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Managers,
brokers, and owners have the capability to bring revenue to their
individual offices more than they realize and it's more than just
recruiting and retaining agents. There
is no question that recruiting is important, but why not prospecting
clients as well? It seems a
simple thing to keep in touch with the office client base and yet few
offices do this. The agents
work for the broker and therefore the clients are a good resource for
the office. So use this as
a basis for bringing in repeat business to the office. Control the Client Managers/Brokers
have told their agents for years to keep in touch with their clients
after the sale. How many
agents are faithful to this? My
answer is so few that it's a sad statistic.
One of the largest consumer complaints is the agent's lack of
communication according to the National Association of Realtors.
That being the case, it seems absolutely imperative that the
office take up the task. Managers/Brokers
have been reluctant to prospect to clients because they feel that their
agents will get upset. When
in reality, the agents are pleased.
Why? Because when
they call a former client and the client tells them how happy they are
to be kept informed of the market they realize that this is a benefit to
them. It is also
interesting that a client who wants to sell and hasn't heard from the
agent who sold them the house five years earlier will call the office to
get the name of an agent. I,
as Manager, gave the listing to the agent who sold the house five years
earlier when this happened. Would
he have had that listing if the office had not been in touch with the
client? I don't think so.
This has happened to me as a manager several times and I can tell
you that the agents who received the listings were very pleased that I
had kept in touch with "their" past clients.
I don't know for sure, but I would guess that it also helped with
my retention because all my agents knew that I kept in touch with all
the office clients. When a
request for an agent came in and the agent had moved to another office,
I assigned the listing to a new agent and the office received a 10%
referral fee. This more
than paid for the cost of keeping in touch with the clients. Use a Simple Database Program There
are many different programs for this from Microsoft Works, Word, Excel,
Access, to Act. Use
whatever your staff is comfortable with.
My theory is to create the task of gathering the information at
closing and enter the initial data then turn it over to the staff to
keep up. The staff knows
that forwarding addresses for all the sellers are needed and that the
entire database will be mailed to monthly so it could be a weekly job to
enter data. What to Send Send
postcards every month. Sometimes
they could be holiday oriented with a personal message, but most should
be on some sort of market success or market condition.
All the messages should be positive no matter what.
Sometimes you have to dig deep to find the positive, but it does exist.
The postcards could have pictures of various landmarks of the
community that your clients are sure to recognize; or some could have a
picture of the office; others a picture of your entire staff out in
front of the office. The point is that they hear from the office
every month with something of value-information on the market or your
appreciation for their past loyalty with good wishes for a holiday. The
cards should be all full color on one side and the message on the other
in black and white. The
message could be next to where you put the address label.
Everyone reads postcards. A
good size is 8 ½ by 5 ½ cards, but could be smaller.
The cards could have your name on them, but most the time, from
the office itself. Every
January the office should send another copy of the closing statement for
every client who bought or sold a property during the previous year.
They appreciate this thoughtfulness when gathering information for their
accountants and realize again that real estate is a tax advantage. Sharing
what is to be sent to the clients monthly with the agents at a sales
meeting is important. They
feel informed and can follow up with their own note, card, or call to
reiterate the message and give it even more impact. Use the Internet It
is time that offices gather email addresses on all of their clients.
Ask your closing agent to get their email address at closing on all of
your office transactions. If
you ask your agents and they are not using email to their advantage they
will be hesitant to ask the client.
The office can also have a telephone campaign to call all former
clients and ask them for the email address so that they can be informed
quickly on real estate market conditions.
The staff can call several per day.
You can also send out a postcard asking them for email addresses
and offering a gift for all who enroll by email.
There is no easy way to get your clients' email addresses-you
have to ask! The
office should be advising their clients of new listings and how to view
them on the company or office web site.
We all know that clients want to have information and they also
like being the "first to know."
Using this email tool as an office will bring in more referrals
and sales. Your clients can
be your "sales force" with their friends. There
is no question about it, prospecting to your office client base is a win
for everyone. Your clients
are informed, your agents get more business, the office makes more
sales. If the office is
consistent in its follow-up, the results will be consistent. |
