Posted in When you’re finding new customers, you don’t make money; when you’re converting those customers, you’re not finding new ones. Almost all entrepreneurs find themselves in this loop when they’re starting out, and without action, many will still be doing it five or ten years from now.
“But I need an established client base before I can scale back my marketing…” You’re right! If you scrap your marketing, then you’re guaranteed to fail. The secret is in building your, “established client base,” in an efficient way that doesn’t take away from your marketing or immediate customer service requirements.
“Yeah, that’s obvious.” Yes it is, and I bet you’ve already heard it from your business coach, broker, colleague, top producing friend, husband/wife/son/daughter/mom/dad, high school friend, etc. But what THINGS can you do to ACTUALLY accomplish this?
Use technology
Technology will help you. It will alleviate the time you spend servicing customers, and will allow you to easily keep in contact with your sphere of influence.
To keep in touch with past and present customers, do the following:
- Get a good website
- Include a blog post (make it compelling) at least once-per-week about the market, or updates relevant to your sphere of influence
- Use an email campaign manager to keep in constant contact with your customers (build at least 18 months of campaign messages to begin with)
To service your existing customers, do the following:
- Get a website with map-based MLS® searching, and direct all your buyers there to do searching on their own. Make sure to followup with them every now-and-then via email or phone.
- Ensure your listings are rich with information – feature sheets, photos, virtual tours, maps, etc.
To attract new customers, do the following:
- Get a good website
- Keep it low pressure
- Promote it properly
Use your knowledge
Offering valuable content to your customers is absolutely vital – without it there’s no reason for them to use you over one of your competitors. The great thing is that educating your customers serves two purposes: it ensures you’re fresh in their minds when they decide to enter the market, and it means they’ll be more comfortable during the real estate process and convert more quickly.
“But what should I talk about?” Don’t sell yourself short – your knowledge on how a transaction works, what to look for in a basement, or what to do in the event of encroachment are just some of the things that your customers would find very useful.
Leverage your sphere of influence
They don’t call it a, “sphere of influence,” for nothing. Real estate comes up in casual conversation all the time, and when your friends are talking about it, they should be talking about you as well! Your name will get around, and before you know it your sphere of influence will be growing.
Commit and be consistent!
To make this work, think about a manual water pump – you need to work hard initially to get the water flowing, but once it is you can slow down… But what happens if your stop pumping? You have to start again from scratch.
This is the biggest mistake most Realtors® make is to commit to something more than they can handle. The key is to choose a strategy that is REASONABLE within the constraints of your life. If you’ve only got 10 minutes/day to spend, then be honest with yourself and don’t commit to an hour. Anything that becomes a struggle to do, won’t get done.
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