Imagine that you drive down to your bank right now.
You walk in to the bank, fill out a withdrawal slip and approach the counter.
The teller behind the counter looks at your slip and punches some keys on his keyboard. He looks at his computer monitor. Looks up at you. Looks at his computer monitor. Looks back up at you and now you see that he has a very confused…very concerned look on his face. He looks back at his monitor, squints his eyes and focuses. His face is a mix of concentration and panic.
You sense something wrong and ask, “Is everything OK?”
With his eyes still on the computer monitor he responds awkwardly stumbling on his words, “Ummm….your account shows that you have $1,570 in the checking account and $4,000 in the savings account…”
Silence.
You are confused. “Yeah. So.”
The bank teller responds,”You are asking to withdraw $12,000.”
Who Do You Know Who?
I see real estate training programs, managers, etc. training real estate agents and selling them programs where they try to make a certain number of contacts and ask for referrals.
You get a script and it usually starts off with, “Hi Mike, this Darin Persinger with PJ’s Realty…and I was wondering who do you know who that might be in the market to buy or sell a home in the next 90 days?”
I hate this practice.
I hate this script.
This will kill your sphere of influence real estate business. This is one of the main reasons that your sphere of influence real estate business sucks.
I think Chris Brogan, author of Trust Agents and marketing consultant that blogs at ChrisBrogan.com, said it best in this tweet.
If the only time I hear from you is when you’re asking me for things, how do you think I score our relationship?
The person is going to be just as confused as the bank teller. You are trying to withdraw something when you don’t have the deposits there to cover it.
Now you might get a couple referrals. And this might be celebrated in your head. You might even do a little happy celebration dance.
But what you are really doing is trading short term gain for the long term good of your business. Maybe you get two people to give you referrals, but now you have 10 people that are going to screen your calls from this point forward. You might as well take them out of your database.
Go ahead and make those calls. Connect with your sphere of influence, but don’t feel pressured to make a withdrawal right now. Make a deposit.
Because what is going through their head if you don’t is probably, “If the only time I hear from you is when you’re asking me for things, how do you think I score our relationship?”
The Other Reason Your Sphere Of Influence Business Sucks
You are making deposits, but you don’t make withdrawals. Your sphere of influence real estate business could be amazing, but you are doing the opposite of the person above.
You are afraid to make a withdrawal.
You fear seeing your account diminish.
You don’t feel like you have enough deposited to make a withdrawal yet.
The other reason your sphere of influence real estate business sucks is because you are not asking, “Who do you know who?”
So, it’s not that I hate the question or that script of “Who do you know who….” it’s that I hate when it’s used at the wrong time. So go ahead. Make that withdrawal. Ask for the business. But…don’t forget that you just made a withdrawal, so you should make a deposit in to that account very soon.
You don’t want your account, your relationship to bounce.
Download the FREE eBOOK STOP Contacting, START Connecting
A 52 page eBook full of value to help you build the sphere of influence business you desire so you can live the life you deserve.
“Since taking Darin’s class I got refocused and reconnected to my sphere. In the last 40 days I have made $53,000. Just took two new listings and I’m having fun again in business.” – Kris Cantrell
Darin
Your point is well-taken.
I was in Buffini Coaching for 4 years until the start of 2010. It did help grow my business and helped me reconnect with may clients I had lost touch with over my 32 year career in real estate.
I did not ask for a referral everytime I spoke with someone one. In fact, rarely did I ask for referrals.
Each agent has to use their own judgement as to what level of “hard sell” they use. My approach is generally more to the friendly less business side.
I felt uncomfortable hitting people with the “script” over and over.
But staying in touch with folks and developing a relationship are very important to any agent’s business.
Buffini while stressing the need for a number of “touches” every day, week or month did also speak about the quality of the relationship too.
As I worked with Buffini Coaching, I focused more and more on my best people – the people who I enjoyed the most and who enjoyed me. If you have 50 A+ advocates, you have plenty of people looking to help you generate referrals.
It is about quality more than quantity.
As we all know, there are a million ways to “skin a cat”. All of these approaches offer something each agent can use. Each agent just needs to pick and choose the methods that work best for them. There is no ONE RIGHT way. There many good ways.
Internet marketing (web, blog, social media) has am important place just as “voice to voice” and “belly to belly” have a place in an agent’s business model.
Arn