We recently got together with five of our top agents spanning the country who actively market to their prospects. In full disclosure, they use SmartTargeting's platform including automated mailers and digital ads. But, knowing the industry as we do, even the best marketing will fall short if we don't go out and get the business.
Bev Blume: Help Your Prospects See You As Their Neighbour
For Portland, Oregon, agent Bev Blume getting face to face is all about systematizing her outreach and focusing on visibility. Bev makes her first impression through automated marketing campaigns, including mailers, so that her community becomes familiar with her name, face, and brand.
When members of her farm respond to her mailers or ads, she follows up with them personally. She then sends a handwritten note to them to ensure that they remember her.
Maddy Mattson: Face to Face Starts on The Phone
In the luxury vacation market of Old Lyme, Connecticut, agent Maddy Mattson knows that she has to hustle to win the business of the tiny town’s 2,400 residents. Doorknocking has never been an option for Maddy but over time, she’s come up with the perfect workaround that helps her make that face to face possible with Old Lyme’s high-end homeowners.
First, Maddy targets the homeowners with an automated CMA offer. After they respond to get the value of their home, Maddy follows up personally with a phone call, explaining that an automated CMA may not be perfectly accurate because it doesn’t take into account the upgrades, condition or specific location of their listing.
On the initial phone call, Maddy talks personally with the prospects and asks them what kind of improvements they’ve made to their home and what they love about living there. She uses this as an inroad to ask for an in-person tour, where she can personally assess the home while making a connection with the homeowner.
Mark Baserap: Get noticed in a crowd by standing out
If you have heard the term “personal brand” but wondered how it could possibly relate to winning more listings, Mark Baserap is here to prove that a strong persona can be all the branding you need.
Mark dresses to impress in casual St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, wearing a suit and bowtie at all times. And if that isn’t enough to stand out from the beach-going locals, Mark also drives a 1969 Lemans convertible. As a result, he’s known around town as “the bowtie guy” or the “yellow car guy.”
Mark leverages monthly mailers to help get his name out to his local market’s homeowners. But it's the bowtie and yellow convertible that make him memorable among locals.
Scott Kabel: Narrow down your prospects and show them
that their special
Agent Scott Kabel of RiverNorth, in Chicago, has the benefit of being a high-turnover area, which can help him to earn more listings — if he can identify them in time. Because RiverNorth is a highly transitional neighborhood, it can have less of a community feel and meeting sellers can be difficult for the area’s 13,000 agents.
The secret, says Scott, is to make sure you’re in front of the right people at the right time. Scott leverages predictive analytics, which helps him to narrow down the owners who may be thinking of selling soon. Once he knows his likely prospects, he follows up with them persistently but respectfully until he wins their business.
By narrowing down his prospects before he begins his outreach, Scott can set the tone that each potential seller is special. His high-end boutique brokerage aims to offer “white glove service” to each prospect and client, from start to finish. Scott knows that he wouldn’t be able to perform with this level of service if he were trying to determine the potential movers from high-rise buildings all on his own.
“I get to know each client and I treat them like family. I keep up with their family and make sure to stay in personal contact from start to finish.”
Colleen Pye: Offer up wine and wisdom
Colleen hosts events for top prospects at the local wine bar, where she and her co-sponsor lender talk casually about home buying, selling and the community in general. It’s a low-pressure way to get to know prospects she believes are close to needing an agent but who aren’t yet ready to hire her. She’s always amazed by the number of attendees who show up; it’s clear that she is meeting a local need by offering these events.
By hosting an event, Colleen stands out from other agents in the community, provides relevant and personal content and gets face to face with at least one and usually more of her top prospects. She does this all while supporting local businesses who can't help but think of Colleen anytime a customer asks, "hey, do you know a good agent?".
What are you waiting for?
Go on, get face to face with your prospects and win more business! If you have some great ways of getting face to face, we'd love to hear about them.
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