Summary

The first step to having a more profitable business is to build relationships with people you know. 

You want to create Top Of Mind Awareness with them by adding value to them and genuinely making them feel special. You become unforgettable, and they will refer business to you over and over again.

Here are 4 Strategies for Getting More Business Through Your Relationships

1. Care about people. 
   1. Send out personalized handwritten “Happy Thanksgiving” notes.
   2. Call (or leave a voicemail) or send a text message, greeting them a Happy Thanksgiving.
   3. Shoot them a personal Thanksgiving video greeting & text it to them. 
2. Give people something of value. You can do a Pie Giveaway. Call them up, say, “Hey, I want to get you a pie. I’m ordering you a pie for Thanksgiving. Would you like pumpkin or pecan pie?” And then you’re going to deliver those pies to them. 
3. Promote local businesses on your social media channels. (i.e.Post a quick shout out to your favorite local coffee shop on your Facebook page.)
4. WOW your past clients. Give them something above and beyond what you’d normally give everyone else.  This is not a closing gift. Instead, you send this to them 6 months after closing. Just say, “Hey, I appreciate you as a client. Anything I can do for you. I’m here for you and this is just a little token of my appreciation.” And then, give them something that is worth 3 to 5% of the value of the transaction.

If you want more FREE deep-dive training on this, join me for my upcoming free live masterclass. 

Full Transcript

If you want to get more profitable, here’s the first step. You got to get more personal.

Hey there, it’s Kevin Ward, the founder of YesMasters Real Estate Success Training, helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. 

And today, I want to talk about getting personal in your relationships to build your real estate business. Now, I’m going to tell you the truth and then I’m going to tell you the BS that is going around that I’m seeing in it. I’m seeing it in social media marketing, campaigns from real estate trainers and coaches out there that just drives me crazy because it’s absolute BS.

So here is, first, the truth. The truth is that relationships are the real estate gold. Relationships are absolutely the real estate gold. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to work by referral only. It just simply means that understanding the power of relationships is absolute gold for you. 

And here’s the reason that relationships are real estate gold. 

It’s because trust is the absolute crown jewel of high-ticket business. It’s trust. People are looking for, “Who can I trust?”

And especially as we get into chaotic economic times, and buyers are freaking out over high interest rates, and sellers are freaking out and going, “Should I sell? Should I wait? I don’t know what to do,” and as you see, as an economy gets into recession with inflation, all of a sudden it’s happening, people are uncomfortable. People are scared. Consumer confidence at the housing sentiment is the lowest it’s been in decades, and people are, at least back since the great recession. 

And so people are like, “Who can I talk to? Who can I ask?” And here’s who they’ll talk to. They will only talk to somebody that they can trust. So trust is a crown jewel, which makes relationships the gold of real estate.

Now, here’s the BS that’s being spewed out there everywhere. 

And it drives me nuts. And it is this, “Are you tired of begging for referrals?” And I saw it three times this week with just social media ads from trainers and marketing companies that are trying to say, “Hey, stop talking to the people you know. You don’t want to go out there and be begging for referrals and bugging people and all that kind of stuff. That makes you look desperate.” Okay, not only is that BS, but here’s what it is.

They are tapping into a scarcity mindset and a fear mindset of non-producing realtors who are saying, “I know, I’m so nervous.” And I get it. If you’re going like, “But I don’t want to beg for referrals,” I’m like, “I totally get it.” Because when I was a brand new real estate agent, I did not want to talk to people I knew. And I hardly knew anybody in the market where I was because I just moved there. But I was like, “Talk to people I know?” I was nervous and scared. And so because of that, I didn’t want to do it.

So what did I do? I went and talked to strangers. I went and talked to sell-by owners and Expireds, which works great too. But the real gold is in the relationship. 

So I just want you to get in your head, just open your head to this possibility that for those agents that are making half a million dollars, a million, or multi-millions a year in commissions, the agents that are the big players, they live and die on relationships. 

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make a lot of money on marketing and all that kind of stuff, but the real money, the real profitability, and the real business control is going to come through relationships, especially in the ever increasing distrust that we are seeing in our society as a whole. And when people are in chaotic times, they tend to want to talk to and trust and lean on people that they already have a relationship with, or that they know somebody, or somebody that they know, or somebody that knows somebody.

