It’s Time to Take an Easier Path

Imagine what the future would look like if you could stop cold calling, door knocking, or chasing after FSBOs indefinitely – or at least cut way down on those activities?

Ditching the more distasteful aspects of your real estate lead generation routine may be possible. If you vow, right now, to get serious about your CRM database.

Warm calls are so much more pleasant. Making phone calls and having happy people answer the phone beats a cold call any day.

It’s time to make building better relationships with people you already know, your priority.

Are you only fishing for a day?

Have you ever heard the adage “You can give someone a fish and they have food for a day or you can teach them to fish and they’ll be fed forever?

I look at an SOI database in a similar way.

You can get by living “listing to listing” just making ends meet or you can build a robust SOI database that will feed you ongoing listings, indefinitely.

The first method is all about instant gratification and takes a smaller amount of effort.

The second method is about building something for the future, something substantial, that will take ongoing effort, but the rewards will be significant and lasting.

So the question is, how do you want to live your life – fish by fish or with an endless stream of dinners?

That being said, how’s your sphere of influence going?

Agents who have been in the business for more than a minute tell horror stories about friends and even family members who “forgot” that they were in real estate and listed their homes with another agent.

I guarantee you at some point this has happened to you, whether you’re aware or not.

In fact, NAR states,

“The typical real estate agent, sadly, earned 13 percent of their business from repeat clients and 17 percent from referrals.”

Look at those numbers – they’re frustrating, aren’t they?

Especially when NAR also states that nearly 90 percent of real estate consumers say they would use their agent again in the future.

If past clients liked their experience with their agent shouldn’t agents be getting more than 17 percent of their business from them?

Did they forget about you because you’ve forgotten to stay in front of them and nurture them?

What has neglecting your sphere REALLY cost you?

If your strategy has been only chasing new leads instead of working on your sphere, you may have lost sight of the lifetime value of your client.

Take a past client for who you earned $4,000 in commission. Assume (by staying present in their life) you are their agent for four more buying and selling transactions (of the same value) over time that’s $16,000 in revenue.

Now let’s say they send you two referrals per year for the next 10 years (of a similar value) that’s $80,000. This ONE client has a potential lifetime value of $96,000. How many clients, just like this, have you let fall to the waste side over the years?

What has that decision cost your real estate business?

Time to refocus your attention

We get it, agents have a ton of irons in the fire during the typical work week, and keeping in contact with their SOI typically ends up as a low priority.

What would happen, though, if you moved your SOI up on the “To Do” list? Made those warm contacts (instead of contacting strangers) a priority?

You’ll end up on the minds of the people in your sphere, including your past clients, and when someone mentions to them they’re thinking about buying or selling a home, guess what happens next?

So, how to get your real estate business on the referral track?

Step 1: Organize your database

Yeah, it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but it’s necessary to keep you on track. If you already have an organizational method, you’re one step ahead. If not, let’s create a simple one.

Start by grouping your contacts. There are many ways to group them, so choose labels that make sense to you. Some suggestions include:

• Hot leads (new incoming leads)
• Cold leads (people you haven’t been able to reach)
• Family, friends, past clients
• Vendors
• People you know through your kids
• Neighbors

Step 2: Go through all of the contacts and verify the information

At a minimum, you should have the contact’s full name and the name of immediate family members. Naturally, you won’t have family member info for some contacts, such as leads, and that’s okay.

Step 3: Pick up the phone and start calling people

Start with people you know, like past clients, relatives, and friends. Let them know you’re thinking of them and checking in to see if you can help them with anything.

While on the phone, tell them you’re updating your database and want to ensure you have their correct contact information. Verify that their addresses (mailing and email) are current and that you have the best phone number to contact them.

Birthdates are important too (people LOVE getting birthday cards and it’s a great excuse to call). You don’t need a year, just ask for the month and day.

When you make these calls, listen carefully to their end of the conversation for any tidbits you can add to the database. Great information to note in their record includes important family milestones, news on their business/job, or events involving their children or spouse.

Then, as soon as you hang up, DO THIS! Update their information in the database, don’t “think” you’ll remember, just do it.

And, schedule a follow-up call in your database, and a reminder to prompt you to send them a birthday card, anniversary card, etc.

If they told you about an important event that’s coming up, wouldn’t it be great to mark your calendar with a reminder to shoot them an email and ask how everything went?

Step 4: Committ to a time in your weekly schedule to work your Sphere

You’ve started the process of building toward a future don’t stop now. Before you know it, you’ll have an organized, clean database, making your real estate lead generation a much more enjoyable and rewarding process.

Two free tools that will make the process of building up your database much easier:

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

2. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes, but it is a business building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

PLUS: When you have time…below are some additional tools to support your success.

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.  – Click Here

The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you in your success.

We’re here to support you.

Your ProspectsPLUS! Team