Real estate speaker and consultant Valerie Garcia visited us at Sage HQ to host a talk about Strategic Goal Setting and business planning for real estate agents.
An essential component of goal setting is of course, revenue targets – or, in the case of realtors, how much commission sales needs to be earned, which comes down to lead generation. Where do realtors generate the most leads? Some common answers from our group included “repeat/referral”, “sign calls”, and “internet leads”.
These are great answers, but there were a few painfully obvious answers that several agents seemed to miss.
Are You Maximizing Your Personal Sphere?
- Direct Circle of Friends and Family. This means your family and closest friends. While it seems so obvious, feedback shows that many realtors forget to add these contacts to their newsletters and regular follow up lists. Those who didn’t forget choose not to, because they assume their Direct Circle “already knows” they sell real estate and “wouldn’t forget about them”.
In some cases this is true, but in some cases, well, it’s just not. It isn’t because you’re forgettable or they don’t want to give you their business or refer you – you’re perhaps too close to them to remember you in “that way”.“After a planning session, I was looking through my contact list and realized my father wasn’t on my list! I added him, and after receiving his first monthly update newsletter, he sent a referral right away.”
– Unnamed Agent
- Past Clients. It doesn’t take much effort to stay top of mind, just make sure that you are doing it in a genuine, meaningful way. We have found one of the best ways is to simply keep your past clients and your sphere up to date on what things are selling for in their immediate neighbourhood. If they are a past client you can even use the anniversary of their purchase as the trigger event to let them know what has been happening in their neighbourhood.
- TIP! Your database should house all of your past clients, but if not, your brokerage should be able to produce sold reports for you. If they’re using the Lone Wolf system, ask your administrator to print out report 8.5N3 (they will know what that means).
- Valerie Garcia’s Key Takeaway: Talk to five people a day to build connections and relationships. By this, we don’t mean a moment’s chatter – we’re talking about meaningful conversations, the kind where you get to know someone (even a little bit).
