How’s your Referral Business? Back to Basics

2:46 AM Posted by Stephanie Treasure

Referrals are great for a Real Estate professional’s business for a number of reasons. Firstly, they are prequalified, meaning they come to you already in the market for buying or selling real estate. Secondly, it gives you instant credibility when they are referred by someone they know and trust. Thirdly, they are instantly profitable because no advertising dollars were directly spent to get them to you.

Here are 5 key components of building a solid Real Estate Referral Business:

1) Organize your database Simple, but easily neglected. You need a database system for your past and current clients, potential referral partners, industry professionals and companies, etc. This can be easily done electronically using Microsoft Outlook or on paper using a diary, address book and/or business card holder.

2) Organize your contact regularly How many times have you received a business card that goes into your pocket and stays there until laundry day, then probably gets tossed? How many times have you written someone’s information on a post-it note and placed it somewhere until the glue wears away and it ends up in the garbage? Commit to updating your database of choice daily or weekly and stick to it.

3) Attend networking events Get out there. Always be marketing. Attend an event once per week or other regular schedule to meet new people, exchange business cards and start a networking relationship. You never know where your next lead will come from.

4) Contact at least 2 persons each day As they say, out of sight, out of mind. The more you stay in contact with people the more they are likely to throw business your way. And if you calculate 2 persons per day for an average of 20 to 25 working days per Month, that’s 40 to 50 people per Month.

5) Send them your e-Newsletter The easiest way to follow up with your referral sources is to add them to your e-Newsletter list. [Note: Let them know when you meet them that you send out an e-Newsletter and ask them if they would like you to add them to your list. Better yet, after adding them to your list, request a double opt-in via your email newsletter program to make sure they want to receive it.] Also, in each e-Newsletter you send out, include a referral request note to remind people because it may not come to mind to refer you on their own.

Spending a few minutes per day or week as the case might be, can do volumes to increasing your referral business and your Jamaican Real Estate business in general.