“the moment you treat a friend like a stranger (form mail, for example) they’re not a friend anymore, are they?”
Seth Godin (Parenthesis his)

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/the-difference-between-strangers-and-friends.html

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