How to Build Relationships with Leads
As you build out your real estate business, one of the things you will notice is how much of a relational business real estate is. While most people you meet and talk shop with will technically be leads, many of them will end up becoming friends and people you build relationships with that go beyond just buying and selling homes.
In fact, if you are a smart real estate agent, you will encourage all your relationships with leads to drift into personal waters, so they get to know you better as a person, and you do the same for them. Getting to this point with your leads can be a powerful referral generation strategy but also a great strategy for just being a better person and treating your customers like the humans they are. So, how do you take these relationships and create referrals out of them? Try these four tactics.
1. Celebrations
Everyone has something to celebrate at one point in their lives or another. Whether a birthday, graduation, promotion, business success or any other milestone achieved, people appreciate it when others join them in the celebration. Take advantage of this by making a note of what your clients/prospects/leads are celebrating and send them a congratulatory message.
You can even go as far as to visit them or send a gift to have an even greater impact. Facebook does a fantastic job of reminding people of birthdays, so this is an effortless way to remember to appreciate your leads whenever their birthdays roll in. Just remember to be genuine about it.
2. F.O.R.D.
The acronym FORD stands for Friends/Family, Occupation, Recreation and Dreams and has been used for a long time now as a conversation starter. You can use it too whenever you meet prospects, leads or customers. Under friends/family engage them on how their family is doing. How are the kids, how is your spouse, etc? Under Occupation talk about their job or business.
Ask how they are doing, offer any help you can regarding referrals or connections, etc. Under recreation, talk about the fun stuff people do such as hobbies, holidays or other recreational activities. Lastly, talk about plans, ambitions, and goals under dreams. Using the FORD acronym can give you endless conversation starters to help you know your leads better and get them to take notice of you.
3. Invitations
Real estate firms are known for holding customer-appreciation parties once a year. The reason being that these parties serve as a touch point to keep the firm and its services current and relevant in the minds of their customers. What’s more, these parties also include prospects invited by existing customers. Through such events, you can provide lasting memories in the minds of your clients that are tied to your business.
If this is too much of a stretch for you, consider a smaller token of appreciation such as a movie night at the local cinema, a barbeque at the park or dinner and drinks at a local restaurant. People like being invited to things because it makes them feel valued so be sure to use this card as often as you possibly can.
4. 90-Day Contact Cycle
If you have not spoken to or contacted a lead in the last three months, there’s a high likelihood that they may forget about you. To prevent this, implement a 90-day contact cycle. Commit to contacting your customers and leads every 90 days to keep tabs. Call to say high, to wish them happy holidays or any other relevant thing that aids your objective.
Be sure not to make it a sales call because people hate these. Instead, ask them how they are doing, talk to them a bit about your side of life and then leave it at that. What is great about relationships is that people never forget the context within which they met you. That means if an opportunity for a referral turns up, you will be the first person that comes to mind.
Some of the most successful real estate agents, and in fact business people in general, have built their empires through relationships and the referrals these relationships garner. To succeed in your business, you will need to learn the soft skills that make for skillful and successful relational real estate agent.
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