Most real estate professionals seem to have a natural ability to talk — a way of connecting with people. These are the agents who always say, "If people just had an opportunity to talk to me about their real estate needs, I know they would want to work with me." And, it's true! If people had an opportunity to talk with them, they would want to work with that agent.

The question, then, is how to get you, as an agent, to talk to a lot more people. The answer is by actively working to do public relations speaking.

Public relations speaking is when you, as professional service provider, conduct educational talks for local groups and organizations such as the Lions, the Rotary, service clubs, church groups or any group that has a regular weekly or monthly meeting. The good news is that there are hundreds of these organizations, and they are all looking for someone to give their group a presentation of value on a topic that has a universal appeal. Talking about local real estate trends in your area fits the bill to a "T."

Be Yourself

Don't panic, you do not have to be a professional speaker to do this. Remember that real estate is a topic that everyone finds interesting. We all want to know: what our home is worth today, what's going to happen next year, what new things are affecting the real estate industry, how we can increase the value of our home and how we can invest in real estate. As a real estate professional you could talk for 20 to 30 minutes on any one of these topics without any preparation. The best thing you can do is simply to have a conversation with your audience. Your natural people skills will do the rest.

Don't think of this as a speech. Simply imagine that you are going to meet a buyer moving in from across the country, and they asked you to give them an overview of the real estate market in your area and for your opinion about what the market is going to be like over the next 12 months.

If you do this, I promise that you will impress your audience with your knowledge and skill as a real estate professional. Best of all, at almost every talk you give, you will pick up some new clients, looking to buy or sell, that think you know everything there is to know about real estate.

Introduce Yourself

To get started, write a nice cover letter introducing yourself and give a brief overview of the talk you would like to give to an organization. Then put together a list of organizations that you would like to talk to; start in the yellow pages under service organizations. Start by sending out 20 letters on your personal letterhead and include your personal brochure.

From that one mailing you will get at least two or three invitations to talk. The secret to making this really pay is mailing out 20 letters a month to more organizations. This will produce a steady flow of two or three speaking opportunities every month. The agents who do this tell me that after the first three or four, you will feel totally relaxed and find you no longer have any fear about speaking in public.

Maximize Your Opportunity

If possible, arrive at your presentation early and put your personal brochure on the chair of each person. That way, when they come in, they will quickly establish a positive feeling about you before you even start your talk. During your presentation, just be yourself. Give your talk and then take a few moments for questions and answers.

Tell your audience that if they would like, they can sign up to be on your email list to receive your quarterly real estate update on local trends. Have a sign up sheet to collect name, address, phone number and e-mail address. This will become a great social farm of people that have a positive impression of you that you can follow up with and get a very high rate of return from.

Once you have done this for a year, you will be amazed at the money it's making you, and you can go back to speak to the same groups each year. Also, if you speak to a group larger then 50 people, make sure you write a press release about it and submit it to your local newspapers.

This is a fun way to get people to know you; and best of all, it will help you grow your business and make you money. So just do it!

As always I would love your feedback about this article. You can reach me at: Greg.Herder@HobbsHerder.com.

Published: January 3, 2005

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.