Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

Been doing a little private SOI (Sphere of Influence) tutoring with some local Denver agents. Yesterday, as I was working with one of my students, she asked me a question that got me thinking (I love that). She asked "So, my goal is to expand my Sphere of Influence database to a certain number by the end of the year?"

Well, sorta. At least, that's probably one of your goals. But as I answered her question I realized that there are really four different branches of an SOI business model, thus four different "goals" to shoot for as you build your SOI model.

Here are the four branches:

1. Your Direct SOI - that is - the people you know
2. Your Indirect SOI - that is - the people your SOI knows (i.e. referrals)
3. Your Third Generation SOI - that is - the people you meet via your SOI
4. Everyone Else - that is - every single person you encounter in your day-to-day wanderings

Your Direct SOI
These are the people who know you and know you sell real estate. It's made up of your Group One (your social network) and your Group Two (those people you know that you don't socialize with). You should try to have at least 200 warm bodies there; of course, more is better, but they don't "count" if the person wouldn't recognize your name off the bat. These are people who KNOW you, even if they aren't your best friends.

You'll get business from your Direct SOI, but it probably won't be your primary source of closings. Most of aren't blessed with an SOI who buys and sells houses on a regular basis!

Your Indirect SOI
These are the people your Direct SOI refers to you, who, of course, will be added to your Direct SOI once you've met. Your Indirect SOI should be a fairly consistent source of business for you, assuming your Direct SOI thinks a lot of you, and they know how to find you.

Your Third Generation SOI
These are the people you serendipitously meet as a result of your existing personal relationships. For example, back in 1996, I met my second and third clients ever at the wedding of a mutual friend. I met another client at a Pride parade I attended with my GLBT friends. Another at a Super Bowl party. Stuff like that. This can be an enormous source of business for you, if you're often out there in the world with a smile on your face and your antenna up, and can speak intelligently about your local real estate market to anyone who's interested (and please don't bore those who aren't!)

Everyone Else
These are the people you run into during your daily travels. Every single person you meet, every day, has the potential to be the newest member of your Direct SOI. Not all will, of course, but you never know who will end up being your biggest fan. It might be that young couple who stumbled into your Open House who had a child the same age as yours. Or that woman standing next to you at Ace Hardware getting a key made, who casually mentions she just moved to town. That guy you meet at the dog park. Your neighbor three doors down who is looking for his lost cat. The woman who calls you off your Craigslist ad to purchase your roller blades.

Again, HUGE potential with this category - if not today, then next month or next year.

So, looking at the four branches... how can you incorporate these four categories into your SOI-building goals & activities?

www.SellwithSoul.com

SOI 101: What exactly is an SOI business model?
SOI 102: The SECRET to Successful SOI
SOI 103: My daughter's best friend's parents just hired someone else!
SOI 104: I think I've blown it with my SOI

As about 1,000 of you know, last month we held an online teleconference called "Pricing it Right with a Persuasive CMA" that by all accounts - was a fabulous show. So, as promised, we're getting together again to further discuss the Art of the CMA - this time answering the questions we didn't get to the first time around.

Questions such as...

• How do you price a unique property, or one where there are no comparables?
• Do you use a CMA program?
• Do you ask your sellers what they think the price should be before you give your recommendation?
• Do you have any pricing strategies with regards to thresholds, e.g. $299,000 versus $300,000 versus $305,000?
• When a house needs work, do you give sellers an as-is price and a fixed-up price?
• Do you have your seller agree to automatic price reductions at the time of listing?
• What if the seller wants to pad the price to give him "room to negotiate?"
• When doing a CMA, do you use REO's/HUDs as comparables?

Katerina Gasset, Borino, Broker Bryant and I will all give our opinions for each question, which will very likely be quite different. Maybe we'll even get into an argument! (wouldn't that be fun?)

Sound good? Here are the details:

DATE: Saturday, March 14^th

TIME: 8:30 am (Pacific) / 9:30 am (Mountain) / 10:30 am (Central) / 11:30 am (Eastern). Plan on 60-90 minutes.

PLACE: Your very own home, car or office

DRESS  CODE: As always, your call. I'll be in jammies & slippers.

TO REGISTER: Click Here

See you on March 14th!

First, allow me to say that I have no children, never have, never will. I'm far too selfish with my time, so I'm in awe of all of y'all who so unselfishly devote your lives to your kiddos, and of course, I'm terribly grateful to my wonderful mother who did that for me.

