How to Use Your Center of Influence in Real Estate

Well, hello and welcome to Mike Ferry TV. It’s the week of April 17th. I’m Ron Cronin.

We’re working today together on building and using our database. Building and using our database. Okay, so let me see your hands. Raise your hands If you are wanting to someday get to 50, 75, or 100 transactions. Yes. Your hands up. Okay, good. So we want to remember that our Past Clients and our Centers of Influence are our personal gold mines, personal gold mine. You’ll learn through this call today that our top producers have learned to tap into their personal gold mines. And you’re going to learn that the Past Client and Center of Influence, the database if you will, is the main source of their production. Okay, So let’s say that an agent is doing 100 transactions a year. Well, that’s great. What a great living. It’s not uncommon that that agent has that production due to maybe 60%, 65%, or maybe more. Maybe 70% of that production comes from their database. Okay. Now, that’s an important thought. 60% and 65% come from the database. So are we working the database like we need to? Have we developed one? Have we created where and how we keep it and what we do? Do we have a system for the database? All right. Well, let’s take some great notes today, and let’s cover these points. Okay. So our personal gold mine now, some of you may not have tapped into it yet. Some of you are working on it, but not all the way. Okay. Not all the way.

What does working a sphere of influence mean in real estate?

So let’s write down the 10% rule. Please write that down. 10% rule. Okay, Mike says. Mike Ferry teaches us that when we follow his system, 10% of our database prospects will give us business every year simply because we’re asking for it. 10%. Now that’s an important number. Okay. 10% is an important number. Think about it. If right now maybe you have 60 to 70 people. Well, by working this system, we can pull out 6 to 7 transactions, maybe more, but at least 6 to 7 transactions annually just from the database alone. Okay. So the 10% rule. So now what we learn is to build that database to the larger numbers, to say 500 or 1000 names as quickly as possible. But that might take a couple of years. Okay. And we’re not going to build it just by adding people who don’t belong there. We’re going to build it with people that belong in the database, that belong in our we’ll call it our Center of Influence. Some of you refer to it as your sphere of influence, but it’s all speaking about the same thing. Okay, So 10%. So imagine if we can get that built up to 500 and you’re working the system, which I’ll explain in a minute. And now we’re producing 50 transactions a year just from the database. Who’s in? I knew that you would be okay. All right, good.

Be willing to make the apology call

Now, as we build the database, we’re going to run into some challenges. Okay, So, for instance, I have this thought here. Don’t hesitate to call the people in your database that you haven’t spoken to in a while. Okay. We don’t want to hesitate to call them. Maybe you haven’t called in quite a while. Maybe it’s been a year or two. All right. And you may have to make that apology call, just basically apologizing for having lost touch, basically take ownership of that and let them know you’re committed to being their Real Estate agent and keeping them updated and becoming their Real Estate resource, which is our main goal here. Okay. So just but we often make up a story. Oh, I can’t call them because, you know, our transaction a year and a half ago, went kind of sour. There was this little thing at the end and they got upset. And then now you haven’t called them since then. Oh, that’s a mistake. Okay. Most of us don’t remember those kinds of things. It was a petty thing. You gave great service except for that one little thing. So let’s find out how they feel about it. Let’s not make up a story that they’re mad at You still, You know, “I’m mad at Ron because he lost me $200 at the close. It was short, right?” No, let’s give him a call and find out. Now, watch. Mike teaches us that if there’s someone on there that doesn’t like you or you don’t like them or they don’t want anything to do with you, then hey, the good news takes them off the list. Take them off your list. We don’t want to make we don’t want them a part of this list. This list is your people. These are the ones that support you. These are the ones that you’re going to be speaking to on a regular basis, mailing them on a regular basis. Okay. So let’s keep going. All right.

Pro-tip: Add your staffs Centers of Influence into your database 

Pro-tip, this next thought, pro tip, if you have staff and I know some of you do, a lot of you don’t. But if you have staff, we want to make sure that we are getting them to develop their own Center of Influence, Right? Their friends, their family, their neighbors, and make sure that we’re getting that list from them and that they’re working it for you and we can add them to our own personal list. Okay. So pro tip is if you’ve got the staff, we have to be making sure that we’re working that database and that we’re getting 10% from that database as well. Right? Okay. Now we’re really winning here.

Speak to your Center of Influence 4x a year

Okay, so what do we have to do, Ron? What do I have to do with these with this group of people? Well, it’s not complicated, so let’s write it down. We must speak to them. Our Past Clients, our Center of Influence, and our database. We must speak to them a minimum of four times a year. Minimum four times a year. Okay. Speak to them. Can I text? No. Can I email you? Sure. But you also have to speak to them. Can you text? Sure. But do I have to speak to them as well? Yes, that’s the main thing. Okay. Talking to the database minimum of four times a year. All right.

Use mailers to your advantage

Now, the other thing we’re going to have to do is we’re going to have to mail them a postcard maybe, or something. Let’s just say hard copy. Let’s mail them a hard copy every 90 days or four times a year as well. Right. And if you just get in the habit of sending out a mailer every quarter and giving them a phone call every quarter and you just continuously do this every quarter, we’re just going around and doing that little system, then we should start getting seeing that 10% appear. Okay, send that up here. So what can we send? Well, excuse me, I have an itch here, but we could send a postcard. We could send a letter. We could send a newsletter. We could send a flier. You could do a Just Listed postcard. You could do a happy holidays Real Estate type of card. It’s not really that important. It’s not going to be the card that they’re like, “Oh, wow, call Ron.” Okay, It’s not. But it shows them that you’re working, you’re active, you’re in the business, you have things going on, and this is how you’re going to become, I’ll say it again, They’re Real Estate resource, Real Estate resources. What we’re targeting here.

