Staying Relevant

Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn.

Do those words excite and energize you? Or do they confuse and scare you? A recent study by NAR suggests that your comfort level with these new media channels could have a huge impact on your work performance as a salesperson and an even larger impact on your ability to remain relevant in your market. An article I recently read in REALTOR magazine discusses how customers have changed, how selling as a practice has changed, and how agents need to change to keep up. Agents who have adapted to the changing times are more successful at meeting and exceeding their goals, the article states.

The most interesting finding was that in 2017, 88.6% of agents using social media to sell outperformed those who weren’t using social media. It also found that when it came to exceeding sales goals, social media users were 43% more successful than their non-social media peers. No matter how you sliced the data, social media users came out on top.

Furthermore, these successful salespeople adopted these new skills on their own initiative. Nearly 75 percent of them said they have not received formal training from their organizations. In other words, these people recognized a need in the marketplace, recognized it as an opportunity and found a way to use it to their advantage. Without waiting for a company sponsored training course. Without complaining about how unresponsive and unfriendly customers are these days. They simply adapted to the changing circumstances in an effort to remain relevant.

There are two morals to this story.

Number one: As an agent today, you better believe that using social media is currently a fundamental tool needed to keeping you relevant. If you haven’t explored how to use LinkedIn groups to connect with prospects or monitored Twitter for customers who are dissatisfied with your competitor in order to adjust and respond, you are behind. You may quickly find yourself irrelevant.

Number two: Social media selling is just one example of how the workplace evolves over time. No matter what you do for a living, you have to keep pushing to stay relevant in your field. For you, staying relevant may mean learning a new programming language, earning an additional degree, studying upcoming industry regulations, picking up a foreign language or joining a professional networking group.

And don’t count on your broker to tell you what that next hot skill will be. You—and you alone—are responsible for developing the skills, connections and expertise that make you a more valuable asset to your company and your customers.

Too many people get stuck on their current and past performance, thinking that what they achieved last year will carry them through indefinitely. But your future potential is just as important, if not more. At the end of the day, if you want to achieve success in your business and remain relevant throughout your entire career, you must be aware of what’s going on around you, adapt, innovate and stay relevant.

Instead of trying to protect yourself from changing circumstances and expectations on the horizon, you need to grow into them. So… “grow” for it! Do your homework and I promise it will pay off.

Have a great weekend!

BTW… great book recommendation… Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too.