21 Jul 3 Business Practices That Good REALTORS® Avoid
There’s an old saying in the business world that good business is all about who you know. The same can also be said for real estate. Being the top real estate agent in your area means getting out in your respective community and getting to know the people and places you are representing.
In an industry that circles around ideas of home and personal connections to a community, client referrals and good word of mouth are priceless assets to a good real estate agent. Here are a few practices to avoid in order to maximize relationships with your clients and become the “go-to” agent in your territory.
Drop Connection After the Transaction
Turning a lead into a client takes a lot of hard work, and after that hard work pays off in a home sale for a very satisfied client it would be a disservice to you and your business to just lose contact after that. According to a study by the National Association of REALTORS®, 70 percent of all closed buyer leads come from a “trusted resource” or face-to-face contact. In addition, retaining old clients is about five times less taxing on your time and money than attracting new ones.
NAR also reports that the average person knows between three and five people who will move each year. Multiply that by how many clients you have served and you are looking at an excellent pool of potential clients. Remaining in contact with your current clients maintains your status as a trusted agent and an invaluable resource to those looking to make the biggest investment of their lifetime.
Keep Client and Prospect Contact Information in a Variety of Places
Sometimes client referrals come in when you are in the least likely of situations. It could be at a business function or even in line at the supermarket. This can result in client information being logged in a scattered mix of places: on your phone, in an address book or even on a scratch piece of paper in your pocket. When you are scrambling to take down contact information, or later on scrambling to find it, this can come across as unprofessional.
Getting a system for taking down client information and keeping it organized is a valuable technique that will help streamline your business. Consider a CRM for REALTORS®, which will make it easy to store and pull up information from multiple devices and will allow you to give your clients a higher level of service.
Blindly Invest in Marketing
Marketing can be a savvy investment, but it will do nothing for you if you don’t do the research and just blindly sign up for a program. Take a good look at your business, analyzing where your referrals, leads and clients are coming from. This will allow you to identify where money needs to be spent and where it should be cut back. Tracking and analyzing where your marketing dollars are going will help you to maximize your business and bring out your true potential as the right agent for your community.