Are You Staying In Touch With Your Clients Enough?

In today's market, servicing your active and continuing to serve your inactive clients is critical to your business. I believe consumers looking to buy or sell a home find an agent in one of three ways:

1. through information-gathering while on the Internet
2. by getting a recommendation from family or a friend
3. by driving in a neighborhood and seeing a yard sign

Here's a list of questions you need to ask yourself to see if you're maximizing your client referrals:

• How well is your current client retention program working?
• How can you become more involved in your client's life?
• How well is your current client retention program working?
• What improvements can you make to it?
• How can you increase the number of times you interact with them (without annoying them) and what value can you offer them?
• What can you do to increase their lifetime value?
• What do other industries do to create long term relationships with you?
• Have you provided an opportunity for your clients to allow family and friends to learn more about you without person to person contact?

Take some time to analyze these questions and bounce them off with some other agents in your office. You need to realize that when you take care of your clients, they will usually continue being your clients after the transaction is over. But if you ignore them, they will quickly forget about you.

"Points For Results" System

Do you sometimes struggle to have a productive day?

The purpose of this system is to keep you focused on completing your daily activities (Mon - Fri) that will help you achieve your goals. You need to determine the # of activities you need to accomplish on a daily basis.

I recommend between 5 - 10 activities. Write down what rewards you'll give yourself for completing the system each week, month.

Bonus points for the day:

• 1 point for setting a new qualified appt
• 1 point for writing an offer

Penalty: pay $1 - $10 for each point you don't get at the end of each day (depending on how serious you want to play). Pay the money into an envelope every day you don't hit your goals and donate it to a charity of your choice.

Work every business day to getting your total number of points. At the top of your list, put "Get ___ Points". The key is to use the points system daily. Don't wait until Friday and try to get all the points in 1 day.

If you tally ___ points per day, you will never run out of business, your pipeline will always be full, you'll rarely ever have a slow period and you will have a consistent business.

Use this system for 15 business days and then decide for yourself if it should become an integral part of your selling arsenal.

You can even have a contest with one or more other agents in your office.

Today Is A Day of Sadness!

I probably shouldn't have posted today.

My intent was to bring a conscious awareness to the risks we sometimes put ourselves in being Realtors and being too trusting. Obviously, we don't know the details about the attacks of our fellow Realtors, but it's important to remember them as they serve as a reminder of the dangers that do lurk out there.

The reason I shouldn't have posted today was because I found out that one of my clients died in a fiery crash today in Cincinnati. He had a flat tire and was waiting in his car on the berm for assistance when a man, who was allegedly weaving in and out of lanes at speeds of up to 130 MPH, rammed his car. Reports say he died instantly...I hope he didn't suffer. I have such sadness for his family.

R.I.P. Jim!

2 Realtors Murdered & Another Assaulted!

It is with deep sadness that we report on the murders of two prominent Northeast Ohio REALTORS last week.

Andrew J. VonStein, with Cutler Real Estate Ravenna Office, was found dead inside a vacant property listed for sale in Portage County. According to news reports, the Portage County Sherriff’s Office has ruled the death a homicide and is undergoing an extensive investigation.

Vivian Martin, broker-owner of Essence Realty from Youngstown and a member of the Youngstown Columbiana Association of REALTORS was also the victim of a violent homicide. This case is also under investigation.

In addition to these situations, we have been informed that there was an additional incident this week involving another Youngstown REALTOR being held at gunpoint for over an hour by three males.

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Often, one of the last things on our minds when we show property is our safety.

Do you know who you're showing properties to? Did you meet them in your office first and make a copy of their photo ID? Do you let others know where you'll be showing? Do you have a 'code word' to implement in an emergency? Is your cell phone charged with you during showings? Would you walk into a vacant home where the door was already unlocked?

Always take a moment before going to show properties and ask yourself if you're prepared for an emergency.

You must also decide if you are going to do open houses and if so, how will you prepare for them and what steps will you take to protect yourself during an open house.

Here is a great, blog post about safety on ActiveRain from Realtor M.C. Griffin Campbell:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1882979/realtor-s-safety-first-protect-and-serve-an-urgent-need-to-protect-ourselves

Be safe out there!