Okay... enough sappiness for today.

I had a request from a SWS'er to hold a workshop for REALTOR moms who are struggling to keep it all together. Not being one of those (a mom) myself, I have pretty much nothing intelligent to contribute to such a conversation, but I know some of you do! In fact, as I've often bragged, my readers are some of the smartest, most creative and insightful people on the planet. I mean that with all my heart.

(Oops, more sappiness).

So, how about, in honor of Mother's Day, we have a little online pow-wow dedicated to keeping one's sanity while selling houses AND caring for the chillens? Moms & Dads welcome, along with any soon-to-be or thinking-about-becoming-parents, too. Is this something you'd listen in on?

I have a few REALTOR moms lined up to help lead the discussion, but could use one or two more.  If you'd like to participate, let me know and I'll get you the details. Your fellow Moms would be greatly appreciative!

On a related note, we have two more teleconferences coming up in March. The first is the Selling & Closing Short Sales workshop on March 7th, with Janie Coffey & Broker Bryant Tutas.  

You can register for the Short Sale workshop here.

We're also working on scheduling the follow-up conference to the Persuasive CMA panel discussion we had on February 7th. Stay tuned for details.

Oh, and remember the Real Estate Cyber Convention starts Monday! Here's a free pass.

www.SellwithSoul.com

Many many moons ago, when I was still in Corporate America, I remember a young woman in my office complaining "it wasn't fair" that in order to reach the boardroom (i.e. be the CEO or president of the company), you had to be willing to work ungawdly hours and pretty much abandon your family. "It's too bad," she said, "that our culture requires such a sacrifice to reach the top."

Uh... HUH?

Even at my young age, with no notion of my future political leanings (I'm pretty conservative), I found this opinion bizarre. I mean, if there are people who ARE willing to work that hard and make the necessary sacrifices, then they will set the standard for what's expected to be The Boss.

So here's how this relates to my world today. It's a holiday weekend. Being in real estate, I have real estate stuff going on. I needed a lender on Friday afternoon. Who did I call?

Well, I know a lot of lenders. But a lot of the lenders I know don't work on the weekends, as far as I can tell. And a holiday weekend? Forgetaboutit. They're on the slopes or otherwise not answering their phones.

I called the lender I know works 7 days a week. He answered his phone and he got my new buyer. Who, by the way, is slam-dunk perfect, approved up to $400,000 - and we know this because my new favorite lender met with him on Saturday afternoon, right before his big Valentine's Day date.

As long as there are lenders who are willing to provide last-minute/holiday/weekend service, they will set the standard for what I expect from a lender.  It's fine and dandy to set regular office hours and such, but then don't fuss when an impatient buyer (and his REALTOR) choose to work with someone more flexible. IT'S A CHOICE.

Is it wrong to take weekends off or spend Sundays with your family? Of course not! But it's a choice that not everyone chooses to make. And in this microwave world of instant gratification, I'm gonna choose the person I can reach... even on a holiday weekend.

www.SellwithSoul.com

Okay, I can admit it. I don't know much about short sales. I know more than I did six months ago because I listed one (that never sold even though I had an offer) and I wrote an offer on a short sale a few weeks ago (to which the agent hasn't responded - sheesh).

In the Good Old Days, I proudly proclaimed that I had enough business (thank you very much) and had no need to involve myself with short sales or other such nonsense. So by gawd, I wasn't going to learn anything ‘bout ‘em.

Uh, well, today is somewhat different. If you don't understand short sales, you're not really a full-service real estate agent. It's not the same thing as, say, not understanding land sales or commercial leasing as a residential real estate agent - no, the dreaded short sale is an integral part of a residential real estate business these days, like it or not. (darnit!)

Of course, there are those who say that short sales are a waste of time and have a small chance of success. And that may be true. But it doesn't mean that you shouldn't understand them and be able to make that decision for yourself... or commit to yourself to becoming the expert and getting your short sale buyers & sellers to closing!

With that in mind, I've invited one of my favorite Active Rainers to share her secrets for selling & closing shorts sales. Following up on the phenomenal success of last weekend's "Persuasive CMA" teleseminar, on Saturday March 7^th, we'll have another teleseminar workshop where Janie Coffey will join me (and all of y'all) to tell her story and answer our questions about short sales.

Here are some questions I'm expecting answers to:

... who pays the commission and how much?

... what if there is more than one loan?