So here’s what I want you to think about. High-ticket investments and services across the board, all industries, are mostly word of mouth. And I really started seeing this, especially living here in LA where you’ve got a lot of celebrities in the high-dollar areas like in Beverly Hills and up in areas like that where you have a lot of people that they’re well-known or famous. They’re high-paid people.

And here’s what I know, that the best agents that do a lot of business with those people, it all comes by word of mouth. It’s like you got one famous person… 

And I’ve got one of my coaching members who has tapped into the celebrity market, and he got one relationship with one celebrity. And from that celebrity, it’s like, all these other celebrities and all these other people that the celebrity knows whether they’re in a celebrity industry or not, but then, the people have money. And they don’t want to find a stranger. They don’t want to go to Google. They’re not going to respond to direct mail. They don’t respond that way. They’re talking to their friends and they’re like, “We’re thinking of selling. We’re thinking of buying. Who do you know? I want the relationship.” They look for the relationship.

So I just want you to understand. If you want to scale your business, if you want a business that is sustainable and scalable and you want to do it, especially if you want move and make more money, higher pot price range and all that, it is relationships. It is relationships. So if you want to get more profitable, you want to get more personal, meaning personal relationships. 

4 Strategies for Getting More Business Through Your Relationships

So I’m going to share with you four strategies on this video on how to get more personal and get more business through the people and the relationships you know without begging. This is not a begging conversation.

1.Number one is just caring about people. How do you do that as a tactic? I’m going to give you three strategies. This is November. November is what I consider gratitude month. Why? You’ve got Thanksgiving, and people are just getting in the holiday spirit and they’re feeling gratitude. And people are open at this time of year. So here’s three things that you can do, three strategies for expressing to people you care about them.

• Number one, probably the most powerful, is personal note. And I’m talking about a personal, handwritten note. It can be a Thanksgiving, it can be a greeting card, it can be like that, but it’s personal and it is handwritten. And more than just “Happy Thanksgiving” and your name, but literally make it a personalized note.

Now, here’s what we’re seeing happen. When people use personalized, handwritten notes, they get responses like crazy. And the time you’ll spend, so if you did five of these a day, just imagine if I did five a day from now until Thanksgiving. And you did, let’s say, 50 or a 100 notes and you sent those out, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to make money. Those people are going to refer business to you. They’re going to use you. They’re going to call you and they’re like, “We were actually just thinking about till the first of the year, we’re going to upsize, downsize, move,” whatever. “And thank you so much for the note. We want to talk to you about selling our house.” This kind of stuff is going to happen. They’re going to give you referrals because you’re creating top of mind awareness and you’re making them feel special. And this is legit.

• A second strategy… I’m going to give you three strategies here on caring. That one is, this one’s the only one that costs money, and that’s a handwritten, personal note. Number two is a phone call, just some phone call or text message. Now, the problem with phone calls and text messages is phone calls typically a lot of people aren’t going to answer. You can still leave a voicemail, especially if you’re doing it at Thanksgiving. But it’s just like it’s not that special. A handwritten note, nobody gets nice handwritten notes in the mail anymore. When was the last time you actually got a handwritten note?

And I guarantee you, if you did get one this year, if you got a handwritten, real, legitimate, personal note in the mail this year, number one, you remember it. You’re like, “Oh yeah, I get them. I got probably three or four this year.” Okay, cool. And I bet you could tell me every person that sent you a handwritten note, and you remember, and you probably kept it. People do this. Why? Because it doesn’t happen anymore. You get a phone call. It’s awesome. It’s free. It’s quick. Not quite as special, but it’s better than nothing.

• And then the third is a personal video, that you just shoot a personal video and text it to them, which can also be very special. And just say, “Hey, I want to wish you and your family a happy Thanksgiving,” and all that. Again, personal, personal, personal. Because what the tendency is you’re going to want to say, “Well, I’m just going to do one generic video that makes it feel personal. I’m going to try to make a like, ‘Hey, how’s it going? I wanted to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. I hope you’re doing great,’ and all that.” When you put their name in it, I promise you it is dramatically more personal.

