If Real Estate Is All About Building Relationships…
Why Do So Many Agents Miss The Most Important Part
And Screw Up the Development of “Real” Relationships
With Social Media and Other Technologies?
Do you agree with this statement?
Real estate is all about building relationships…client relationships…networking relationships…COI relationships…that all lead to a growing real estate practice and more closed business year after year.
If that’s true, then why do so many agents lean so heavily on technology to do their “relationship building” for them? It’s as though they want to “automate” the development of quality relationships.
Is that even possible? Maybe with two robots that are syncing up…but humans are a little bit different than that, aren’t they?
Can you really develop a good quality client relationship with an email drip campaign?
Can you build a relationship with auto-posted tweets to your Twitter account?
Can you “outsource” your social media and expect it to be perceived as “authentic?”
Don’t get me wrong. I love all these things.
I love high-quality marketing that drives people to call your recorded info hotline or land on your “squeeze page” to opt-in to your email drip campaign. I love it when our clients generate two or three hundred leads a month with call capture marketing. I think technology is amazing. I’m in awe of it all.
Then there’s “social media.” I love the social media movement. I think it’s the next great frontier of real “relationship building.”
The issue I have with all of it is that so many are chasing hopes and dreams with a plan that leaves out the most crucial elements…the true fundamental underpinnings of success in real estate.
What is that foundation?
Again, it’s all about relationships. And relationships are with those people (human beings) who KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST YOU!
All the tools, all this technology, all these amazing social media outlets…they all do one thing and one thing only. They speed your ability to communicate.
Quality marketing makes your phone ring…giving you the ability to what?
Communicate.
Squeeze pages that get people to opt-in to your email drip campaigns do what?
They give you the ability to communicate.
Your Facebook page with 5,000 “friends” does what?
(5,000 friends…whatever! No one has 5,000 friends. BUT…where else would you go to exchange messages with people you didn’t like in high school?)
So what do Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
and all the various other platforms do?
They all speed your ability to communicate.
Call Capture lead generation that brings in hundreds of warm inbound calls every month…what does it do?
I think you get the idea. It speeds your ability to connect and communicate.
The point I’m making is that the key is not the technology. Yes. They’re great. In fact they’re amazing and powerful tools. But that’s all they are…tools.
YOU…are the message.
I like the way Scott Stratten (social media guru and viral marketing genius) puts it, he says, “You are your company’s CRO (Chief Relationship Officer). You are the one who has to take all this ‘technology’ and all these amazing platforms and take it to the next level.”
If you’ve got 5,000 friends on Facebook…how many times have you connected with someone of influence and invited them out for coffee?
If you’re a Twitter fanatic…how many times have you reached out to someone you knew could influence greater reach for you in your community?
If you’re on LinkedIn with 500+ “connections”…how many of those relationships are you nurturing, building and developing?
Worse yet, if you’re using call capture and generating 100-200-300 warm leads a month…how many of those people (human beings) have you called back, initiated a warm, easy-going dialog with and began building relationships with?
Bottom line is real estate is all about building
relationships…and it all starts with YOU!
With the various social media platforms…be authentic, be real and take it to the next level. Relationships are not digital. They’re one or more real live human beings having a conversation or meeting for coffee. Take it there.
With your lead generation, polish and perfect your scripts. Internalize them and make them a part of you so they are natural. When you engage a call capture lead you’ve got to know what to say and how to say it. Then, you need to bring more value to the table for that person. Be a value creator. Be a servant. No. Be a Super-Servant with a true and genuine servant’s heart.
Bottom line?
Again, it’s all about building relationships. And relationships start with real live conversations. Start having them. Perfect your skills and read books on communication. These are core fundamentals.
Lastly, I’d like to recommend a book that was first published back in 1937. It’s a book that is even more applicable today. It’s a book that can and will change your life. It’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie.
Get it. Read it. No…read it 2-3 times and then apply it to all that you’re doing as an agent…marketing, prospecting, lead generating, your social media platforms. Then, once you’ve seen its impact, shoot me an email telling me how much it’s meant to you.
It’s time to get back to the basics. And you can’t get more basic than people do business with those they KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST. That’s a relationship!
My word (or words) for the day!
Comments
8 Responses to “Is It Really All About Building Relationships?”
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Well said and excellent. I would comment, but I could not say it any better. Regardless of technology, people still, and always will, shop for homes, decide on homes, plan for homes while standing in the livingroom-placing the furniture-talking to their own personal real estate agent.
All this hype is nothing but an illusion. If we just sit here and expect the computer to sell houses our listings don’t sell. You need to personally look at a home to fairly appreciate its value or lack there of.
I have never seen so many so called agents who are full time working other jobs and try to tell me they are real estate agents. You are either dedicated full time agent or your are not doing this business any justice.
I’m so fed up with these so called agents sending their so called clients whom they never met to my open house while they are at the beach or whatever.
Then they have the nerve to sign the so called clients as buyers clients and offer them part of their commission in order to buy their loyalty I call that a bribe.
Basics, are basics, and investing time in your future is a must whether you are a buyer or an agent.
Amen Maria! Basics are basics and real, meaningful relationships are the core fundamental foundation for a great career. And relationships take time, energy and investment to endure and build value. Agents need to quit avoiding real meaningful conversations with technology. Use technology to enhance the relationship…don’t be dependent upon it to build and develop the relationship. Your points are well-taken.
You’re absolutely right John!
Automation is great. But too much automation leads to a cold impersonal feeling. And years from now people will remember very little…except how you made them feel. Real estate really is all about building solid, enduring client relationships.
It’s key because your clients truly do need you. So be there for them. Take incredible care of them. And acknowledge how important they are to you…whenever you get the chance. Send them a hand written note. Pick up the phone and call them. They’re human beings! Those who get this at deep level will always be successful.
Thanks again for your comment and best wishes.
- Gary
Wonderful blog. I have got plenty of information from here.
Thank you Rio…I’ve been a little lax lately but we’ll be bringing you more good stuff soon.
Hope you’re doing well… – Gary
It’s up to the real estate agent to make a connection at the end of the day. Technology should be used to give the client as much information as they possible need and as a means of getting in touch, but it’s the way how the real estate agent approaches the client and builds a relationship with them that is key. Thanks for the informative post!
Understanding marketing concepts in real estate pays off. Complex relationships, most often than not, trust is not enough. Building realationships, takes a lot of hard work. This had been helpful. Thanks for posting.