We're continuing an annual tradition of counting down our top 10 articles of the year. The following article was originally published back in March and is #5 in our countdown. See #6 here.

A year-round steady flow of customers is the Holy Grail of real estate. Without it, you end up staggering from deal to deal praying you're going to meet your monthly goals.

Is your business where you want it to be?

These are nine reasons why prospecting may not be working for you:

1. You think prospecting is something you're supposed to do when you don't have listings to sell or buyers to show homes to.

Prospecting isn't something that takes time away from listing and selling, it's what you have to do to get listings and showings. Skimp on marketing and you won't have a pipeline of deals to work on next month.

Marketing should go out consistently and automatically.

2. Failure to properly identify prospects.

10 percent of your contacts are actively selling or buying. 90 percent are still prospects because they may know someone who's looking to buy or sell.

Stay in front of your former clients. Make it easy for them to find you when they're ready to do another real estate transaction.

3. Boring them with advice about buying and selling homes.

Unless your marketing is going directly to potential first-time homebuyers, stay away from sharing home buying advice. The 90 percent of your client base that isn't actively involved in a transaction doesn't need home selling and home buying tips.

Compelling content speaks to homeowners.

4. Not prospecting enough.

How much contact is too much? We know from our customer-focus research on email marketing that once a month is not enough and once a week is too much.

Once every two weeks is enough to keep you top-of-mind without being annoying.

5. Marketing via snail mail.

The Internet, not the mailbox, is the starting point for today's home shoppers. Using snail-mail makes you look old-school.

Reach prospects where they are with online communication via newsletters, emails, web links and webinars.

6. Networking only in the virtual world and not in the real world.

It's important to take every opportunity to network in person.

Go to Chamber of Commerce breakfasts, do a booth at local fairs and festivals and teach an adult education class for first-time homebuyers or investors.

7. Keeping your business cards in your pocket or your desk drawer.

If you're not giving away 100 business cards a week, you're not working hard enough on prospecting. When you give people your card, they often give you theirs and it's going to have an email address on it. When you exchange cards, mention that you have a newsletter about homeownership that you'll send them.

8. Thinking a lead service or a free email marketing newsletter will do it all for you.

A lead service or a free email marketing newsletter won't do all your prospecting for you. Any number of services sell lead information about expired listings, people who've inquired about foreclosures or online home shoppers.

Those lists can be out of date, of questionable quality, and in the case of email newsletters from places like Lowe's, available to every agent in America.

To differentiate yourself, you need exclusive marketing lists and quality newsletter content.

9. Taking shortcuts to build your contact database.

The best email contacts are the ones you gather yourself one potential client at a time.

Building year-round deal flow doesn't have to be hard, but it does take consistent effort. To fill your deal pipeline:

• Build a database filled with people who know you.
• Form partnerships with companies who can help you share exclusive content that highlights your real estate expertise.
• Get out in the community to raise your visibility.

Lee Sowers, sales and marketing SVP of HomeActions.net, helps Realtors® enhance their prospecting and build relationships to increase sales. A former director of Prudential Real Estate New Jersey and director of business development for Keller Williams in New Jersey, Sowers knows what it takes to successfully market to commercial and residential real estate customers.

Further Reading

• Do You Suffer From Prospecting Phobia?
• Prospecting with a CMA