The Small Differences Between Top Producers And Everyone Else Part 5

October 28, 2009

As you learn more about a prospect, try finding out other future dates they recognize as important or worth celebrating.  Find out if there are any bar/bat mitzvah dates coming up for their children.  Is their son/daughter starting university or college soon?  Send them a good luck note.

Each time you use an opportunity to contact these prospects to recognize any milestones or occasions important to them, you re-open the door for learning more about them.  The more you try to learn about them and show an interest in them (not you), the more likely they’ll let confide in you about any future plans they have for buying or selling their home.  This moves them up the relationship ladder, even if you don’t reach the next rung in the ladder.  

Now it may seem unctuous and overly forward to call someone for any of these occasions if it’s too early in the relationship or if the occasion isn’t a major milestone.  That’s when drip campaigns should be used.  A drip campaign is a campaign of specific messages automatically sent at specific dates.  For instance, with my Moneymaker website for real estate professionals, you can easily setup a graphic based greeting card for various purposes to be emailed to individual prospects at the date/time you specify for each.

How you contact the prospect is up to you.  It all depends on what stage the relationship is at and the nature of the occasion.  Remember that when calling someone, you’ll do more to further the relationship than sending a card.  In other cases, wishing someone you barely know a happy birthday over the phone may backfire, coming off as insincere, whereas a well-wishing card via email would have been more appropriate.  You also want to think of reasons to contact your prospects beyond holidays and other milestones personal to them.  However you do it, just make sure that you contact all prospects regularly in some way.

Now you may not be a good writer, or may not want to do write these letters to prospects.  That’s still ok.  As with other aspects of your business, should they not get done just because you don’t want to do them?  Of course not.  You find someone else to do the work for you.

Filed under: Inspiration,Marketing Tips,Networking Tips

Tags: Agent Office, branding, contact management, follow up, following up, hundred monkey theory, Malcolm Gladwell, marketing, networking, prospect, prospecting, real estate course, real estate education, real estate educators, realtor education, systems, Tipping Point, Top Producer, what the bleep do we know?