Blog / Leadership
Mat Steinwede, Stand out in your patch
Real estate is a competitive industry, so it is imperative to stand out from the crowd. The key is promoting yourself.
The Promoting You section of Mat Steinwede The Real Estate System contains templates, tools and tips for eager real estate agents to use when prospecting in their patch. Done successfully, the home owners in that area will not think of real estate brands when it comes time to sell – they will think of one agent, Mat Steinwede explained.
“I was sitting back one day and thought I’d love for people to wake up and think I want to sell my home, and not to think of LJ Hooker or Raine & Horne or First National or any of those, but think hey what about Mat Steinwede?” he said.
What you put in
This is when he started to look into farm areas, or areas with 1000 - 1100 properties that could be serviced successfully. Mr Steinwede’s area is Wamberal on the NSW Central Coast where there are 40-50 properties for sale at any one time and up to 15 sales per month. Initially he prospected 800 properties in Wamberal and this led to referrals across his farm area.
It will take two years to see a return on this prospecting activity, so someone who really wants to stand out must be willing to put in the hard yards initially. “You can’t just open a business and sit inside and hope all these customers rock through the door. It’s more of a case of what you put into it, you’ll get out of it,” Mr Steinwede explained.
One of the ways to successfully promote yourself in your area is having your boss on board with your marketing efforts. If vendors see you as the agent to list with, the agency receives more listings and extra business comes in so it’s a win-win situation. It is almost like running your own business within the business, Mr Steinwede explained. “You’ve got to form a partnership with your boss,” he said, but added personal marketing was an investment in yourself and not something an agent should expect the business to fund.
Effective Letters
Mr Steinwede uses a series of 10 simple letter templates that are printed onto a letterhead with his face. These include Sold by Mat Steinwede, Hot Spot and a personal profile that have all been tried and tested over several years. “When people read the letter, they don’t get happy and they don’t go ‘beauty I’ll just sit down for five minutes and have a read of this letter’; they usually open it up and throw it in the bin. But your face sticks in their mind, so every single letter that goes out in my area has my face on it every time.” Mr Steinwede took a map of his 1000 homes, divided it into four sections and spent two days prospecting in each section. When he’d completed it, he started again. “I just did laps around my area non-stop, literally non-stop. I’d get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and go and drop letters off.” And this was before RP Data so he typed all the names in by hand!
Hitting the phones
An inevitable part of prospecting is making phone calls. This can be seen as a chore or an opportunity, but remember the person at the other end will know if you’re not enjoying the task. “I’m not a big believer in making like 100 calls or 50 calls; I’m more a believer in making an impact. I just say to people ‘hi Mr/Mrs so and so, it’s Mat from Raine & Horne; I’m just working with a buyer at the moment that’s looking to purchase in Hilltop or Grove Road. Had any thoughts of selling?’” Mr Steinwede explained, saying the next day he would follow up his calls with a hand-written thank you card.
And to cement your standing as the area expert, you need to think outside the square so you’re not following your competition but setting the pace. “We ran a ‘Who is Mat Steinwede?’ campaign in bus shelters and in the paper. People still talk about it today and that was probably five years ago. I sent a letter out one day and all it said was, ‘just in case you need it’ and I paper-clipped my card to a letterhead and put it in an A4 envelope with no address.” Mr Steinwede also sponsored Wamberal Surf Club, ran clothing drives and got involved with his community.
After time and regular contact via hand delivered letters, on the phone and in person, the area will be saturated and people will start to see you as the area specialist. This is a badge that cannot be shown; it has to be proven over time. “People don’t care if you’re the area specialist; you’ve got to demonstrate you’re the area specialist. After 9-12 contacts, people start to become your friend and start to think ‘hey Mat’s pretty active in this area’.” “It’s not about just looking for business every single phone call; it’s about building that relationship. When they think of Mat Steinwede they don’t think ‘he’s just this real estate agent that every time he speaks to me, all he asks is if I’m thinking of selling’. You have to get to that point though where you don’t ask them every time but, when you get there, it’s a lot different,” he added.
Mat's Numbers
Here are the daily numbers that make Mat an expert in his area:
- Deliver letters to 2-6 streets before work
- Deliver 5-10 CMA six-month updates with photos of the
- home’s front
- Up to 30 cold calls
- Up to 30 hand-written thank you cards
- 5 personal note cards to people you know
- 2 buyer appointments
- 1 market opinion
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