By Matthew Collis
As a real estate sales professional, relationship building is paramount to creating coveted referrals and repeat business. Here are eight amazing ways to forge lifelong relationships – not just with your hot leads, but with your entire real estate database or sphere of influence (SOI). A real estate contact management system will help facilitate much of what I discuss and make it easy for you to execute the suggestions discussed.
1. Make quarterly “keep in touch” calls. While it may not be realistic to call everyone in your database once a quarter, make an effort to call your best clients at this frequency at the very minimum.
You’ll also want to pick up the phone and call your real estate leads every now and then (those “not so hot” ones who could become hot one day). Schedule these calls in your real estate contact management system so you don’t have to remember who to call and when.
2. Send out a monthly e-newsletter. This is a great way to stay in touch with your sphere and position yourself as a real estate authority. It’s also a good conduit to get someone to pick up the phone and call you; they may have questions about what they read and/ or want to learn more.
3. Plan client appreciation events and home expert seminars. These events are fantastic relationship-builders with your clients and they’re a great way to get some new real estate leads. A home expert seminar is an event where you invite a professional, such as an interior designer or hardwood flooring specialist, to share their expertise. Encourage your clients to bring friends and family members to the event so you can meet some fresh faces.
With your real estate contact management system, planning out the “to-do’s,” getting reminders and inviting contacts is a breeze.
4. Send out direct mail to your A-List clients. Even with all the benefits email marketing has to offer, email will never have the same “wow factor” that a great direct mail piece can have. Direct marketing, if done right, can be an impactful, attractive and powerful tool for engaging with your clients and staying in touch. Because it can be costly, I usually only recommend it be sent to your A-List of past clients and best referral sources.
5. Acknowledge your clients on their birthday and home-purchase anniversary dates. If someone unexpected made a point to wish you a happy birthday every year, would you remember them? I think most people would. Wishing your client happy birthday and even sending them a card on their home-purchase anniversary date often comes as a welcome surprise. It’s also a great way to start up a new conversation about their plans to buy or sell more real estate and/ or ask you any real estate related questions they may have.
6. Meet with your A-List clients on a regular basis for lunch or coffee. Here’s a key tenet of relationship-building: get to know your A-List on a personal level and show a genuine interest in their lives. Nothing beats face-time for catching up with someone and leaving a lasting impression.
7. Leverage the power of drip marketing. Set up your leads on drip marketing campaigns. A good real estate contact management solution will have campaigns created for you, each designed for a different lead type. Drip marketing helps you to automate some of your marketing communications and maximize the likelihood you’ll convert your leads into lifelong clients.
8. Refer your clients’ services and offer recommendations for reputable home professionals. If you know your client does good work and offers professional or trades services that you’d be able to recommend, do so! They will appreciate it, remember you and reciprocate by referring you to their friends, family and clients.
Here’s something else to consider: one way to provide value, long after the transaction is over, is to be the “go-to” person for recommendations on a trustworthy home professional. It’s likely that at various points you’ll have clients looking for a handyman, plumber or attorney, for example. Make it known that you’d be happy to recommend these people. Use the built-in business directory in your real estate contact management system to quickly organize, sort and filter the professionals in your database and recommend the right person at a snap.
Matthew Collis is part of the sales and marketing team at IXACT Contact Solutions Inc., a real estate CRM firm. He works with Realtors to help them achieve their real estate goals through effective contact management and relationship marketing. IXACT Contact is a web-based real estate contact management and marketing system that helps Realtors better manage and grow their business. The system includes powerful email marketing capabilities and a professionally designed and written monthly e-newsletter.
