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

I have a friend; let's call her Sarah. She is a new real estate agent and is committed to an SOI* strategy to build her business. So far, it's going well - she's already experiencing some success and is optimistic that she will survive her first year without ever cold-calling, door-knocking, farming or advertising.

Here's the problem. Sarah has a new boyfriend. When said boyfriend realized that Sarah freely hands out her phone number (in the form of her business card) to anyone who asks (regardless of gender), he was horrified. Not that he doesn't understand she has a business to build, but he's convinced that when Sarah cheerfully offers her phone number/business card to those of the male gender, they are going to assume that she is interested in them romantically. "That's the way men think, honey."

Sarah dismissed his concerns, assuring him that she keeps her SOI efforts on a professional level and that there is no funny business going on - either real or imagined. She simply doesn't believe that the men she prospects to have any notion that she might be open to their advances.  The boyfriend disagrees. It's causing some strain in their relationship.

Sarah asked me for my thoughts. Initially I agreed with her - that the BF needs to accept that his honey is in a business that requires her to socialize with male creatures.

But then I ran across a paragraph in a book I'm reading about the differences in brain chemistry between men and women and it made me rethink my position. The book said that "...men are very easily aroused and easily misconstrue the slightest hint of friendship as a sexual invitation." So I asked my own BF for his thoughts, as well as a couple of other men I know. They all adamantly agreed with Sarah's boyfriend that if a woman shows friendly interest in a man, he's absolutely going to interpret that as romantic interest on her part. If she gives him her phone number? She might as well have invited him in for a late-night coffee...

Any thoughts? No gender-bashing or ridicule, please. I'd love to hear from the men in the crowd how you honestly feel about this, as well as from any women who have experienced the same thing with their men...

THANKS!

* SOI Strategy = Building your business based on the personal relationiships in your life - the people you know and people you meet.

The Savvy Prospector: Eight Weeks to a Full Pipeline for Life!
          

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The Daily Seduction: Tips for Generating Business & Referrals from the People Who Know You

Y'know what I love about this business? That every single thing I do, every day, has the potential to bring a client my way. Big things, small things, easy things, hard things... every action I take, whether intentional or not, might just result in a juicy paycheck for me - today... tomorrow... or six months from now.

My business comes in one client at a time. And, frankly, with the average price in my market being around $300,000, I could easily live on the business that passively floats by me. But my point is that I don't need five new prospects a day to keep me happy. Just one a week and I'll be tickled pink.

We real estate agents tend to look at prospecting as a volume proposition. That is - we try to touch as many of our target audience (whether that's a farm, an SOI, FSBOs or expireds) with our message as physically possible in the least amount of time. But with the size of our paychecks, is it really necessary to use this approach? What if, instead of attempting to "touch" a whole bunch of people at once in hopes that you'll win the Numbers Game... you spend an hour a day going out of your way to impress someone?

One warm body at a time...

(So what do I mean by "impress?" Stay tuned...)

The Savvy Prospector: Eight Weeks to a Full Pipeline for Life!
          

Subscribe to:
The Daily Seduction: Tips for Generating Business & Referrals from the People Who Know You