Offerin' Real Estate Insights

How Personal Development and Communication Skills Help Agents Generate More Real Estate Leads

• OfferIn.io • Episode 6

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If you've ever stared at a dry pipeline and wondered where the real estate leads went, you’re not alone. Most real estate agents hit that wall. Maybe you’ve tried lead gen software, paid ads, or cold calls, only to feel more frustrated. The truth? It’s not just about generating leads, it’s about who you become in the process. 

In this episode of The Offerin’ Real Estate Insights Podcast, Darrin, Kevin, and Ben dive into the real roots of lead generation struggles, explaining why personal development, communication skills, and character in business are often more important than pouring money into marketing funnels. From the power of relationships and building trust, to understanding how customer service in real estate creates organic lead generation, this episode reframes the real estate mindset from transactional to transformational.

If you're launching your real estate business or aiming to scale it sustainably, you'll find practical realtor tips on how to attract clients by serving better, not selling harder. Learn why business integrity, investing in real estate skills, and establishing effective real estate systems will always outperform chasing quick wins. If you want to become one of the successful realtors who thrives long-term, this conversation will change the way you think about the real estate process.



👉 Discover how Offerin helps agents win more deals, save time, and look like heroes to their clients. Visit Offerin.io to learn more or schedule a demo today.

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Welcome to the Offering podcast, where we talk real stories, real problems, real solutions in the world of real estate. So happy to talk about leads today. But we all want more of them, right? But it's really hard to build systems that continuously generate and truly earn those leads. We're joined here in another episode with Kevin. Ben. Kevin, in our last episode, you were talking about leads, that we are the work that we're doing, the planting we're doing in January truly harvests leads and June, July, August. What is the deal with with lead generation? Why is it so hard, to generate leads in real estate? I have a totally different answer than anything. Probably in real estate to talk about. That's that's really important. Yeah, most people are thinking about lead generation of how do I spend my dollars? Zillow, Trulia. Where am I going to spend my marketing content? And probably one of the most important things about lead generation is to him. That has much more will be given, and to him that has little. All will be taken. And of course, if you're a believer, that all makes sense. But basically one of the most important parts about leads in real estate is having gratitude for what you've been given already. And I see a lot of people follow every silver bullet. They they try to chase something, they try to get a lead. They try to make money. But that's really not what we're here to do. What we're here to do is to build ourselves up to be the best we can be. And it's my belief that if you do that, if you focus on your character, if you focus on your integrity, if you focus on creating great experiences and serving the people around you that have been put in your world to serve, you're not going to have a lead problem. You're going to have an abundance problem and good. I love the perspective of that. Actually, you mentioned the word gratitude that, that's come up today multiple times for me. So it's like, okay, there's a word ringing, ringing in my head, today. So that's, that's really interesting because you don't hear that, like the take a take a quick, spin off the stats here real quick. I look this up and prep for the conversation. But, so we got, like a whole bunch of lead gen software businesses, right? Arguably there's like ten leading platforms and like, hundreds of others. Hey, give us, you know, give us, you know, you know, $50,000 and we'll generate, you know, you know, promise guarantee leads in next couple days. But, you know, the lead gen software business alone. Counting. Zillow. Market leader, Realtor.com. Real key example, right, X and so on and so on is $4.5 billion industry. 4.5 billion. Do you think they generated more than 44.$5 billion worth of leads. In terms of revenue for real estate agents? I have no idea. I'm sure we can find the stats on that, though. Right. We could be curious, see what the, what the commission amount was in the United States and whether it was over that I have no idea. Yeah, I yeah, I think I think there's like, fundamental disconnect between that kind of lead generation and actual lead generation, like, you know, low level self. You got. Yeah. Most people are thinking about leads and like Kevin was saying, like, okay, I'm spending this money, I'm getting these leads back. Yeah. Versus I would say, like, if you were in that vein of thought, you need to be thinking like, I'm, I'm spending this money. How can I improve on my knowledge of the industry and what I have to offer? Right. The other the other side is I am here to serve the people that are brought into my life. Like that's actually what I'm here for. So whatever I have that has been given to me right now, how do I handle that amazingly too much. You mean what you were saying? It's like if I do well with that little and I treat that person the way I