Who’s afraid of the big, bad sphere of influence? Most Realtors.
1.
It is the
source that generates the most business for the average Realtor.
2.
Many Realtors procrastinate in making calls to
their sphere.
3.
Ironically, their sphere wants to hear from them
and would prefer to do business with them.
4.
Three strategies to making the calls: 1) understanding reality, 2) eat the elephant
one bite at a time (doing a little each day makes the task easy), and 3) get an
accountability partner or coach.
Every year in late fall I meet with agents to talk about
their business plan for the next year.
As part of that plan I ask them to source all of their transactions from
the current year. Unless the agent’s
main focus is prospecting FSBO’s and expireds, what I find is that the typical
agent has most of their transactions being sphere-related transactions: cousins, brother, friend of my sister,
neighbor, mother’s co-worker, etc. When
we add them all up we find that the agent’s sphere of influence contributed to
more than half of the average agent’s income.
We realize together that if the agent regularly communicated
with his sphere of influence throughout the year, if the agent maintained
top-of-mind awareness in his sphere, then his income would likely go up. We work out a communication plan. The agent leaves my office excited about the
potential to earn more money. And then
what do you think happens?
The agent begins to think that by calling his sphere, that
well, he is begging for money. A link is
established between calling his sphere and the money he will get. Now it feels sleazy and dirty. He rationalizes that his friends know that he
is in the real estate business; his friends will call if they need help. He thinks, “I don’t want to bother
them.” Ultimately the agent only makes a
handful of calls rather than reaching out to everybody he knows. He chooses the easy calls: the most recent sales, his mother or
siblings, maybe a friend, and then he stops calling. The income potential has been shrunk because
of classic, rationalized procrastination and fear.
Strategy 1
Truth be told, your sphere of influence WANTS to hear from
you. They like you, and enjoy having
conversations with you. You are one of
their favorite people. Not only are they
interested in you, but they are also interested in real estate. They are curious about the market and how it
might affect them. It is this reality
that an agent needs understand before they start making calls. It changes the motivation for the calls. Instead of being about making money, the calls
should be about touching the people who are important to you and possibly
helping them. If, mentally, an agent
changes the nature of the call from being one of “generating business” to one
where the agent is sincerely interested in the life of the individual they are
calling (family, occupation, recreation, dreams), then each call takes on
significantly more meaning, and each call becomes easier to make.
Strategy 2
You don’t need to call everybody on your sphere list in the
same week or month, you just need to call some of them each week. Divide your list into 50 weekly
allocations. Maybe that turns into six
calls per week, or maybe ten. Whatever
the number it is very manageable – anyone can do it.
But you won’t do it.
You won’t. I know
it. You know it. You will start off with great resolve. You may be convinced, but you won’t do
it. Life happens, and somewhere along
the way, you get off track and fall behind.
When you fall behind, you get discouraged, and quit. Does that sound familiar? It does to me.
Strategy 3
An essential part of the formula for success is working with
an accountability partner or coach. When
you have to report to someone else besides yourself, you take the tasks in
front of you much more seriously. Your
commitment level rises tremendously when you have to explain to someone else
the “reasons” why you didn’t complete such a simple task as calling six people
you know and talking to them. Sometimes
accountability can come from another agent, perhaps from another office, or from
a different part of the country.
Sometimes an agent’s sales director or manager fits the role well. Sometimes an agent realizes the importance of
their personal goals and recognizes the value of hiring a coach. Would you pay $6,000 to $12,000 over the next
year to double your income? Find a
solution that works for you and make the commitment. It is that important.
Understand that your sphere wants to hear from you. Make the task manageable by dividing it into
smaller chunks. Find someone to keep you
accountable to your commitment. Act on
these three strategies and you will soon be helping the people you care about
achieve their dreams, and you will be profitable.
