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Staying in Touch
Keep in Contact and Double Your Income
-By Knolly Williams
It is practically impossible to overemphasize the importance of maintaining and reaching out to your former clients and sphere-of-influence (family, friends, and folks you know). Last year, over 40 of my listings came by way of referral. Few things can compare to the joy I feel when I receive a recommendation from someone in my database.
Just this week, I was coaching an agent who has been in the business for five months. He has owned and operated a thriving seasonal tax business for many years. As a result, he has built relationships with over 300 customers who trust him with sensitive and confidential information. These same loyal clients come to him year after year.
Upon his foray into the real estate arena, he vowed to turn those hard-earned contacts into easy cash by marketing his realty services to them and their extended families. Now, five months later, he has yet to send out even one letter.
According to research done by Gary Keller, and as reported in his book The Millionaire Agent, 1 in every 12 people (who know you they are) will result in a referral if properly marketed to. That means this agent could be harboring 25 unrealized referrals. With an average gross commission of $4,500, that’s a potential $112,500 in unearned income. How much are you losing by not keeping in touch with your clients?
Are you maintaining a database of your clients? If not, you are certainly losing out on lots of business and robbing yourself of thousands in unearned commissions. Yes, you could double your income by maintaining a database and keeping in contact with the folks therein. Don’t let procrastination and apathy cheat you out of easy money. Set up your database and start reaping the financial and psychological rewards now!
Here are four simple tips for contact management:
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Start a database today. Make a mental commitment and create your database today. Begin by gathering all your contacts and setting a deadline for when you will complete your database. An electronic database works best. There are a few online database products out there, such as MoreSolds.com |
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Hire someone to help you. If you still can’t psych yourself up enough to get your database started, hire someone to help you. Pay a family member or the teenager next door $7 or $8 an hour. Databases are easy to maintain once they have been set up. |
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Maintain your database. Once your database is all set up, make sure you update it and add to it daily. Keeping good, accurate information is important. |
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Stay in touch. Start sending your clients something on a regular basis. A monthly email newsletter works well and is cost effective. Staying in touch with your contacts will reap word-of-mouth rewards. |
Knolly Williams is a top-selling REALTOR ® and CEO of MoreSolds, LLC. MoreSolds is a online contact manager for real estate agents. MoreSolds allows agents to store contacts, manage listings and buyer transactions, track commissions payable, and features scheduling tools and more. Get your 30-day free subscription at www.MoreSolds.com
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