Creating Clients for Life

BEST REFERRAL STRATEGY YET...

“Don’t settle for providing outstanding service...
provide ASTOUNDING service!!”

Your past clients are your most valuable asset. And that’s what we’re going to talk about here. In fact, I don’t know of one single speaker, trainer, tape series or anything in the real estate industry that addresses this issue in any detail at all—so let’s do it now.

Fact: A survey showed that 86% of every person who bought a home and closed escrow...within two years...didn’t even remember the name of their real estate agent.

So what does that tell you? That’s tells you that 86% of the people in our business are not making any kind of impact on their clients...or taking care of them over the next two years...staying in touch with them so they know who they are.

Now...I’ve been guilty of doing the exact same thing. For eleven years my mind set was this. If I closed an escrow...if two, three, even five years later those people wanted to do business with me...they’d seek me out. They’d find me. After all...my ego demanded that to be true.

Now think for a moment. If we are going to spend 10 years of our lives, 20, even 30 years of our lives in this crazy business we call real estate...wouldn’t you like to have a salable asset when you’re ready to hang your hat and retire? But what do we have to sell? Can we sell our minds, our industry knowledge? No...nothing marketable about that?

But what about this data-base of past clients? Happy past clients. That’s so deep and so vast that it fills up 10 gigs on your hard drive. Or 20, maybe 30. Is that salable? You better believe it!

Clients that are so dedicated to you that they refer everyone they know to you. How do you build a business like that? How do you take care of these people we call past clients? How do you deliver astounding service and not just outstanding service?

Here’s what you need to know:

Realize that the people of the 21st Century...right here, right now...are sick and tired of not getting any service. We have lowered the standards of what’s acceptable over the years to the point where people are simply just fed up with the lack of service, with a lack of obtaining value for their time and money.

For example, you go into a restaurant...most of the time they don’t even fill your glass with water unless you ask them to. But yet...that’s okay with us. It’s become acceptable behavior. You go into a gas station today and guess who pumps the gas? YOU DO! Remember the days when a “gas station” used to be called a Service Station? Where they came out and checked your tires, washed all your windows, checked the water in your battery and asked you if there was anything else they could serve you with. Their goal was to treat you so well...you would be compelled to come back. Service spoke volumes.

Somehow we got away from all that. But you know what? The people who are absolutely stealing the show are those companies and individuals who’ve positioned themselves to be “lean, mean, service machines.” The companies and individuals who are delivering astounding service.

Why? Because people are tired of not getting anything for their money. They’re tired of not getting anything of value. Believe me...when they have 20,000 real estate agents to choose from...why should they choose you? Why?

Why should they choose you over doing nothing, choosing your competitor, or simply doing the job themselves? You better be able to answer that question. It’s about creating and making known your unique selling proposition (which we’ll cover later).

But right now, let’s talk about how...from day one when a client enters your business...what are some of the ways you can begin providing this thing we call astounding service. What are some of the things you can do?

First of all realize you are not in the business of selling homes. You are in the business of selling results. A feeling. A benefit. A solution to a person or family’s problems...real or perceived. An outcome that is self-serving to the end user.

Isn’t that really what we’re in the business of doing? Not just selling homes? Of course! People are buying a result. An outcome. An END RESULT!

People could care less if you have a payroll to meet, or you don’t feel well or what your needs are. People could care less if you are the greatest or the biggest or the oldest or the most widely known. They don’t even want to be intruded upon!

The only reason anyone would consider doing business with you is if there is a self-serving benefit in it for them.

So what does all of that tell you? It tells you that everything you do, everything you say, everything that you articulate to them...there needs to be a benefit to them.

So how do you start? You start with a mind-set.

Stop thinking about your commission, stop thinking about what’s in it for you, and in everything you say, everything you do, everything you utter...you’re figuring out and making it known ... just how to address their needs. How you can serve them!

Case in point:

One of my assistants got a call from one of our sellers. She was very distraught because we had given her a little punch list of things to do to best prepare the house and one of the things was to clean the pool. Well, she was a divorced person and her children simply wouldn’t help.

So, my assistant offered to go out there...on her own time...that very weekend...give her energy and help clean the pool. To help her.

Now listen. That brought tears to the seller’s eyes. She couldn’t believe we were offering to do that!

And were we sincere about providing that type of quality service. You better believe it! And the end result? Six, six of her friends have completed a transaction with our company as a direct result of this wonderful seller perceiving us to be so service-oriented, so incredibly different...she was literally compelled to tell her friends about us.

Think about that. Grab pen and paper right now and figure out the lifetime value of a happy client. Figure it out.

The average homeowner nowadays only keeps their home an average of 3 to 5 years. This person happened to be only 30-33 years old. She will probably do business with us 4 or 5 more times in her life...multiplied by the number of people she referred to us...multiplied by the number of people they refer to us...multiplied by the number of people they refer to us...and on and on and on.

Do you understand how this can grow your business exponentially instead of vertically?

Prospecting grows your business vertically because when you’re prospecting for a living and you’re firing clients...it’s slam-bam-thank-you-mam...and that’s your attitude...they aren’t going to refer anybody to you. Why should they? You haven’t done anything to meet their emotional needs.

But when you learn how to meet their emotional needs...you will have a business that grows so big, so fast, it will be incomprehensible to you. You will actually be able to retire—if you choose. So how do you meet someone’s emotional needs? Here’s one way:

When a problem arises, you have your prospects emotional attention and in that moment you have the opportunity to create a client for life!

When someone decides to call in with a problem...rejoice! Be happy!! Solve their problem!

The people who actually take the time to complain give you the opportunity to meet their emotional needs. Why? Because when a problem arises you have their emotional attention. And in that moment, depending upon how you solve that problem, is whether or not you create a client for life or not!

Make it a point to provide the type of service and leave the type of impression which makes for a “magic moment.” You know, that is so shocking, so refreshing, so out of the ordinary, so wonderful, so “personable”, so incredibly downright NICE...you leave your clients ASTOUNDED...literally compelled to run out and tell everyone they know about this real estate agent who...can you believe it...did this and this and this and this and this...