... how do I know if the SELLER will qualify?

... does the seller have to be behind in their mortgage?

... do you/should you/can you accept more than one offer?

... how should you price the home?

I'll probably come up with a dozen more, but what are YOUR questions about the process? Any horror (or success) stories you'd like to share? Please do!

To register for the workshop, click here to be whisked away to the registration page...

See you on the 7th!

UPDATE!!!! Janie's got a gu......est.... Fellow Floridian Broker Bryant will be joining Janie on this conference to contribute his short sale strategies - is this a power conference or WHAT???

www.SellwithSoul.com

p.s. Wanna see me on TV? This just ran last night here in Denver... http://cbs4denver.com/recession/home.staging.sales.2.932147.html 

"Dear Jennifer,

I've been reading your blogs about SOI and my heart is sinking. I think I've blown it with my Sphere of Influence by constantly asking them for business and referrals. Is there a way I can redeem myself with my friends, or do I have to go make all new ones?

Bill"

I get this question a lot! Mostly from new or newer agents who have been brainwashed into believing that an SOI (Sphere of Influence) business model means that they're supposed to drive their friends nutso with constant reminders of their love for referrals. Most tell me that:

1) they felt it was wrong, but were convinced to do it anyway, and/or
2) they've felt their friends pull away and suspect they're avoiding the agent's calls.

Oops. Not at all good for business OR your social life!

Here's what I tell these distressed agents.

There are a couple of things they can do. If it suits their personality, they can address it head-on with an apology letter - very sincere, not too sappy, but friendly & apologetic, with a "let's move on" tone. I'm not convinced this is the best line of attack, but it might be effective if done well.

Of course, then the agent needs to follow it up with action - he needs to BE a non-referral-begging friend who happens to be a real estate agent. Coffee dates, casual emails, dinner parties - whatever socializing feels comfortable with the various members of his SOI. Oh, and he doesn't mention his real estate career unless it's appropriate, but strives to come across as a happy, enthusiastic, reliable, dependable, generally cool person who is probably a fabulous real estate agent, as well.

If the apology letter doesn't feel right, then he can just make a concerted effort to reconnect with his SOI, as above, and if the opportunity arises and it feels appropriate, give a little apology in person.

The other thing he can do is strive to build his SOI by meeting new people and NEVER breathing a hint of referral-begging with them. He can meet new people thru his existing SOI and by being out there in the world with his antenna up. I consider my SOI strategy to be more about meeting people THRU my SOI, not necessarily generating business directly from the people I know.

Of course, the best approach is to not annoy one's friends in the first place, so that there's no need for apologies or redeeming one's dignity after the fact!

The SOI Starter Kit - Everything You Need to Implement Your Own Sphere of Influence Business Model
SOI Starter Kit

"Dear Jennifer,

Got up this morning and saw that my daughter's best friend's parents listed with someone else! They've been on my mailing list and their daughter and my daughter have been best friends since grade school. I'm crushed. Should I continue to send them things or take them off my list?"

Jane"

I get these letters all the time - people who have embraced my Sphere of Influence (SOI) philosophy and then feel kicked in the teeth when someone in their SOI hires another real estate agent. They almost seem angry at me for leading them to believe that they could count on the loyalty of everyone in their contact database!

Well, first, I always give permission to my friends to feel really really bummed for an hour or two. If they're brand new in the business, they can even fret overnight about it. It's a natural reaction, and even I'm not immune to it. We tend to think that anyone we've ever breathed on is obligated to use us to sell their home, as long as we made sure they had our business card in their possession. Heck, just last week, I went out for drinks with a new friend and found out just that day she'd listed her house with someone else! The nerve! Yeah, I was a little flustered by that, I can admit.

But here's the thing... or things.

First, in the vast majority of time, when people make a business decision that adversely affects you, it has NOTHING TO DO with you at all. It's not personal - not one little bit. I'm rather thin-skinned, so I find myself hurt all the time by perceived slights, only to find out later that the "slight" was completely, utterly 100% reasonable. An example- last week someone I thought adored me unsubscribed from my mailing list. I was crushed. Later, she wrote to me to say she'd changed her email address and wanted to make sure she continued to get my mailings!

When someone in your SOI chooses someone else to work with, it's almost a certainty that their decision made sense to them and had nothing whatsoever to do with their feelings for you. In fact, it's likely they didn't even think of you when making their decision - yes, the people in our world have their own lives to lead and aren't particularly concerned about ours.