want to be treated, okay, now I have something to build off of. Right? So lead generation is both relational, right? People do business with who they know and trust. If you lack skills, you need to be investing in yourself. Buy a piece of property, become an investor, learn the product, go with a on a team with a team leader like your. If you're new at real estate like you need to get better at it, you need to recognize that the issue is you, you're the issue. Get better at your job, and don't expect for people not to recognize that you're good or bad at it. Secondly, you know, when it comes to Zillow and all these things, those kind of leads are like, random people that are looking they've they've type in, I want to sell something or whatever. Well, if you don't know what you're doing and you aren't thinking about this person is like, hey, I'm here to serve them with what I know how to serve with what you're you're going to miss out on the fact that, hey, this person is not going to talk to their network about you. So it's like the multiplication factor of the whole thing is cut off. You're always 1 to 1. Well, I finally sold a house. It was a nightmare. Yeah, okay. I sold another house. Well, you're going to be. Most real estate agents. Don't make it because they're not thinking about this. It's really easy to think about it as a commission or about making money instead of the heart of it, which is like, this is somebody's life. So we'll take this out of real estate. This is really important. You know it's easy to see this outside of real estate when you look at it in real estate it can get a little bit convoluted. But I've got a daughter. She tried out for a play. And she made the play but she didn't get the part that she wanted. Right. She got a part that had like 1 or 2 lines, which like I'm super excited by the way, because I think it's going to give her some grit and then a. Lot easier for you, by the way. That's right. Yeah, but but look, the answer to her at this stage, she's 12 years old. The answer to her isn't, well, go out and apply for another play. Right. The answer is improve your craft. Become great. Make the most of this experience. Do the best you can with your 2 or 3 lines in this play. And sure enough, what's going to happen next time you're going to get a better part and then a better part. And this is this is the fundamental problem with how people look at leads. Let me go get a lead. Let me go get a lead. Let me sign up for Zillow. Let me sign up for that. When you sign up for Trulia, let me go get another lead. How much money can I get? There is not a lead problem. There is no real estate agent. That's right. In the country of the United States of America has a lead problem. I said it right there. No real estate. Agent. This is the problem. They have. They have a knowledge problem. They have a skill problem. They have, They're focused on the wrong spot. You want to say to my daughter, who's 12, you want to say to her, oh, there's a there's a shortage of place for you. Problem? No. You'd say like you have, you haven't developed your skill enough to have this part in the play. I got say that. So I also have a daughter who came to me the other day and was like, hey, dad, I want to be I want to play basketball, okay? I was like, all right, well, if you want to be really good at basketball, I want you to go outside and play with your brothers and they're going to torture you. Five years. I'm. If you can even learn how to dribble it, like, amazing. Like, if you can get that score point on them at the end of it, you're going to be a dog. The. So I said, you want to be a dog at basketball, but you have to like smile about it. Like as you get your teeth kicked in for five years from your older brothers, if you want to be really good at basketball. Don't worry about the score. Don't worry about whether you won or lost. Recognize that like the pressure coming against you is what is actually going to make you great at this. Yeah. So don't get into real estate expecting like oh I'm going to get all these like paid for leads and sell them like, well you don't even have any skill get some skills. So but like for the new agent I guess I'm coming in, I want to be an agent today and I get started like you mean to tell me, how long is I going to take to ramp up. Right. Is I hey, just be a good person and be kind and and, this is going to eventually come to me or like. No. What? Are you okay? Okay. I think it's more than that. There's more than just being kind. There's showing up and doing the job. Definitely. But but look, if you walk out your front door tonight when you get home, okay? And look around. And what do you see? You see a bunch of other people living in houses. Sure. So, like, everybody around us is buying and selling houses and everybody around us. By the way, this is the one thing that maybe a new real estate agent doesn't know. Everybody around you, at their core, really cares about where they live. They care about their environment. And people might not be able to say that, but they care about that. And so we're consistently moving as humans towards having better environments. And so all the people around you are going to be moving in the future or they're going to be moving soon. And so like the recognition that there's so much around you is really important. And yes, there are things you have to do. You can't you can't not show up to work. You can't not answer your phone. You know, those are important things and you got to have business acumen. You have to