Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

I have a friend; let's call her Sarah. She is a new real estate agent and is committed to an SOI* strategy to build her business. So far, it's going well - she's already experiencing some success and is optimistic that she will survive her first year without ever cold-calling, door-knocking, farming or advertising.

Here's the problem. Sarah has a new boyfriend. When said boyfriend realized that Sarah freely hands out her phone number (in the form of her business card) to anyone who asks (regardless of gender), he was horrified. Not that he doesn't understand she has a business to build, but he's convinced that when Sarah cheerfully offers her phone number/business card to those of the male gender, they are going to assume that she is interested in them romantically. "That's the way men think, honey."

Sarah dismissed his concerns, assuring him that she keeps her SOI efforts on a professional level and that there is no funny business going on - either real or imagined. She simply doesn't believe that the men she prospects to have any notion that she might be open to their advances.  The boyfriend disagrees. It's causing some strain in their relationship.

Sarah asked me for my thoughts. Initially I agreed with her - that the BF needs to accept that his honey is in a business that requires her to socialize with male creatures.

But then I ran across a paragraph in a book I'm reading about the differences in brain chemistry between men and women and it made me rethink my position. The book said that "...men are very easily aroused and easily misconstrue the slightest hint of friendship as a sexual invitation." So I asked my own BF for his thoughts, as well as a couple of other men I know. They all adamantly agreed with Sarah's boyfriend that if a woman shows friendly interest in a man, he's absolutely going to interpret that as romantic interest on her part. If she gives him her phone number? She might as well have invited him in for a late-night coffee...

Any thoughts? No gender-bashing or ridicule, please. I'd love to hear from the men in the crowd how you honestly feel about this, as well as from any women who have experienced the same thing with their men...

THANKS!

* SOI Strategy = Building your business based on the personal relationiships in your life - the people you know and people you meet.

The Savvy Prospector: Eight Weeks to a Full Pipeline for Life!
          

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The Daily Seduction: Tips for Generating Business & Referrals from the People Who Know You

Y'know what I love about this business? That every single thing I do, every day, has the potential to bring a client my way. Big things, small things, easy things, hard things... every action I take, whether intentional or not, might just result in a juicy paycheck for me - today... tomorrow... or six months from now.

My business comes in one client at a time. And, frankly, with the average price in my market being around $300,000, I could easily live on the business that passively floats by me. But my point is that I don't need five new prospects a day to keep me happy. Just one a week and I'll be tickled pink.

We real estate agents tend to look at prospecting as a volume proposition. That is - we try to touch as many of our target audience (whether that's a farm, an SOI, FSBOs or expireds) with our message as physically possible in the least amount of time. But with the size of our paychecks, is it really necessary to use this approach? What if, instead of attempting to "touch" a whole bunch of people at once in hopes that you'll win the Numbers Game... you spend an hour a day going out of your way to impress someone?

One warm body at a time...

(So what do I mean by "impress?" Stay tuned...)

The Savvy Prospector: Eight Weeks to a Full Pipeline for Life!
          

Subscribe to:
The Daily Seduction: Tips for Generating Business & Referrals from the People Who Know You

Most agent training programs insist that Selling Real Estate is a Numbers Game - that is, in order to bring in enough business to keep the home fires burning, you have to touch as many people as you can with your name & number. The more people you touch, the better your chances of procuring a buyer or a listing.

We've all heard the mass-marketer's philosophy - you have to contact X number of people to get a lead and you have to have Y number of leads to get a listing (or a buyer) and you have to have Z number of listings (or buyers) to get a paycheck. Therefore, it takes X(Y-Z)²  x 25 contacts to have 25 closings. (I'm really bad at math, so that formula is totally made up - don't try it at home). During the course of all these cold calls (or door knocks or postcard mailings, etc.) you'll encounter loads of rejection, but the gurus claim that since it's all part of the game, you actually ENJOY each rejection because it means you're one step closer to paycheck.

Sounds delightful.

According to the Direct Marketers Association, the highest return rate you should expect for a direct mail campaign is 2%; for a cold-calling campaign, 5.53%. Keep in mind that these figures reflect how many people simply contact the advertiser, not whether or not they purchase anything. So, if you send out 1000 postcards, you can expect, at the most, 20 inquiries from your effort.

Your cost? Let's say each postcard costs you $.58 cents plus a set-up fee of $100 = around $700 total. Not bad if it gets results, but tough on the new agent's pocketbook!

Well, as you may know, I preach a slightly different approach - that is - building your business based on the personal relationships in your life... the relationships you have now as well as those you'll have in the future. I advise against asking for business or assaulting the people you know with your sales pitch and I teach agents to draw business TO them without ever pestering a soul. I believe you can bring in good leads one warm body at a time without ever treating anyone like a number (and you'll have a heck of a lot more fun selling real estate).

But, the idea that selling real estate successfully is a numbers game is so deeply entrenched in the psyche of the real estate agent, I figure... if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em. 

So, let's play the Numbers Game of Relationship Prospecting.

Let's say that instead of sending out 1000 football schedule postcards, you send ten of your friends a personal, non-salesy email. Just a "hi, how ya doing, great weather we're having, how's the puppy, let's do lunch" kind of thing.

