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

I was interviewed Monday on Real Estate Radio USA (listen here) and in the middle of the interview, I had an epiphany about Referral-Begging... (I love epiphanies, don't you? Although perhaps in the middle of a live national radio interview, the timing might not have been the best).

Anyway. Back to my epiphany. It's about whether or not to ask/beg/bribe your friends for referrals, which as you probably know, is a practice I'm adamantly against.

Yesterday, my seller client (whose house sold in TWO DAYS, yay!) sent me an email asking permission to give my name to two friends who are looking for a real estate agent. ASKING MY PERMISSION! As if I might be far too busy to handle even more clients.

I giggled to myself because that's exactly the impression I want to leave with my world. Of course, I told her I'd be thrilled if she gave my name out and thanked her profusely. Maybe too profusely, actually, but oh well.

But here was my epiphany. By not letting my client know that I <Heart> Referrals, I took the chance that she wouldn't know to send me any. I took the chance, that, egads, she might send her friends to someone else! Oh the horror!!

However (and I'm sure my regular readers know where I'm going with this), I'd MUCH RATHER take the chance of losing potential referrals out of innocent ignorance than to take chance of annoying, pestering or otherwise damaging my credibility with my SOI by constantly reminding them to send referrals my way.

Besides, if I do a great job for my clients and treat them respectfully, they will think of me when the topic of real estate comes up in their social interactions. If they don't think of me, well, it has nothing to do with whether or not I pestered them lately about it...

www.SellwithSoul.com  

"The more fun you have selling real estate, the more real estate you will sell!"

I believe this with all my heart. When I'm having fun and feeling good, my business explodes. Have you ever noticed that one great phone call begets another ... and another? When you're rolling in MoJo and you know you're hot stuff... the whole world seems to think so, too.  And that phone RINGS!

So, how to keep the MoJo Risin'? By ramping up your cold-calling and door-knocking efforts? By committing to yet another expensive monthly postcard campaign?

Uh, no. Not for me at least.

If I were to force myself to make phone calls to strangers on a regular basis, I'd be a mess. Because that's not ME and it's not FUN.  And I can guarantee you it would be incredibly UNproductive time for me, in more ways than one. Not only would I be utterly wasting my time during my stranger-pestering activities, but I'd also be one depressed, MoJo-les real estate agent. Which is bad for my mood... and therefore my business.

So, what's FUN for you? Do that. Often. Okay, well, if the only fun things you can think of are sleeping and reading, those might not work, but otherwise... what makes you smile? What would you do more of "if you only had the time?"

Chances are, most of the things you enjoy doing involve being out in the world where other people happen to be. And if you're out there too, being yourself, having fun, you'll be magnetic. And it's REAL EASY to let people know you're a kick-a$$ real estate agent (assuming you believe that yourself) when you're in a good mood and feeling foxy.

Don't tell me you don't have time to have fun. Puh-leeeeaze! Life's WAY TOO SHORT for that attitude, doncha' think? Sooooooo.... it's the first weekend of summer - GO HAVE SOME FUN!

*SOI - Sphere of Influence = People Who Know You

I recently wrote about how the "numbers" of an SOI/Relationship Prospecting business model blows away the traditional concept of a "numbers game" in real estate sales. You can read about it here.

Not convinced? Here are some more numbers for you to ponder...

• If you attend ONE social event (wedding, housewarming party, Sunday BBQ) or neighborhood activity (street fair, festival, block party) per week, in a year, that's 52 opportunities you created for yourself to meet people who will have a real estate need in the next six months.
  
  
•  Of course, it's also an opportunity to touch all the people those new friends of yours know who might have a real estate need.

• If you take ONE friend to lunch per week (and don't bore him or her to death with your sales pitch), in a year, that's 52 GREAT opportunities to touch everyone your friends know. And that "everyone" can number in the thousands.

• If you add just ONE person per day to your SOI contact database, that's... holy cow... 365 new contacts in just a year.

• If you spend ONE hour per month writing an interesting, non-salesy email newsletter to send to your SOI (including all the NEW friends you're meeting), that's 1,800 times in a year you're touching someone who knows your name and knows that you sell real estate (assuming your contact database is around 150 names).  Let me know if you'd like a sample of "interesting and non-salesy."

Some more numbers - that is - dollars and cents...

The Cost to:

• Attend a social event you're invited to: $0
• Attend a neighborhood street fair:       $0 - $25
• Take-a-friend-to-lunch:                     $25 per week, if you pay every time 
• Meet one new person per day             $0 - ?? depending on how you meet them
• Once-a-month email to SOI:              $0 - $100 (if you spring for fancy email stationary)

If you do all these things, I promise your business will explode. And doesn't this stuff sound like MORE FUN than calling up 1,000 strangers or mailing out 1,000 postcards?

*SOI = Sphere of Influence = People Who Know You

"How can I prospect to first time buyers?"

    "How can I meet newly married people?"

         "How can I get my name in front of divorcing couples?"

