Strategic Generosity: Why This Coach is Giving Agents $500k in Free Training

Dale Archdekin is one of the sharpest sales coaches I’ve come across in real estate.One of the reasons I have great respect for him is that he doesn’t just have tactics, he has a system.He doesn’t just teach scripts, he teaches agents how to think.This presents a marketing challenge.Most agents want shiny objects and “magic pill” offers.He compared Smart Sales Coaching to running a culinary school while everyone else is selling recipe books.So in this weird market with fewer transactions and less disposable income, he’s responding with strategic generosity.“I don’t have this totally dialed in yet, but we’re giving away something like a half a million dollars worth of free training, over the next 12 months. One of the phrases [we’re using] is ‘Our free training is better than their paid training.’ Come take our free training, do what we tell you to do, and you’ll have the money to invest in even more training and support and guidance.” - Dale ArchdekinStill early days, but I don’t see a downside of staying in front of agents, even with free training. After all, if you coach or lead agents, you’re probably telling agents to step up their level of outreach. Hit their database, be generous with their time, look for problems they can solve, etc.Dale is doing the coaches’ version, but in a creative, attention-grabbing way.But let’s dig deeper into the marketing challenge of selling coaching in a tough market.Non-Obvious Insights from our Conversation:Agents are Working 3X as Hard to Sell Fewer Homes“She said, It used to be so easy. I didn’t really have to follow up with the leads. Now I’m working three times harder and setting fewer appointments and selling fewer houses. Like that’s the quote directly from her. And that’s the experience that I’m getting from most of the agents that we work with, that we talk to.”Dale was very specific that he’s not talking about lazy agents. He’s hearing this from disciplined, consistent and skilled salespeople. So when that’s their reality on the ground, what’s the message that can reach them?He’s changing his messaging to show how better sales skills can offset a down market.“If your sales skills are sharp and your sales skills are better than your competitors, then your lead quality doesn’t have to be as high. You magically find more leads, the more skilled you are as a salesperson.”That’s a pretty good reframe. Does it overcome all objections and magically turn skeptical agents into coaching clients? No, but it’s a really good step along the way.Other Coaches Aren’t Your REAL Competition“Here’s what a lot of agents want to buy…If I sang them a song about how I could provide them with amazing lay down leads that they had to do no work for, there’s no end of the stream of money that I could direct toward that. It’s just not reality. And it’s not true. It’s not what I sell.”It’s easy to get focused on competing coaches, and differentiating from them, while forgetting the real competition is every other option..from “magic pill” lead gen solutions to the latest shiny object to….doing nothing.When you know what your real competition is, you can build that into your marketing.If your real competition is “magic pill” lead gen offers, share the horror stories of clients who came to you after wasting months on those systems.If your competition is inaction…build “opportunity costs” into your marketing. Point out how much money, respect, and time it will cost them if they simply do nothing.Give Agents Tactics as a Window into your SYSTEM“And so I have to get better about what I sell because what I sell is like, ‘Hey, come to my gym and do the pushups. I’ll show you the best way to do pushups, but you still gotta do them. I can’t do the pushups for you.”Dale says he’s still working on how to transition agents from learning one of their sales tactics, to seeing the value in his entire sales system.This reminds me of musicians and music theory.No beginner musician wants to learn scales and modes. Music theory feels dry. It’s not immediately useful. So musicians keep learning a bunch of random stuff, until they hit a wall. They can’t use all the stuff they’ve learned together in any cohesive way.They finally get fed up and do something about it, and that’s when they get into music theory.Agents are the same way with tactics.Agents collect a bunch of random tactics, can’t figure out how to put them together to get results. Finally they get fed up and do something about it. That’s when they’re open to a system.And if you truly have a unique system, odds are you have some unique tactics that only work in the context of your system.If you lead with those tactics, not only will you grab attention, but once agents are exposed to your tactics, it gets them curious about the system behind them.But not every agent will be interested in going beyond the tactics, because they haven’t yet hit that wall hard enough, long enough to get fed up.It’s up to you…in your sales and marketing…to deliver the message: “Keep collecting tactics, and you’ll keep hitting that wall.”Want to go deeper? Click on the audio file for the full chat, or search Real Estate Thought Leaders on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Or Hit Reply and tell me what you’re seeing in the coaching market. Is demand up for certain coaches because the need is greater? Down due to fewer transactions?Ask This:How could you use a little “strategic generosity” to stay in front of agents?Virtual workshops, free group coaching sessions, uploading a paid course to YouTube, etc.While other coaches are cutting back on marketing, you could be MORE visible, being generous, taking mindshare, and positioning yourself to dominate as the market improves.Quick Links & ResourcesSmart Sales CoachingMore About DaleCa$h Call Podcast - Where Dale and Brian Curtis analyze real prospecting and client calls that real estate agents and ISAs have submitted.Dale is one of my favorite people in this industry, going back to his repeat guest spots on Real Estate Uncensored back in the day. Connect with him and keep him in mind for guest interview and speaking opportunities, he always brings great content and great sense of humor!-MattAgency Founder & Author of MicroFamousPS Here’s how we can help…Done-for-You Content Service - From Michael Maher and Lars Hedenborg to Jeff Cohn and Marki Lemons Ryhal, we’ve been the content team behind many of your fellow real estate coaches, speakers and authors. We turn conversations into videos, podcasts and email newsletters, all with zero overwhelm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethoughtleaders.substack.com