Need a Damn Good Referral System to Save Your Career?
Ever wonder why you seem to run into the same deal-destroying problems with prospects? Or hear the same bridge-burning complaints from your clients?
Or maybe you’d simply be happy to learn how to find clients who always walk away satisfied after a transaction with you…
Think about it: what’s it worth to you to find and nurture a handful–say, I don’t know, 100–clients who love you to death?
Who can’t stop talking about you…
And who send you so much business that you often wonder if there’s some kind of law against getting so many leads?
This would make you happy, yes?
Deep inside you and I both know that this kind of arrangement–referrals to the max–is the most sublime way to earn a living.
But here’s the sad part: you haven’t bribed or manipulated that situation into being doing things you are currently doing.
And probably won’t anytime soon. Man, that’s frustrating.
See, one of the chronic problems with sales, advertising, business and marketing–whether in real estate or not–is bad information.
Bad information in the sense that what you know about your client is off.
Way off.
And when you have bad information on prospects and clients, you will constantly concoct strategies that sail clear over their mark…
Or peter out well before they reach their destination.
Here’s the good news, though. You can overcome this failure.
How? Easy. Think like your prospect and client.
Learn everything you can about them. Better yet, spend a year or two in their shoes. Confront the issues and problems they see. Burn into your mind a feeling of what it’s like to live like them.
A 2004 Chicago Sun-Times article gives a vivid example of this in the auto industry…
Yuji Yokoya, a Toyota engineer, responsible for revamping the Toyota Sienna minivan for the North American market drove from Anchorage, Alaska to Mexico…
And from Florida to California…in a Sienna mini-van.
The Chicago Sun-Times says:
Crossing the Mississippi River by bridge, he [Yokoya] noted that the Sienna’s crosswind stability needed improvement. He observed excessive steering drift while traversing gravel roads in Alaska, and the need for a tighter turning radius along the crowded streets in Santa Fe. Driving through Glacier National Park, he decided the handling needed to be crisper. He also made an all-wheel-drive option a priority, along with more interior space and cargo flexibility.
Finally, he decided that the new Sienna would have to be a minivan that families, and especially kids, could live in for extended periods of time. Upgrading seat quality became a priority, along with “kid friendly” features such as a roll-down window for second-row passengers, an optional DVD entertainment centre and a conversation mirror so parents could monitor what was going on in the back seat.
As you probably know, the Sienna has “an excellent reputation for overall quality” and “long-term dependability”. Edmunds says as much.
And Toyota is simply a brand with hot cars and hot technology. Year after year it fires on all cylinders.
Getting into the heads of your prospects and clients will allow you to give prospects the best possible solution for whatever problem they’re facing…
To persuade effortlessly, bringing to the table vast hands-on experience with all kinds of markets. In all kinds of economic conditions.
But you’ll need to go beyond traditional market research.
Instead of just combing through numbers and plowing through a stack of reports, you’ll need to get off your duff and speak to your prospects and clients.
Do it with no other agenda than trying to figure out what they like. And why.
In other words, create a persona.
Watch how they work. See what a typical day looks like for them. Find out how they interact with their families. How a home integrates into their lives.
As you can imagine, this will take a little work. But it will pay dividends. It will make you a murderously good real estate pro who will book up quickly…
Because people like to work with wise, friendly people.
And once you lock into the ebb and flow of your prospects and clients, you’re business will be on the fast track.
That’s a good place to be, right? Right. And when you get to the point where you want more…where you want to slam the pedal to the metal…check out one of the plainest, but potent referral systems around.
It might be a good idea to just check it out now. Get familiar with it so you’ll be ready when you need it.
Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing blog.
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