My target clients are all on Facebook, check their email at least once a day, most own smart phones and are constantly connected to the web. So that’s where my focus is.

There are other agents in my office that send out postcards, letters, and advertise in our local newspaper. That’s where their target clients are. Are they wrong to do this? No! Their ROI substantiates this.

When someone says go back to the basics it just means, if you’re struggling and have no business, try something new (er old) and see how that works. If it does, great! If not hopefully you haven’t spent too much $.

Yeah, I think the “basics” have changed. It’s important to keep up with changing technology and the changing preferences of whatever demographic you’re working. It used to be “target anyone who could buy or sell a house” (that means everybody). Now “hyperlocal” is the buzz word. It used to be door knocking and cold calling. Now it’s social media and e-mail marketing (eNewsletters, Drip e-mail and all the rest) and blogging.

This post started before I was even officially a licensed real estate agent. I was still in classes trying to wrap my head around real estate concepts and had no idea about marketing, prospecting, or leads.

A couple of months later, I was out in the real world, license in hand. It took me a long time to truly know who I was as an agent and what I was going to do.

I tried various methodologies and ideas to generate business and fell down a lot along the way. It wasn’t fun, but I was determined.

Reading through the comments and the post itself, one thing came to my mind.

How many of the people that preach back to basics are selling you something? How many of them are coaches, guides, and motivational speakers? I took a lot of Brian Buffini classes before I realized that his approach didn’t work for me. Does it work? Sure it does – for people who find comfort in what he’s preaching. What gets me is his willingness to tell me I will succeed if I use his methods, but to also tell me I’m not doing it right if I fail. Have you ever seen any of these grand wizards of real estate say this? They all do. And in many cases they may be right, but it always comes back to “you’re doing it wrong” if the method doesn’t work.

I might be doing wrong, but perhaps it’s because I don’t believe in your system – it makes me uncomfortable, feel like I’m faking my way through life, or lying to people. I don’t want to feel any of those, so your methods fail me.

“Back to basics” should only mean one thing – get to work on that which is generating you business. Work hard at that. Try new things and work hard at them. Cut the things that are unnecessary and don’t bring in value. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Keep the “basics” alive, but be inventive. Facebook might seem like play time to some, when in reality it’s nothing more than door knocking without the creepy aspect of a stranger at your front door. Of course, the dialog has changed from “want to sell your house” to “hi, I’m a local and thought we should connect.” Door knocking might be great for some (it does offer a chance at instant gratification if someone say, “Why yes, we were just discussing selling our home, come on in.”), but for me, the instant gratification of an email after an excellent consumer oriented post is much more satisfying (and in the Texas summer, much more relaxing).