Imagine what your business would be like if you had hundreds of referral sources, scattered across the country, all recommending your name to people who are ready to buy a house – today. It would be amazing – a never-ending supply of well-qualified buyers, each asking if you can fit them into your busy schedule! (and if you can’t, I’m sure you could refer them out to another helpful agent in your office, who would gladly pay you a 25% fee for doing very little work.)
That sounds like a great gig, right? And I can almost hear your response from where I’m sitting – “yeah, but it would be too hard for me to cultivate all those referral sources, because I don’t know anybody who lives out of state.” (or, insert a different excuse here.)
The truth of the matter is, this is the EASIEST style of marketing you can do. If you can make 1 phone call each business day – just one – then you can do this. In fact, if you had started doing this in 2007 – back when the market slowed down and you had plenty of spare time – you would be that person with hundreds of referral sources!
That sounds great, Chris, but what exactly are you proposing?
Here’s just one example. I’m sure you can find dozens more..
Finding the right People
Let’s think for a minute about people who are planning to move out of state. That’s a bigger deal than just moving down the street, right? They probably have a new job lined up, they’re fixing their current house up for sale, they’re researching school districts from hundreds of miles away, and they’re tying up about a thousand loose ends, all while living on stress and red bull (or xanax!).
So who’s helping them with all this? Let’s take a look at 3 people they might call:
1. CPA – there are a ton of potential tax ramifications to moving.
- Have we been in our current house long enough to sell it?
- What expenses should we keep track of so we can write them off?
- Are we allowed to cash in our retirement funds for a down payment? How much would the penalty be?
2. Financial Planner / Investment Banker – moving money around can be stressful, and will probably require a few conversations.
- What should we do with our 401k?
- Which funds / stocks should we sell for the down payment & moving expenses?
- How much down payment should we make?
- What would our mortgage payment be? How about our interest rate?
3.) Listing Realtor – getting the home ready to sell can be a long process.
- How much will we get (net) from our house?
- What are the major repairs we should make before listing?
- How long will it take to sell? (which translates to “When can we buy a house in the new city?”)
That’s a quick list of 3 professionals who are likely to A) work with people who are getting ready to move but who haven’t yet contacted a Realtor in their new city, and B) work with people who have a higher than average income.
And what else do these 3 professionals have in common? They don’t get badgered by sales calls from out of state Realtors! (that means they’re more likely to take your call & listen to what you have to say.)
Putting it into Action
So how do we turn this untapped opportunity into an unending supply of referrals?
1. Call (and speak with) one out-of-state professional every business day. That’s it. Just one, then you’re done. Let them know where you’re from, and what you’re proposing. You’d like to stay in touch with them via your monthly newsletter, and you’re hoping that over the course of time they’ll realize you’re the right person to call *if* they ever have a client moving to your state. That’s it. Simple, no sales pitches, no reason to say no.
2. Call another one tomorrow. This is critical to your long-term business plan – don’t get lazy, and don’t get sidetracked by whatever fire is burning the hottest today.
3. Write a short but informative email, once per month. Share a couple of local headlines, market stats, or a personal commentary on what the real estate market is like.
4. Build your email list, slowly and steadily. 1 per day; 5 per week; 50 weeks per year. That’s 250 per year; 1,250 in 5 years; 2,500 in 10 years. (yes, this is a long-term strategy – it’s not your get rich quick, sell 50 houses next year, plan.)
5. Double your list. Once you’ve been doing this for a few years and you have several hundred names on your list, ask each person for the name of someone else in their office/industry who you could talk with. This is an easy way to turn your 750 names into 1,500 in just a few months.
Some of these people may never have a client who moves to your city. Some may only have the opportunity to make a referral once per decade. So what – even if only half of them can make a referral once per decade, 1,500 sources would give your name to 75 home buyers each year!
6. Serve your clients with passion. One bad comment from a prospect or client could kill years’ worth of effort from that referral source. Conversely, a positive review will make that source more likely to remember you in the future.
The Universal Game Plan
The best thing about slow & steady is it works in other areas of your life as well. Want to lose weight? Try slow & steady. How about learning a new language, reading more books, or playing a musical instrument? Yep – slow & steady wins races. The key is setting up a plan easy enough to do consistently, having a time horizon long enough to let your plan be successful, and then working your plan each day or each week. I used this method successfully earlier this year – results achieved, thanks to the process.
So get out there and start knocking that multi-year awesome plan out of the park, slow & steady, one day at a time.
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...