in. If you’re in Des Moines, Iowa, they’re suburbs around Des Moines, Iowa. Expand into the suburbs to expand your market area. I remember back in the early 70s when I first started in Real Estate, and it was so clear to me that if I worked just Huntington Beach, and I didn’t work Fountain Valley, and I didn’t work Westminster, and I didn’t work Costa mesa. I was limiting what I could accomplish. There were a lot of great salespeople in Huntington Beach that worked just Huntington Beach. I was able to maintain and be competitive because of the surrounding cities. Expand your market area.

3) Expand the methods of lead generation you’re using

Third thing I wrote down expand the methods of lead generation you’re using. If you’re doing what I suggest, and I’ve suggested this virtually all year to you that you’re always tracking, where did the business come from? If you took a listing, what was the origination point of that listing? Was it somebody from your geographic farm? Somebody from your database? Was it a cold call? Was it a For Sale by Owner that you stopped and knocked on the door? What was the source of that listing? And what you’ll discover if you look at this year’s transactions, and I strongly recommend point three that you expand your lead generation techniques. But if you look at this year’s transaction count. You probably have 1 or 2 very defined and they pop up real quick methods of lead generation that you’re most comfortable with, that you feel confident with, and that you are using to get business. What if you expand that by 30, 40, 50% if you have two methods that are working well, what if you added 1 to 2 for 2025? Started them in October, November, December of this year so by the time we get to 2025 you’ve perfected those. Also, you can double the amount of business you do by expanding the methods of lead generation that you’re using.

4) Cut the length of time you’re holding on to leads by at least 50%

Number four, and this is probably something that we really need to spend more time on. Cut the length of time that you’re holding on to leads by probably at least 50%. Now I’m going to say two things to you. I’ve spoken a lot about lead generation this year, and has spoken a lot about Lead follow-up, and the majority of agents still get locked into getting a lead and holding it for 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 days and missing probably three times as the number of transactions you would have had if you would have just continued working the leads. And if they’re not going to buy or sell in a given length of time, seven, ten, 15 days, you either put them in another follow up system and or you just throw them away. Too much time is spent on lead follow up. It is the biggest waste of time with a non-motivated lead. You need to determine as quickly as possible the motivation of that prospect, buyer or seller.

5) Create a simple lead database

And number five, create a simple lead database. Now think about this. You’re going to hold on to leads. That’s point four. We know it. We want you to cut down the length of time that you’re actively spending working on them. So why not create a lead database? And a lot of the top agencies have adopted this philosophy over the last couple of years, and they take whatever leads they’re generating from whatever source they’re getting them from, whether you’re buying them off Zillow or Realtor.com, or you’re running ads in the paper, or you’re just doing a good job of prospecting, you have a source of leads that are not going to do anything at this time. Why not create a lead database where you’re sending them an email once a month? Just updating all those leads that did not sign a contract or did not give you an appointment, and you’re just sending them some type of information to keep them aware that you’re still alive and breathing. And Real Estate people call people when they’re ready to buy or sell where they have some recognition or connection to the agent. So, think about the fact that somebody is going to call two realtors, they’re going to call you and they’re going to call myself, but they’re not ready to buy or sell. So, I put them in a lead follow-up database and I’m sending them correspondence once a month. You know, let’s say you have 50 names in there and you write a simple email on market statistics for the last couple of months to help them understand the market. They get ready in three months to do something; they’re most likely going to contact you.

So, there’s five thoughts that you could use to finish the year stronger than you may have otherwise done. And the same five thoughts to start the new year faster. Don’t get caught up in the mindset that there’s no business to be done in the fourth quarter. Granted, I think all over North America the number of transactions will reduce by ten, 12, 14, up to 20%, but that means there’s still 80 to 85% available to us if we’re just working. I’m glad you’re watching. I’m glad you’re paying attention. I’m glad you’re taking action. Talk to you next week.