Your sphere is your best source of business — but sometimes, repeat business or referrals slip through the cracks before you’ve had a chance to get in touch. Is it really possible to keep up-to-date with hundreds (or even thousands) of contacts in your database?
When we asked “Rainers” how they manage to get business from their sphere in this contest, several bloggers responded by saying they watch for specific signals in order to ensure business doesn’t slip out of their hands.
Here are three ways top-producing agents watch for signals among members of their sphere. For even more examples, check out our Dominate Your Sphere PDF. Every answer was provided by someone in the Active Rain community!
1. Track their activity and posts on social media
We loved this tip from Aspen agent Brenda Spillman, who shared that she doesn’t only use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family — she also pays close attention to milestones and changes in her contacts’ lives.
When I am working with clients, I will frequently connect with them on some type of social media
platform. By seeing what they post on social media, I can usually determine if they have outgrown their current home, received a new job at a different location, or maybe they are getting married and combining households. All of these things are clues that tell me they may be ready to make a move.
I don’t usually come right out and say “Hey, should we list your home?” but instead I comment on their posts or send them a private message congratulating them. That usually leads into “Oh — can you look for some new houses for us?”
Top Producer® Pro Tip: Make Facebook Lists
If you haven’t been in touch with someone in a long while, Facebook’s algorithms may neglect to alert you of what’s going on in their life. If you want to be sure you see every update from a certain group of people in your sphere (like those you think may sell in the next year), create a Facebook list.
Then, instead of just scrolling down your news feed when you log into Facebook, click on your list (or lists) to check in on the activity of those you added. As Brenda mentions, from there you can easily track their big news and reach out if you think they may be ready to speak with you.
2. Watch how often they interact with your search and save features
Agent Laura Allen works in the Lake Tahoe area, so not all of her buyers are in a hurry to purchase a vacation residence. In many cases, they’re waiting for the right home to come on the market. To ensure she doesn’t lose their business while she works on active clients, Laura pays close attention to how her contacts engage with her email listing alerts.
Once I sign up a potential seller, or buyer for the automatic email listing system (new listings, price changes, or pending sales), that is when the monitoring of client activity begins.
When someone is actively checking in, I know this is someone ready to take action and [I move them] up on my constant contact schedule.
I only make contact once a week with either a call or follow-up email with a new lead, until I can determine how ready they are to take action. I’m in a second home market so things move slower as a buyer or seller moves through the information and decision-making process.
3. Track who is watching the changing market
We were excited to see that one contest response from Tony and Suzanne Marriott focused on how they use Market Snapshot, an MLS-based market trends report, to gauge the interest of those in their sphere. Tony tells it best:
We place every prospect, contact and members of our past clients and sphere of influence on Market Snapshot® [reports]. The recipients have the ability to select how frequently they receive the report. We can view that information, and whether or not they are actively reading the Market Snapshot® [report] in the dashboard.
Invariably, when recipients are considering “making a move” with real estate, they increase the frequency of the Market Snapshot® [reports] and increase the number of times they view the Market Snapshot® [reports].
Monitoring this information alerts us to those in our database who would benefit from us reaching out to them and it integrates seamlessly with Top Producer® CRM, which we have used as our CRM from day one in the business.
Apologies if this sounds like a “paid infomercial” for Top Producer® [CRM]— it most definitely is not. Suzanne has explored many alternative CRMs, and has always decided that Top Producer® [CRM] is the best for us to use. We have used this product since it was launched — and will continue to do so as long as we are in the residential real estate business!
Ready to dominate your sphere?
We are so grateful to the Active Rain community. Through our contest, we gathered 30 amazing ways agents can engage their sphere to get more business in 2017. We compiled them all into a free PDF download, and we invite you to download it here.
GET THE FREE PDF: How to dominate your sphere.
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