Everybody Knows That!

“Referrals are the key to a successful long term real estate business”—a wise old broker.

Gosh, everybody knows that!

Well, did you know that, unlike our sister company Geico’s commercials where trees fall in the forest with no one around and they DO make a noise, there’s also a way you can improve your success in receiving solid referrals and turning them into a more profitable real estate business! But it probably will take you a tad more than Geico’s fifteen minutes!

So how do we optimize our relationships and leverage all those wonderful friends and clients so they are delighted to keep us in mind and want to consistently—and proactively—recommend us?

Of course, step one is to provide our clients with excellent service and value so they are delighted and want to recommend us to more of their friends—who doesn’t like recommending a great experience, whether it’s a new bistro or a bike shop or a real estate pro? Those current and/or recently active clients have their Reticular Activator on high alert for both Real Estate and for their favorite Broker—us!

But the problem most of us experience over time is that, after the closing, we move on to our next clients and get caught up in the whirlwind of solving problems and serving needs and executing our wonderful service. And suddenly six months or three or five years have passed and we notice a competitor’s For Sale sign in our past client’s yard! Hey, why didn’t they call me? I sent them a calendar every danged year—with my picture holding my cute dogs and a recipe for square donuts and everything!

Yep, we’ve all been there!

Of course we’ve written and talked a lot this year about the Buffini & Company’s Peak Producers training we’re offering, with its focus on methods, tools, and systems for maintaining connections with and proactively generating referrals from folks who really, really like us, but we haven’t directly addressed step one in that process so far. The good news is that it’s pretty simple and straightforward; the bad news is that the vast majority of agents never quite get around to doing it since it does take an investment of our time.

So, here is the step one magic formula: C R M

Customer Relationship Management

CRM is defined most simply as “a system and an approach to managing a company’s (or an agent’s) interactions with current, inactive, and future clients. It often involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, and customer service.”

Everybody knows that, right?

And here’s the best news: The BHHS REsource Center’s CRM system is a robust and sophisticated system that links to the BHHS Global Network website where our clients can search using sophisticated tools like Inrix Drive Times and even Walk Scores. Once you’ve entered all your Sphere of Influence contacts into the BHHS CRM system, you’ll be able to organize your contacts both by functional groups—buyer, seller, prospect, family, or bike riders, for example—and also by the Peak Producers approach where you rank all your contacts based on the strength of your professional relationship, A+, A, B, C, etc; you’ll be able to register clients so they are linked to you—and only you—and will even reflect a changing score depending on how active they are in saving searches and homes; and you’ll be able to set up recurring Action Plan email campaigns you can customize with a few clicks on  your computer.

But wait, there’s more! The BHHS CRM system and all the tools are of course available to you at no cost. The only investment you need to make is your time to set up your contacts in the CRM, and we all know that investments will yield a better return if we invest wisely. So, let’s all get started with step one and make use of our BHHS Resource Center CRM and other tools to build a solid referral base to optimize our business!

Of course, everybody knows that . . .

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

The Reticular Activator

Late last summer, my car expired after 107,000 miles! I had intended to put another 20,000 or so miles on it but the cost of the needed repairs was more than the car was worth, so I threw in the towel and decided to buy a new one. For a variety of reasons, I decided to consider that ultimate practical vehicle, a Subaru Outback. As soon as I started to think about them, Outbacks seemed to magically appear EVERYWHERE! They even showed up in almost every driveway in my neighborhood. Who knew! Of course, we’ve all experienced this phenomenon, as I had just tuned my attention so that I began to actually notice the Subi’s that had been there all along, because now I was interested in them.

Thank you, Reticular Activator!

Whether it’s a new pair of boots, a new laptop, or a vacation to New Mexico, our brain heightens our awareness of things we are actively onsidering and we suddenly discover that nearly everyone we meet has just returned from Santa Fe with a new pair of rattlesnake-skin cowboy boots and the latest MacBook Air!

So, what’s this have to do with Real Estate?

We all know the key to long term success in our business is through relationships with folks—our sphere of influence—who can give us referrals to others who may be considering buying or selling. And who among our sphere would have their Reticular Activator most finely tuned to thinking about buying or selling? Our current clients, of course!