Remember, we’re not just calling them to get business. That’s not the point. I mean, that would be really hard and awkward for everybody involved. No, we’re basically volunteering. I volunteer. I sign up for the job of being your Real Estate resource. Okay. Now, think about your life, you have resources for things. You know, your hobbies. You have a resource where you go for those things or information on that, whatever that may be. You have your resource, you know, all kinds of insurance resources, tax resources. Will you want to be there? Real estate resource. Okay, that’s an important job. Okay. So four calls a year, four postcards a year. Okay. And then again, if you’re not going to call someone on your list, simply take them off. 

How many right now on your list don’t belong there? How many don’t belong there? Let’s get rid of them. Right. I don’t want you like when you see the list, like, “Oh, no, I don’t want to call.” I want these to be people that you’re happy to call and happy to reach out to, and we can start getting this business from them.

Create an A and B list in your database

Now consider creating an A and a B list with your database. An A and a B list. Okay. A list is going to get called every 30 days. B list would be called every 90 days. Okay. But who belongs on the A list? Well, you know, these are your really close people, you’re, you know, everyone that supports your Real Estate business, you know, your family members, your really close friends, Past Clients go on the A list. Anyone that’s ever given you a referral or said they would give you a referral, I would have them on my A list as well. And they hear from me every month. I give them a monthly Real Estate report, just a quick check-in call, and see if I can contribute to them and if they happen to know anyone that could use my service. An A or B list. So the A is every 30 days. The B’s Every 90 days. 

Center of Influence Examples of Outreach

When you speak to the when you speak to them. Okay. Obviously, we have the script. Okay? We have the script for the Past Clients and the database. So when you speak to them, you want to always bring value to the call. We don’t just want to make it a call where you’re asking only asking for the referral. We don’t want to make it that. We want to make it so that you’re their resource, you’re providing value and then in return, referrals will come. Okay. So determine like themes for your calls. You know, when you call, what are you going to speak about? Well, maybe it’s the same topic as your mailer. Maybe we use that. You know, if you were doing like a quick market summary or a first-quarter market report or a month of March market report kind of thing, well, then that could be what I also talk about. That’s the value. So I can share market statistics and valuable information. I could, I can share. Oh, like a vendor list would be something good to send out to people, a list of a plumber or electrician contractor, you know, because spring is coming, that kind of thing. I could talk to them about, “Hey, I would love to send you this vendor list. Are you looking to do any repairs around your home? Let me get this over to you. These are good people that you can trust.” Okay. So always have themes for the calls, whether it be, you know, Real Estate information, legislation. I mean, it could be anything related to the industry that you’re in. Okay. That’s what makes it valuable. It’s pretty easy, isn’t it? Okay. When you bring value, when you’ve got something really great to talk about, then these calls are so much easier for you to make. You’re more inclined to make them. You’re happy. You’re more excited when you’ve got something interesting to talk about. Okay.

Pro-Tip: Do not wait from them to call you

I think one of the biggest things, the biggest mistakes you could make is waiting for, you know, waiting for people to call you with their referrals. Okay. Don’t wait for them to call you. It’s our job to call up, give them some information and ask them if they or anyone they know could use your service. Okay. And be specific. When you ask for referrals, you’re looking for ten-day, two-week referrals. Always ask for those. They’ll tell you about the 60 to 90 and the six-month-out people. But learn to ask specifically for what you’re looking for. Okay. Okay, good.

If you’re if you decide, okay, I’m going to be calling five or six of my database every day, that should get me through the list by the end of the quarter. You know, you’ll have to do that math for yourself. But as you make the calls, you can leave this group a message. Okay? You can leave them a message, leave the same message that if they would have answered, that’s what you would have talked about. Just leave that kind of message. You don’t need to ask for a call back necessarily unless they know someone. And then once you’ve left the message, Mike has always said that we could count that as a contact to the database only. We don’t count messages to other people as contacts, but you can count that as a contact. So some of you, I think, will be very happy to hear that. Okay. Okay, good.

Consistency in contact is key

You might just have a couple of last thoughts here on this point that you want to work to be consistent with the calling and the mailing that you’re doing. Consistency is essential. When they get a market report from you every month or they get something from you every month and they see it every month, it’s very, very important. Those four weeks go by very fast for them. Okay. Between your emails and your calls. So be consistent with it. The sporadic ness causes sporadic results. Okay. Consistent activity brings consistent results.

Train your contacts to think of you for everything Real Estate

All right. And then when you talk to these people, this is an important thought. You’ve got to work with them and talk to them. And I’m going to say train them so that when they hear someone looking to buy or sell, they reach out to you immediately. Okay. You’ve got to ask for that. I ask them, Could you please either call me or text me immediately this information of this referral or this lead that you have for me. Thank you very much. All right. Okay, good.

So as I said and I’m going to finish up our session today, I’ve given you a lot. You’re probably going to need to watch this a couple of times. But our last thought is that you’re trying to build a reputation as their, again, Real Estate resource, okay? Within this group of people not just begging or asking for business, especially not begging, okay? But keep putting out the information. From you, they get reports, values, statistics, legislation, information, and tips on the house. Right? So that your database thinks of you with anything related to that home, they think of you. All right. So go back and watch this at least two more times. And we look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks.