Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello friends,
today's episode is going to feel
perhaps a little uncomfortable,but also maybe a little freeing
and a little empowering, but itis going to be full of things
you can actually do somethingabout.
What are we talking about?
We are talking about the sixreasons, the real reasons that
(00:21):
you are not getting morereferral-based business.
And little hint, it is not justabout Popeyes.
If you are not getting constantreferrals, even though your
service is solid, this is foryou.
We are talking about the realreasons why people are not
referring you, and these mightbe a little brutal, hard truth,
(00:42):
but they're kind of my favoritething to give you.
So let's go and dive in.
Number one is that you areforgettable.
You do not stand out In the seaof millions and millions of
real estate agents.
Why would somebody choose youover another real estate agent?
This is so crucial.
(01:03):
Differentiation is key Now.
Differentiation can be personal, it can also be professional.
It can be the demographic youserve.
The type of home that youspecialize in could be the
service you provide.
I know for me, when I was kneedeep in the heyday of real
estate as an agent solo agent Iwas crazy responsive, and it was
(01:26):
because I was able to be.
I also was super, superknowledgeable about the market
and I serviced the millennialfirst time home buyer
demographic.
So that was my differentiatorand it really helped me stand
out from the sea of real estateagents that were practicing in
my market.
So I want you to ask yourselfwould your client remember you
(01:51):
and your name a year from now?
Or would they scroll past it inthe inbox, those spam emails
you're sending every month?
Do they unsubscribe, do theymarket as spam?
Because that's really bad.
But do they know?
Like a year later, a friendsays I need a real estate agent.
Are you going to be the onethat they search for?
And if you are not, it meansthat you are forgettable and you
(02:13):
need to do a better job ofdifferentiating yourself and
standing out from the crowd.
People do not refer agents thatblend in.
They refer the agents that arememorable.
They refer the ones that haveleft their mark.
Number two, on why you are notgetting referrals Was your
experience worth talking about?
(02:36):
This is so hard because, ofcourse, like you, can have the
transaction go smoothly.
Everything goes well.
But did you wow them, did yousurprise them?
Did you make them feelgenuinely taken care of?
If your experience was averageor just run of the mill and the
story ends at yeah, that wasfine, that is a not memorable
(02:59):
experience.
That is not memorable.
Sorry, if it was just, you know, everything was all right.
Not memorable.
When you deliver an elevatedexperience or you surprise and
delight your clients, that iswhere people start telling their
friends you want to deliver anexperience that is worth talking
about.
That means personalized, itmeans really listening for those
(03:24):
ways that you can go above andbeyond for your client.
One of my favorite examples isa client from years ago and he
moved into his condo.
He was a first-time homebuyerand I remember he calls me the
day after closing and the faucetin the kitchen is leaking and I
(03:46):
was like no worries, I'm goingto get a plumber over there
right away and got a plumber tocome over.
I think the bill was like $175,but that was going above and
beyond, especially after I gotmy commission.
Like I still showed up with thesame level of service even
after the sale.
I received so many referralsfrom that person because their
(04:09):
experience was worth talkingabout.
He knew that I took such goodcare of him during his home
buying experience that I woulddo the same thing for his
referrals.
That is the type of thing youneed to be listening for
throughout the transaction.
You need to look for thosemoments to surprise and delight
your clients, because those arethe things that they will
(04:30):
remember and it will make itworth telling their friends and
their family and theircolleagues about you.
Oh, number three can be a reallyhard truth bomb for a lot of
people, which is you areinconsistent, oof.
This can show up in a number ofways, but usually it is that
(04:51):
you are not doing what you sayyou are going to do.
So are you flaky on replying toemails or texts or phone calls?
Do your clients have to ask foran update?
Do you appear inconsistent interms of your email address that
you use or your style of dressor the service that you provide?
(05:15):
If you don't have a processthat you put every single client
through buyer process, sellerprocess, rental process that is
inconsistent.
They want systems, they wantreliability.
So it is about not only beingconsistent, but it's about being
reliable, and if you are notconsistent or reliable, that
(05:36):
equals untrustworthy, and Ican't emphasize this enough.
