"How to go from "I found you on the Internet" to "Let's get married"

This article is not a prescription for getting the largest possible number of clients in the shortest time. It is about building long lasting relationships with clients.

For starters, let's get rid of the salespeople favorite word "leads". Why do we insist on calling people "leads" instead of  "prospective clients"? Some may think it's a minor point.  For me, it  somehow devalues and de-personalizes the relationship before it even started. People looking for a romantic match on the Internet don't say "I got a call from a very handsome lead". More likely it's: "I got a call from a great guy I would like to meet". No different with real estate clients -we are looking for a relationship.

Having changed my marketing focus to blogging from the conventional methods, I learned  interesting lessons.

1. Write content for the type of clients you want to attract.
The people who contact me from the blog are more often then not similar to me. They are detail oriented, focus on and appreciate research, value education as part of the selling process, are looking for a lot of useful information, could recognize intelligence and knowledge when they see it, do not believe they know -it -all, have an open mind, are suspicious of hard core sales people .

This made my year a lot more enjoyable. In contrast, pursuing FSBO last year, as the conventional wisdom for the relatively new real estate agents,  produced, putting it mildly, a lot of stress. These are often people convinced they know it all, suspicious of advice, apprehensive of the value of your work, etc.

This as not what my heart desired.

2. Be there to answer the call.
I rarely have to call back -I am there when the phone rings, sometimes startling the person on the other line. One client said, of the several calls he placed, I was the only one who answered the phone...Clients said they were not sure why real estate agents advertise their phone numbers if they are not there to answer them.

E-mail immediately, if you don't have the phone number to call. Be sensitive to the style of inquiry. Do not push to get the person's phone number. Realize it could be a slow dance of getting to know each other through e-mails. The goal here is in each e-mail to provide value while finding out a bit more about the client's needs.

3. Judge the tempo
It could be a slow dance or it could be a cha-cha. It is often slower with buyer clients, then seller clients, since sellers are often under more time pressure. I had clients contact me after several failed relationships with other agents. What ever dissatisfaction  was generated with the previous agent, the client may need time to see if and how you are different.

4. No hard sell
One thing I never do is push. Some times clients get stuck in the analysis paralysis and/or unable to make decisions. There are agents who believe such clients need to be pushed towards making  a decision. I found two things could happen. The client gets stressed. If they make the decision, they are never certain later if it was the right decision and could come to resent you as an agent. If the stress gets to be too much, they would go somewhere else.

Buying and selling is stressful enough for clients. My job is to minimize the stress, not add to it.

5. Educate as you go
Let's suppose the client didn't take your advice and, for example, didn't offer what you recommended. Let's suppose it caused them to "lose" a bid. This is not the end of the world. In fact, better then anything you could say or do, it showed the client the value and validity of your advice.

This is one way my clients come to trust me - they see my words come true. It's not about the promises of a great job, or the ads with my smiling face, or the hype of being #1 producer. It's simply advising and guiding, so your words become verifiable facts. Does it take extra time? Yes. Does it stretch the process? May be. Does it built stronger relationships ? Most certainly.

One thing I found not to be the case. Prospective clients calling to hire you from a blog.

This is what I read a lot on Active Rain. Some may say my blogging has not risen to the heights needed for this to be the case. Fair enough. I am not sure I could fault prospective sellers for not hiring me right off the bat based on my blog. Again, my clients tend to be similar to me in many ways. I would not hire someone to do something very important, let's say surgery, just because I liked their blog, or even got a recommendation. I would want to meet them in person, meet other doctors, and decide then. Having a blog should make the client's task easier -more of a confirmation rather then investigation from scratch.

I found this to be the case with the sellers. When prospective clients ask me if they should talk to other agents, I say -"Sure". Why? Because:

• 1. It's part of due diligence.
• 2. Blog is a resume and a bit of an interview. It's not the interview.
• 3. Through my blog they could peak "into my head" over a long time, most other agents don't offer it to their clients.
• 4. I am confident in my  abilities.
• 5. If they select someone else, it would have not been a good match anyway. This saves me time, expense and aggravation.
  
• 6. This is not the last chance we have to work together.
• 7. When the prospective client's choice turns out wrong they come back appreciating even more what I have to offer.

Be smart, be focused, be responsive, be respectful, be an advisor, know your stuff, get the job done. Hey, it's easy to get clients for life.

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