However, if you truly believe that the hiring decision was personal, then you need to ask yourself why that might be so... and it's not likely that it's because the other guy is an idiot or a meanie. There's something about your relationship with them that led them to believe you were not the best (wo)man for the job. But if the extent of that relationship is a series of postcard mailings and an annual calendar, then it's quite possible another agent is higher on their friendship priority list than you are.

Should my friend continue to market to her daughter's best friend's parents? Sure! It's possible that they won't be happy with their choice in agent and might someday start fishing around for my friend's card when the listing expires. But they definitely won't do that if my friend acts at all miffed or unprofessional about it.

An SOI philosophy does work. 100% of the time? Uh, no. Not even close.  But when it doesn't, yes, you have my permission to pout about it for a little while!

 RELATED BLOG: Obligation - a Dirty Word when you SOI

Next in the series... "I think I've blown it with my SOI!"

Get an autographed copy at www.SellwithSoul.com!

I've sold real estate in Denver since 1996. Until I started participating in forums like Active Rain, I never realized how different every market is with regard to customs, services provided & legal issues. For example, in some markets (even big ones), all showings are set directly through the listing agent - NOT the listing agent's office - the listing agent herself. In some markets, listing agents attend all showings. In many markets, the buyers and sellers close separately, for fear of a confrontation, I guess.

And, in apparently the vast majority of markets, the buyer agent co-op fee is 50% of whatever the listing agent negotiates as the total fee.

Well, here in Denver, here's how we do these things. Showings are set by the office receptionist or a centralized showing service. Listing agents do not typically attend showings. Our closings are joint affairs and are almost always happy occasions.

And, we almost always offer the same buyer agent co-op percentage, regardless of what the total listing percentage is.

For example, if the listing agent were to negotiate a, say, 10% (illustrative only) commission, the buyer agent co-op would be the same as if the listing agent negotiated a 3.5% commission. It's very common that the listing agent is paid more than the buyer agent at the closing and no one fusses about it. It's also very common that the listing agent is paid less than the buyer agent, and no one feels sorry for her.

If you go through the Denver MLS and check out the buyer agent co-op, 95% of the time, it will be the exact same figure.

Apparently, this is very weird.

So, my question is - Denver agents - any idea why we implemented this apparently unique "policy" of paying buyer agents? How did it come to pass if pretty much the rest of the country does a 50/50 split?

For the record, I like the way we do it. But I also like that we still use manual lockboxes, so maybe I'm missing something...

Thoughts?

www.SellwithSoul.com

Thanks for the Gold Star yesterday for my first SOI 101, AR Gods! So, to continue the message, here's SOI 101 Lesson #2 - The SECRET to running a successful SOI business model.

Sphere of Influence = The People Who Know You.

Here 't'is.

The secret to running a successful SOI-based business is to be a great real estate agent who loves her job and knows her market and stays in touch with the people she knows, without ever pestering them for business or referrals.

That's it! That's the secret! To be a great real estate agent who loves her job and knows her market and stays in touch with the people she knows, without ever pestering them for business or referrals.

Let's take these items one by one.

You're a great real estate agent
This is huge. When I say that you need to be a great real estate agent, I don't mean that you need to be a great real estate prospector, even though that's what most of our training tends to imply. I mean that you take great care of your clients as your first priority, not as an afterthought when your prospecting is done. Doing business this way helps you on so many levels. First, obviously, you'll have happy clients who will be delighted to refer you to everyone they know. Second and third, you'll be proud of the work you do and confident in the work you do, which will lead to the second requirement -

You love your job
When you're good at what you do and you know it, you'll probably absolutely love your job. And that excitement and enthusiasm is contagious to those around you.

When you're able to hold your head up high and announce that "I'm a Real Estate Agent and it's the Coolest Job in the World!" people will be drawn to you - as one agent I know puts it - they want some of what you're smoking! When the topic of real estate comes up in a social setting and you're able to say those magic words "I'm a real estate agent and it's the coolest job in the world!" people will ask YOU for your business card. It's beautiful.

Which leads me to the third requirement:

You know your market
The best way I've found to build rapport with strangers is be master of your market. If you know your local real estate market, and you KNOW you know your local real estate market, you'll find opportunities to share that knowledge all over the place.