You will not get referralbusiness if you are not
trustworthy when somebody refersbusiness to you, they are
putting their reputation on theline.
We refer people because we wantto look good, because we want
(05:58):
to be helpful.
So if you are not trustworthyand this is usually the secret
one is, for example, you show uplate and that's consistently
showing up late, that is aproblem.
And your client?
You're secretly telling yourclients that you are not
reliable and that you are nottrustworthy.
So make sure you do what yousay you are going to and make
(06:24):
sure you are showing up tothings.
When you say you are going toshow up, you are proactively
communicating, you are followinga system, you have a checklist,
you have a process.
You have to be someone thatpeople can rely on and if you
are not someone that seemsreliable, you are in your
client's minds untrustworthy.
You are in your client's mindsuntrustworthy and you will not
(06:45):
be getting referrals because ofit.
Number four is kind of a hardone.
But they feel like you did notearn your commission.
Now you might have a client whowalked away thinking, huh, what
exactly did I pay for?
And because of that they arenot sending you referrals.
So how can you fix this?
(07:07):
The first is in your buyerconsults and your listing
consults.
You are actually explainingwhat your job is, what you are
doing in exchange for thecommission that you are
receiving.
Did you over-communicate?
Are you guiding people?
Are you leading people?
Is there actual leadershipthroughout your real estate
(07:29):
experience with your clients?
Are you being proactive?
Are you making clear when youget a win for your client?
I think so often we're moving sofast and fast-paced through the
transaction that we aren'tstopping at those milestone
moments to say, wow, we justnegotiated a brand new roof on
(07:50):
your home inspection.
That is incredible.
Congratulations.
The seller really didn't wantto give it to us, but we made it
happen.
Those moments, that is whereyou are earning your commission.
That is where your expertiseand your negotiation skills are
really coming through and youare really earning that
commission.
So if someone is getting to thefinish line, the closing table,
(08:13):
and they see that number on thesettlement statement, you
really need to know withconfidence that you earned that
number.
So, whatever it is that you feellike you need to be doing
better to show your value.
I know we say that a lot, butit's really about getting credit
for all of the work that youare doing behind the scenes,
(08:34):
because it's not just about theoutcome from all of that work
behind the scenes.
It's really all of the thingsyou're doing behind the scenes.
It's really all of the thingsyou're doing behind the scenes.
So start getting credit forthat stuff.
One of my favorite things to dois to just BCC my clients on
negotiations or something thatis me going to bat for them.
Behind the scenes Could be alsoscreenshots of text messages.
(08:55):
It could be a summary of aphone conversation.
But start getting credit forthe things that you're doing,
because so much of the work thatreal estate agents do is
invisible.
We need to make the invisiblevisible to our clients, because
that truly is where we areearning our keep.
That is where we are earningthose commissions and that's the
(09:15):
thing we have to show ourclients over and over and over
and over again, because you area professional and you are worth
getting paid for all of thathard work you are doing to not
only find a home or get the homeready for sale, but also get
(09:36):
that property to the closingtable, because a lot of times it
is not smooth sailing.
It is not always easy.
Reason number five you are notgetting referrals is that you
ghosted them.
You did not stay in touch.
And it's not just about stayingin touch, putting them in your
drip campaigns or on yourmailing list.
It is about staying in touch ina meaningful and memorable way.
(10:00):
You need to really care aboutpeople and these relationships.
Social media is a wonderful tool, but I think a lot of times
real estate agents are relyingon it as a crutch and we are
just push, push, pushing contentout, and really the magic of
social media is in theengagement and the information
(10:21):
that you get.
So we get updates aboutpeople's big life events,
engagements, marriages, babies,job losses and new jobs.
We get that information, and somy favorite thing to tell
coaching clients is to take theonline, offline, that
information that we get online.
(10:42):
Take it offline, take it to asmall present.
Maybe it's a card you mailedthem, maybe it's a call, maybe
it's a text, but you are takingthat information and you are
showing people that you careabout them.
Well, after the transaction hasclosed.
Too many real estate agentsghost their clients after
closing, and that is totallyunacceptable.
