Power Networking Groups for Real Estate Agents – Part 2
Summary
This is the Long-game of networking for Lead generation. How to pick the right group:
- Not realtor-saturated.
- People that own real estate (have money).
- Meets regularly.
- Big enough that it justifies time.
- Something your interested in.
Samples groups: Foundations, Volunteer orgs., clubs, chambers, toastmasters, networking groups.
Use Meetup.com to find the right group.
THE KEY: Focus on adding value. Be a giver, not a taker.
Full transcript
It’s more about networking in a group that you’re going to join. We actually join a group. You’re in that group, where you build relationships over time, that maybe meets weekly, or every other week, or every month.
Hi there. It’s Kevin Ward, the founder of Yes Masters Real Estate Success Training, helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. This is another video about networking. This is actually part two of a two-part video. The first video, I’ll put the link down below. If you haven’t seen it yet, probably want to watch it first. It is about power networking, what I call the one-night stand approach.
In this video, we’re gonna talk about what I call the long game approach, where it’s more about networking in a group that you’re going to join. We actually join a group. You’re in that group, where we build relationships over time, that maybe meets weekly, or every other week, or every month, and so forth. I’m gonna give you the five strategies for how to find and join the right kind of networking group, number one. Then second, we’re gonna talk about the key to making it effective for you as a lead generation source.
1) First, there’s five things that I’m looking for in the perfect networking groups. Number one is I’m looking for a group that it is what I’m gonna call agent free. Now, what I mean by that is as a real estate agent, you don’t want to join a group that there’s 20 people in the group, and four or six of them are realtors, because that group’s a little saturated with realtors. The moment that you introduce yourself as a real estate agent, they’re gonna go like, “Oh, yeah,” and they’re done. They’ve had enough of real estate agents in the group. So, what I really want is a group that doesn’t have a lot of real estate agents in it. At the end of this video I’m gonna talk about some different places that I have seen that are really great places that I’m gonna suggest you find, where you can get into groups where there’s not a lot of real estate agents.
2) I want to be in a group where there are home owners. I want a group where there’s people who have money, people who own real estate. Now, this is assuming you’re in residential real estate, but if you’re doing it for lead generation, if you’re networking for lead generation, I want to be in a group where there’s people that can actually be a source of leads and be a source of business. So, I’m looking for some group where people have money. I’m not looking to join a group where everybody’s broke. If you’re joining a group and the title starts with young, you’re probably not gonna get a lot of listing leads from that group for sure. You may get some first time home buyers, but if you want to build a big business and you want to control your business, listings is the name of the game, and so I want a group that’s got home owners, people that have money, people that are affluent that kind of people, if your goal is networking.
Now, look if you have a heart for something and you want to be a part of a group, I’m not telling you you should only be in a group to make money. If you’re in it to make money and find business, and that’s part of the motivation, you need to make sure you’re in a place where you’re actually gonna get the goal you set. There’s a better chance in hitting that goal when there are homeowners in it.
3) The third thing I’m looking for is I want a group that meets we’ll just say regularly. Regularly can be once a month, twice a month and once a week. You’re not looking for a group that meets every other day, because you’re not going to spend an inordinate amount of time in the group, without getting a return on it. This is one of the things that you have to take into consideration. Am I going to get the return on investment for the amount of time that I’m investing in the group? But I want it to meet regularly enough that I have time to engage with people, to meet people, and meets regularly, but doesn’t take so much of my time that it really becomes a drain on your time.
4) It then leads to the fourth thing that I’m looking for in a group, and that is you really want a group that is larger, rather than a larger group, not a small group. When I talk about larger, how big is larger? I don’t know, but I would say if you can find a group that is 20 or more people, especially if it’s one that meets every week or something like that. If it meets every week, I want to be in a group that’s got at least 30, 40, 50, 100, 200 people in it. Now, if you’re in smaller community, these groups may be harder to find, but a larger group just gives you a bigger pool of relationships. It gives you a greater odds for getting referrals from that group.
If you’re joining a business networking group, like BNI is a very well known, nationally recognized networking group here in the US, BNI, Business Networking International. So, I guess it’s beyond just the US. It’s international. It’s a group that meets. Typically they meet every week, and they meet for the purpose of networking for business. That’s the purpose of it. Does it match this criteria? Well, one, is it agent free? Most networking groups, business networking groups, they tend to limit it to one person in each profession, so there can only be one doctor, one attorney, one insurance agent, one realtor, one veterinarian, one dentist. You know, they narrow it down, where there can only be one person in each profession. A BNI network group would definitely meet the agent free thing.
Homeowners. Does it have people that actually own homes and that actually know people that own homes? Well, I would hope that a business networking international group would do that. Meet’s regularly? Yes. They meet regularly. They’re scheduled and structured for that. Is it a larger group? Now, here’s one of the things you gotta look at. If they’re a brand new group, and they’ve got five people, and they’re trying to grow, I’m gonna warn you about joining groups that are trying to grow. If you go their meeting or you go to a couple meetings, and they keep talking about, “We need more members, and we need to grow,” what they’re telling you is that’s what they’re focused on, and that tells you they probably aren’t growing. That’s probably not a group you want to be in. If you’re joining a group, a startup group, it is gonna be a long, painful road. I’d rather go into a group where the people are already there, and I’m just going in and building the relationships. It’s way easier to do that, so a larger group is better than a smaller group.
