Building a Referral Database for Real Estate Agents & Entrepreneurs

Join us as we cover 5 ways you can build up your referral database here in quarter 2 of 2022.

Questions? Tips you want to share? Drop them below.

About the show…

Real Estate, Marketing & Coffee is a live video talk show airing every Monday at 8 am Pacific on LinkedIn and Facebook with hosts:

Amanda Condyles (Client Care Services for agents)
Ed Troxell (Video Coach for women professionals)

The show is designed to help you, the busy professional stay up to date with today’s technology and help you streamline how you do business online.

—-
Check out the Real Estate, Marketing & Coffee show page & subscribe for notifications on when we go live
→ https://edtroxell.com/liveshow/

Grab your FREE guide to building your business with video
→ https://edtroxell.com/subscribe/

Look & Feel Better on Video today!
→ https://edtroxell.com/video/
—-
#REMCLive #digitalmarketing #realestateagent #smallbusinessowners #coaches #marketing #podcasts #VideoCoach #socialmediamarketing #SmallBizTips #personalbrand #solopreneurs #womeninbusiness

Video Transcription: 

Are you looking to grow your referral database? If you’re an agent or an entrepreneur, this episode is going to be for you. We’re going to cover a five tips to help you build your referral database here in 2022 more specifically here in Q2. If you’re listening to us live right now or watching us shortly after on the replay.

Welcome to real estate marketing and coffee. I am your host Ed Troxell with my lovely co-host Amanda Condyles. Yes. Yes. And we come to you alive here on Facebook and LinkedIn every Monday at 8:00 AM Pacific. And we bring you a different topic around marketing your business here online, whether you’re an agent or I have something in my eye.

This is why we love the live, because you can just mess up and have fun. So if you’re a real estate agent or an entrepreneur, this shows for you because we bring the best of both worlds together. Amanda is all about real estate and helping with client care services. I am all about video marketing and helping agents and entrepreneurs bring their efforts to life.

So documents, flyers, all kinds of stuff, bring it to life with video. So we bring both of our expertise together during the show to give you some tips and tricks that you can do in your business throughout the week. And, keep coming back for more. So that’s all I got for our quick intro. Amanda, you got anything else before we dive into our, our first step here?

No, I think I’m good. Right? Excellent. So tip number one for building your referral database here in 2022 is going to be done on Amanda. The research. Yes, there’s. There are so many different lanes. That you can get access to people’s information and don’t be a creeper about it, but leverage things like social media that are set up to really help you celebrate these moments in people’s lives, leverage that inside of your database.

So oftentimes some of my clients will screenshot me. Oh, Facebook shows it’s ed truck’s Will’s birthday today. Guess what? They can send that to me. And then I can go and update the database because now we know it’s ed Troxell his birthday today, and we want to remember it next year. And the year after, and or people have babies, you know, and you see them post the announcement, great time to take a screenshot, email it to yourself.

So you don’t forget and then send them a congratulations card or an Amazon gift card or something. There are a lot of ways that you can start doing the research and really use it and leverage it inside of your database. Yes. Research is key as I’m sure all of us listening to this knowledge, but it’s really, really important to not only do the research, but it’s going to flow into tip number two, which is to create a system that you can stick with.

So let’s unpack this one, Amanda, because this is a big one that I think a lot of people might have a system. They’re definitely not sticking with it. And that’s all totally, and you’ve probably heard us say it a million times, and there’s a reason that ed and I are so passionate about this is that that consistency factor is literally, what’s going to get you the results when it comes from a marketing effort, when it comes from a sales effort.

And when it comes from a client care effort, altogether, consistency is really where you’re going to get that return on your time investment. And so creating, a client care system. Or a follow-up system to create a database and then use it and stick to it. That’s what, like, that’s all that matters in my opinion.

Yeah. And how many of you are listening to this and thinking. Yeah, I have a system in place. Like, go ahead wherever you’re at, raise your hand. It’s okay. If somebody looks at you and just be like, Hey, what’s up. Raise your hand. If you have a system in place and for those who don’t have a system in place, take this as your son.

This week to find a system that you can implement. I don’t care if you start with a basic spreadsheet or if you get a project management system, which we’ve talked about before you need help, let us know. Well, we’ll give you some recommendations, but get something in place this week to help you crush it here in Q2 of 2022.

