Referral only?
It Just makes me sick to see posts like that one I read almost every day! You know, the ones that claim they close 110% of all the Referral Only business they get. Or they have never spent a dime to advertise, and people are begging them to do a transaction with them.
WARNING: This is a long post
But why does it make me “sick”? I had to think hard on this and decide if it was jealousy or something else. This is what I came up with.
To be totally honest, there is a piece of jealousy because I want to believe that it is true. And for a few superstars it just might be. But what about the rest of us? But the truth is I worked really hard to get to where I am and hate that someone else just said” I am in Real Estate, please apply to see if your worthy of my attention” and they are now the poster child of how to close 250 deals a year.
Now I know that is not what they are trying to say, but doesn’t it feel like it sometimes? How do the rest of us get to the glorified status of the poster where everyone in your SOI is begging to be your client? And without so much as a postcard or phone call being delivered?
Here’s the truth of it. You can’t. This is chasing a dream of being an NBA star or getting your own HGTV show or whatever. The real truth is that most of us will have to work hard to accomplish big goals and we will never achieve that status. Of course, some people will reach that status the “easy way”. The reality is not everyone that dreams of being famous is going to get there. But that’s OK.
If I can’t be that super star for free and automatically just by getting some business cards (that were free and passed out magically with no effort), how can it be done?
Here are a few scenarios where it just doesn’t work for the rest of us:
1. Just moved to a new area.
2. You weren’t really that social, so you have a (very) small SOI.
3. You’re young and your SOI doesn’t want to buy homes yet.
4. You are doing ok but you want to take it to the next level.
It all comes down to this single point if you want to grow your business beyond where it is today. This point is the accelerated version of business growth. Because, yes, if you have a few friends buy a home from you this year, next year you may get more and so on. Providing great service is assumed. And eventually you will grow (probably). But what if you want to take 5-10 transaction to 20 or 30 in the next year? Or maybe you want to finally break 50 transactions or 100? The single thing you need that will launch your real estate career is:
You need more people to call.
This fixes everything. When you have calls that need to be made to new prospects, your day gets filled and you sell homes. Of course, there are a few more steps in there, but you get the point. If there are potential clients raising their hands for help, and you call them, eventually you will close more deals.
This is NOT A post about conversion, it DOES matter. But again, how do you get the practice to convert leads if you don’t have anyone to call? It is a vicious circle.
If your goal is to close more deals than you did this year. Or you are a new agent looking for places to start so you can close your first deal ever, let me share some incredible value with you. You can do it and you will probably have to spend some money.
If you are dead broke, and can’t figure out where to start, I have a great plan to start anybody up and running. It is one of the ways to use social media to generate 100% free leads. It is the exact same method that I use to close 60+ transactions this year and bring on a couple of buyers agents. Who, by the way, are also doing great on the very same leads. No, not all the deals closed were generated this way. But several of the closings were. The good news is that some of those leads from years past are now my SOI and I do get those deals for “free”.
The only goal I have had for a few years now is to ABSOLUTELY STACK MY SOI with as many people as possible. This will lead to untold number of transactions if I continue to work them. Someday I may not advertise for more business, but in the meantime, I will continue to grow faster than “organically”.
If you are interested in growing your business, I will share my exact plan that I used for myself and have been training my team to use. Just message me and I will show you how to blow up your next year. This will include things like, what is the best CRM, where do I get my leads, basic scripts, business planning (like how to spend your commission check), automated drips and a lot more.
Please don’t think that this is easy or “free”. You will have to spend a bunch of time and probably get outside of your comfort zone. You will need a Facebook account, determination, and some time. That’s it!
The bottom line. You need more people to call and don’t be swayed by the referral only posts that you see. The majority of us will need to lead generate at some point. You need to grow your SOI and sometimes it requires paying for leads, cold calling, working FSBO’s or some other way to build it faster. Once you have grown your SOI to a healthy sustainable.
Good luck in 2022