Do you ever ask them for referrals?

You may figure that since they work with a lot of agents, that you’d never have a shot at a referral, but I know that most people never ask.

Now, since they know a lot of different agents, you may not get a whole bunch of referrals, but you should get
your fair share.

When you do get a referral, keep the referrer up to date and informed about how the sale is going.

You have to realize that they are putting their reputation on the line by recommending you. So how they see you handle your various clients may be the clincher on whether or not they would ever refer someone to you. It may not even be a conscious decision on their part, but you are being judged on your skills.

You may want to take a different service professional out to lunch each week and get to know them better and find out what type of people they are looking for in their business.

Another strategy is to form a networking group that meets for breakfast or lunch weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. There’s groups out there like BNI and other referral groups, where you can model some of what they do and build your own networking group with the professionals you’ve been working with for months or years.

The important thing to do is make sure that you only invite professionals, whose work and skillset you’ve seen and know that they’ll take great care of your clients.

Here’s a short list of people you may deal with a lot in your business that you could have join your group: lender…insurance agent…title agent…home inspector…termite inspector…financial planner…painter…electrician…mover…handyman…stager…landscaper, etc. You get the idea!

I would start out with a minimum of 4 - 5 people and then as time goes on, you can add to the group by referring in others, who everyone believes would add value to the group.

I’d recommend meeting twice a month for breakfast at a local restaurant on a Monday or Tuesday morning, early in the week.

Have everyone give a 60 second “commercial” about themselves and their business. Then have one person each time spend 5 - 10 minutes going deeper into what they do in their business.

If they have any areas in their business that they need help with, that can be discussed with the group. When
an issue comes up, what’s discussed in the group stays in the group.

I also believe that as people get to know each other better, then people should feel comfortable starting to refer to others in the group. These are to be non-incentive referrals. You don’t want to have any RESPA violations.

Then when you’re out in the field doing your business and someone needs a service that someone in your group offers, you can easily refer them.

I don’t believe that having referrals for each other has to be a requirement each time to meet, but that’s going to be one of pillars that will keep your group together long-term.

Networking groups from time to time do disband when there’s not enough perceived value offered among its
members. So make sure that you keep the group lively and you help each other out. You can try to do some
joint marketing to increase each other’s businesses.

Where else can you meet twice a month for under $10 for breakfast and build relationships and get referrals?

If you’re currently a part of a networking group now, what strategies are working well in keeping your group
together? Please share your ideas.

What’s your BIGGEST FRUSTRATION in your business? E-mail me at: dan@agentsuccesscoach.com

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All content copyrighted © 2008 - Dan Weis, Agent Success Coach

While on other days, you feel like you’re constantly putting out fires and you really don’t get anything done?

Well, part of that’s “just life”, but there’s another reason for it.

You’re not being consistent in your daily actions.

One day you’re doing one thing and the next day you’re trying something else.

What are you missing in your business?

You’re missing a “ROUTINE“.

A ROUTINE gives you a roadmap of what you need to accomplish.

A ROUTINE allows you to follow the steps to achieve your goals.

A ROUTINE does not mean you do exactly the same thing every day. You should have a certain number of activities that you do every day, but some tasks will only be done once or when needed.

Do you ever feel out of focus? Do you get the feeling you’re not moving in the right direction…you’re not achieving your goals? It’s because you’re not focused on completing a daily routine.

A great example in sports is professional football. Every week during the season, football players follow a weekly routine. Monday is an off day…Tuesday is reviewing game films…Wednesday is practice…Thursday is installing game plan for next opponent…Friday is practicing new plays…Saturday is travel and practice in the stadium…Sunday is GAME DAY!

For each week, every team has a scheduled routine. Coaches don’t like changes, because they want the continuity and want to keep everyone focused on the end result.

Another benefit of having a ROUTINE is when doing the same tasks over and over again consistently, you’ll improve your skills.

Professionals make ‘practice’ a daily part of their routine. Do you think Tiger Woods, LeBron James and Tom Brady practice every day? They’re as good as they are because they follow a routine.

Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson…do you think they could just walk onto the basketball court and automatically make three-point shots? They practiced every day…shooting hundreds and hundreds of shots.

It’s called “Mastering the Mundane“. You get so good at it that you can do whatever it is under any situation. Are you unflappable in a listing presentation? Are there objections a seller can use to to throw you off your game?

So you need to sit down and write out which tasks you need to accomplish every day, like prospecting and practicing your buyer and seller presentations. In the beginning, you may only have your morning scheduled into a rountine. I know and understand how outside influences can change a day (putting our fires or adding or changing client appts), but if you start with establishing a morning routine, then when you’re consistently completing all of your morning tasks, your time management and your skills will improve and you’ll be well on your way to increasing your income and having more balance in your life.

Your real estate business is often in a constant state of change, but YOU decide which activities you need to do to in order to make your schedule work. That’s real life!

When you find that you’re getting out of your ROUTINE, then you need to delegate. Are you doing tasks that someone else should be doing? But that’s another topic….

Focus on doing only what’s in your daily ROUTINE!

So set up a ROUTINE for one week and analyze your results at the end of the week. Tweak your routine a bit and do it again the next week. It’s called “Plan-Do-Review“.

I challenge you to do this and send me an email at the end of the first week. Tell me how it went.

To your success,

Dan
dan@agentsuccesscoach.com

“Dan, how could that be?”

“There’s no way I lost that much business!”

Well, let me show you how it happened.

If you could go back in time and make a list of every prospect who ever contacted you by phone, e-mail, open house or in person, I can pretty much guarantee you threw away closings in the garbage can, where another agent got paid instead of you!

You see, most agents only want to work with “NOW” buyers and if a buyer isn’t ready to buy right away, they would store them in some database to work with later. Well, 6 months go by and you finally remember them and call, only to find out that they already bought a home.

So, you say “Those stinkin’ buyers!” You know what? It’s your fault! You didn’t drip on them until they were ready to buy, so another agent helped them out.

I recently read where when you generate 25 buyer prospects, many agents end up only working with 2 of the hottest ones and only closing one of them.

You’re thinking, “Who can buy right now, because I need a paycheck right now?”

Well, keep thinking that way and you’ll soon be out of business.

Sure, about half of them (50%) won’t qualify for a mortgage or just never make a move, but out of every 25 leads, half of them WILL buy a home within the next year.

“But, Dan, I can’t wait that long. I need business now.”

You say you can’t wait that long, but the average buyer takes 6 - 9 months before they buy a home. When they first “raise their hand”, they are only beginning to think about buying…they may need to repair their credit before starting…they may not know where they want to live, so they search online looking at homes…they want to become educated, so they learn more on the internet, etc.

Well, start building an active list of prospects and soon you will be able to convert a few of them every month, like clockwork. But you must start now, because it’ll take some time to find the prospects before you can start going to closings.

Just think, if you can generate 25 prospects per month, that’s 300 per year. If 50% don’t qualify or aren’t motivated, that leaves 150 (or 12 leads per month). How many of those can you help IF you stay in contant touch with them and are there when they’re ready to buy?

Is ‘three’ a number that could work?

That would triple your current conversion number!

Most agents with those numbers would only close 12 transactions a year…while you can have 36+ closings per year!

But it starts with building your list of prospects and consistently month after month staying in touch with them until they’re ready to buy.

In reality, you have to consciously make the effort to improve your lead conversion rate once you put a prospect into your pipeline. Don’t let them leak out! That’s like burning money in a fire pit…and it’s gone forever!

So start your list right now. Go back and search for any possible leads that may or may not be dead. Contact them (or mail to them if they’re on the ‘Do Not Call’ list) and see if you can revive them.

Dan

What’s your BIGGEST FRUSTRATION in your business? E-mail me at: dan@agentsuccesscoach.com

All content copyrighted © 2007 - Dan Weis, Agent Success Coach