Well, I’m glad you said that ed. Cause I think it’s super important to talk about. You can create a system, right. And they just live up here. But to me, that’s not a system because you can’t just rely on your brain. You need something that’s functioning. So like it said, spreadsheet, calendar, system, project manager, assistant, whatever, but find a system.

That won’t fail you if you feel you. Right? Cause sometimes our brains get really full I’m. I’m infamous of this. I have an insanely good memory. Yeah. And I still drop the ball and forget things. ’cause my brain can get so full. And so I want my system written out or in some type of systematic way, like a project management tool, that’s going to start working for me.

God forbid if I ever got into a car accident or died or whatever, someone could step right into my world and know exactly how to keep the business. Yes, it’s so important. And plus you don’t want to hold all that information readily available in your head if you don’t have to, because you’re just going to constantly burn calories and be, and it’s not those calories that we want to burn, right?

It’s not the fitness galleries, it’s different ones. And we want to make sure that we have a place that others can access. If we want them to, if they need to, it’s really, really important to have that, even if you’re a solo entrepreneur, because it’s one of those things that you’re going to have, somebody help support you at some point in your business.

And it’s important. Create a system that feels good to you too. Like, this is one of my big, big points, and I have said it on this show so many times, but if it’s not something that you’re willing to do, if you don’t want to text your database or you don’t want to send handwritten cards, cause you ate it, don’t put that as your system, you know, make it, make your system authentic to you.

And the kinds of touches you want to deliver. If you’re really great on the phone and you love being on the phone and that’s where you show up better. Design your system around those types of touches. If you love text messaging and your people love text messaging, and that’s a system you can commit to then commit to that, right.

It doesn’t have to be what everybody else is doing, but it has to be what you’re willing to do. And that’s, that’s how you build your sister. Um, so, so good. And tip number three. What is tip number three a minute? Cause this is, this is a good one. This is probably my favorite and most important. When, when you think about nurturing.

So my lane specifically is come from contribution. And what I mean by that is, come with value, right? Oftentimes I think people in sales roles get so singularly focused on only being able to help in that sales lane. But what happens when these people aren’t wanting to buy or sell a house right now aren’t wanting to buy or sell a car or whatever.

And the service that you’re offering, maybe they don’t want video marketing right now. How do you continue to stay top of mind for those people that, so that when they want video marketing, when they want client care services, when they want to buy a house or sell a house or buy a car, sell a car, whatever your business is, how are you saying top of mind is important?

And if you’re doing it in a salesy way, there’s a higher chance that you’re going to push them away. And so come from contribution, offer them pieces of value. Yes, the word value for them, not value for your value for them because when it’s value for them, it’s a resource, right? Yeah. Closer pros was a hundred percent built on being a resource to agents.

And so we were built with the idea in mind that we want our core values are service, support, and growth, and those are important to us. And you’ll see it in just about everything we do, but we go into brokerages and we teach classes for free. Why? Because we want to come from contribution. We want to be a reason.

And do you know what our business is exponentially better because we come from value and we offer pieces that matter to the agent, not just to us, right? Like we try to be that support role. And so when talking about building your database this way, like wish them a happy birthday, wish them a happy, you know, congratulations on baby.

Number two, on the way, you know, what matters to them? Celebrate that piece in there. So, so good. And like you said, it’s not about you, it’s about them, which is key. And that’s a big, big one that we have to remember when we’re coming from a value standpoint. Well, I’ve shared this example before. Go ahead and.

I was going, gonna say I’ve shared this example before on the show, but it always makes me think of how it feels from a customer standpoint is there was an agent friend that posted on Facebook about selling, um, the highest valued home in the neighborhood. They set a record and she posted the post and it was very all about, um, her and how they had, how she had helped set this record.

And it just felt very salesy to me. And it wasn’t a bad post. I felt the post, did the client a major disservice because if she had pivoted her language to be them, or we focus, the whole message changed, it didn’t come to I’m a great agent. Pick me. It came to, wow. We maximize our results because my client took such good care of their house.

And combined with my marketing efforts, we were really able to, you know, that’s a, we focused, or you can do them focus, which makes them feel good. Right. My client took exceptional care of their property over the last 20 years. And in return, they were able to, their hard work paid off and they were able to net the highest amount for their neighborhood or whatever.

