What to Do During the Slow Season

The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

The Winter Season can be a concerning time for a Real Estate Media Company. Business typically slows way down. Sometimes it can get so slow you wonder if you should be doing other types of photography, or if you'll even survive. Todd and Craig discuss things to do to strengthen your business in the "slow season". Be sure to check out these past episodes for ideas on how to strengthen the relationships you already have with clients, and how to find new clients during the winter season:

Networking with Realtors One on One - Part 1

Networking with Realtors One on One - Part 2

How to Sell to the Needs of Realtors

Brokerage Deals

How to Increase Your Average Sales Price

Episode Summary:

0:00-0:58 Preview and intro

0:59-7:05 Don’t panic during slow season; take a breath

• Develop a plan for decreased revenue during slow season
• Don’t pay yourself everything you make during the busy season
• One tip: pay yourself a salary so you can spread it out over the year
• Sit with an accountant and asked them to help you figure it out
• A business is a profitable enterprise that works for you; it should suit your needs

7:06-19:13 What do I do with all my free time?

• You have to decide what you feel the most comfortable with
• If you’re excited about the amount of work you have now and want to sustain that, it’s time to take care of your clients or work on your business
• Take care of your top 20% clients- ask what they need, send Christmas gifts
• If you’re okay with not growing, put the time back into yourself- you’ve earned it
• If you want to grow, ask yourself: Where are your gaps? What was painful last busy season?
• Your business is in a shell- as you grow, the shell will crack; identify and record those cracks, then work on them during the off-season
• Get the right people together and start brainstorming with a whiteboard, then evaluate your ideas and figure out what you need
• Assign people to collect data and schedule a follow-up meeting to look at the data and find the solution
• You will need to write procedures- what to do when this thing happens/when we do this thing
• Slow season is a great time to look at pricing changes so you can roll them out at the beginning of the next year
• It’s also a great time to evaluate your current software and decided whether it’s doing what you need it to or if you need to implement new software (like Spiro!) and plan for that change
• Look at your marketing materials and decide if you’re going to change or update any of your materials
• Write personal thank you notes and Christmas cards to your clients to thank them for their business
• Wow’s gaps to work on during the busy season: unify communication, improve culture, organize the CRM, educate clients about home readiness, work on new products, create a method for photographer feedback

19:14-25:55 Working with current clients

• Slow season is a great time to re-establish and develop relationships with clients
• Go over the year, thank them for their business, ask them about goals
• Pick the five you get along with best if a meeting scares you
• Start with a phone call; the way Realtors do business is face-to-face
• Ask if you can treat them to coffee
• Ask what went well and what can improve, how many listings do they want this year, what growth percentage do they want to see, what is their traditional marketing
• Ask about their social media marketing- what platforms and content do they want to use? What are their needs for personal branding? What products do you have that will help them reach these goals?
• You are part of their marketing team
• This is not a selling meeting; you are asking how you can better serve them
• Ask if you can take notes and write- don’t use your phone or computer

25:56-28:25 What should I do to prospect and establish new relationships?

• Ask (usually toward the end), “Do you know any other Realtors that we can serve? Is there anyone in your office you can refer me to?”
• Realtors ask for referrals all the time
• The worst thing that can happen: they say no
• If you’re talking with a broker, be more specific- “Do you know _____ broker in ____ city (that’s thirty or forty minutes away)?”

28:26-30:20 How do you get an introduction to a broker you don’t know?

• Ask your current clients to introduce you- “I would love to put together a package for your company”
• Brokers listen to and serve their Realtors
• Find one of your biggest fans and best clients who’s a high-volume producer- brokers want to keep their Realtors happy

30:21-33:38 A full-color catalog or brochure to put in Realtors’ hands is still valuable

• There’s something about the physical marketing material

33:39-38:07

• Agents are more available during slow season
• Craig took the slow season to get in front of as many agents as possible and increased the number of listings he shot during the next year by over fifteen times

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