It's amazing how much confidence this gives you and it's pretty easy, to strike up a conversation with a total stranger about real estate... if you know what you're talking about. You'd be surprised how many people will ask YOU for your business card if you sound like an expert. I get a lot of my business this way - not from prospecting to strangers, but just from being confident about my competence - a big part of which is a good understanding of my market.

So, for someone who needs to build an SOI from scratch, they need to spend some quality time learning their market and put themselves in social situations where they can share their knowledge with people who are interested.

You stay in touch with the people you know
This, of course, is really important. If you know a whole bunch of people, but you never make any effort to have a personal interaction with any of them (above and beyond drip campaigns), your sphere of influence efforts will crash and burn. To be someone's favorite real estate agent, you either need to have done a fantastic job for them in the past (and stayed in touch) or make an effort to be in touch with them on a somewhat regular basis. Especially if someone hasn't used your services before, it's really easy for another agent to swoop in and take your place!  

Just know that yes, if you intend to generate business and referrals from the people you know, you will need to take time to talk to them.

You never pester anyone for business or referrals
The last requirement is that you never pester the people you know or the people you meet for business or referrals. This is a tough pill to swallow for many agents. We're trained to ask for business and to make sure that everyone we know and meet is aware that we are desperate for business. I know, that's not what we say - but it's how it comes across. When we constantly or even sporadically remind the people we know that We Love Referrals, we send a message that is counterproductive to our goal of actually generating referrals.

Sooooooo.... Are you a great agent... who loves your job.... And knows your market.... And stays in touch with the people you know without ever pestering them for business or referrals? Yeah? Then get off the computer and go SOI!

How Much Do You Know about SOI? Take the Quiz!

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

 Next in the series: "My daughter's best friend's parents just hired another agent!"

The SOI Starter Kit
Everything you need to get your own SOI business model up & running!
www.SellwithSoul.com

A Sphere of Influence business model is a strategy that focuses on attracting business to you from the people you know and the people you meet socially, as opposed to pursuing business from strangers. It's possible to run a 100% SOI business and never have to make one cold call, memorize a prospecting script or knock on a strangers' door!

There are three primary activities in an effective SOI business model.

1. Nurturing the personal relationships you already have within your social network (that is, your friends - I call this group my "Group One." Clever, eh?)
   
   
2. Staying in touch with "everyone else" (that is, the people you know who aren't your friends - I call them my Group Two)
   
   
3. Meeting new people.

Before you panic and say that you don't have the time, money or energy to do all this socializing, don't! Running an SOI business is much less time-consuming and less expensive than just about any other systematized prospecting method, and can be far more effective, more quickly. In fact, if you spend a few years creating your personal cheering section, you can pretty much coast through the rest of your real estate career. That's what I did and in my last five years I rarely worked more than 30 hours a week and my marketing budget was practically zero. My phone rang, I answered it, and whaddya' know?  I had a new client.

Nurturing the personal relationships you already have
From a philosophical perspective, this means to ensure that the people in your social network (AKA Group One) know that you care about them. In a practical sense, it means that you strive to have a personal conversation with everyone in your social network as often as you can, at least once a quarter. A personal conversation can be a face to face lunch or coffee date, a phone call or even an email exchange. What it's not is a concerted effort to abuse your friends with a sales pitch. Always approach your social network as a friend first, and a real estate agent second, or third, or fourth.  Not the other way around.

Staying in touch with Everyone Else
Staying in touch with your "everyone else" group (AKA Group Two) just means that you keep your name in front of this crowd with periodic interesting, relevant, non-salesy written communications, delivered both through snail-mail and email. As long as your mailings are consistent and intelligent, you'll see a significant number of sales from even this minimal effort.

Meeting new people
An important part of an effective SOI model is to add to your Groups One and Two, especially in today's market where there is admittedly less business to go around. The more people you know, who know you, and think you're a generally cool person, the more that telephone will ring.

Running an effective SOI business model isn't nearly as complicated as some would have you believe. Yes, it takes some organization and commitment upfront, and an ongoing effort to stay in touch with the people you know and the people you meet, but once it's rolling and you're in the SOI habit, it won't feel like work at all! In fact, it might even feel suspiciously like FUN! And "the more fun you have selling real estate, the more real estate you will sell!"

Stay tuned for more SOI 101 coming to a Selling Soulfully blog near you...

How Much Do You Know about SOI? Take the Quiz!

The SOI Starter Kit
Everything you need to get your own SOI business model up & running!
www.SellwithSoul.com