Chris Smith is a bestselling author of four business books – the newest of which, The Conversion Code, now has an updated edition available in print and ebook formats.
On this week’s episode of Over Ask, he joins Matt Lionetti and The Broke Agent to discuss the book or, to put it in his words, “the art and science of lead generation.”
Why Books?
What led Chris Smith to write books? It started with his habit of going beyond the tools he sold. He built a business based on helping agents make the best use of their resources.
Co-writing a book with Austin Allison, the genius CEO of Pacaso, motivated Chris to start his own company, Curator, which he describes as a sort of “HubSpot for real estate.”
Chris documented his content-creation journey along the way and graduated onto books. He enjoys everything about it – researching, writing, talking about his books, everything.
The new updated version was necessary because so much has changed since then. In many ways, it’s a different landscape, and the new edition lays it all out as a comprehensive and timely guide to marketing, follow-up, and sales.
“Sales and marketing typically hate each other. They have different skill sets, different KPIs. That’s the promise of this book: I’m gonna show you how to do both of those in a way that connects the dots all the way from left to right – kind of an A through Z for marketing and sales.”
Social Media and Skill Sets
To the agent who’s killing it as a real estate agent and doesn’t want to bother with social media, Chris would say, if retirement is around the corner and they’re financially set, that’s perfectly fine.
For those who still have years to go in the business, though, he would tell them they need a Matt, an Eric, or a Chris on their team (we mean…who doesn’t?!).
“They need to respect their youngers… They need to bring in people who are digital nomads, who love social media, who love content creation… If it’s not for you, it is for someone else.”
Chris’s favorite platform, by far, is Instagram. But TikTok is growing on that list because it gives him more dopamine than any other channel. He also loves Twitter, where some of the smartest people share their ideas.
But Chris is not in the business of telling anyone they need to be on anything. He’s a firm believer that people need to use the format that feels natural and works for them.
He agrees that if you’re going to do one thing, you should try to do video. That said, your approach to video doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s.
Is Blogging a Waste of Time?
Eric asked a question that’s probably on a lot of agents’ minds right now: “Do you think it’s wasted time for either agents or myself or BAM to be spending so much time on blogs today?”
“It’s equally important to go deep and wide. And it’s easier to go wide than deep… I would encourage anyone who feels the need to go deep to do it because so few people would. That’s probably the number one reason to do it.”
Eric also pointed to the quality of engagement he’s getting from his latest ebook, Your Instagram Prescription, which not only establishes him as an expert but shows his versatility and creates trust with his target audience.
Both authors see plenty to love about blogging, ebooks, and long-form content in general. Put simply, long-form content is a potential lead magnet; short form is not.
Read The Conversion Code
Any agent wanting to level up their game with marketing and sales should read The Conversion Code, which is available on Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, and Rakuten Kobo.
An audiobook is also on its way, so whatever format is your jam, get yourself a copy of The Conversion Code. The Broke Agent doesn’t get this excited about most books. This one he will definitely read.
Watch the full episode for more and to learn why Chris wants to pass the torch of “the coolest guys in real estate” to Broke Agent Media.
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