September 18, 2023In a candid episode, hosts Preston Guyton, Suneet Agarwal, and Nick McLean share their real estate journeys, from breakthroughs to challenges. Offering insights and tips, they reflect on what they’d do differently, providing inspiration and education for aspiring professionals. Tune in to learn from their experiences and kickstart your own real estate journey.
VIDEO CONTENTS:
00:00 – Introduction
01:50 – Suneet’s Journey
08:42 – Preston’s Journey
20:46 – Nick’s Journey
24:08 – Our Regrets, Challenges, & Breakthroughs
37:36 – What We Recommend
Episode breakdown: what three team leaders would do differently
Suneet Agarwal, Preston Guyton and Nick McLean each walk through how they got into real estate. Suneet started in subprime mortgage phone sales in Sacramento, Preston came from restaurants and home building in Myrtle Beach, and Nick was an airline pilot who got his license as a backup plan. Then they turn to what they regret and what they would do if they started over.
Put a follow-up process under every lead source
Suneet learned sales at Ameriquest, where a building full of young loan officers worked the phones. At his next job, the company sent direct mail telling homeowners to refinance, and the phones never stopped ringing. He pitched a credit pull on every first call. There was no CRM, no process and no follow-up, and if he took notes, they went on whatever scrap paper was on his desk.
Hunger and motivation carried him, but he still thinks about how many opportunities he missed. He says that regret is why he built his four pillars of lead generation. He never wants to leave money on the table again because there was no system behind the leads.
Keep your list and work it for years
Nick’s answer to the start-over question was immediate. He has captured names, numbers and emails well for the past decade, but not in his first years in the business.
If I could go back and start over again, I would keep track of every single person I talk to.
Nick McLean
Suneet agrees that everything starts with a list of people you are nurturing a relationship with. Use a CRM, build the list and keep nurturing it. He also pushes back on the pull of new leads.
These leads, they really don’t have expiration dates, right? A list from 2005 that you worked is so valuable right now.
Suneet Agarwal
Preston’s numbers back that up. In his secondary market, leads that turn into appointments or contracts take about 18 months on average, while most agents give up after a week or two. Suneet covers the system behind this in his guide to real estate lead follow-up.
Build the structure before you open the doors
Nick asks how to make partnerships work in an industry where people aren’t supposed to team up. Preston says no partnership is guaranteed. His own works because each partner knows what they’re good at and where they belong. Before his brokerage opened, he had already built the structure: where the business was going, who it needed to hire and when, and the marketing ready to run.
He sees the opposite in coaching. Many businesses have no structure, so the owner spends every day putting out fires instead of working on the business. Whether it’s a partnership or a sole proprietor, he says, nothing works without a solid plan, structure and systems. As a team grows to 100 or 150 agents, his biggest challenge becomes the range of personalities, and he says a leader has to be part psychologist.
Train phone skills early
Preston built his early business behind the computer generating online leads. He called them when they came in, but he never trained on phone skills, and that’s what he would change.
I wish I would have spent more time prospecting and learning phone skills early on.
Preston Guyton
Because of that, his brokerage puts newer agents through phone training early. Nick adds that real estate puts heavy weight on the numbers game, but the activity only works if agents also study sales psychology and human relationships. Each host recommends books, with Robert Cialdini’s Influence near the top of the list.
Control your morning and your choices
In an industry full of variables, Preston says the one thing he controls is his morning. He is up at 4:15, works out at a set time, and his schedule is what lets him pick up his kids or go to his son’s golf match. He adds that the routine doesn’t have to copy anyone else’s. It just has to be consistent. Nick sleeps seven hours and protects his evenings, because that’s what protects his mornings.
Suneet frames it as choice management. On his daughter’s birthday he had to decide whether to relax with family or keep working, and he says the point is to make that choice on purpose and be at peace with it.
Key takeaways for team leaders
- Don’t add a lead source until there’s a CRM and a follow-up process to catch what it brings in.
- Capture every person you talk to, and keep working old lists. Leads can take 18 months or more.
- Set the structure, roles and hiring order before you launch a team or partnership.
- Put newer agents through phone and prospecting training early, before bad habits set in.
- Own your morning routine and decide deliberately where your time goes.
