When you’re a new agent, it can be challenging to figure out a marketing plan. Everyone swears by a different strategy to get leads: cold calls, open houses, expired listings, networking, door knocking, postcard campaigns, social media, and more. And no matter who you talk to, you can find someone who’s had a ton of success with a given method – and also someone who declares it to be a complete waste of time.

BestPrintBuy has been providing high quality marketing materials to new and established real estate agents since 2005. In that time, we’ve seen a lot of people build thriving businesses. And while the specifics of everyone’s success differ, two things seem to be key: setting goals, and sticking to them.

The most important asset for any new agent is time. Real estate works on long lead times, and depending on your market and the time of year, it may take you weeks or even months to land your first listing or make your first sale.

At the beginning of your career, prospecting should be your full time job. But you have to be strategic about it; prospects typically need multiple “touches” over the course of several months before they’re ready to move forward. That’s where goal-setting comes in. Give yourself concrete, measurable targets to hit. Then plan out how and when you will accomplish them. For example:

• “I will hand out 50 Berkshire Hathaway business cards each week. I will accomplish my goal by attending two networking group meetings and holding one open house, as well as by handing out my card to every new person I meet.”
• “I will choose two neighborhoods each month and complete a door-knocking campaign there.”
• “I will make 5 cold calls each day.”
• “I will send 100 farming postcards each week, and households will get a postcard from me every month.”

This kind of goal-setting might seem audacious, but in reality, it’s the only thing that works. If you want to build a successful real estate business, you have to put in the work to get your name in front of prospects.