As a San Diego REALTOR, investor and buyers specialist I get many of my clients through referrals. Many real estate agents get the majority of their clients through referrals. For obvious reasons there are lots of reasons agents love referrals. Most referrals are already interested in buying or selling their home. Because their friend or colleague referred you, you already have credibility in their eyes. They are usually easier to work with and are more likely to close the real estate transact & you didn't have to spend money on advertising or lead generation.
Here are the steps I use to build a referral-based business. My process involves cultivating a network of strategic partners who are most likely to refer business to me.
A - I add all of my contacts into a database manager called ACT! for Real Estate. Start a database of your current and past clients, vendors and potential referral partners so that you can "touch' them through target marketing. There are lots of programs out there to stay organized, such as Top Producer and Act! or even Microsoft Outlook can keep track of your information.
B - These contact databases are only as good as the information we put in to them so make sure you make it a priority to organize your contacts by making a commitment to spend 15 minutes each day or an hour each week to add all new contact information you've collected on business cards or napkins or on Post-It notes,
C - Networking events such as my Meetup.com tennis group, my yoga class, and my women's associations provide me valuable branding and exposure and also referrals. Try to attend a networking event each week. It's the best way to meet new people to add to your sphere of influence.
D- Contact a minimium of two people each day. I target 5 hand written note cards to mail each day and a minimum of 1 hour of calls per day. If you contat just 2 people per day -that is ten per week or forty per month. The more you touch base with people, the more likely they will be to refer business to you. Start to send out an annual home valuation to past clients, endorse local business owners in your sphere, or send your local real estate market updates. Try also to meet your top referral sources in person once or twice a year.
E - My monthly Real Estate email newsletter is the other way I follow up. I send out market statistics from my San Diego market , housing trends, new listings, and a featured article in my area of expertise. Make sure you have permission first from your clients by simply explaining you offer a monthly newsletter and would they mind if you sent it to them. Ask for referrals whenever you follow up. This is important because if you don't specifically ask, it might not cross their mind. I also make sure they have a couple extra of my business cards on hand to give to a possible referral.
Referrals are our best and most valuable lead source so make sure no potential referrals slide through the cracks in your database management system. I would love to hear you ideas too!!
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