By Brooke Chaplan
As a real estate agent, getting referrals is the lifeblood of having a consistent paycheck. When you apply the right tactics, you'll have enough referrals to keep your financial situation solid.
Related: Generating Leads and Landing Customers Online
Here are some of the best tactics that you can start applying today with your existing leads to turn them into more referrals for you:
Focus on Former Clients
Being a successful real estate agent in the 21st century starts with getting some great referrals for new prospects. These reviews should be from satisfied clients. Whenever you sell or help a client purchase a home, ask for their referral in an organic way. In most cases, simply asking will get you that referral. If you don't ask, you're not going to get one. Two easy ways to ask for referrals are in the closing process and with a pop-by gift after they have gotten settled. Include a small phrase or card indicating how valuable referrals would be to your future business.
Community Leads
The key to real estate agent advertising is to have branded materials ready to go. These include things like business cards, tablets, pens, etc. Try to make your branded materials unique to your style and ensure they align with your online properties. Reach out to local wedding planners, attorneys, mortgage brokers and others with far-reaching impact on the community. Ask to pin a flyer in local stores, and network and have conversations. Others in your community can help you reach a wider level of reach in your referrals.
Incentivize Referrals
While you may initially hold back on offering incentives for existing clients that find your referrals, it's a great revenue stream you should set up today. You don't always have to provide clients who give referrals with a cash incentive. Things like gift cards or a uniquely designed jacket can be a great way of saying thank you to existing customers who provide you with leads.
Go to Industry Meetings as a Guest
If you really want to get more referrals from your existing leads, you need to be creative. If you're working with clients that are investors in real estate, learn more about their industry meetings and networking events. Ask your client if you can sit in on one of these events. You'll likely meet a lot of new prospective clients.
By involving yourself, networking and becoming connected to your community, clients and others in the industry, you can leverage your leads for more referrals. Getting more customers is always a priority for real estate agents; however, many forget to utilize their existing client base to get new referrals. The above are four simple tactics you can employ to leverage your existing clients to get new ones.
Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She works out of her home in Los Lunas, N.M. She loves the outdoors and spends most of her time hiking, biking and gardening. She recommends looking into real estate agent ads. For more info, contact Chaplan at facebook.com/brooke.chaplan or on Twitter @BrookeChaplan.