It’s a totally different feel. And so I think about this in every single client nurture touch. I’m sure you think about it in every video you post and encourage your clients to post words, what is valuable to my audience? What do they need and how can I provide it. It’s so true. And that’s the big thing, you know, um, especially when we’re creating just our regular content, but going into video content, it’s something that we want to make sure that we think about that.

Like, what is it that’s when help support them? You know, a lot of my videos do have motivation and inspiration because I know being on video is not easy. And. Going to be challenging for a lot of people, whether it’s, I don’t like how I look. I don’t like how I sound. I don’t know what to talk about. I don’t know what to do.

Like there are so many layers to going on video. It’s not just, all you have to do is hit a record. Your head causes you don’t have that live audience right there. Right? We have no idea. Who’s cussing us out on screen right now. Or who’s like, God, this is what I needed to hear. And that’s, that’s a big one too, for a lot of people.

So I get that a lot from clients who they may not be worried about being on video. The challenge for them is. I don’t know how my audience is reacting to this because I don’t get to see them. And so that right there can be a factor that prevents them from even being on video because they don’t get to see the people in the front, especially if they’re used to in-person speaking events.

Well, I had a friend who was a musician and she used to go live on Facebook and play. Was so terrified of doing it in person, which is so funny. But when I would say, gosh, you’re so brave, this is like the same thing. She was like, oh gosh, video is so much harder because in person I actually get to feed off the emotions of my audience and I get to live time and watch their response and make those pivots.

You know, so, and in any type of live video marketing, you know, you don’t have that. If I was alive delivering a speech, I can watch people disengage and then say, okay, I need to rally my audience back in. Yeah, exactly. And that, that can be a real big challenge. Whether you’re going live or prerecorded, I will tell you it wasn’t too long ago.

That prerecorded video for me was so much harder than going live. It was so challenging. I still remember filming a segment for a TV show and it was all prerecorded and I froze. They were like, I know this isn’t you I’m like, I know it would be good, but yeah, the pressure, well, cause it’s gotta be perfect.

Cause it’s, it’s, you know, it’s a product you’re producing versus just, there’s a lot of grace here, you know, where it’s live, where. Sorry. I said the wrong words. Oops. Yes, exactly. And so there’s a lot to video marketing and a lot to come in overcoming those different barriers. So if you’re stuck in that, I mean, obviously reach out, but also know that it’s one of those things that you’re not alone.

And even if you are a professional speaker or you’re, you’re used to doing all these things either in-person or online. And you’re struggling right now because the video portion you’re like, I just don’t get it. I don’t understand. You’re not alone. It’s a common thing with professionals and it’s something that you have to work through and you need someone to help support you with that.

So of course, reach out anytime if you need that. Totally. All right, so tip number four. Oh, this one is one of my favorites. Tip number four is engage. We were just talking about this engagement it’s so, so important to engage with. Your database, whether it’s through social media, through your client care services, whatever it is, engagement is key.

And you may think, especially I’ll mention the social media and then I’ll pass it off to you, Amanda here. Um, but you might think with the social media part, the. Piece of it might be challenging or just, you might feel like it’s a waste of your time. Listen, if you can put a timer on for 10 to 15 minutes and you just scroll through social media with the intent of looking for those who are in your database and being able to just engage on their posts, trust me, it will make a difference.

You will start to see that pay off. It may not be that same day may not be that same hour, but you will see that payoff if you’re consistent with that. And then this goes back to what we said in tip number two, which is if you have a system created, you can go into your system and log that you commented on Sally’s Instagram posts.

You also sent her a message on LinkedIn. Like that’s the beauty of having a system in place that way you don’t forget. Well, here’s the really cool part about systems and all of this, and like really putting one through four together here is when you do these things, right? Like here’s how I’m envisioning it as you can time block it.

Right. And this can become a lead gen strategy. Right? So it’s client nurture, it’s lead generation. It’s all of the above, right? Because you’re showing up, people are seeing, and Troxell just liked your post just commented on your post. So your name is. So people like that spends off the reticular activator, right?

It’s like when you start wanting a car, like right now, I want a Rav four Jeep Wrangler. And I see both of those. It’s like, those are the only two cars on the road now because I see them everywhere. It’s the same idea. And we want people to see Ed’s name so often that when they’re ready, he word, when they’re ready, who do they think of?

