Real Estate Marketing Strategies: 7 Tips to motivate your sphere of influence to refer to you

As a business coach for real estate agents, I often hear my clients say to me, “I just can’t pick up the phone and call my sphere of influence.”  “Why not?” I ask.

 

These are the responses I get:

 

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I can’t ask my friends or business.”

“I have no reason to call.”

“I don’t want to bug them.”

“It’s not okay to call them too often.”

 

This article shows you how to motivate your sphere of influence to refer to you easily and effortlessly.

 

The 7 Tips:

 

Tip 1: Have a script so you know what to say

 

What you decide to say may vary from person to person.  The way you talk to a close friend may be quite different from the way you talk to a distant acquaintance.

 

There is no one formula of what to say.  However, it is very helpful to have something to offer when you call.  One idea that many of my clients have found helpful is to call your sphere of influence and offer to be a referral source for them.

 

In other words, let them know that you have plenty of connections to people who could help them.  For example, you know many painters, electrician’s, plumbers, etc. and your sphere of influence should know that if they need any names and phone numbers they should call you and you will be happy to provide a referral source for them.

 

Tip 2” Think of yourself as being “the giver”

 

Most of us love to be the giver.  We know we will be well received and people will like us.  We also know that “giving” leads to more business.

 

Before you pick up the phone to call your sphere of influence ask yourself “what can I give to them?” One way that you could be of service to them, is to offer to be a cross referral partner.

 

If they have their own business, ask them how their business is doing.  Ask them how you could help them at their business.  Ask them what kind of referrals they would like to receive.  Let them know that you will do your best to send referrals to them.  At the end of the conversation, you can say something like, “when you hear of anyone who’s interested in buying or selling a home, please call me with their name and number.  If it’s okay with them, I will call them and make sure that their real estate needs are being taken care of.”

 

Tip 3:  Send an “Item of value” each month

 

What kind of item of value, should you send?  It used to be that sending newsletters was a hot item.  However, most people have gotten too busy to read a newsletter.

 

The item that works the best is a colorful postcard that gives the events happening in their area. Their sphere of influence is likely to put that postcard on the refrigerator and refer to it often.

 

Of course, next to the list of events happening in the area is your photo, your phone number, and your tag line such as “relax and let me run the extra mile to fulfill your real estate needs.”

 

You start to enter their stream of consciousness.

 

They start to associate positive ideas with you:

• You are associated with happy events in their area.
• You are associated with brilliant bright, happy colors in the postcard.
• Your face smiles at them every time they go to the refrigerator.

Let me ask you, do you think they are more likely to remember you the next time they have a real estate need or a real estate question?

 

Tip 4:  Don’t be afraid to call them too often

 

As long as you have a good reason to call, they will be happy to hear from you.  Trust your own gut instinct about how often you should call them.  Many real estate gurus suggest calling people in your sphere of influence about once a month. You may choose that to do that with your “A list”, the people most likely to refer to you.

 

Since you are sending an item of value each month, you can always ask them “did you receive the postcard?” You can follow that with, “so what event are you going to go to?”

 

Tip 5: Assume the positive

 

Simply assume that they will be happy to hear from you.  Why wouldn’t they be? They are receiving a wonderful colorful, informative postcard from you each month, then you are calling and offering them something, and you are conditioning them to want to hear from you.

 

Assume that you have something valuable to offer, your friendship and your real estate expertise, and people want to hear from you.

 

Tip 6:  Be excited about your business

 

Remember, “desperation does not sell”, but “excitement” does.  No matter what the current condition of your business, always say something like, “I am so excited about my business.  I get to meet such wonderful people and I’m really in an expansion phase of my business.  If you want to help out, just send people my way to have a real estate question or issue, I will be happy to help them.”

 

Tip 7:  Use the Law of Attraction

 

To successfully use the Law of Attraction, you need to be clear about what you want. What do you want? Do you want your sphere of influence to send you several clients a month?  If so, then set your intention, “I am now in the process of attracting several new clients from my sphere of influence each month.”

 

Do you have any opposing beliefs that you need to clear?  The Law of Attraction cannot give you what you want if you have any beliefs that would oppose your desired outcome.