develop that. You have to develop those skills. You need to understand about money like finance, how things you need to understand some building construction. You need to understand some design. You need to understand, people's motivations like surrounding like schools and like their life. You need to understand some psychology. You need to. I mean, like, there's kind of a long list of skills that you're going to develop and if you not every person coming into real estate is coming from the same background, if you're 19 years old, 20 or 21 years old with not a whole lot of life experience as, oh, it's going to be a long road for you. Like, again, buy some rental properties and like get some, you know, hair on your chest. I mean, I guess or if you're a woman like, don't, don't do that, but do that, you understand what I'm saying. And if you are like a business executive coming to this, like, well, you already understand team, you already understand finance, you already understand, like whatever. And so you can like build up those other skills. It's going to be a lot faster for you. So these people that are or you know, understanding anyways you understand what I'm saying. Like you like you actually taking the time to recognize that you need to build your own skills so that you can be a great servant and, representative for the people that you are working for so that you can move their life forward roles, they're gonna want to tell everybody about you. You're going to convert more of the opportunities you get. They're going to like the word spread. Yeah, absolutely. So there's a difference between, I don't know what they what what you would say, but, like going hunting for lead or attracting somebody. And those are two different things. And I guess I would say our mentality just the way we operate, and I don't think everybody has to operate this way. Right. There are people that love waking up at 6:00 am and making 300 and, cold calls and doing 300 scripts and. Not very many of those. I've never met any of those people. But apparently, according to all of them on YouTube, they're there and they want to sell you their 699. Right? Of course, for the next year or 6000. But but our mindset really is let's build an awesome process. Yeah. With awesome systems and awesome people and an awesome product. Yeah. And let's attract people to that. Become who God made you to be, and understand that he also made other people different. And when you can all become who you are supposed to be, you're all there's going to abundance. Like that's what he was talking about, this one or the last one. It's like an A, there's not a shortage here. Yeah. And by the way, even if you have the money, if you don't actually have a sustainable, sustainable rhythm to all of this, guess what? There's still a lot of people out there that have a lot of money who are miserable. Like, it's like money is not time. Time is life, right? Like your life matters once you get all the money, if it's miserable, you're going to wish that you could have your life. All right. Kevin, so, you mentioned something. I want to just clarify a little bit. You mentioned process. And, like, having a process is actually the marketing, like, so, so having, a certain way we do things, you know, whether it's the cold calls every day, whether it's emails every day, but you leveraging some kind of process, of relationship building, you know, relationships, build relationships, not leads is a, you know, a term that you're often or, or, by lunch, not not leads, you know, like the build relationships of people. Go deeper. Have it be part of who you are. How long does this process take? Like, you know, is, So I ask that because I've seen my my, we have a family member in real estate that, you know, a it takes a year or two to kind of get your business under you. And then I've also talked to other agents that, I talked to one guy in South Carolina a couple weeks ago that was, like, sold 93 houses his first year. And he's building and scaling his team now. And, in Charleston, South Carolina, it's like, that's awesome. What was it about that guy that caused 93 sales in his first? Yeah. So he did have some of that business acumen that you talked about. I mean, he's probably he came out of high school top of class, you know, went to the Naval Academy, built more skills. But he was literally on a submarine. Right. So it's not like he was learning how to do real estate on a submarine, but he gets out of Naval Academy as a naval officer and he starts a real estate business. Well, usually when I hear something like that, it's like if you dug deeper into it. I'm not trying to like down on this guy, but like he did, he sold like a 53 package house to an investor. This guy's. Legit. This is like, sounds legit. I mean, it's little strange. You're you're saying things here that are really important. Yeah. You know, okay, so you look at real estate, the industry of it, and you say, all right, what are what are the things needed for somebody to be successful there? And and 6% of it is about houses. Everything you just said there. That's right. This guy's got discipline. He knows how to speak with people. Well, yeah. He has integrity. You know, he's part of the Naval Academy. I mean, that comes with a level of trust and expertise in his craft. He cares about doing things well, that's that's 90% of being good real estate. And so yeah, he would go do anything and he's going to be successful at it right away. The barrier for the barrier to entry to being a real estate