Naturally, they think of ed because ed has already done the work. And so when you do the research like that, you can see like maybe ed post, Hey, I’m doing a half-day. Cool now, put it in your calendar system, right? Put it in your calendar. Check back in with ed. Hey, how’d that half go. How are you? Nurture, not salesy.

A lot of people have a hard time being salesy. That’s a great way. You’re literally just checking in on them, but then their brain goes, oh man, ed cares. Right. And then guess what, Ed’s coming from contribution and he’s engaging. And so now we’ve done the research. We’ve implemented it into our database or some type of system, and we’re following up with them.

We’re engaging with them and we’re coming from contribution. Yes. And so that is why. Social media is not a waste of your time. If you go in with specific goals, you’ve got to be intentional. It’s just like, you know, going into a networking event, you want to know what are, what are your goals for that event before you actually go into it?

So that way, when you are there, you have a focus that you’re paying attention to. And when you leave, you know, that you will get those. Totally. And this can be a few different things, right? This can be, I want to comment on all my important people’s stuff that I see pop up. This can be, I want to wish everybody’s that’s birthday.

I worked for an agent once who that was the first thing he did every morning. He called it his lead gen time. He was a very well-established agent. So people really like, it meant a lot to them that this high-level agent took the time to wish them a happy birthday, but he would wish them all a happy birthday.

And it was the same message. So we just quickly could copy and paste, but it meant so much to them. So in return, because he was such a high, high-level agent that people naturally knew, and then the birthday stuff, it showed, he cared. So he got a bunch of referrals in return. Right. And so it’s getting, it’s leveraging that stuff so that, um, all of this begins to work for.

Not against you, right? So social media can work against you if you allow it to be a distraction, but if you insert intentionality behind it, it can really be a powerful business tool. And not even just to get leads, but to nurture your people, to, to connect with and network with other like-minded business owners and entrepreneurs, like you can really use.

Having business work for you. And I love what you said about the goal. And I think that’s so key because when we know what we like, Hey, I want to have three meaningful conversations in the next hour. I’m going to scroll on social media. Yes. You define meaningful. I’m not saying you have to have three sales conversations, but I’m going to have read meaningful conversations or, you know what?

I want to find three people in my database, with birthdays that I don’t have and put them in my database so that I can watch them happy birthday. And that’s the key, you know, I’m going to drop an Instagram pro tip here, because I will, yeah, I know a lot of agents and business owners are on Instagram and Instagram recently has rolled out.

Hopefully, it’s on your account already, but the option to have two different feeds news feeds that you can look at. So you have your favorites and then you have your regular, um, newsfeed. So if you wanted to structure. Instagram account so that you do have a more intentional feed you could go through and make it so that your favorites are really the people that you’re trying to target, that you’re really wanting to engage.

And then you can go through and just change to that list every morning, spend your 5, 10, 15 minutes going through just that list and engaging for that piece of it. Totally. And I’ll tell you guys, I’ve gotten business from this strategy. Yeah. So if you’re, if you’re a doubter, like I was totally a doubter.

I was very much like social media is a waste of my time. It can not work for me. It’s purely like a mindless, um, mindless activity to get me out of my head, which I so very often need. And then I shifted my perspective on it because I became more intentional. And now I get business as a result, which is super duper.

Cool. Yeah, it is. And you even got business straight from just doing video work, starting to do some of the video work. Totally awesome. Was not a believer in that either and quickly became one. Once that business started rolling very quickly. All right. So let’s move on to tip number five. The last one here in building your referral database here in 2022.

So you can crush Q2. Amanda, what is number five? This is my favorite one. My favorite words of all time, are follow up and follow up often. That’s what we’re talking about. And to be clear often doesn’t mean call your people every single day, but it means call them consistently enough to where they know and can expect that you’re going to show up.

Yeah, that’s what, that’s what often means to me. And so knowing your people with. And, you know, cause some, oftentimes people want to re-engage with their sphere of influence or they want to re-engage with their past clients and they want to start calling them like rapid-fire these people probably haven’t heard from you in a couple of years.

