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Why Do You Follow Up?
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This month's tip is sure to add buyers and sellers to your pipeline, if you will read carefully and implement this on a consistent basis...
We all know how important follow-up is, and most of us (at least the ones who want to be successful) follow up with all past-clients on a regular basis.
But have you ever asked yourself WHY you are following-up? What is the point of marketing to past customers? Why do you spend hours every month licking envelopes? Why do you invest thousands of dollars to send cards, flowers, and gifts to your past clients?
In short, what is your GOAL? What is it that you desire to happen as a result of your efforts?
If you're like most Real Estate Agents, you don't have a goal for your follow-up. It just "seems" like the right thing to do and heck...it can't hurt to send a client a birthday card, right?
Well, today you need to step out from the crowd and add purpose to your post-closing activities. The primary objectives for past-client follow-ups are:
1.) To keep "Top mind awareness". For example, you want people to remember YOU the next time they need to buy or sell a home.
2.) To develop a deeper relationship with the client and cultivate additional familiarity about your business.
But, while these are noble goals, there is a third objective you must not overlook:
3.) To obtain past-client referrals.
And, I am sorry to say, the third goal is rarely realized by the average Agent. Firstly, because most Agents don't realize this is THE main purpose of past-client marketing, and secondly, because I don't think they have a good strategy in place to ensure the goal is met.
Most originators expect too much out of their past clients. Listen, your past clients are not going to send you business just because you send them a monthly newsletter with a great soup recipe on the back. And, they are not necessarily impressed with birthday cards either. It's a nice touch, but not something that will make them jump out of bed tomorrow with the primary goal of getting you a new loan for your pipeline.
The rule of thumb is this: You are marketing to your past clients to obtain referrals;
therefore, you must have a clear and concise plan in place to ensure this occurs.
So where do you begin?
1.) First, realize that you MUST ASK your clients for referrals directly. You can't just place a tagline at the end of your mail that says "Know anyone who needs to buy or sell a home? Send them to me!" Instead, you need to call your clients and make a heartfelt request for their referrals. Everyone knows someone who is buying or selling, and you can be their resource.
2.) Make it your goal to get one referral from each client per year. And follow up multiple times to make sure that occurs. Just imagine how huge your business would grow if each client sent you just one referral, and that client sent you a referral and so on. As Benjamin Franklin said, "compound interest is the eight wonder of the world". And this is compound interest applied to your business.
To summarize: Make your business a success by setting clear and distinct goals for your follow-up.
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