 

For example, if you want to attract an abundance of prosperity, but you have beliefs like

• I don’t deserve to have a lot of money,
• It’s selfish to want more than I have,
• Money is the root of all evil,
• Money can’t buy me happiness,
• Rich people are usually not honest.

If you have any of the above beliefs, those are called “opposing beliefs.”  Can you see that you could be doing all the right activities with your sphere of influence, but if you had opposing beliefs like these, you would not be attracting the clients and the income you want?

 

To get the Law of Attraction to work for you, you need to identify these old self limiting beliefs, release them and install empowered beliefs.

 

Here are some examples of empowered beliefs that will help you create the income you want:

• I do deserve an abundance of prosperity,
• It’s okay for me to be grateful for what I have and still want more,
• Money is neutral and can be used for good or evil,
• Money can’t buy me happiness, but I can create a better life for myself and people around me by being prosperous,
• Some people are honest and some are not.  It has no relationship to whether or not they have money.

Practice repeating your empowered beliefs, frequently and train your mind to focus on what you “want”, not on what you “don’t want”. If you find yourself dwelling on thoughts of scarcity, like “not enough money” switch your focus and ask yourself, “so what do I want?”  Start to notice yourself becoming more positive and attracting more of what you want.

 

For a more complete explanation of the Law of Attraction and how you can use it to grow your real estate business, see my article in the Broker Agent News called “The Law of Attraction”.

 

Summary:

 

To recap, here are the 7 tips guaranteed to motivate your sphere of influence to refer to you:

• Know what to say.
• Become the giver.
• Call frequently.
• Offer to help them.
• Send out an attractive item of value each month.
• Be excited about your business.
• Use the law of Attraction to magnetize your ideal clients coming to you.

  

About the author:  for more information on powerful marketing tips and tools, please visit Dr. Maya's website:  www.90daystomoreclients.com  while you are there, get your Free Audio mentoring session and Free Report, “7 simple strategies to more clients in 90 days” or call Dr. Maya at 707 799-5412.

 

 

 

 

Real Estate Marketing Strategies: How to know if you are a "people pleaser" or whether you are committed to "win/win"?

The biggest mistake that most real estate agents make in dealing with their clients and colleagues is that they are unconsciously committed to "people pleasing." This article shows you the signs to watch out for. These signs will clearly show you whether you are inadvertently falling into a "people pleaser" pattern. If so, you'll be shown an alternative strategy. You'll learn what it means to commit to “win/win” or “no deal.”

Part 1. How do you know, if you are a people pleaser?

Here are the signs to watch out for:

1. You don't feel in charge of your business. It seems that your clients are running you around. You find yourself accommodating to their schedules and feeling that you have “no life of your own.”

2. You find yourself wasting time with people that you thought were “prospective clients”, only to find out that they were not really committed to working with you.

3. You find it hard to speak “the truth” to your clients. For example, you find it hard to tell them specifically how to price their home. You may also find it hard to insist that prospective buyers agree to a “buyer's agreement” with you.

4. You take on clients that you know you shouldn't. You intuition is telling you that there is “trouble ahead.” You don't see the red flags, because you want to be “nice” and you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

5. You find it hard to pick up the phone and call on prospects. It could be that you find it hard to call your sphere of influence, your former clients, or even warm leads. You tell yourself, “I don't want to bother anyone.”

6. You let your colleagues and associates encroach on your time. Perhaps they pass by your office and think that it's a good time to talk to you. You have trouble setting boundaries with them and saying, “Sorry, I'm busy now.” You want them to like you.

7. You also want your clients to like you, so you bend over backwards to meet their needs. I've even had some clients who took on the job of babysitting children of their prospective clients. They thought if they could just please them enough, they would get the business.

8. If you are a broker or a manager, you put up with having people in your office who shouldn't be there. Their energy is negative, and they pull down the morale of your office.

Part 2: A case history of a broker and her “hard to let go of” agent.

One of my clients, I will change the names to ensure confidentiality, was a broker of a small office.

About a year ago, she failed to follow her intuition and hired an agent who turned out to be hostile and negative. “Looking back on it, “she said,” the red flags were there.”

