I spoke with the president of an up-and-coming real estate technology vendor today, and he said something that caught my attention."? "Real estate rain makers are dead!" -- and when he explained his position I could see why he felt that way...

"Rain makers" in the parlance of sales are those individuals who generate new business, typically in the form of leads."? Traditionally, agents generated new leads through cold calling, staying in touch with their SOI with more aggressive proactive agents trying their hand at direct marketing."? My friend went on to explain that now with the Internet and the emergence of 3rd party lead generation services, it makes sense for individual agents and their brokers to think of lead generation as a separate business "process" --one that can either be executed in house or purchased from 3rd party lead-generation specialists.

When you think about it, this view makes perfect sense."? Oh, there are always the nay-sayers that condemn the "intermediaries and interlopers" protesting with the vehemence of a wrongly condemned man."? However, the fact remains that whether you generate the leads yourself or you pay for them it simply boils down to cost."? And in my opinion, the committed individual agent can still generate their own, higher quality, leads (and hence, preserve and expand upon their own branding) for less"? --if-- they know what to do and how to execute it."? In fact, I know this from personal experience in teaching thousands of agents around the world on how to do just that.

If by "rain maker" you mean the tradition way of generating leads through prospecting, ads, etc. --then yes they are very much a dying breed."? However, the new smarter rain makers are very much alive and kicking butt."? The question is are you going to be your own rain maker or simply hire someone else to do it for you?

Michael
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