The added bonus of all of thisis that if you keep that
(11:06):
relationship and you maintainthat relationship, they're not
only going to want to have youin their lives, but they're
going to want to bring you intotheir friends' and their
family's lives, theircolleagues' lives, and it really
is about having an agent whocares about you.
That is so much of building areferral-based business is that
(11:28):
it is not just a transaction, itis a relationship.
You have their best interestsat heart, you care about them
and you want to help them beyondthe closing of their property.
And the last and final reasonon why people are not referring
you you haven't taught peoplehow to refer you.
We all just assume that theyknow that you work by referral
(11:51):
or that you want referrals, butyou don't have to do it the
cheesy way of I'm never too busyfor your referrals, but you
need to plant the seeds and thatgoes throughout the entire
process.
It can be at your first meetingwith them, which is I'm so
happy that John referred you tome.
I love working with my referralclients.
(12:11):
They tend to be my mostfavorite clients, so just
talking about how you work byreferral throughout the entire
client journey can be a reallyhelpful way to just plant in
their mind that you wantreferrals and that referrals are
important to you.
Also, that you'll take goodcare of people.
So by taking good care of them,they know you will take care of
(12:32):
anyone who comes their way.
The other thing is you couldlet them know how you actually
send a referral so you could sayif you know anybody who needs
my help, the easiest way toconnect them with me is to send
an email and connecting us orsend a text connecting us or
whatever your process is.
(12:53):
So having some process and thenmentioning it throughout your
client journey could be when youfirst meet them.
It could be while you're househunting.
It doesn't have to be weird.
I want it to be authentic toyou.
It's not begging for business,but it's hey.
If you ever run into anybodywho might need my help, the best
(13:13):
way to get me in touch withthem is to send an email to both
of us, just making an intro.
That is the best way to do itand it does not have to be weird
or sleazy or creepy.
I promise If you are notreminding or letting your
clients know that you work byreferral, they are not going to
send referrals your way.
Most likely the last thing it'snot really a point, but not
(13:36):
every client's going to referyou and that's okay.
There are some clients I did abang up job for and they never
sent anybody my way.
That is okay.
There are just people who don'tdo referrals, and that's all
right.
It's not my fault, but thosepeople that do send you business
consistently, you probably dida really good job of avoiding
(13:59):
these six downfalls really goodjob of avoiding these six
downfalls.
So take a look at your processand really take a hard look at
what your experience looks like,that you provide and how you're
doing in terms of standing outin the market and really
evaluate yourself on these sixsteps, because every agent has
room to improve.
(14:20):
We are not 100%, we are notperfect, and it's that
self-reflection that if you justare 5% better, 10% better, that
is going to increase yourchance of referral business
exponentially, because you'realready providing such an
incredible level of service thatjust moving the needle a little
(14:42):
bit is going to give you morebusiness.
And who doesn't need an extrathree to four deals per year?
That makes a huge difference inyour life and your business.
So this is worth taking a lookat because the return on your
investment, the time and energyyou spend on really evaluating
(15:03):
your business for referabilityis 100% worth it in the long run
.
So, to wrap it up, this is notabout being perfect.
This is about being intentional, and I am all about intentional
effort in your business.
We do not spin our wheels.
We do what we know works, andreferral business is often the
(15:27):
lowest hanging fruit that somany agents miss out on because
they are not laser focused on it.
So I want you to get laserfocused on referrals.
So, if you're ready to be theagent that people can't stop
talking about, I have my onlinecourse, irresistibly Referrable.
You can check out in the shownotes, but it runs you through
(15:49):
the art and the science of beingreferrable.
It also includes so many greatbonuses.
There's a bonus workbook on howto build a top of mind plan for
your database and also your VIPrefers, and it will run you
through how to improve yourprocess, how to improve your
referrals and really just startoperating from intention on
(16:13):
making your business a referralmachine, which is so important
if you're going to have asustainable real estate career.
I hope this was helpful and itwasn't too tough love.
I could have got a lot meaner.
Actually, you're lucky I didn'tPlease share this episode with
an agent who might need to hearit and until next time, stay
(16:37):
happy.