If You Aren’t Innovating In Your Real Estate Business, Your Business Is Stuck and in Threat of an Untimely Death

The following is adapted from The Ultimate Real Estate Machine. 

Innovation sounds complex, like something a genius inventor would do. But all it really means is to orchestrate greater benefit enhancement or improvement to your client’s life or situation that they can see and appreciate. It’s doing something that others in your market are not doing. 

I understand the importance and the need to innovate and create. At Real Estate Expert Advisors, we were always innovating and differentiating. Always thinking, “How can we separate ourselves from the competition?” I can show you not only the fastest route to innovation but also how to get there safely without risking everything you have. 

And trust me when I say this: if you want to expand your real estate business and earn the profit that comes with it, you have to be innovative. The good news? Innovation comes down to three things: continue to take steps forward, innovate your systems, and look outside your industry. 

#1: Consistently Take Small Steps 

Innovation eventually becomes one big program that sets you apart, but that can seem like a daunting task. When things are daunting, they rarely get done. Most of our innovation has come from micro innovations that, when added together, result in us experiencing macro innovation. 

In the book The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy speaks of this concept. He says that “success is based upon the progressive accumulation of small steps taken consistently over time.” My version of that is: “The accumulation of small incremental innovation wins is the ‘Compound Differentiating Effect’ that will exponentially set you apart from the competition.” 

It’s all about taking small steps. Innovation tends to happen gradually rather than all at once. But beware, it is normal to start gathering critics when you aim for innovation and differentiation. Most people don’t like change, and fear can set in amongst your competition. You’ll especially rankle them if you offer products, programs, or services they didn’t come up with. 

Do not let them get in your head and stop you from daring to be different. As David Goggins says, “Don’t kill them with kindness; torture them with your success.” 

#2: Innovate Your Systems 

One of our experiences that sticks out the most is when I launched a ten-step sales system for the listing-side and buyer-side presentations. No one on our team at the time had ever seen these techniques, much less utilized them in the real estate industry. Our ten steps came from the time-share and remodeling industries and were repurposed for real estate. 

Virtually no one believed that it would work in real estate at first. Then, after repetition,

discipline, and not giving up on the new ways of doing things, most started believing. There were some that did not and thought that it was silly or unnecessary. These agents ultimately left our team, which made room for a fresh set of new agents who knew of no other way than our new method of doing things. 

Over time, everyone bought in so much that competitors attempt to steal the way we do things. Over one $1 billion dollars in sales later, these systems have been proven effective, but if we’d listened to our critics or been stymied by internal friction, we wouldn’t have implemented these systems, and our growth would have been nothing like what we’ve seen. 

#3: Look Outside Your Industry 

Did you notice where the idea from our ten-step system came from? The time-share and remodeling industries. Most of our innovation came from outside the industry. 

Yes, your innovation could be the invention of a product, program, system, process, or procedure that no one has ever seen before. Usually, this is not the case, and it’s more likely that you will optimize something that already exists in the real estate industry. 

But don’t be afraid to look outside your niche for inspiration. That’s what’s worked so well for us: we find something that works great in another industry, model the program, and tailor it back into a product or program that is new to the industry and/or market. It is important to realize that with this approach you will have some winners, and you will have some losers. 

That’s innovation in general. But when you find something that really connects, you can tee up and smash it out of the park. That’s why it’s crucial to have the proper KPIs (key performance indicators) and metrics in place to know how well your concept is working or not. 

Never Stop Learning 

In the fast-paced world of real estate, the landscape changes quickly, and your tactics and strategies can be outdated in a matter of months. Imagine if you were still operating your real estate business today in the same manner you were five years ago; you would get left behind. This is why it is so important to create new strategies and techniques in your real estate business. You have to constantly improve upon growing yourself and your business. 

If you’re looking for other sources of innovation, I recommend masterminds, intensives, books, podcasts, and other seminars. These sources of knowledge allow you to learn from other people’s mistakes, successes, and failures rather than starting from scratch every time with our innovations. And it’s long been my belief that you must never stop learning and growing. 

When you are an innovator, you are a differentiator, able to clearly separate yourself from the competition. If you can stay ahead of the pack and continue to innovate above all the others, you will add value for your clients and profit to your bank account. If not, you will be left behind and forgotten about with nothing but a, “When I was in real estate…” left to your name.

For more advice on innovating your business, you can find The Ultimate Real Estate Machine on Amazon. 

Jason Williford is a serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, inventor, and consultant for high-producing real estate agents. He is a master in business strategy, strategic marketing, innovation, differentiation, agent production, selling systems, and referral generating systems, as well as training, recruiting, and mentoring real estate agents and inside sales agents. After years in the trenches of real estate, he set himself and his team apart with strategies and techniques that were learned in other industries and applied to real estate. His unique talents and knowledge fill industry voids for high-performing real estate agents and team leaders.