              "How can I market to renters?"

                       And even...

                         "How can I meet newly dead people (or more specifically, their heirs)?"

These are questions I read every day here on Active Rain and on the other real estate agent forum I moderate (www.agentsonline.net).

Responses are fairly predictable - "Hold buyer seminars, mail to apartment complexes, write to attorneys, attend bridal fairs, prospect to funeral directors and watch the obituaries."

Fair enough.

But here's the thing. The people you already KNOW, know first time buyers, married people, divorcing couples, renters and yes, even dead people's heirs. They also know couples with new babies, investors and relocating families.

So, it's your choice. You can bombard your target audience of strangers with your (expensive) marketing materials, hoping for a hit, or you can reconnect with the people who already know you and guarantee yourself one (or two or three or four or a dozen).

Our industry has made prospecting way too complicated and counter-intuitive. It doesn't have to be. Back up, calm down and use the brains God gave you to find your next clients. They're all around you.

Related blogs

• Rely on my SOI? I don't know anyone who wants to buy or sell right now!
• SOI Gone Bad - 21  Ways to Blow it with Your SOI
• I Want to Start Marketing to my SOI!

Most agent training programs insist that Selling Real Estate is a Numbers Game - that is, in order to bring in enough business to keep the home fires burning, you have to touch as many people as you can with your name & number. The more people you touch, the better your chances of procuring a buyer or a listing.

We've all heard the mass-marketer's philosophy - you have to contact X number of people to get a lead and you have to have Y number of leads to get a listing (or a buyer) and you have to have Z number of listings (or buyers) to get a paycheck. Therefore, it takes X(Y-Z)²  x 25 contacts to have 25 closings. (I'm really bad at math, so that formula is totally made up - don't try it at home). During the course of all these cold calls (or door knocks or postcard mailings, etc.) you'll encounter loads of rejection, but the gurus claim that since it's all part of the game, you actually ENJOY each rejection because it means you're one step closer to paycheck.

Sounds delightful.

According to the Direct Marketers Association, the highest return rate you should expect for a direct mail campaign is 2%; for a cold-calling campaign, 5.53%. Keep in mind that these figures reflect how many people simply contact the advertiser, not whether or not they purchase anything. So, if you send out 1000 postcards, you can expect, at the most, 20 inquiries from your effort.

Your cost? Let's say each postcard costs you $.58 cents plus a set-up fee of $100 = around $700 total. Not bad if it gets results, but tough on the new agent's pocketbook!

Well, as you may know, I preach a slightly different approach - that is - building your business based on the personal relationships in your life... the relationships you have now as well as those you'll have in the future. I advise against asking for business or assaulting the people you know with your sales pitch and I teach agents to draw business TO them without ever pestering a soul. I believe you can bring in good leads one warm body at a time without ever treating anyone like a number (and you'll have a heck of a lot more fun selling real estate).

But, the idea that selling real estate successfully is a numbers game is so deeply entrenched in the psyche of the real estate agent, I figure... if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em. 

So, let's play the Numbers Game of Relationship Prospecting.

Let's say that instead of sending out 1000 football schedule postcards, you send ten of your friends a personal, non-salesy email. Just a "hi, how ya doing, great weather we're having, how's the puppy, let's do lunch" kind of thing.

Of those ten emails you send, what do you think your response rate will be? I don't know about you, but I'd expect 100% response rate - that is, every single person I wrote to would write me back, as long as my email was personal and even mildly interesting (this does NOT apply to mass-forwards or emailed infomercials). But let's say that two of your friends are on vacation, so you hear back from eight. That's an 80% response rate.

Now let's say that you followed up on your offer to "do lunch" and went to lunch with all eight in the next month. That's two lunches a week, if you treat all eight times, you'll spend, maybe, $200.

Will any of those eight friends buy or sell a house with you anytime soon? Maybe, but probably not (however, I can guarantee you that if they do, you'll be #1 on their list). But here's where it gets fun.

How many people do each of those eight friends know? How many do they work with, play with, talk with, drink with? Twenty? Thirty? One hundred? And how many people do THOSE people know?

See, here's the thing. By personally interacting with just those eight friends, you have effectively touched everyone they know. And with these eight lunches, you've also increased the possibility of being included in the social lives of these eight people. You'll be invited to their Super Bowl party or afternoon BBQ. Where you'll meet more of their friends...

Out of all those hundreds of people your friends know and their friends know, some are going to have a real estate need today, tomorrow and next month. A personal referral from someone they know is going to carry a heck of a lot more weight than a mass-mailed postcard received from a stranger.

Because, when you do a mass-mailing or other mass-marketing project, you aren't hoping for referrals from the recipients of your promotional material; you're simply hoping that one of those 1000 people has a real estate need and doesn't know anyone besides you to call. You certainly aren't expecting them to shout your praises to their circle of friends because you sent them a football schedule.

What if you took eight people to lunch every month?

Wow - Selling real estate IS a numbers game! I want to play!