As promised... here is the follow-up to my earlier blog about what to do with your contacts once you've loaded them up in your contact management system to maximize the likelihood that your sphere of influence (the people who know you) will support your real estate business. If you'd like to read the first installment where I covered Steps 1-6, here 't'is: http://activerain.com/blogsview/2454716/so-my-contacts-are-loaded-what-now-
In a nut, Steps 1-6 had you going through all the names in your database to identify any missing bits of information, then categorizing your contacts as Group One, Group Two or IDK's and then cr
eating sub-groups.
By the way, if you'd rather just watch the video of the whole webinar, you can do that here: www.sellwithsoul.com/cms-contacts.
So, here are Steps 7 and 8:
Step 7: Research all the missing bits of information that you identified earlier and fill them in on each contacts' profile. Facebook is a great resource for email addresses and birthdays, BTW.
Step 8: Concurrent with Step 7, identify each person in their profile as a Group One, Group Two or IDK, as well as any sub-group they belong to.
(Depending on your contact manager, this last step can probably be done on a "mass" input basis.)
Once you've completed Steps 7 and 8, you should have a relatively complete and up-to-date database (wasn't that fun? LOL). If you stay on top of it, you'll never have to go through this entire exercise again, although I believe it's a good practice to print out your database and review it a few times a year, just for kicks.
So, now, it's time to start reconnecting with the people whose names are in that database.
Depending on your business model and future plans for your sphere of influence, you may want to send out a "reconnection letter." I won't talk about that today because it would take too long, but I have a live workshop coming up this fall on the subject.
But whether you send out a mass reconnection letter or not, there are several things you can be doing to reconnect with your sphere of influence, starting now!
Here's what I would do.
First, I would print out my Group Ones (my social network) and go through the list name by name to see who I feel like reconnecting with in the next week or two. The cool thing is that your "mood" will change week to week, so NEXT week, you can go through the list again and be drawn toward completely different people. I'd try to go out for coffee or drinks with two or three people a week until I'd had a face-to-face with all my Group Ones (or at least attempted to, thus making contact).
As I'm going through my list of Group Ones, I'd try to remember the last conversation I had with each person to remind myself where we left off in our friendship.
Then, on an ongoing basis after each social encounter, I'd immediately write down something we talked about that I can follow up with in a few days or weeks, and enter that follow-up as a task in my contact manager. For example, maybe my friend told me she was getting a new puppy over the weekend; I could call the next week to see how it's going. Or maybe a friend tells me her mother has been ill - I can follow up in a few days to see if she needs anything.
What about your Group Twos (your "everyone else" contacts who aren't in your social network)? Well, I communicate with my Group Two with postal mailings and mass emailings. I don't try to socialize with them or make personal contact unless I have a bona-fide reason to, but my Group Two was always a significant source of business for me, even without the face-to-face/voice-to-voice contact.
So, that's the show for today ;-]. Hope you enjoyed this little mini-series on What To Do Now That Your Contacts Are Loaded!
To read more about my Contact Management ramblings, just go here: www.SellwithSoul.com/contact-management.