For a year, my client, Jacqueline, had been trying to let this agent go. As the year went on, not only did the agent fail to produce, but she became increasingly hostile, picking fights with other agents in the office.

My client felt sorry for the agent, Mary, and tried to overlook the difficulties. Under the surface, what was really happening was that my client had been taught when she was young to “put up with people” instead of speaking her mind.

Although this served to help her survive as a child, it really got in the way of her being a successful real estate agent. This interaction with Mary brought it to a head.

She would either have to speak the truth and tell Mary to go or she would have to put up with more “slacking and negativity.” Because she felt sorry for Mary and afraid of any negative repercussions of letting her go, she procrastinated the difficult task of letting Mary go.

Finally, after a few sessions of coaching, she got the courage, the understanding, and the right words to end this negative relationship.

To her surprise, there were no repercussions, no fights, and no fallouts. Instead, Mary handled it calmly and swiftly. Before the end of the day, Mary had packed up and left the office.

My client was so relieved. She felt like a burden has been lifted off of her shoulders that had been weighing her down for nearly a year. She and I discussed how this happened, the red flags that she ignored and how she could prevent this from happening again. She then committed to “win/win or no deal.”

Part 3: Win/Win or no deal - what does it mean?

When you commit to “win/win or no deal”, as Stephen Covey says, you are agreeing to never again enter into a relationship in which you will lose and the other person will win. In other words, you are deciding to relinquish your old “people pleasing pattern.”

Remember, the "people pleasing pattern" is based on the self limiting beliefs that “other people's needs are more important than your own.” Dropping that paradigm means embracing a new paradigm -- "my needs are as important as other people's needs."

What can you expect as the results?

• You can expect that you will be more highly tuned in to your intuition and "gut feelings." If your "gut feeling” says, "No" then you will listen to that rather than your "mind", which doesn't always tell the truth.

• You can expect that prospective buyers you work with will respect your policies because you will insist that they agree to a “buyer's agreement.” You can expect that when they do finally buy a home, it will be from you.

• You can expect that your clients and colleagues will gain respect for you because you are finding respect for yourself. Please note that you don't need your clients to “like” you. You just need them to respect you.

(As a side note, studies have shown that it is not so important as to whether they like you, but rather, what's important is that they perceive that you like them. When they perceive that you like them, they feel protected and taken care of, and will give you their business.)

• You can expect that you will be telling the truth to sellers about how they should price their homes and you will be telling the truth to buyers as to how much they can expect to get for their money.

• If you are a broker, you can expect to be much more particular when you hire agents. You won't be worrying about pleasing people, and you will be better able to evaluate the character, and work ethics of your team.

• You can expect to have better control of your own schedule. You will be clearly setting boundaries and defining when you are able to work and when you're not. Not only will your clients respect you for that, but you will find that you finally “have a life.”

• You can expect to be more courageous in your prospecting. No longer will you be trying to “please” everyone you call. Rather, you will be coming from the mindset of “I have something valuable to offer”, and “this person is lucky to hear from me.”

• You can expect to back out of deals that you recently entered into when you were trying to be a “people pleaser”. As soon as you sense that this deal is going to be difficult or draining to you, you'll remind yourself, “that it's Win/Win, or no deal.”

• You can expect to be more assertive with your clients, with colleagues that stop by your office and pull on your ear, and even in group situations when you need to speak publicly.

What is the underpinning of all of this positive change? The key is that you approve of yourself. This is the greatest confidence builder that you have - your own approval of yourself. When you have that, you are no longer “outer directed”, i.e. trying to get the approval of others. You are inner directed and finding your own “inner approval.”

Finding your own “inner approval” is a process. It doesn't happen overnight. Usually you need the help of a mentor or a coach to help guide you out of your old “people pleasing pattern” (which is usually your blind spot) and into a healthy pattern of self approval, leading to a “win/win” or no deal.

About the author: for more information on powerful marketing tips and tools, please visit Dr. Maya's website: www.90daystomoreclients.com while you are there, get your Free Audio mentoring session and Free Report, “7 simple strategies to more clients in 90 days” or call Dr. Maya at 707 799-5412.