Generally, people don’t trust sales people, in part due to societal stereotypes and ironically in part because they are afraid we might actually sell them something!

Even as those who are looking to buy and sell are getting ready they are hesitant to connect with a Realtor®. At some point, however, buyers need to buy and sellers need to sell, and to do so successfully, most select a Realtor®.

So how do they choose? Many Realtors® are surprised to learn that 73% of buyers and an astounding 82% of sellers interviewed only one agent. (NAR 2021 - Profile of Home Buyers and Home Sellers)

So who are future buyers and sellers going to hire and how can you ensure it's you?

How can we use this knowledge to grow our business and improve our profitability? There are two streams of opportunity here - the first is having a strong Repeat and Referral Program with your sphere of influence. By earning loyalty and gaining referrals you can become the one Realtor® interviewed in that particular Sphere.

The second is connecting with and building trust and rapport with prospective buyers and sellers before they select a Realtor®. Most realtors follow up with prospective clients once or twice, and very rarely more often. Simply by being the Realtor® who follows up consistently you give yourself the opportunity to be the Professional they choose. Only 2% of sales come from 1 follow up and 80% of sales come from follow- ups 5-12. Yet, only 8% of salespeople follow up more than 5 times. (The Brevet Group - 21 Mind Blowing Sales Stats) Do you see the opportunity here?

How we work our Sphere of Influence and follow up with prospective Buyers and Sellers is of course also a key contributor to our success. Success in Real Estate really is quite simple - by connecting daily with prospective buyers and sellers, then consistently and skillfully following up, you will succeed. Of course, it may sound simple, but it requires discipline and hard work to get great results.

This leads us to the five principles of a Successful Realtor®. These five simple, timeless and immutable principles guide successful relational realtors as they connect with and follow up with existing and prospective clients....

Conversing with people, developing relationships, adding value to the relationship, asking for the business or referrals and pursuing every opportunity that comes our way... live by these principles and execute skillfully and consistently and you will succeed.

These principles hold true for your repeat and referral program and regardless of the type of prospecting you are doing - be it on-line lead generation, social media marketing, door knocking, cold calling, networking, geographic farming etc.

Our success starts and ends with having meaningful conversations, on-line, face to face and voice to voice with prospective buyers and sellers. But the conversation is just the beginning. To earn trust and build rapport we must build relationships with those we connect with and the foundation of those relationships is first to get to know more about the person we have connected with and second to provide value back to that person as you learn about their goals, aspirations and needs. By adding real value you benefit from the rule of reciprocity - when we give something to someone - they are more inclined to give something back - in this case the opportunity to help them buy or sell Real Estate.

However, while conversing, building relationships and adding value are foundational - actually succeeding requires asking for and pursuing the opportunities you create. Many Realtor® fail to actually ask for the business and / or they sit back waiting for it to come to them - it’s like having a crush on someone, working hard to build a relationship, but they end up dating someone else because that person actually asked them out. If you are going to put in the hard work make sure you give yourself every opportunity to succeed. Ask for the business and keep after it until it’s yours!

You’ve got this!