Old-Fashioned Contact in a New-Fangled World

By Allen Wright

As the real estate industry continues to evolve, lead generation and incubation have risen become the most recent industry darling, while relationship-building via sphere of influence has ceded it's former position and taken more of a backseat role.

Several years ago, United Airlines aired a commercial in which a seemingly older businessman handed airline tickets to his sales staff and announced, "It's time to meet our clients again." During the closing scene one of the salespeople asked, "What are you going to do?" To which the elder businessman replied, "I am going to earn back the business of an old friend."

While modern technology allows for lightning-fast communications and increased productivity levels, the old-fashioned handshake contract and rock-solid relationships built on loyalty and trust seem to have entered some kind of permanent exile. Today more agents are apt to close a transaction and send the information to a company that will send out "thank you" cards on his or her behalf. This might seem like a model of efficiency – and in some ways it is – but how effective is it at building the relationship?

In its essence, the relationship is the lifeblood of any social contract – legal or otherwise – regardless of technology, marketing techniques, or the latest fads. It's sphere relationship building: the personal call, the hand-written note, or the occasional house call. It's meeting with past clients and members of your sphere of influence on a regular basis.

Why are these investments in long-term relationships going by the wayside? Is it really a time-crunch, or does is it have more to do with our priorities? Some of the very same things that we believe save us time – like the almighty technological gadgets and gizmos whose praises we sing so often – actually require more of our attention than we realize.

Think about the feeling you get when driving by a property you've sold, or listening to a fellow agent discussing the house they just put on the market with another agent. Maybe it's time to give that person a call. Many approaches exist to help us maximize our efforts to make to earn, maintain and build our business with members of our sphere of influence. The key is to keep your focus in the proper place (people), and use the tools available to you to maximize your opportunity to build those relationships (like technology) with out glorifying those tools. One of the most powerful online tools available today to walk this delicate balance is a called CreateAPlan.

First, you must have the fundamental tools to accomplish effective sphere relationship building. This means a powerhouse contact management database. Fill it to the brim with the current contact information of all the folks within your sphere, particularly past clients. Organize these contacts into logical groups that you can communicate to and maintain relationships with on a regular basis. Your database should have several key features: ease of use, specific search capacity, and a mechanism to automate your follow-up. The three major options that are available – Top Producer, 360Agent and Online Agent – have all of these features.

Then you must create a contact strategy for how you plan to the different people within these groups. Within your database arrange your sphere into groups that can be easily retrieved and marketed. For example, you might want to create a main category entitled, "Past Clients" and then a few sub-categories that will clearly define the degree to which each person may affect your business. Using a method of prioritization like groups "A", "B", and "C" will enable you to target the most effective and authentic communication appropriate for each group, and thus grow your business. CreateAPlan allows you take this concept to an entirely new level, enabling you to define key sources of business, discover exactly how achieve your income goals, project future income based on current activities, track all production, identify the ROI of every single marketing activity – to name just a few capabilities.

An "A" client is an advocate for your business. This person will mention your name when the subject of real estate is discussed. Your "A" clients are also the ones that will require most of your effort, so keep this list small (less than 100 names). Create a system that reminds you to contact these individuals at least four times per year, and make it a priority to have at least one face-to-face meeting with them during the year. Better yet, set aside one morning each week to take a member of your "A" group out for coffee or breakfast. Members of your "A" list will most likely be responsible for generating most of your referral business.

"B" clients will constitute the largest of your three groups. These individuals are happy to mention your name when asked, but are not likely to tout your services at will. You want to make sure that you stay in contact with these individuals on an annual basis; meet with them in a group-setting once a year. As with the "A" group, systematically arrange to call your "B's" three times a year. A great way to catch up with your "B" group is to host appreciation parties several times throughout the year. Invite your "B" group to these parties, and talk with as many of them as you possibly can.

A good rule of thumb with these parties is to keep them small enough to have a meaningful conversation with each person. This may involve catering your party; having someone there to serve your guests. Remember that the point of the party is to mingle, not serve.

Your "C" group is typically comprised of people that are merely acquaintances or past clients with whom you have had minimal, but positive contact. The door is open for more meaningful communication, if you can find a way to do so. This is where technology like voice broadcasting can become such a powerful tool. Record a message that you can "broadcast" out to everyone in this part of your database – a warm greeting from the heart that acts as a reminder to maintain your mindshare and drum up their interest in calling you.

Now that you have your overall "sphere" logically grouped, you are in a much better position to market to them. Since "Just Sold" cards demonstrate success, consider sending these out to your sphere and past clients. Consider sending holiday cards to your "A" and "B" groups for fun, non-traditional holidays such as Ground Hogs Day, St. Patrick's Day, the Ides of March, Independence Day, Labor Day and Halloween. Consider anything out of the norm or unusual that will catch their attention.

Reminders for key tasks, calls and mailings are excellent examples of the impact a solid database can have on your business. You can easily and rapidly create these reminders in any of the aforementioned database programs. These relationship building plans should be designed to prompt you to contact folks within your sphere at regular time intervals. For mailings, you can easily setup your database to export a mailing list to an outside mailing service in order to mail a particular piece. You may even choose to send different cards to different groups. By properly categorizing your database, these tasks become noticeably easier.

In all of your activities, though, remember that authenticity and sincerity can turn a stranger into a friend, and then again into a referral machine. Many companies will send mailings for you, but they have no interest in your message. In fact, no one can replace you when it comes to doing what incredibly successful real estate professionals arguably do better than anyone else: making new friends, growing that sphere of influence, and building long-term relationships.

Contact your sphere and past clients via the phone, face-to-face, at an appreciation party, via direct mail, or through voice broadcasting. And in all of your communication, remember the rule of reciprocity: "Would you give a referral to an agent in another industry if they never followed-up with you after you made your first purchase?" If not, why should you expect your clients to refer you?