We all know our database forms a fundamental part of our business, but all too often, we neglect it. If you think of your business as a garden, your database is the soil in which you sow your seeds. But it’s a mistake to simply think of it as a list of contacts. It’s actually a living organism of precious connections and, if you care for it properly, it can create a “super bloom” of productive relationships for you.
With spring in full force, now is the time to pull on your gardening gloves, tend to the soil and get rid of the weeds. Here are steps you can take to cultivate a database that will provide fruit for your business year-round.
Build Your Database
Add soil to your garden by making a list of everyone you know. Roll up your sleeves and dig in. Start by including family, friends, parents or caregivers from your children’s activities, members of groups or clubs you’re involved in, etc. Also add people from community activities and events you attend. Make sure you compile all the necessary contact information and add it to your real estate CRM. This becomes the foundation of your business.
Prioritize Your List
If you already have a lengthy and comprehensive list of contacts—or plenty of soil in your garden—you must be extra vigilant here. Your garden may be overflowing with soil, but is it fertile? Is it really helping your plants grow? Many veteran agents don’t pay enough attention to this step, and that can lead to wasted marketing efforts and pointless calls.
Contact each person in your database and use a real estate dialog like the “Mayor Campaign” in order to determine potential clients. Then, rank these relationships A+ through D. Remember, you’re not ranking people on how much you like them or their personal qualities; you’re simply assessing their value to your business. The A+ clients have sent you multiple referrals and would do so again, while the D clients should be deleted from your database. If you need help keeping track of these rankings, Buffini & Company Referral Maker® CRM will host your database, allow you to rank relationships and give you focused action steps to build on those relationships.
Maintain Your Relationships
Now comes the fun part: watering the garden. There are multiple ways you can show clients that you value them by doing unexpected extras. Send monthly items of value that will help them, write personal notes to develop and keep a connection that goes above and beyond the digital space, and deliver small pop-by gifts to show your appreciation. By watering your garden this way, you’re letting people know who you are, helping them understand what you do and, most importantly, encouraging them to trust you.
Remember, from tiny seeds, great things can grow. Follow these tips and the referrals will start blooming in no time.
At Buffini & Company, we provide a training system that breaks all of these concepts down into tactical strategies. The Pathway to Mastery™ Essentials course takes a deep dive into how to grow your database, generate leads, master negotiation strategies, and more, to boost your real estate skills.
Keep on growing.
Brian Buffini immigrated to San Diego from Ireland in 1986 and became a top-performing REALTOR®. He then founded Buffini & Company to share his powerful lead-generation system. Buffini & Company has trained more than 3 million people in 37 countries and coaches more than 25,000 business pros. Today, Brian’s a New York Times best-selling author and reaches over 12 million listeners a year through The Brian Buffini Show podcast. For more information, please visit www.buffiniandcompany.com.
