When creating your database, do not focus on the number of people in your sphere of influence (SOI). It is not ONLY the numbers that matter; it's the relationships. How many of you have have had people recognize you at the supermarket, restaurant or when you are at the gas station? It will happen! Those are the people that should be in your database.
Generating a well-crafted database and marketing to those in your database on a regular basis will go a long way towards creating leads-leads that will fuel your real estate career for years to come. There is a great book that takes this a lot further that you should add to your library – 7 Levels of Communications by Michael Maher.
When you are planning your day, don’t forget to block out a time for Lead Generation. You need to decide how much time you spend on “Lead Generation”. . . because real estate is a machine that constantly needs oiled. When you are busy with closing and Active Buyers, it’s easy to think you don’t need to do any Lead Generation. Don’t fall into that trap! You need to have business in your “pipeline” and the only way you can get it there is by actively working on lead generation every day.
How many of you have ever attended a Chamber of Commerce Mixer or similar event? When you go, you need to make it a priority to talk to 50 or more people. Of course you will exchange business cards, then you need to come back to your office and you put those contacts into your database, connect with them on Linkedin, Active Rain, Facebook, etc. Email them and you start developing good business relationship with those 50 people. You have planted and started watering 50 new seeds. These new contacts might not all become clients or referrals but at least you planted 50 seeds. They may not all grow, but some of them will! On the other hand, some you will decide not to go to the Chamber of Mixer and instead, You go home and watch TV. You didn’t plant ANY seeds and then in 90 days, you wonder why your pipeline looks empty? Why don’t you have any sales? Well, how can you expect to have crops growing and blossoming and be collecting a good harvest when you never planted a field?
Remember the 90-day pipeline: the RESULTS you have today are a natural outcome of the ACTIONS you took 90 days ago! On a personal note – to this day I do not watch much TV, rather I sit at my computer and answer emails, blog, and plan my schedule. Success takes dedication. What I do know is there are many ways to reach and fill your pipeline. I will post those ways in my next (part 3) post!
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