Tactical vs Strategic Thinking in Real Estate Marketing – The Critical Difference

To illustrate the differences between working from a tactical and strategic perspective, I’d like you to imagine the following: Think of a set of Lego blocks. When you buy a Lego set, you open the box to find hundreds of blocks of various sizes and miscellaneous pieces that can be molded into just about anything your imagination allows. But also inside that box is a booklet with step-by-step instructions on how to build whatever you see depicted on the front of the box, whether it’s a red Ferrari F430 or an entire city.

The choice of which path to choose is completely up to you. In both cases, you are playing with Legos. But only one of those approaches comes ready to be tackled from a strategic perspective: the one where you follow directions and build what’s in the box.

Definition of the difference

By definition, a strategy is a plan of action to achieve a goal. Tactics, on the other hand, are the individual methods or activities by which you carry out your plan. Strategy is the big picture. The tactic is thoroughness. So when it comes to your real estate business, you first need to establish your strategy or overall goal setting before you can determine the tactics you will use to achieve your goals. The key is to make your tactics always serve your strategy. In other words, make sure that every action you take is part of a larger plan. Individual tactics should never be carried out without fitting into a larger scheme.

Here is another analogy to help you better understand the difference between the two. Working from a tactical perspective is like being in the heart of downtown. Everywhere you look, your view is obscured by giant skyscrapers, limiting your ability to see very far in any direction. Working from a strategic perspective is like getting on a helicopter and flying over those buildings with clear skies as far as the eye can see. It is a panoramic view without any limitation. The higher elevation you rise to, the more strategic and less tactical your perspective becomes.

Real Estate Tactics

Some examples of tactics used by real estate agents are cold calling, holding open houses, asking for references, sitting on the floor, using sales scripts – the list could go on and on. In and of themselves, these activities may generate some business, or they may just waste your time. But once you start looking at them from a strategic perspective and with a clear intent in mind, you can modify your individual tactics to serve your overall real estate marketing strategy.

My concern is that I feel like I’m seeing too many agents lately working from a tactical perspective rather than a strategic one. Most real estate training out there focuses solely on tactics, so it’s no wonder many agents end up focusing all of their energy on tactics instead of the all-important overall strategy. My goal with this article is to make you think strategically and, in turn, make your efforts more productive and fruitful.

What are you trying to accomplish?

On a daily basis, you may ask yourself “What should I do today to make money?” It’s a good question but there is no good answer, because it all depends on what you are trying to achieve. If your strategy is to survive another day in business, just about any tactic will do. If your strategy is to look busy, you can run errands all day and consider yourself successful. That’s why the first step in approaching your career strategically is defining what success means to you.

When defining your vision of success, be specific:

“Success is working 35-40 hours a week, having my systems up and running to generate a business of over $200,000 in annual gross commissions. I will take four weeks off at various times of the year and never work more than six days per week I will take a three-day weekend every month and not call the office or check my messages when I am not working I will buy a new car every 24 months and spend at least 15 business days per year attending seminars and the general improvement of my business.

The Strategic Open House

Once you’ve established your definition of success, it’s much easier to define the tactics you need to get there. But the strategic vs. the tactical debate extends further into areas you may never think of. Open houses, for example. For most agents, open houses are necessary evils. The owner of the house demands that he hold an open house, so he accepts and ends up sitting on a bar stool for four hours reading the newspaper while some neighbors and onlookers pass by. This typical scenario is holding an open house from a tactical perspective.

When you approach it from a strategic perspective, everything changes. If you decide to hold an open house, you can also make the most of it and make it part of a larger strategy. For example, you can use an open house as part of a strategy to build name recognition, establish yourself as a local expert, and make a positive impression on homeowners surrounding your listing. Once you have a strategy, your tactics follow the course. You send out a series of invitations to neighbors down the street where your listing is located, making an open house “event.” Make sure your signs are visible throughout the neighborhood on the day of the open house. Have your brochure and other valuable information gathered in packets to hand out to those who attend. You also create a follow-up plan to make sure you add these people to your direct mail group and stay in touch with them after your initial positive meeting.

Or maybe your strategy is to use an open house to get a reduction in the price of the house. What tactics would you employ to achieve that goal? Here’s one: When a prospective buyer walks in the door, hand them a brochure about the house, as well as an anonymous questionnaire. If he asks you to complete the questionnaire as you walk through the house, he will focus your attention and provide you with valuable information. The most important question you can ask is “What price would you buy this house for today?” The likely answer you’ll get is that the price has to be lower before they’ll even consider buying the house. Even five or six responses that are lower than your current selling price can be used as ammunition to initiate a price cut that is so essential in today’s market.

Open yourself to new possibilities

When you start looking at your career strategically instead of tactically, you take advantage of all kinds of new possibilities. You need to get out of your daily tactics and really take a look at what you want to achieve and what is possible. Get out of your box and figure out what you really want to do.

The key is that once you have a goal in mind, you need to determine what tactics to employ to achieve your goal. Even floor time can be approached from a strategic real estate marketing perspective. Instead of sitting in the office answering phones and waiting for that “prize” call, you can devise a strategy to keep track of every person who calls you. Ask them if you can send them a copy of your personal brochure and a valuable special report you’ve created that you think might help them in the process. Suddenly you’re engaging the caller and helping solve their problems while building your brand and name recognition in the process.

It all starts by asking yourself the simple questions:

• “If I’m going to do a tactic like floor time, how can I do it in line with my overall strategy?”

• “How will I keep track of each caller?”

• “Do I have a special report or something else I can offer you?”

• “What can I do to make floor time better and more productive?”

The bottom line

The bottom line is that you are trying to sell properties. You can approach this goal differently each day, you can try using the “tactic of the week” approach, or you can come up with a strategy that allows you to continually progress in your career. I want to encourage you to take a strategic view of your career and start asking yourself how everything you do fits into your overall plan. You may find that your tactics don’t change too radically, but the results of your tactics will improve tremendously.

Exercise: Try to think about everything you did yesterday and determine whether or not your actions were in line with your long-term career goals. I’d love to know you’re on the right track, spending a lot of your time working on his business instead of being in it. But I suspect that is not the case for most. Regardless, it’s a valuable exercise that can help inspire you to work more strategically in the future.