Welcome to The Steady Climb — one usable idea a week for agents building a business, not chasing the next closing.
The 20 names problem
Most agents do not have a lead problem. They have a follow-up problem. Ask an agent how many people they know who will move in the next 12 months, and the honest answer is usually "a few." Ask them to write the names down, and the list runs 40 deep.
The list is not the issue. The rhythm is.
This week's move: build your 20
Pick 20 names. Not 200. Twenty people who already know you and would take your call.
- Write the list. Past clients, neighbors, your kid's team parents, the guy who did your roof. No cold names.
- Tag them in your CRM. One tag. Call it Core 20. If it is not in the CRM, it is not a system.
- Touch each one this month. Call, text, or hand-write. No pitch. One question: "How is the house treating you?"
- Log every touch. The log is the proof you did the work. Memory is not.
Twenty touches a month is one a day. That is the whole ask.
The number that matters
Track one thing this week: conversations, not contacts. A voicemail is not a conversation. A DM read is not a conversation. Count only the two-way ones. Most agents find the real number is 3-5 a week. Doubling that changes a year.
One thing to fix
Open your CRM and find the oldest lead you never closed out. Either move it forward with a call today, or mark it dead. Half-open files are the tax you pay on a messy pipeline.
Next week: what to say on the call when you have not talked in two years.
Hit reply and tell me the one part of your business that feels the least built. I read every reply, and it shapes what runs here.
Keep climbing.
— Brian Mathieson, a team leader working the Houston market