I recently caught up with Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn, real estate trainer and author of Sell With Soul. She gave me the inside track on Prospect with Soul for Real Estate Agents and shared her feedback about Happy Grasshopper's automated email marketing services. (For the full interview, click here.)
Celeste: In your book, you talk a lot about “sphere of influence”, what exactly does that term mean to you?
Jennifer: "Sphere of Influence" is quite a catch-phrase in the real estate industry. Most agents and trainers assume it to mean "everyone you know," although some think of their sphere as only their "friends, family and past clients." Neither definition satisfies me - "everyone I know" is too broad and "my friends, family and past clients" is too narrow, and if a real estate agent relies too literally on either of these definitions, they'll almost certainly be disappointed in the business they see from their sphere.
Let's hit "everyone I know" first - that implies that everyone you know, knows you and knows (or remembers) that you sell real estate. That's almost certainly a false assumption since the people in our lives aren't keeping track of us on a daily basis. While we'd like to think that "everyone we know" is always thinking about us and looking for ways to support our businesses, that's a little optimistic!
Conversely, to say that your SOI is only your "friends, family and past clients" discounts the tremendous business-generating potential of all those other people you know who aren't friends, family or past clients, but might be happy to hire you or send business your way, if properly approached.
Therefore, the best definition of Sphere of Influence is "Everyone Who Knows You and Knows That You Sell Real Estate," which can and should include friends, family, past clients along with "everyone else" - and again, that "everyone else" group, can be a terrific source of business for you.
Celeste: You recently reviewed Happy Grasshopper, would you mind sharing your opinion about the service?
Jennifer: Of course! I see a lot of products, systems and programs designed to "build relationships" with one's sphere of influence. And most of them are, in my opinion, dreadful. They do nothing to make the recipient of the relationship-building communication (postcard, newsletter, etc.) smile and think of the sender (the agent) fondly. They do nothing to start up conversations that can lead to all sorts of wonderful things.
But your service is different and I like that you don't promise to create a relationship where perhaps none exists! You give the agent an easy-to-understand tool to use that he can (and should) add his own personal touches to. It's not fancy, it's not "corporate," and it doesn't insult the intelligence of either party. A Happy Grasshopper email campaign will not take the place of other relationship-building activities, and I like that you're upfront about that instead of promising agents that all they have to do is buy your product and BOOM! They'll have more business than they can handle.
Celeste: How would you recommend that Happy Grasshopper users bring some “Soul” to it?
Jennifer: I think of your product as a starting point for an agent who isn't used to communicating with her SOI on a regular basis. Your material is well-written, friendly, timely, and extremely easy to customize. Which I think should be done - that is - I think that every Happy Grasshopper email that goes out should have the agent's fingerprints all over it! She can add a few personal thoughts on the subject of the month, or some other personal note that will be of interest to her sphere, and here's the most important part... BE RESPONSIVE to any responses that come in as a result of the email! If someone responds, respond back! Start up conversations! If appropriate, make a date for coffee or lunch! Use the system as a conversation-starter, not simply a "Whew, glad I got this month's 'touch' out of the way!"
If a certain month's topic doesn't really interest you, don't send it out; just skip it. Maybe do something different that month - a market update report or some sort of interesting newsletter.
Keeping in touch is the simplest concept in the world, yet, most agents fail to do it because they get too busy or they don't know what to say. Happy Grasshopper's email marketing services software makes it easy, just upload your contacts, we write and send fun, friendly emails for you.
What others are saying:
Hey..you rock!! I am so tickled with finding "Happy Grasshopper" I am in the process of downloading all of my email addressed so soon I will have to upgrade..but I love the whole thing!! Thanks for making my job easier and a whole lot more fun!!!
- Jean Mabry, Keller Williams Southern Arizona
I love your writing style and the things you choose to write about! I will definitely be upgrading soon as I add more people.
- Susan Beck, RE/MAX Equity Group
Just wanted to check back and let you know that I received three responses to the email - I am quite pleased, because I know how difficult it is to get any sort of response from anyone...even if you put them on the cover of the magazine, you might not get any sort of validation at all. This note is just to show my appreciation of what you have done.
- Cher, Ourusamagazine.com
I've had two e-mails sent out so far, several contact have e-mailed me back. I'm going to slowly add more contacts and see how it goes. But I'm happy with the e-mails so far ... this is a good idea for people (like me) who have a difficult time staying in touch with past clients and even friends.- Cynthia Larsen, Broker/Owner, Safe Haven Realty
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