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About Kinder Reese
There are plenty of so-called real estate experts out there teaching agents how to succeed even though they haven’t sold a home in decades, if at all. But Kinder Reese is different. Founders Jay Kinder and Michael Reese have collectively sold more than 6,270 homes over the past two decades, they still have thriving real estate practices, and they love sharing their proven systems and processes with other agents who are serious about growing their business.
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Get More Referral Business With This One Simple Strategy
Published by Jay Kinder
Referral business. We all love it, but most of us don’t have a strategy to attract it on a consistent basis.
  
This is a bad thing because repeat and referral business is about five to seven times cheaper than doing marketing and advertising to bring a new opportunity through the door. Plus, the sales close faster, too.
The good news is that it’s not rocket science to get some good, regular referral business.

What’s also great is that it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to get more repeat and referral business coming your way.

The best part is that if you do, indeed, apply these strategies to your business, they’ll work and you’ll see amazing results.

Here one of the easiest-to-implement and most effective approaches to getting repeat and referral business (that won’t have you opening your wallet at every turn).

Become better at what you’re already doing

Wait...what? Did I just say get better at what you've been doing? You bet I did.
You see, a lot of agents have come up to me over the years and asked me for my “game-changer” idea...the silver bullet that’s going to take their business over the top and into the stratosphere.

This is when I look them in the eye and tell them that there is no silver bullet that will change their results or their fortunes in real estate.
And then I tell them that instead of looking for that next great idea that will change everything (which it usually doesn’t), look inside your business and make sure you’re maximizing what you already have.

In one of my favorite books by Jay Abraham, Getting All You Can Out of All You’ve Got, he sums things up pretty succinctly on this topic: “Innovation basically involves making obsolete that which you did before.”
For example, there’s a strong possibility that much of your business on the way to where you are now has come from your past clients and sphere. And if you’re like most agents I’ve worked with, you don’t really have a specific system to stay engaged with your warm database in order to create an environment where people see you out — time and time again — to help them and/or their family and friends with their real estate needs.
  
Sure, this happens from time to time, but there’s often no rhyme or reason as to why it does.

If you want to be top of mind with folks and have them seek you out for a second, third or fourth home or to refer their mother’s, cousin’s, stepson’s co-worker to you, then your name needs to be one of the first two or three that comes out of their mouths when it’s time to talk real estate.
To create this kind of automatic response, you only need to do a few things. Pick 200 to 250 people that you want to target. There are about 60 to 62 business days in a quarter. You can use this system with 3 to 4 people a day and schedule repeaters every 90 days.
 
Here’s a simple process you can follow

1. Quarterly calls: It doesn’t matter if they answer the phone or not to begin with. Call the folks on your target list and check in with them. Make sure you have their best contact information and their birthday. Let them know you’ll be sending a market update out each month to keep them abreast of what’s happening in the real estate market.

Also, employ the FORD method: Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams in talking with them. Get some good details on what’s going on. Each time you make a follow up call, bring up something from the past to build rapport and then get something new. The strategy is called Progressive Profiling and it’s about building strong relationships over time over the phone. It’s a super-powerful tool in creating a successful database. If you have to, leave a message. As long as you made an attempt and you show you care, that’s all that matters at this point.

2. Quarterly Hand-written notes: Send a note each quarter after your call (or message). Thank them for their time and always mention something you talked about. The power of remembering what you discussed with them and showing them you were listening is immeasurable in growing your relationship. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to build on that in subsequent calls and notes you send. It should look something like this:
That’s it...nothing fancy, but super effective, especially on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Put your business card in the envelope, seal it and send it off.

3. Birthday card with gift card: Once we turn 21, we have about 5 more birthdays that people care about and celebrate with us. Send your prospects a birthday card with a $5 gift card at Starbucks, or a scoop of ice cream, or even for a small bundt cake at Nothing Bundt Cakes and you’ll swear you sent them a bar of gold. I have clients that get amazing thank yous from their clients after sending these out for their clients’ birthdays. Imagine how great it would be for them to get this gift when they’re not expecting it. (Hint: it’s freaking awesome).

4. Monthly market update: While we’re not looking for this process to be all business all the time, we are wanting it to have a business element to it as well. Send out a market update every month. If you have a few dollars, go to www.realmarketreports.com and order reports for the top 5 to 7 areas that you service.
If you’re tight on cash, have a vendor partner assist with the investment or find a low-cost option through your MLS or your Board of Realtors. The content doesn’t need to be life changing. It simply needs to be current, easy to understand and informative. Also, it needs to happen consistently. If you only send it out once in a while, you don’t have the same impact in building your “top-of-mind” awareness with your database.
  
5. Have an annual event: You want to get in front of these folks as often as you can so that they get to know you. Remember, people want to do business with those that they know, like and trust. The calls, notes and birthday cards are great and a super important part of this whole process. That said, no relationship can grow and improve effectively without some face time.

The event doesn’t have to be a formal dinner with crystal, Dom Perignon and Beef Wellington (that is, unless your audience is that kind of crowd). It just needs to be fun, memorable and a place where folks can bring their families. In the past I’ve had a barbecue in the fall and I rented out a movie theater in the summer when it was hot. Other folks have holiday parties, events at the beach, wine and cheese events (with juice for the kids).
One of our coaching clients just rented out a movie theater for the release of Frozen 2. He and his team dressed up as characters from Frozen and took pics with their guests. They encouraged everyone to come dressed up, too. It was an amazing event and he even took family portraits with his real estate photographer and sent them to people as a thank you for coming to the event. His guests had a great time...even the folks who didn’t have children.
  
Again, it doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, it just has to be done well. Again, if your budget is tight, hook up with your vendors and let them invite their clients as well. Remember to always send a thank you note and follow up with a call within a week of the event. You’ll get lots of traction in strengthening your relationship with your top 200 or 250 database members.

6. Celebrate a holiday: In the past, I’ve had coaching clients who handed out candy on Valentine’s Day, apple pies on Independence Day or pies at Thanksgiving. All of them have worked superbly and it’s a great way to get another face-to-face touch into your rotation.

Recently, one of our clients hand-delivered 200 packs of Girl Scout Cookies to his clients. I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like at least one flavor of Girl Scout Cookies.

It was a home run for him.

Again, do what you can do financially and then get help for the rest.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Getting this up and running takes some time. The more you set up as a repeater in your calendar, the easier it is to navigate going forward. As well, the more you systematize and schedule things out, the easier it will be for you to implement.
Remember, we’re looking to establish, foster and then nurture long-term relationships with people. We want to be such good friends with these people that they would never think of buying or selling with someone else.

Also, it’s okay from time to time to ask for a referral. In fact, it’s incumbent upon you to do so as part of the process. That said, don’t do it every time you speak with or contact them as it then looks like you’re giving just to get back.

When that happens, it’s not a great thing for any relationship.

This is a proven process to get more referral business. It’s a simple strategy that’s easy to implement. You just need to take action.

Best of luck...now go crush it!

About Author: Jay Kinder

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