Doing business at a distance was never part of my real estate strategy. However, our careers depend on the ability to have close relationships with people, and we can’t sacrifice that despite all the challenges that social distancing imposes. While virtual touches have become the new normal, it’s our job to make sure our connections remain personal. Have we done a good enough job at implementing these high-tech strategies this year to continue creating personal connections in a socially distant world? How do we continue to do it next year?
After seeing our clients’ businesses grow throughout the year, I believe that we have done an amazing job at working around these constraints during 2020. We’ve pooled resources, we’ve learned new (dare I say improved) ways of doing business, allowing us to grow in revenue and productivity. Now let’s talk about ways to make more personal connections when it can be hard to do so.
As real estate professionals, we have drip campaigns and automated systems that are really quite innovative, but the most effective piece of technology is the common cellphone. Dialing up a number from your Top-50 and initiating a genuine conversion with someone is the best balance of technology and human-to-human contact. It’s advanced enough to be effortless, but it still requires the skills of a professional to make the connection. Your cellphone is your greatest low-tech asset when you have to social distance while allowing you to engage with your clients on a personal level.
For solutions that require very little to no technology whatsoever, you may need to get a little creative. Good old-fashioned mail and doorstep deliveries are perfect to keep you and your clients at a safe distance. But it’s how you do it that makes the effort worth it. There are countless reasons to send a handwritten card, short letter or a gift throughout the year. You should be keeping track of information like upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc. in your CRM, encouraging many reasons to reach out.
Besides personal events in someone’s life, there are universal reasons as well, like holidays or sport events. Some agents have made a name for themselves by dropping off seasonal gifts and items on doorsteps that clients—past and current—actually begin to expect they appreciate them so much! The key is to stay on top of these events and make your contacts customized to the individual when you do finally contact them through mail or delivery item.
Going into the next year, we can continue to apply these strategies within our business and make just as big of an impact as it was in 2020.
Verl Workman is the founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems (385-282-7112), an international speaking, consulting, and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and building successful power agents and teams. Contact him at Verl@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com. For more information, please visit www.WorkmanSuccess.com.
