Jennifer Allan's Selling to Your Sphere of Influence - No Sales Pitch Required!

As my loyal readers know (my, that sounds pretentious, doesn't it?), I recently re-entered the Wonderful World of Real Estate Sales, after two years away on a sabbatical WRITING about the Wonderful World of Real Estate Sales.

My re-entry into the biz was prompted by a number of factors, one of which was an unintentional challenge by Loreena Yeo back in September. In a nut, she asked if I thought the early success I enjoyed in my real estate career, back in the mid-90's, was due more to the strength of the market, rather than the strength of my business strategy (specifically my 100% SOI model).

So, many have asked how it's going for me, now that I've been back in the trenches a few months.

FABULOUS.

Frankly, I'm stunned at the warm welcome I've received from my sphere of influence, many of whom I haven't spoken with in years. More than once, more than twice, more than three times since my return, I've been told by past clients that they were thrilled to hear I was back in business. They said that in my absence they hadn't met another real estate-type who knew her stuff as well as I did and who gave the impression of actually caring about her clients. HUGE SMILE.

But enough back-patting from me. Sure, compliments are nice, but how's BUSINESS?

FABULOUS.

I have two buyers under contract, three sellable listings coming on soon and four more buyers in my car. All but one are SOI (and that one came from Active Rain!). I'm not crazy busy, but considering my license has only been active for less than two months, I'm quite pleased.

So... does an SOI strategy work in this market? Oh yeah.

Thanks for asking.

 http://www.sellwithsoul.com/

I've never had much (any?) luck with mass-advertising (newspapers, bus benches, SEO), at least, not that I could tell. One year I took out over $20,000 worth of newspaper ads which resulted in, get this, ZERO phone calls. Enough of that nonsense.

However, I'm starting to think about the effectiveness of "advertising" to your SOI. Here's where my brain is going.

I live in a trendy, hip neighborhood that has barely noticed the recent doom & gloom of the real estate market. People still want to live here and decent homes sell quickly. (Although there's plenty of overpriced crap on the market that isn't moving, for good reason.) I also happen to know a lot of people who live here in the ‘hood with me - probably 20-30 members of my core SOI are neighbors. We're such a hip, trendy crowd...

So I'm thinking... would it be effective to advertise in the local (neighborhood) newspapers - not necessarily to attract the business of total strangers, but rather to reinforce my name recognition among the people who DO know me, or have at least heard of me?

I remember many years ago, there was an agent in town who advertised heavily on bus benches. I thought she must be a Top Dog because it seemed her name was all over the place. When we finally met (and became friends), I was shocked to discover that she was newer than I was and did significantly less business. But the perception I had of her was that she was very successful.

Here's my point... If I were a consumer, would all those bus benches have inspired me to call her up and hire her on the spot? Not a chance. BUT, if I'd met her, at an open house, at a party, wherever, would she have already had some credibility with me, due to her advertising efforts? Probably so, especially if she were professional and credible in person (which she was).

So... I'm wondering if the point of local advertising might be to put you in a position of credibility should you ever have the opportunity to meet those who have seen your advertising. Or, of course, to remind those who already know you of your existence, if they've forgotten...?

Is this a big DUH question?

 www.sellwithsoul.com

We real estate agents love our systems, don't we? If we can purchase a product that will help us streamline our prospecting efforts, we're all for it. Where do I sign???

But... but... but... let me fly in the face of convention here and say... STOP! Stop with all the systems and programs and products!

Why? Because when pursuing business from the *Very Important People Who Know You (that is, your Sphere of Influence or SOI), it's kinda important to make them feel special. And no system, program or product is going to do that FOR you. You actually have to do it yourself.

Here are some examples of what I mean.

A question came up a few weeks ago during my weekly SOI training teleconference.  The agent asked if I recommended putting past clients on a 5-year drip campaign that automatically sends out anniversary cards and seasonal postcards. My answer? NO!

My SOI database (and especially my past client database) is precious to me. Every name in there has the potential to bring thousands of dollars to my business and deserves my respect and attention. Before I send anything out to my SOI, I go through my list carefully to make sure it's up to date, with accurate information. This exercise also inspires me to personally "touch" those who I enjoyed getting to know with a more personal effort (phone call, personal email, whatever).  I want to stay intimately in touch with the names in my database. If I put my SOI on any sort of automatic drip campaign, I feel I'll lose that intimacy and connection, and be just another real estate agent looking for business.

Want another example? Today, I sent out a mass-email to my SOI offering to put interested parties on a list to receive a monthly market report created by a local economist. When the positive responses started coming in, I tried to figure out a "system" to track respondents and automatically send out the report every month. But then I caught myself... by systematizing this process, I'm throwing away a wonderful opportunity to connect with my SOI every single month when I personally email them the report. I mean, DUH! They are ASKING to hear from me; why waste the chance to include a personal note with my email each month that might make them smile (and believe me, that personal note will have nothing to do with how much I love referrals! Ick).

One more... one of my agent friends asked me a few weeks ago if she should purchase a program that automatically sends out birthday cards to her SOI. Sheesh. Is it too da*n hard to actually sign and mail a card to someone you care about? I mean, c'mon!!! Are we real estate agents so important and so busy that we can't take five minutes to write "Happy Birthday!" on a card, sign it personally, address the envelope and slap a stamp on it? Please say it isn't so!

One thing I love about this business, especially my 100% SOI business, is that every little thing I do that goes above and beyond what I "have" to do can result in a huge financial payoff for me. Personal notes (that I actually wrote myself), personal emails, personal phone calls... this is where the money is... at least if you're gonna SOI...

 www.sellwithsoul.com

In early 2007, I held my first teleseminar entitled "The Seduction of Your SOI."

Notice I didn't call the seminar "Successfully Marketing to Your SOI"or "Mastering the Art of SOI‑Marketing." In fact, I refuse to even use the term "marketing" in conjunction with the concept of pursuing business from the people who know you and know that you sell real estate.

Why? Because no one wants to be marketed to. I mean, c'mon, when was the last time you heard someone say "boy, I sure do like my accountant, he markets to me all the time"? When you "market" to someone, do they feel special? Do they feel loved? Do they have warm fuzzy feelings about you? No, in fact, they might feel irritated or even used. Best case, they feel nothing toward you and toss your "marketing" into the trash.

I think most agents know this, deep inside. That's why they have a hard time committing to and implementing their own SOI business plan. They DON'T want to market to their friends. They DON'T want to pester people they know and risk their friendships. Besides, when they've reluctantly put these tactics into play, they haven't worked real well anyway.

And that's because they think that pursuing business from their SOI is essentially the same thing as pursuing business from strangers. They think they are supposed to cold call their friends, to remind them that they sell real estate. That they're supposed to send out newsletters screaming their own praises and bragging about their listings and closings. And it doesn't work. So they abandon the whole notion of SOI business and return to their cold‑calling and open‑housing.

But there is a big difference between ASKING PEOPLE YOU KNOW for business and GETTING BUSINESS FROM PEOPLE YOU KNOW.

So, how do you GET business from people you know? With Seduction? Read more here!

www.SellwithSoul.com