5) Look for something of interest, it has to be something you’re interested in, enjoy, because if you hate it, you’re not going to want to go and hate it. Now, the cool thing is it doesn’t have to be a business networking group. It can be a country club. Let’s just talk now about what are the kind of groups that you can find and that you can join to do this. Let me first give you a great resource.
I think if you’re looking, and you’re going like, “I need the perfect group to join. Where do I find that?”, I think one of the best places to go is to website, MeetUp.com, MeetUp.com. If you’re not familiar with it, just go to MeetUp.com, and they have in your community all the kinds of groups that meet regularly, small, big, all kinds of interests. Look through there and find a group that you want that matches all these criteria. You may not know just by looking at the group, but you can get a pretty good feel, because it will also tell you how many people are set up to go to the next meeting. It’ll tell you when the next meeting is, where it is. It’ll give you all the details on it. So, just check that out, and you can find all kinds of groups. Okay? It’s a great place to go.
Now, what are some kinds of groups that I can look for that’ll be great for me? One, things like country clubs, chambers of commerce, networking groups, yacht clubs, if you’re close to the beach, or any kind of affinity group club. It may be a tennis club. It can be an athletic club and so forth. Here are some of the things you got to look for. Is it a group that actually meets regularly? For example, if you’re in a yacht club, is it just people get on boats and go racing. If it’s a sail boat club where all they do is get together, and they go out on sail boats, and race, where you’re only hanging out with two or three of the same people every time you go out and sail, but there’s not any time to really socialize, and get to meet other people, and network, then you’re gonna be spending a lot of time not getting much results.
Now, again, what if it’s just something you love and want to do it? Awesome. Do it. It’s not saying don’t do it. It’s just understanding that is it gonna be effective for lead generation or not? I mean, look. If there’s a group in your neighborhood that they get together every Thursday night and play Texas Hold Em, and you love poker, go, if you love it, but look. If you’re going for lead generation, and the same four people show up every week or five people, and they all drink and get drunk, if you enjoy playing poker and getting drunk, go, but don’t expect that to be a great lead generation place. If you’re just going and spending three hours every Thursday night with the same group of people. You’re not gonna get any business from that. Understand we’re talking about networking as a lead generation strategy, so just be clear on what kind of group will get you that kind of the result that you want.
When you put all that together, and just focus on it, and just measure all that, you may have to visit some different organizations. Foundations are a great. Volunteer organizations can be a great place. Again, just make sure they match the criteria. I was talking to one of my coaching members that is a member of a hospital foundation that has over 200 members. I think they meet every month, and there’s 200 people in it. These are business leaders. They’re community organizers. They’re people that have money, and that kind of a group is a great group. I’ll tell you one of my favorites that my experience has been. Civic organizations. I don’t think I mentioned that. Civic organizations is another great group to be involved in. Again, is it saturated with realtors or not? Just you’ve got to look at all of this. Is it a small group, or is it a good size group?
Toast Masters was one that I found. I love Toast Masters. Toast Masters has a lot of advantages for you. One, you will learn how to communicate better. You want to become a better speaker? Whether you’re speaking to one person in a prospecting conversation or a listing presentation, Toast Masters will make you better as a communicator. It’s a really great place to help you do that. Two is the people that hang out there. One, I’ve found out, and I’ve been in three Toast Masters, and what I discovered was there’s almost no realtors. When there was a realtor that would come, the realtor would come once or twice, and that would be it. Apparently, realtors just don’t really get into that stuff, and so I’m like, “This is cool.”
Because what I found was there was a lot of community leaders, people with influence. There were business owners, and they were growth minded people, so they were people who were in businesses, where communication skill mattered. Well, in America, people that are in jobs and positions where communication skills matter tend to make a lot of money, so you tend to be dealing with people who are either affluent. They’re homeowners. They own real estate. It is a great group. When you can find a group like Toast Masters of people that are into self-improvement, into growth, into learning, all of that really, really is powerful. Then once you find the right group, here is the key. Just like we talked about it in the previous video on networking.
The key to being powerful with it is learn to be a giver in the group, where it’s not what can the group do for me? Ask not what the group can do for you. Ask what you can do for the people in the group. When you’re a giver, not a taker, you’re gonna receive a ton of opportunities. You’re gonna receive referrals. You’re gonna receive business, because you’re focused on what I can do to add value to others. Look. When people are looking for a good real estate agent, they’re not looking for somebody to pay a bunch of money to. They’re looking for somebody that can add value to them in their transaction that can help them make their move smoother and better than without a real estate agent. They’re not looking for a taker. They’re looking for a giver. They’re looking for somebody that can contribute to their life in this transaction and the transition of buying and selling real estate. Be a giver.
When you do that, you find the right group, and you be the right person in that group, it is a great place to get business over the long term. Once you’re doing that, don’t be afraid. Don’t be a secret agent. Let them know what you do. Let them know you do real estate, but do it from a position of what can I do to help you? What can I do to help your business? Anybody you know that I can help? It’s always about helping other people. If you’ve got some ideas, or strategies, or comments, or thoughts, or questions about networking that you would like to share, please share them in the comments down below. If you’ve liked this video, give it a thumbs up. Subscribe to my channel if you haven’t done that. Get out there. Connect with people. Build relationships. Always expect yes.