Does your realtor marketing strategy need help? How much time have you spent on your current strategy? Is it working? Have you experienced the results you were hoping for?
If not, do you have any thoughts about what may be causing this lack of success?
You may want to ask yourself if you are truly maximizing every opportunity you have to market to realtors. If you take a step back and look at the opportunities that are out there, I think you may find that there are quite a few stones being left unturned.
Here is a project for you. Imagine that you are currently working with a client who is purchasing a home. Pull out a clean sheet of paper, and write down every opportunity you can think of to generate more business.
Do you see where this is going? Any time you have a client that is buying or selling a home, you are involving a good number of people. If you are working with a buyer, you will not only be working with this person’s agent, but what about the seller’s agent? The same is true if you are working with a seller. Even if your customer is selling FSBO there is a good chance that the buyer of the home will have representation.
How can you capitalize on this? The first thing you want to do is contact your customer’s agent to provide the most up to date information as possible. Let this person know the status of the loan, as well as any areas of concern. To show that you are a true professional, I would recommend that you schedule a day each week to speak.
Create an update sheet that you can sign and fax over to the agent after each conversation to verify what was discussed as well as the status of the loan. Why go through the trouble to do this?
Two reasons. The first reason is because once again, you want to show this agent just how professional you are. By sending over something in writing, you are demonstrating that you understand that communication is vital to having a smooth process. The second reason is for your own protection.
As a realist, we all must accept that not every transaction will run silky smooth. When things go wrong, it is nice to have a paper trail that shows what was discussed and when. I can’t count the number of times early in my career that fingers were pointing and the “he said, she said” started. I finally had enough and created a document that would minimize the arguments.
While you’re at it, I recommend you time and date stamp every conversation you have with the client, and summarize this in the update sent to the agent. This will offer an extra layer of protection so that your clients cannot make you look bad in front of the agent by claiming that you promised something that you didn’t.
After sending over the first update, it would be a great time to secure a 1 on 1 appointment. Having a difficult time with the client? Schedule time to sit down and discuss it.
Even if you are not able to secure an appointment with this agent, don’t throw in the towel yet. If you’ve done a good job for this agent, why not ask the agent what he/she thought of your service?
When the agent says that you did a great job, you should be prepared to ask this question. “Great! I appreciate hearing that! My goal is to provide a smooth process to every one of my clients. With this in mind, can I ask who else you might know in your office that would benefit from working with a professional such as myself?”
Of course, the above is only a generic script designed to give you an idea of what to ask. You will want to organize the above ideas into a script that fits your selling style and unique selling proposition. I personally loved to ask: “What agents in your office are going through a difficult time with loan officers right now?”
This question worked well because it identified agents who were already in the right frame of mind to begin speaking with a new loan officer. It also works well because you now have a warm lead if the agent gives you permission to use his/her name when making the call.
Now, I want you to take these concepts, and apply them to both the buyers and the seller’s agents. How many loan officers give exceptional service to both agents involved in the process?
How many lo’s ever bother getting in touch with both of the agents? This is the perfect time to open a dialogue because the agent needs to speak with you anyways at some point throughout the process. Don’t let the closing table be the first time you speak with the agent. If you do, you are most likely looking at another missed opportunity.
Chad Weber
Average Joe L.O.
www.averagejoelo.com