Of those ten emails you send, what do you think your response rate will be? I don't know about you, but I'd expect 100% response rate - that is, every single person I wrote to would write me back, as long as my email was personal and even mildly interesting (this does NOT apply to mass-forwards or emailed infomercials). But let's say that two of your friends are on vacation, so you hear back from eight. That's an 80% response rate.

Now let's say that you followed up on your offer to "do lunch" and went to lunch with all eight in the next month. That's two lunches a week, if you treat all eight times, you'll spend, maybe, $200.

Will any of those eight friends buy or sell a house with you anytime soon? Maybe, but probably not (however, I can guarantee you that if they do, you'll be #1 on their list). But here's where it gets fun.

How many people do each of those eight friends know? How many do they work with, play with, talk with, drink with? Twenty? Thirty? One hundred? And how many people do THOSE people know?

See, here's the thing. By personally interacting with just those eight friends, you have effectively touched everyone they know. And with these eight lunches, you've also increased the possibility of being included in the social lives of these eight people. You'll be invited to their Super Bowl party or afternoon BBQ. Where you'll meet more of their friends...

Out of all those hundreds of people your friends know and their friends know, some are going to have a real estate need today, tomorrow and next month. A personal referral from someone they know is going to carry a heck of a lot more weight than a mass-mailed postcard received from a stranger.

Because, when you do a mass-mailing or other mass-marketing project, you aren't hoping for referrals from the recipients of your promotional material; you're simply hoping that one of those 1000 people has a real estate need and doesn't know anyone besides you to call. You certainly aren't expecting them to shout your praises to their circle of friends because you sent them a football schedule.

What if you took eight people to lunch every month?

Wow - Selling real estate IS a numbers game! I want to play!

I've been writing for a few years now on tips, techniques and strategies to build and maintain a strong sphere of influence business model. 

• Marketing to Your SOI? Don't You Dare!
• The Seduction of Your SOI: How Trying to Get Business is Kinda Like Trying to Get... uh...
• Rely on my SOI? I don't know anyone who wants to buy or sell!

But y'know what the all-time most powerful way to run a successful business based on the personal relationships in your life is?

Do a hell of a job for your clients.

Go above and beyond every chance you get. Don't ask what your client can do for you, ask what you can do for your client. DO that open house, even if you don't want to. Attend your buyer's inspection even if inspections bore you to tears. Call your seller every single week, even if you have nothing much to report. Cheerfully take your buyer back to the house for the 3^rd time so he can measure the windows before writing an offer. Follow up with your buyer a few days after closing to see if any problems arose during move-in that you can help with.

And then, stay in touch with them on a personal basis forever and ever.

Did you notice that there's nothing in the above paragraph about buying them a fabulous closing gift or putting them on a canned drip campaign? Nothing about mailing them recipe cards or pestering them for the names of three friends you could contact with your sales pitch?

Nope. Gifts and drips won't change anyone's opinion of whether or not you are refer-worthy. If you did a lousy job for your client, but buy them a Rolex at closing, you just threw your money away on the watch. Following up with consistent sales pitches will only alienate someone who could otherwise be a huge source of business for you.

Especially if you're in your first year, please take this advice to heart. If you go all out for the clients you have today, they will enthusiastically support your business for years to come. After 3-4 years, if you've done a reasonably good job staying in touch, your phone will start to ring without any effort on your part.

It's a beautiful way to make a living.

www.sellwithsoul.com

The other day I wrote a blog, basically admitting that I've lied all this time when I said that virtually all of my real estate business came directly or indirectly from the people I knew, otherwise known as my sphere of influence (SOI).

As part of my re-entry into the wonderful world of real estate sales, I've been more closely analyzing where my business came from the first go-around and had an AHA moment of... "wow - I got a lot of business from strangers!" Now, don't get me wrong, I hadn't forgotten about these Very Important Clients; I just kinda forgot how I met them since, of course, they all ended up in my SOI and many became friends or semi-friends.

But the difference is... I never prospected for the business of strangers. Never cold-called, door-knocked; rarely advertised or farmed. I never, ever approached a stranger with the intent to prospect to them.  All of my Business from Strangers was serendipitous...

They say that luck is when opportunity meets preparation. BINGO!

Opportunity: Being out in the world with a smile on your face and your antenna up.

Preparation: Being ready to hand out your business card and spout your elevator speech? NO!!! Preparation means being ready to speak intelligently and knowledgeably about the local real estate market without a hint of a sales pitch.

Don't want to prospect? Then don't. Spend that time learning the heck out of your market. Preview, preview, preview. Read neighborhood newspapers. Preview some more. Visit neighborhood grocery stores and shopping districts. Preview. Visit new home communities, attend meetings on Transit Oriented Development. Preview. Know your office inventory inside and out.

When a Stranger Calls...(on one your listings or while you're on floor duty), you'll get ‘em. When an open house visitor expresses in an interest in the neighborhood... you'll get ‘em. When another guest at a wedding wants to talk real estate investment... you'll get ‘em.

KNOWING YOUR MARKET is the best way to "prospect" to strangers. No fancy business card, well-rehearsed elevator speech or slick closing technique will beat the confidence that exudes from you when you know your stuff. It's magnetic.

p.s. remember the part about leaving out the sales pitch. If you impress someone with your market knowledge, then hit ‘em with a sales pitch, you'll likely un-do all the good you just did. When you're confident and enthusiastic, people will ASK for YOUR business card. It's a beautiful thing.  Right, Susan?