So you have to take time to build that. But when you create that systematic way, now they know. So I’ve been working with one client for nine months now, now they expect my call because I do the check-in calls. And so I call on behalf of them all the time. Well, these people are so used to them calling and then now.

That they’ll be like, Hey Amanda. Yeah, we’re good. Don’t need anything, but we’ll give you a call if we do. And now it’s quicker right now. My check-ins are quicker than on the front end where they’re like, why are you calling again? And okay. Well, and that’s why also with the services that you provide agents with is having those systems in place and being able to make those notes and be able to keep everything updated so that it is a really seamless process that continuously flows so that it doesn’t take a ton of time to do the followups.

And it doesn’t take a ton of time to try to remember who are they, what did we do? Where do we put that information? Um, when did we last follow up with them? Oh, like, this is all super important information. Like I don’t want to get on the phone with anybody and not know the last time I talked to this person or attempted to reach out.

And if I last talked to them, I want to know what I talked to them about. And so the more I got into agent’s databases and I’m sure this goes across the board for all industries, my lane is more agent-focused. Um, the more I got into them, the more I would realize that they basically would just leave a note that said, spoke to ed called ed left voicemail with ed, which leaving a voicemail is fine.

Like, you know, that’s my note right now. Leftwards mill for ed but if I actually talked to ed, I want to know what I talked to ed about, because I don’t want to call him in three months and say, Hey, do you need anything? And then he has just told me, Hey, I don’t need anything for the next year. Cause I’m backpacking across Europe.

Now I look dumb because I call ed and I’m like, Hey, just checking in again. But if I have that note there and it says, Hey, Ed’s backpacking across Europe until September. Now I’m going to call you in October and ask you all about. Yes. And even just providing details, like if you said, you know, you left a voicemail, what did you leave a voicemail about?

Like, even if it’s the same thing, left a voicemail, checking in to see if they needed anything, having that information is key because it’s, what’s going to help support you and your team, whether you’re solo now, or you bring someone in or you have someone I should say, it’s going to help with that. So it’s really, really.

Even in my database, I I’m working primarily just with myself and I’m putting in as much information as I can with as many notes as possible as if I was talking to my assistant or to somebody else. Because that way it’s right there for me. And it’s easy in case I do have to bring someone on because there might be a time where I’m like, Amanda, I need you to tap in.

I need you to help support my business. And I’m just throwing her to the wolves. Cool. She’s okay. Because she’s got everything listed right there in the database. Totally well. And oftentimes agents don’t think far enough into the future. Well, I’m sure this is everyone once again, but my experience being mostly with agents, they don’t think far enough into the future.

So currently you might be a solo agent or solo entrepreneur, and it’s just you. And so like at saying, you think, uh, and this is the common thing that I get often our. No, you won’t I’ll remember that. Ed and I had a great conversation. I won’t remember all the specifics of what we talked about. I might remember some of it.

I might remember like the to-dos from it, but I’m not going to remember all of it. And so this goes back to point number two is creating that system, but it allows you to follow up and follow up often and follow up where it can come from contribution to. Yes. Oh, so good. All right. So let’s do a rapid recap here, uh, before we head out into our day here.

So building a referral database for your business here in 2022, so that you can crush it in Q two, uh, tip number one, Amanda is what do the research. Yes. Do the research tip number two is create a system and stick with it. That’s the key. You got to stick with it. You can’t just check the box. Tip number three.

Come from contribution, be a resource. Yes. Be a resource. Number four is engaged. You want to make sure you’re engaging. And that covers everything from social media, email, phone, text, voicemail, whatever it is. However, you can engage with your people, even if they’re not ready to buy from you right now, it’s really important to build that relationship.

Okay. And tip number five, Amanda, follow up and follow up often. Yes. So those are your five tips to help build your referral database here in 2022. So you can crush it in Q2. If you need anything from myself or Amanda, please reach out we’re available on all social platforms. If you need client care services, Amanda is your girl.

She’s going to take care of you. She’s got those systems and follow-ups all set up and ready to go for you. And if you need video support, reach out, I got you. I got some resources that I can point you to and get you set up so that you can look and feel great on video. And who knows, maybe even have your own show like we have here so that it can help support your marketing efforts online.

If you need anything, reach out to us until next time. We’ll see you next Monday at 8:00 AM Pacific here on Facebook or LinkedIn.