Velocitydrift

Most agents use the same tools, chase the same clients and wonder why they plateau, coach Darryl Davis writes. Here’s what the top performers do differently.

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Tiffany McQuaid has built the kind of real estate business most agents want, and might even claim, but few actually create: One where clients become advocates, referrals arrive without asking, and the competition largely becomes irrelevant.

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As the founder of a Naples, Florida-based brokerage and author of The INth Degree: How to Stand Out By Going All In, McQuaid has spent years developing a repeatable approach to differentiation — one grounded less in flashy technology or bigger budgets and more in intentional experiences, strategic visibility and the kind of consistent follow-through that turns a single transaction into a decade-long relationship.

She recently sat down with us on our Real Estate Unscripted podcast and shared the strategies she practices. They aren’t theoretical. They’re field-tested in one of the country’s most competitive luxury markets. And most of them are available to any agent willing to think differently about how they show up.

Skill gaps hide in good markets

Every agent knows the market has shifted. Fewer know how much that shift has exposed the difference between agents who were genuinely skilled and those who were simply operating in a forgiving environment.

McQuaid is direct on this point: “Always be training and educating yourself to get sharper, more skilled — especially in today’s market.” She points to negotiation training — Chris Voss’s work in particular — as underutilized by most agents, along with building robust resource packets.

The agents who adapt fastest to tighter conditions aren’t necessarily the most experienced — they’re the most prepared. Deliberate skill development, treated as non-negotiable as lead generation, is what creates that edge.

Your competitors are telling you exactly where not to advertise

The most crowded marketing channels in real estate aren’t usually crowded because they work best; they’re crowded because agents default to what’s familiar. Real estate portals. Social media. MLS-adjacent placements. The result is a high-cost race for attention where differentiation is nearly impossible.

McQuaid took a different approach from the start. “Don’t just advertise in the real estate section,” she explains. “Go where the masses are.” That means mapping where your target clients actually spend their time — what they read, where they gather, what they do recreationally — and building visibility there instead.

Direct mail isn’t dead. It’s just being done wrong

The standard real estate postcard — headshot, market update, call to action — has trained recipients to ignore it on contact. That’s not an argument against direct mail. It’s an argument against generic direct mail.

McQuaid’s approach looks nothing like the industry standard. She sends an oversized, 11×17 foldable mailer titled “Important Numbers You Need to Know” — with the White House and the Pentagon listed first. The piece is designed to be kept, not discarded. Its size means it physically wraps the rest of the mail in the stack, guaranteeing it gets handled.

In a digital-saturated market, tangible touchpoints carry disproportionate weight precisely because so few agents invest in doing them well. The bar to clear isn’t high — it just requires actually thinking about whether a recipient would want to keep what you’re sending.

Referral businesses are built on experiences, not transactions

Every agent says they’re relationship-driven. Far fewer have actually designed their business around what that means in practice. There’s a meaningful difference between an agent who closes deals professionally and one who creates experiences that clients retell.

McQuaid calls hers “a raving fan business” — a deliberate framing that shifts the entire operating model. Drawing on principles from Disney’s approach to sensory environment design, she treats every client touchpoint as an intentional choice: fresh-baked cookies in the office, thoughtful environmental details, consistent human warmth.

As one observer captured it: “Make them feel at home in your space. Then they want to invite you into theirs to sell it.”

The agents playing the long game send gifts when they lose

Here’s a practice most agents would never consider: McQuaid sends a gift after a listing appointment she didn’t win.

“Align yourself with local businesses like a florist or bakery,” she explains. “Shortly after the listing appointment, send a treat.”

The reasoning is strategic. Sellers remember which agents behaved with grace when there was nothing left to gain. Listings expire. Agents underperform. Circumstances change. The agent who made a lasting impression without the business is often the first call when the situation does.

This is relationship equity — and it compounds quietly over years. McQuaid extends the same intentionality to energy and presence. “When you step into your role for the day, that enthusiasm and energy needs to be high,” she said.

The agents who sustain high performance aren’t those who muster positivity as a performance; they’re the ones genuinely invested in the outcome for the people they’re working with. Clients notice the difference.

The throughline

None of these strategies is secret. Most agents have encountered versions of all of them. What McQuaid’s approach makes clear is that knowing isn’t the differentiator — consistent execution is.

The agents who build businesses that outlast market cycles aren’t the ones with the most tools or the biggest teams. They’re the ones who do the unglamorous, relationship-building work repeatedly and without shortcuts — in good markets and difficult ones alike.

That consistency, more than any single tactic, is what makes a business impossible to ignore.

Darryl Davis is the CEO of Darryl Davis Seminars. Connect with him on Facebook or YouTube.

Topics: lead generation | listing agent | productivity | referrals | social media Show Comments Hide Comments Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments Sign me up By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman. Success! Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines. Read Next Guinness and branding