Want More Listings? Fix Your Database First

Welcome and good morning to Mike Ferry TV the week of December 1st. We only have one month left for you to finish strong and start fast for the month or for the year of 2026. I’m going to spend a little time today talking to you about the database, because the truth is, if you work the database effectively this month and all of next year, you’re going to find a lot of improvement in your confidence, in your skill set, in your mindset, you’ll find a big improvement in your transaction count because people that know you, trust you and like you and would like to do business with you.

But so often we get carried away and say, well, I work by owners or I work Expireds when the obvious person to be talking to is the person that is a past client of yours, and second is a person that is somebody that would be considered a center of influence, somebody that you know by first name, whether it be through the kids school or through your church that you attend or through the club that you belong to. But the database is a viable and very important lead generation system, if you choose to look at it that way. I’m always surprised at how many people I’ll talk to and I’ll say, how big is your database? And they’ll say like 300, 350.

And I said, how many transactions do you get out of your database? And they say, well, I don’t talk to them. I let them call me when they’re ready. I said, that’s an interesting approach. That’d be like saying, let the doctor call you when he’s ready, even though he knows that you’re not feeling well. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

So, I think the first thing you have to look at is how much participation do you have with your database? How much participation do you have with your database? Are you talking to them once a month? Are you talking to them twice a year. Are you sending them a postcard of some type with information about the market and what’s going on in the market 2 or 3 times a year? Or are you doing. As I’ve often suggested, you take your database and you do this step by step.

You take step one, which is to clean up your database. People put names of people that should not be in their database, in their database all the time, meaning they get a lead. They have not met that lead and they don’t know where to keep the leads. So, they put it in their database where it becomes lost very quickly, especially if you have 2 or 300, 400, 500 names in your database. So, the first rule is to clean up your database. The people that should be in your database are your past clients, your centers of influence, and then adding to both of those as the year progresses. So, I’m going to ask you to cleanse your database in the next couple of days, because that’s very important to getting business out of your database. But then also you have to have a plan for how often you’re going to talk to them.

So, I’ve suggested if you have 300, there’s probably 10% or 30. That would love to give you business if you communicated and asked for the business. So those 30 are special. I recommend you talk to them once a month, market update, etc. because the market is changing all the time. Interest rates are changing. Values are changing. The market’s going up. Going down. It’s getting a little confusing at times. Our job is to keep them informed. So, the 30 you would talk to them once a month. The balance 270. You talk to them four times a year and you send them a postcard four times a year. So, they get eight contacts with you in the course of the year, and you’re going to get some that they do not respond to anything at all. And you call them and say, would you like me to take you off my mailing list? Because I’ll happily do that, but I want to keep you informed if at all possible is what’s going on in the market.

So, here’s what I’ve written down on this beautiful big three by five card. Clean up the database. Toss people away that you either don’t want to talk to that don’t want to talk to you, that you don’t know that slipped into your database by mistake. Call and say thank you and happy holidays. So, I would go on a real strict call schedule from now until the holidays are done. And I mean virtually call every person in your database. And if they if you have to leave a message, just want to say, Happy holidays and thank you for your past business with me. But leave a message or worse, leave or have a conversation with them.

I wrote down third, ask for referrals if you have a chance to have a conversation. Everybody talks about real estate all the time. It is the most common conversation that people have in common. Gee, did you see the Smiths are selling their home? I wonder what they’re getting for it. I’ll bet our homes are nicer. I bet we could get more. These are common conversations. Do you have any interest in moving yourself up, down? Out of town? In town? Bigger place, smaller place. If you’re talking to them, ask them if they have an interest.

And then I put. Make sure that you say to them you’re going to talk to them again in January. Don’t forget, if the number of transactions in November and December declines by ten, 15, 20%, don’t forget, the number of agents that are competing with you has declined by 50 to 75%. The greatest advantage of being a Mike Ferry trained agent, if you accept this particular thought, is the fact that you’re going to be in touch with your clients, your prospects in October, November, December to get business in October, November, December and get business kicked off in January and February.

So, my motto the last two years has been the same. There’s a lot of business to be done, and you deserve to have as much of that as you choose. We hope that you’ve had. For those that celebrate Thanksgiving, we hope you had a good holiday. We have a Christmas holiday in a New Year’s holiday coming up. And if you choose to celebrate, we hope that you have a lot of fun, a lot of laughter, and a lot of success. Enjoy. I’ll talk to you again next week.