Industry leader Kendall Bonner explains how agents can leverage life events to build strong, headwind-resistant client pipelines.
Although industry leader Kendall Bonner‘s first book, The Motivated Mover Method, is brand new, the ideas it discusses were born 11 years ago — when the eXp team leader hired a coach who said growth could only come by casting a wider net.
So, Bonner put her previous method — which focused on niche services — aside and began farming neighborhoods, hosting more open houses and cold-calling expired listings. However, Bonner found herself exhausted and frustrated, feeling that she was simply reacting to the market rather than getting ahead of it.
Kendall Bonner
“I entered into a red ocean territory, and I didn’t know it at the time. But my ‘aha’ was realizing that everyone in real estate is taught the same thing,” she said. “About six years ago or so, I met Chris Drayer from Revaluate, and he sent me a white paper that he had written around the data Ds — these specific life event categories — that agents can build a niche around.”
“I read that [paper], and I thought, ‘Yes, that is so true.’ I had already worked with two of the data Ds earlier in the business: debt and default,” she added. “I had built a niche around those two Ds and had a steady pipeline. It wasn’t until I tried to cast a wider net that I got exhausted [and] that business was harder for me than it was before.”
So, Bonner refocused on her niche and began teaching other agents how to find theirs by understanding the life events that create motivated clients. Those clients, she said, usually aren’t thinking about real estate at the beginning of that life event — but through targeted marketing, agents can begin building connections well before that client is ready to sign an agreement.
“Most real estate professionals are not properly marketing to life events, which is what would get you in front of a future buyer or seller long before they’ve ever self-identified as a buyer or seller,” she said. “For example, someone who’s going through a divorce, they’re not excited or wanting to immediately start thinking about being a buyer or seller, even though we all know there’s a strong likelihood that there’s gonna be a real estate transaction.”
She added, “But if we started marketing to them in a way that spoke to them … that is the real magic.”
The Motivated Mover Method identifies 14 life events — also known as the data Ds — that spark transaction needs:
- Family and lifestyle: diapers (new baby), diamonds (engagement/marriage), divorce, death, downsizing and diplomas (graduation)
- Financial and health pressures: debt, default (pre-foreclosure), diagnosis (health changes) and damage (property damage)
- Career, dreams and opportunity: desk (job relocation), dreams (first-time homeownership), discretionary (investment and 1031 exchange buyers) and duty (military moves)
Bonner said agents can find these Ds by keeping up with demographic reports, like the U.S. Census, combing through public records, including divorce filings and default notices, and simply paying attention to what people broadcast about their lives on social media or through conversation.
“People are on social media all the time talking about how they’re going to have a baby, or someone passed away; they’re broadcasting their life events,” she said. “And my position is that most agents spend too much time broadcasting their own brand as opposed to listening to the signals of other people’s broadcasts.”
Once an agent is attuned to what the data shows them, Bonner suggests they begin building connections with complementary business partners or vendors. Focused on serving new families? Connect with a local OB-GYN network. Passionate about seniors? Partner with senior living care coordinators. Great at working through difficult family dynamics? Get in front of divorce lawyers who can recommend your services.
“Connect with professionals who also have access to your future client,” she said. “There are so many adjacent parties who are connecting with and servicing the same group of people that could be a huge pipeline of referrals. Most agents think of referrals from agent to agent, but the real power is in the referrals to people that you don’t even have to pay a referral fee to. You just have a trust transfer between you and another vendor for the same client.”
Bonner said she hopes her book helps agents become more proactive about their businesses and realize there’s still plenty of opportunity for growth, even in a tight market plagued with headwinds.
“If you pay attention to the Ds, they come with actual relevant timelines. Some people might be three to six months out; some might be 12 months out. But either way, they’re within the next 12 to 18 months, which gives you a steady pipeline, as opposed to just going month to month,” she said. “Every agent, I feel, is living month to month in their business, and it doesn’t have to be that way.”