Now, if you’ve got a thousand people in your personal circle, what I would do is take your A team, your best ones, and those are the ones that get the personal handwritten note or the personalized video. And then for the other 8 or 900 people or whatever, you could do one video and you can send it to everybody. You can use email blast and send it to everybody, which is better than nothing. It’s just not as personal. Out of the personal, you’re going to get much better results.

So number one is just caring about people. 

2.Number two is actually giving people something of value. One of the things that a lot of my coaching members do is what we call the Pie Giveaway. They tend to do it around Thanksgiving, which is a great time to do it. If you’re watching this as this is a brand new one and we just posted this on the blog and on YouTube, then you still have time to do it. 

It’s a pie giveaway. And you take your A teamers, your people that are your raving fans, and you basically call them up, say, “Hey, I want to get you a pie. I’m ordering you a pie for Thanksgiving. Would you like pumpkin or pecan pie?” And then you’re going to deliver those pies to them. And you do that with 10, 20, 30, 40 people.

Here’s what we have seen with our coaching members who typically do 25 to 100 pies, which is a lot of pies. You can have them delivered, or you can have a party and people come to your house, pick them up. Different ways you can do it. I don’t have time to go deep into the strategy except to say this. What we are typically seeing is a 10x or more return on investment. 

Meaning, if you did 40 pies and you spent 500 bucks on 40 pies, you’re probably going to get four or five or six referrals in the next 60 to 90 days from that pie giveaway, which should be for you a 40 to $50,000 return on a $400 investment. So we’re talking 10x and more of the return investment because you’ve only got one deal from that and you got a $10,000 paycheck because you spent $500 on pies. Game over because pies are not that expensive. So giving away. There’s a lot more on that, but that’s all I got time for you in this.

3.Number three, the third way I can really get personal is I can ask people, “How can I add value to you?” Especially people that you know that are entrepreneurs that have small businesses, any kind of small business, all your ancillary services in real estate, your home inspector, your home warranty rep, your loan officer, all of them. Master how to promote their business. Do it on social media and just, “Hey, shout out to my favorite business of the week.” It can be your local coffee shop. It can be whatever that’s locally owned and operated so that you’re building a relationship and you’re literally adding value to them by promoting their business.

4.And then number four is what I am going to call WOWing them. We’ll call this wowing your clients. And wowing your clients is going above and beyond with a higher quality gift than just a pie. And this would be where you’re actually sending them something of value. 

Now, typically this is going to be for your past clients, people that have already given you business and you know will probably refer you or use you again in the future. And here’s what the best people that are mastering this process of using gifts to create loyalty, and a lot of high-end agents do this with high-end clients, is they’ll give them nice gifts. Not as a closing gift because a closing gift is expected.

This is the above and beyond gift. This is the gift that you send them six months after closing. Just say, “Hey, I appreciate you having you as a client. Anything I can do for you. I’m here for you and this is just a little token of my appreciation.” And you give them something that is 3 to 5% of the value of the transaction. 

So if you got a $10,000 commission check, you’re literally talking about a 3 or $400 gift that you give to somebody. When you do that as an expression of gratitude as “for being my client”, they will never ever use anyone else.

Now, there’s more to it in terms of building the relationship. It’s not just one gift and you’re bribing them to give you referrals, but in building that relationship, this wowing thing creates and adds one more piece to this loyalty puzzle, and that is the law of reciprocity. And that is they feel a sense of indebtedness to you because of what you have done for them, not only as their agent, but also above and beyond giving them something that goes like, “That was special. That makes me not want to ever work with anybody else.” 

Right now guys, this is the best month to do all of this. This is November. It’s Gratitude Month. Express your appreciation to every single person in your personal circle and make it special. All of this is a part of what we call the Real Estate Vortex, which is the path for building a high six-figure, seven-figure business.

If you want to learn more about it, I’m going to invite you to join me for my next free Masterclass. You can just click on the link here or you can go to our website, yesmasters.com and you can register there for our next free Masterclass on Dominating Your Market in Today’s Real Estate, and click on that and register to it. 

If you like this video, make sure you give it a thumbs up. If you have questions or comments or if you think what I’m talking about is like, “I don’t like asking for referrals. I don’t think relationships…” Let me know. I want to hear what your thoughts are, hear your angle on it. Either way, hope you enjoyed the video, hope it added value to you. Always play to win, and always expect yes.