My Best Farming Technique - From Start to Finish
Do I farm neighborhoods? You bet! I do procure business from my monthly mailings to perfect strangers but, when you work on a nearly 90% referral basis from your sphere, the bulk of your business is going to come from the people who know, love and trust you.
Establishing a robust sphere and managing it with a robust CRM is the first step. I'll share my two strategies - marketing to my sphere and marketing to target communities.
PART I
How Did I Establish My Sphere?
That's the easiest part of this business for me! I'm a people person - I also have a nursing background and an inherent drive to 'help' others. I realized with my very first sale that by reaching out to my sphere, the referrals would come. It really didn't require research - just being myself. Simply being knowledgeable, giving, caring and compassionate - just works for me!
Who is in my Sphere of Influence?
- Family
- Friends
- Current Clients
- Past Clients
- Real Estate Agents
- Business Associates
You see, clients are like family in my book! I show them gratitude and appreciation, just as I do my own family. When you provide an incomparable service, your clients become loyal and over the years, they will continue to use you in their own transactions as well as sending your name to everyone they know who is thinking of buying or selling real estate.
Show your gratitude for their loyalty by keeping in touch with them...
How Do I Market to My Sphere?
This part is quite easy - it begins with keeping in touch!
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I pick up the phone and call them
- I break bread with them
- I have many of them to my own home
- I visit them
- I send them cards
- Holiday mailers
- Monthly mailers
- I host parties at different venues for THEM!
- If they are in a business that lends itself to referrals, I do everything I can to help them promote their businesses as well.
Here's a simple example of how I promoted one of my clients via social media - another referral marketing avenue that is often forgotten! If you're wondering how to better do this, check out Anita Clark's blog - she is the queen of this style of marketing!
We do have to remember, in the referral business, it's all about them - when we remember them and focus on them, our own businesses flourish.
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Contact 5 - 10 people in your sphere every single day of the week. After 1:00 in the afternoon works best for me. Don't talk about you, talk about THEM! Chances are, THEY will turn the conversation to real estate...something that just sold in their neighborhood, 'how's the market doing?'...
- Don't forget birthdays--even if it's just an online birthday card...send one!
- Don't forget anniversaries; one trick that works for me is phoning the husband a week prior to the actual anniversary and 'remind' him! Not that all husbands forget anniversaries but, sometimes they will use you to bounce gift or trip ideas off of when you call. Remember, you're their trusted advisor!
- Keep your buyers in touch with their local market. Send monthly market updates--here's where combining your online presence and real life work best: Let them know how the market in their community is doing by sending them to your site for a recent market report. They LOVE these and with every single mailing, many of my sphere reach out to ask how I'm doing and thank me for the information!
- Monthly American Lifestyle Magazines are mailed to my sphere.
- From Your Friends cards are also mailed to my sphere.
- Remember to "break bread" with at least one member of your sphere each week.
- And, please, please, whatever you do, don't forget that the sale is NOT over at the Closing table--those clients need follow-up...forever! And, yes, they are now in your sphere - forever!
This type of niche/sphere farming has served me quite well through good and bad markets! If you think about it, your sphere a very inexpensive niche to farm! Own it, spoil it and farm it - you'll be glad you did...for the rest of your business life!
PART II
Farming to Strangers! (Neighborhood Farms)
Here are a few things that I do for my neighborhood farms:
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Host a builder open to highlight a builder who has either built from ground-up or done a major renovation.
- Invite the entire neighborhood via post card announcement, phone call or door-to-door door hangers or flyers
- Invite your sphere
- Here's an example of one that I did that was a huge success for the builder.
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Host a staggered open house. The neighbors love to stop in anyway and it's a great way to meet a group of neighbors and spend some time together. Besides business from my sphere, I have picked up more listings from this practice than any other form of farming. So, invite the neighbors from 1-3:00 and the public from 3-5:00. It's a 4-hour block of time well-spent!
Invite the entire neighborhood via post card announcement, phone call or door-to-door door hangers or flyers- Invite the public via MLS, social media, sphere as well as web leads who are looking in the area. *NOTE: These web leads should ALL be in your CRM as soon as they register on your site.
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New listing postcards to the area residents:
- Coming Soon!
- Just Listed
- Under Contract
- JUST SOLD!
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Farming postcards to your target communities:
- Evidence of success (see below postcard)
- Area sales
- Market updates
- New listing postcards - from coming soon to sold
- Neighborhood news
- Local announcements
Farming to your sphere is the single most important thing that you can do for your business - farming doesn't just mean sending out postcards. It takes SO little time to reach out to our sphere, in person, on a quarterly basis. A FORD call (asking about their Family, Occupation, Recreation & Dreams) goes a long way to maintaining client loyalty.
Love on them and they'll love on you...for an eternity!
This blog post was written as a submission to the ActiveRain Challenge - My Best Farming Technique (Sponsored by SmartZip). If you would like to share one of your favorite farming techniques (and earn up to 10K ActiveRain points as well as a chance to win a free ticket to a Ben Kinney Training event) head over to the blog post announcing the challenge.
© Debe Maxwell | The Maxwell House Group | CharlotteBroker@icloud.com | My Best Farming Technique - From Start to Finish
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