The 7 C’s of highly successful agents (and how to apply them)

How do you become a highly successful real estate agent? Success always leaves clues. Over the years, I’ve noticed agents who consistently grow their businesses and deliver incredible client experiences^[1] share many of the same qualities.

Today, I want to break down the 7 C’s that make a great real estate agent, and more importantly, how you can apply them in your own business right now.

The 7 C’s of highly successful real estate agents

1. Connected

The best agents are not only resources, they’re also sources. Yes, they have the tools, experience and expertise to provide an amazing real estate sale or purchase experience. They are the resource for their clients with other trusted service providers^[2] in their community. 

When your clients see you as the person who can connect them with everything from plumbers to painters, from a lender to a landscaper, you elevate your value far beyond “just a real estate agent.”

Practical tip

Build a trusted vendor list^[3]. Include home repair technicians, landscapers, inspectors, lenders, cleaners and any other service provider they might need. Share it with past clients and new homeowners. Over time, you’ll be the one they call. Not just for real estate, but for anything tied to your community. 

2. Competent

Competence is about more than knowing the comps in a neighborhood. It’s about mastering the skills that make you indispensable.

That means:

• Understanding how to market a listing in ways that stand out.
• Negotiating with confidence and clarity.
• Delivering professionalism that makes clients trust you immediately.

Competence breeds confidence. Confidence builds trust. Trust leads to contracts.

Practical tip

Invest in sharpening your listing presentation^[4] and your negotiation scripts. Practice until you can deliver them without hesitation. Competence comes with preparation. Take the classes. Attend the masterminds. Hire the coach. Whatever it takes for you to become the agent your clients trust and have confidence in, make it happen.

3. Creative

Real estate is a problem-solving business. Great agents bring creative solutions, whether it’s marketing a property differently or finding a way to hold a fragile deal together.

Right now, the toughest part of a transaction isn’t always getting a home under contract; it’s keeping it together through closing. Creative agents anticipate issues, calm fears and find ways to move forward when others only see obstacles.

Practical tip

Look outside your market for marketing ideas. Borrow what’s working elsewhere, add your local spin, and put it into play. And when problems arise in a transaction, train yourself to ask: “What can I do to solve this, not just explain it?”

4. Consistent

This is where most agents fall short. One great week of activity doesn’t matter if you go quiet for the next two. The agents who win are those who show up, over and over again.

Consistency builds momentum^[5]. Momentum creates opportunities, and opportunities turn into closings.

Practical tip

• Build a database that you communicate with weekly. Send a “Deal of the Week” email highlighting one property that stands out.
• Post on social media multiple times a week, not just when you feel like it.
• Block out time for prospecting every day, and guard it like an appointment.

When you get consistent with your income-producing activities, the income from your business will become consistent.

5. Communicators

If there’s one complaint clients have about agents, it’s a lack of communication^[6]. Great agents flip that script. They over-communicate, anticipate questions before they’re asked, and use every channel available, including phone calls, text, video, social media and more.

Today’s best communicators aren’t just talking one-on-one. They’re using video, YouTube and social media to scale their voice. One video can communicate your value to hundreds of people every day, and it works for you 24/7.

Practical tip

Start simple. Record a 30-second weekly market update or the favorite home you saw that week on your phone, and post it to your socials. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s presence. Over time, those small consistent touches build authority.

6. Collaborators

No one succeeds in real estate alone. Top agents know how to collaborate with lenders, title reps, inspectors, and especially, with other agents.

Collaboration builds trust and creates smoother transactions. It also opens doors to off-market opportunities for your clients when you have strong agent-to-agent relationships.

Practical tip

Call three agents this week outside your office. Ask what they’re seeing in their markets. Share something valuable from your side. Relationships built with peers often pay off in unexpected ways.

When you build better relationships with other agents^[7], not only does it help you, but ultimately it could help your clients with smoother transactions and access to shadow inventory that other agents might not learn about.

7. Compounders

The best agents think long-term. They understand that one client isn’t one transaction; it’s a lifetime of business and referrals if handled correctly.

Think of each deal as planting a tree. With the right care, it branches into repeat business, friends, family and referrals.

To understand the power of compounding, consider the Ritz-Carlton^[8]. Their leadership once gave every employee a $2,000 budget to make things right when a guest had a problem. It seems extravagant, until you realize the average lifetime value of a Ritz-Carlton guest is over $150,000.

One famous story: A hotel manager personally flew from Atlanta to Hawaii to deliver a guest’s forgotten laptop before an important meeting. The cost? A few hundred dollars and a plane ticket. The value? A customer for life.

The same applies in real estate. A small investment to go above and beyond can create a client who will never work with anyone else and who tells their friends to call you too.

Practical tip

Create a post-closing system. Send a handwritten note^[9] one week after closing, have a check-in call at 30 days, and add them to your quarterly pop-bys^[10] or client appreciation events.

Don’t stop when the deal closes; start a relationship that compounds. Never miss an opportunity to go above and beyond to “wow” your clients. The investment of time and money in the short run is often the best investment you can make in your business.

If you want to become the agent people trust, refer and remember, focus on these 7 C’s. When you do so, it’s not a question of if; it’s only a matter of when your business will explode with growth.