agent is super low. So he's bringing a world of wealth of skills and knowledge to the table, but he is the same. He's going to get a real estate license, the same as somebody who is coming to the table. No skills. You know. Well, here's the thing going talking about this lead generation thing. Yeah, this whole lead idea and the reason that people talk about these lead generation things like, like scripts and I'm not downplaying it. I think they can be highly effective for people cold calling things like that that are it is the lowest common denominator that you could put somebody into to have them show up and do something right. So, you know, in terms of like this guy you're talking about developing relationships, going in to, to banks and, and, and really developing relationships with bankers. That's a high level skill. Low level skill. I hate to say it, but picking up the phone and beating your head against the wall, anybody could show up. Any monkey could show up tomorrow and do it. And I'm not saying that you're not going to make a lot of money doing it. You can make a lot of money. I haven't met a lot of people that like doing it, but what I'm what what I'm trying to get at here when we talk about this lead is it's about attraction. It's about it's about you becoming the best version of yourself, creating a great experience for other people. That's going to turn into more opportunities to serve other people. Yeah. And and knowing knowing what you have to offer and what you and knowing yourself well enough to know what you don't have to offer and surrounding other people with you to to put that out into the world. I wish that we had some statistic on like, well, how many of real estate agents are miserable, miserable in their marriage? How many have got divorced? How many are struggling with, self-confidence? How many? You know, you call 300 people and get three, 299 rejections. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Like, some people can withstand that. Well, and other people like that beat you up a little bit versus like, hey, I spent all that time becoming a better version and got four leads and converted three of them. And wow, I'm off to the races like there's a just a and I am. I am building a network that is sustainable and in the long run. And I'm becoming a better version so that I am like we said earlier like so I'm actually able to give this to people. They need it. People need the expertise. There's so much to this real estate, all the details, all the communications that people just don't even know unless you're in it. Well it just, you know for a guy like me that's again not an agent. Looking at this from the outside, I see so much online and social about Legion. Legion Legion. And what you guys are spinning here is completely different. Right. So if we're going to land this ship and actually have, like, practical skin on. Yeah. Takeaways, if you will, for our audience. Okay. The millions of people. That are watching. Oh, yeah. Millions. So, so what is like one solid thing that you can, you can give an agent that they can start doing immediately. In terms of lead generation. Yeah, absolutely. This is how do you generate more leads? Today. Today I think the first thing you think of, if I was starting brand new from scratch and had no business whatsoever, I would get lunch with the people I love. Okay. That's it. It's that simple. Yeah, but let's just say you were outside of that. Like, let's just say somebody. Nobody loves you. Yeah, let's just say, like, 330 or 2 years and and you're like, you're one year in and you're like, I've been doing this for a year, and I, I made $26,000. I need to make more of this. I'm struggling to find leads. I'm thinking about quitting. Like, what do you say to that person? What do you say to that person? That's two years in. One year in one year. In 1 or 2. Year doesn't have the. Lead. I'm working a part time job because I can't make it. I'm trying to like, what do you say to that person? Quit. Well, well, look, I mean, what you're saying is a it's a fundamental problem. You can't show up to something half ass and expect for results. And the way you're describing this person is. Well, no. How do they change their mind? Like they're basically saying like, hey, I need leads to sell houses. Is that true? Is that actually what they need? Or hey, you have a. Uses and a lead problem. This is this is a this is a spiritual problem in this person's life that that has not committed. Make it practical. What do they need to do. They probably need to. So I can show you here. Here's what I'm hearing. Relationships are greater than leads. So you sit down with people. I heard Gary Vaynerchuk. Is it Gary maybe. Yeah. Gary Vee. So he said you know if you're starting a business grab your phone and send out a text to 100% of the people in your. Does anybody larger. Context, things like that. I say, listen, I'm passionately like I'm starting the business that I've always wanted. His example was I am doing a lawn care business. I've always wanted to cut grass for my life. And so he said, send it out to everyone. He goes, I promise you, you have a business. Like from a practical Legion thing. You're sending out a note. You said relationship. Sit down with people in your family, have coffee, have lunch, whatever, and tell them what you're doing. And similarly, you know, you can do that through your Rolodex, saying, hey, I'm in real estate. You know, like, I really love this industry, but this. Is all about this is all about the problem here