We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heather Rodriguez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heather below.
Heather, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?
I spent over 20 years in Corporate roles. I feel fortunate that I learned many lessons on the importance of running a solid organization, managing a profitable business, and first and foremost always putting the customer first. Unfortunately, in larger companies the customer can tend to get lost in the shuffle, which is something I struggled with. I made the decision to start my real estate career and team to ensure that I could provide the type of customer experience I was proud to be associated with.
Thanks to many years of experience, in marketing, sales, negotiation, managing teams and overall managing the sales process has positioned me well to create an experience where clients feel confident that they are being well represented and often share that we exceeded their expectations!
Heather , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a native to Arizona, I was raised in a small mining town east of the valley, I graduated from ASU with a Marketing Degree and pursued my dreams of working my way into a sales leadership role. I had a very successful career in various corporate roles for well over 20 years. In that time I felt privileged to work with and learn from so many smart business people! I also made some life-long friends which I’m extremely grateful for!
As much as I loved my career I always thought about starting my own business, but just couldn’t figure out what business to pursue. One day it came to me, why not sell Arizona. I love everything about this state and know I could be a resource to both buyers and sellers based on my previous experience. So, I decided to get my license, and put a plan in place. Once I was ready, I resigned from my job and jumped into real estate full-time!
It’s been 5 years now, and I have loved every minute! This business has allowed me to meet the most amazing people, grow personally and professionally, and become more involved in my local community. It’s also allowed me to be more involved in my family’s lives.
This year I started a team, which was something I contemplated for quite some time. I wanted to be sure that if I put a team together that I was very selective of the people who joined my team, as I want them to have the same passion for creating the ultimate customer experience. We want each client to feel like they are the only one we are working with! We are a small but mighty team and we have started this year strong!
Today’s market is pretty intense, it’s difficult for buyers to get an offer accepted and sellers have the challenge of where do they go once they sell. We strive to continually educate both buyers and sellers on the market and help them put together the best strategy for their situation.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Treat others as you would like to be treated. I always go back to this golden rule. It’s not only important in business but in life. If you treat people right, stand behind your word, and are sincere in doing what’s right your clients will feel that. Real Estate transactions are very personal, and often times emotional. Clients are trusting that you as their Realtor to have their best interest in mind.
Not every situation is easy, providing options to clients and allowing them to choose the best one without pressure is appreciated more then you can imagine.
When people know you are sincere about wanting what’s best for them they will continue to work with you and will feel confident in referring you to their friends and family.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Let me start by saying that I am not the best person on social media by far. I admire so many agents who are so creative with their social media outlets. I am constantly working to learn more from others and improve my social media outreach. With that being said, I have leveraged social media and had success in engaging with others by targeting my messaging based on the platform. I typically post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linked in. I do this because I have different followers on each platform.
What I learned early on, is that in order to consistently engage with the various groups of people I know it’s important to remain active on all platforms. Facebook and Instagram are traditionally used in the Real Estate space. However, I have found that my Linked in posts have generated a ton of business for me from people who I’ve worked with over the years that live in or out of state. They remember I’m in the business and refer me clients who are moving to Arizona or who are looking for vacation homes here. Twitter also has a different group of followers; several are out of state. I have found that when posting unique properties or engaging information I get questions from followers in this space.
I guess if I could share any advice with regards to social media it would be to build strong platforms on various outlets to create different lead generating opportunities with different audiences.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.heathersellzhomes.com
- Instagram: @heathersellzhomes
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100016666270282
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-rodriguez-340a71/
- Twitter: @rodriguezh3226
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn4itRMdcFOKdZVWl9ziTxQ
- Other: www.therodriguezgrp.com