Brian Buffini, in his Peak Producer training, talks about the Reticular Activator and how he uses this awareness with current clients to get three—yes, THREE—referrals from each of them during the period of their active buying/selling process! Again, who knew? Buffini makes the point that of course our current client is far more immersed in real estate than the average person, and is probably chatting about it with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and pals at the gym, ad infinitum. Our current clients’ Reticular Activator for real estate is on high alert.

Thus, Buffini tells us that we need to help our current clients a wee bit by more finely tuning their Reticular Activator since no doubt in all their chatting about the process, they will surely meet other people who might be considering buying or selling at some point, right? Buffini suggest that we REMIND our current clients to think about helping us by being aware in their conversations (that Reticular Activator) and proactively getting someone’s name or giving out our information when appropriate, ie, giving us a referral.

How three? Buffini suggests we should have three separate phases of client satisfaction during our active buy/sell process, and that with each one, our client is highly likely to be happy to do their best to help us in our business by thinking about referring someone.

First, as we begin the process and have maybe done a first buyer tour or a first open house, we’ve impressed our new client with our expertise, our proactive communication, and of course market knowledge and our charm, so, boom, remind them they can help us with a referral.

Second, once we have an accepted purchase agreement, usually our clients are again delighted and excited, so we can once more remind them how they can help us with a referral as they tell all their friends about their success.

Finally, of course, as we walk out after the closing and hand them the wine or chocolates or flowers, boom, a third time we can remind them to refer their friends to us.

Since our clients are always perfectly delighted with our service—you have delighted them, right?—that little tweak to their Reticular Activator should yield a referral or two, if not more! Remember, we live in a referring culture and who doesn’t like to tell folks when they’ve had a great experience—and especially an experience that’s far more important than a well-cooked bacon cheeseburger!

Thank you, Reticular Activator!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

Sometimes it's the Little Things

This past week I was struck by some contrasting voicemail greetings when I called a few agents and had to leave a message. Finally, I realized that the various greetings really created a strong impression on me, and that the agents could project a very different impression based on their greeting!

One of the agents simply had that 1980’s robotic voice saying “You have reached 123-555-1212” and I felt like I had reached the IRS or my bank or something. Hard to believe a real estate agent couldn’t be bothered to even record an actual greeting. Not good!

The next call reached an agent who had actually taken a few seconds to record a greeting but it felt like someone who only thought about their pals and being way too cool: “Joe here, you know what to do.” Click. Now if I’m under a certain age and just one of Joe’s pals, maybe that greeting raises my esteem level for Joe. Unfortunately, I’m well above that certain age—actually, several certain ages—so my esteem for Joe as a professional goes the opposite direction.

Next, I got to a voicemail greeting where the agent seemed to be multitasking: “This is Joe Smith . . . with Trust Me . . . Real Estate . . . and Used Cars . . . Buy Here Pay Here . . .uh, I’m not, uh, here . . . available right, uh . . . don’t do that now Sally . . . right now . . . so if you, uh, leave me . . . leave me a message . . . stop that . . . I’ll, uh, get back . . .uh . . .” followed by another five or ten seconds of silence and then, at last, “ . . . oh shoot,” followed by the beep letting the caller know they could stop cringing—if they hadn’t already hung up!

Finally, I called one of our top agents and was delighted to hear a crisp, professional, upbeat greeting that clearly reflected professionalism AND personality. “Hi, this is Joe Smith with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Indiana. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.” Boom. Simple, all that’s needed, and delivered in a practiced, upbeat tone of voice that says “I love this business!” and invites the caller to communicate and begin to trust.

Yes, trust!

Remember, for many folks, including that potential new client, your voice mail greeting just might be their first contact with you as a person. Someone sees your number on a house they like; someone gets flyer or email or stumbles onto your website and decides they want more info so they pick up the phone; or someone at a party meets one of your advocates—a client or friend who is happy to recommend you highly—who passes along your business card. And we all know that first impressions can make a huge difference in relationships and, more importantly, whether we even get a chance to develop a professional relationship!

So, please, take a minute and listen to your own voicemail greeting and make certain it’s not acting as a roadblock but is truly serving your professional goals. And also, remember that Uncle Warren likes to hear the company’s name pronounced “BERKshire” with a short “i” in that second syllable, not “berkSHIRE” with a long “i.”

Anyone familiar with the power of that corporate name who calls you and hears your voicemail greeting mispronouncing your own company’s precious name will probably not be impressed, so don’t let that greeting be a swing and a miss!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development