that you're talking is this is about yourself. And this isn't about service. What I'm talking about, what lead generation is service. And so you're talking about I'm cutting you off here because this is so important. The lead generation is the service. You do a great service. There you go. And there's going to be plenty of people who want to hire you. Abundance. Yeah. And you have to ask yourself and back to this guy, this hypothetical guy, Tommy John Joe that has a part time job that is trying to invest in real estate. Well, real estate is not a part time job. It's just not. And and part time agents as the world continues to advance with AI, with technology, full time real estate agents are going to eat your lunch. And the truth is one of the problems in the industry is actually hate me for saying it. It's fine, but you can't. This is a big deal in people's lives. These are hundreds of thousands of dollars that people are spending. They don't make decisions like this. And and there can be good part time agents out there, I get it. However, this is a serious thing we're talking about here. And so if you're not willing to commit to serving somebody well in that, I don't know, man. It's just maybe this isn't for you. I'm a disagree with him. Disagree. That's great. Mush that. Listen for all you Tom's and John and James out there, here's the answer okay? I don't know what the average stats or the average age of a real estate agent is, but this is this is for this is agents that are 0 to 3 years into the business. I'm going to tell you how to go. Just take this as a golden nugget telling you right now there are a bunch of, aging real estate agents that have spent millions of dollars and spent years of their life building relationships and doing advertising and have a book, a business, and also have experience. Okay, if you were that 0 to 3 year agent who doesn't actually have the skills, become more self-aware, invest in yourself and connect with one of these agents because they already have the relationships and they already have the incoming phone calls and what they don't have is the energy to manage it all because they're tired. So what you have to have is some humility to know that you don't know, but you got to be a hard worker and be willing to actually just kind of work for cheap, just like an apprentice or something like that. And as you gain skills and actual knowledge, well, then it would be wise for you to go ahead and invest some money and letting people know that you exist. I mean, this is this advice is not for the person that's like the guy that can jump in and sell 90 houses. He's the 1 in 1,000,000. Yeah. But for the most people out there who are not making it, what I'm saying right now is the pathway forward for them because they aren't having the marketing dollars are already spent for the last 25 years. You don't need to spend more marketing dollars. You need skills, and you need to connect with people who know what they're talking about. I agree with you. I'm not disagreeing with any of that. All right. Then you're saying is in complete agreement. Yeah, yeah. And I would, I was cutting myself off earlier. Yeah. Because I would agree with you, that so much of this is, you know, the building, the right people around you, building the right systems, being, you know, good character. But. So this is tough. You know, it really is to get go and get started. You know, the stats show that 75% of people sell less than five houses a year. Yeah. And so we're probably talking to, you know, those folks on, on this episode. Right. So how do you how do you do that? And that is, that is a tough, tough road to go. But I listen. Let me correct myself then. Don't quit. Keep it up. Follow Ben's advice, okay. Yeah. Just surround yourself around great people. Both personal character. Yeah, yeah. Keep going. I mean, there's one question you have to ask yourself if you're going to go down the road that I just described, you have to ask yourself this question. Do I love this? Do I is it am I really excited about real estate? Like a car person, I love cars, do I love real estate? Do I want to own real estate? Do I want to serve my family person? Like, am I supposed to be here? That's good. If you can say yes if you answer that question, no, I really want to be doing this, but I just wanted money. Get out it. Don't do it. It's not worth it. Yeah, but if you're like me, I just. I'm frustrated because I can't figure it out. But I really love this. Yeah. Do what I said earlier and you will make it. You will get the skills. Our time is up. One one question for each of you. What is the one character skill you would recommend? Or what's the one character skill you think is the most important for an age dev. Telling people that you're 100%. I mean, that's it. You wait. Did you guys have the same answer? Got it. It's it. Yeah. Tell the truth. You have to call people. And sometimes you tell them good news. Sometimes you tell them bad news. And it's it all comes out the same. And you have to be willing to tell people the truth, right? Yeah. I just had that happen, like, before we got on this podcast, I, I might have made a mistake. And I don't know if I did or not, I probably did. I might have such. I was like, I made a mistake. I was like, here's what we have. Here's what happened. I yeah, yeah. Great. So thanks for joining us. As always, you know, we're we're here to to share those real stories, right? The real problems and hopefully real solutions. So, I hope you join us on the next one. Thanks.