It's not who you know

Staying in touch with and expanding your SOI is the single biggest way to market your business...every year over 95% of our business is referral...monthly mailings, coffees....picnics, calendars....phone calls.....they know where to find us...and we find them over and over and over !

Yes! Yes! Yes! We real estate agents make it much more complicated than it really is. If you go out into the world with your antenna up and a smile on your face and leave your cheesy sales pitch at home, opportunities are all around you. The secret? Approach friends & strangers alike as a generally cool person who cares about them... who also happens to be a real estate agent. When you love your job and you're good at your job and you care about helping people who might need your help (either real-estate-related or not), that is magnetic.

Letting people know I am a Realtor comes very easy for me lately. Lets face it every home owner out there wants to know what is going on in Real Estate. They want to know what that home of theirs is worth after pumping mortgage payments into it for the past 10 to 20 years. If you can strike an inteligent conversation or have a qualified opinion people will respect you and possibly pass along your name. Never, Never, Never leave home without a business card in your pocket!!

And when they "knows you" getting them to tell others they do and to offer to introduce you.

I totally agree with your post, I"ll remember this when i meet with those that I know.

Laura, you're absolutely correct and this is one of my weaker strengths.  Thank God for my partner who remembers everyone and everything.

Yes Laura, I agree with you.  It is a very thin line between trying to sell and marketing yourself as the "go to" person for your SOI without turning people off.   Thanks again.  kevincavanaughonline.com

Kevin - half the battle is CARING whether or not you're running your SOI off! Because I write a lot 'bout SOI, I hear the most amazing stories of how agents feel that their SOI is obligated to listen to their sales pitches, obligated to use & refer them just because they sent 'em a calendar last year. And don't get me started on all the referral-begging advice that the SOI gurus hand out. BLECH!

I love to tell people that the language I speak is real estate! That encompasses any topic that they would be interested in!

This is one of the most basic thing you can do to get your business back on track or to start growing it, but you still have to earn business not just know who is doing business.

What is that saying, "People don't care about you till they know how much you care"  or something like that.  Second, real estate is such a hot topic now, its pretty easy to bring it up in conversation, many people want to talk about it.

Laura, this is so true. A real estate CRM system, such as IXACT Contact, is a great way to gather and store information on people as time goes by so you can have that meaningful conversation about the South of France, for example, because you know Jane Smith has a summer home there.

Cheers!

Rich