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In last week’s post we briefly touched on the importance of creating as large and as active a network of referral agents as possible. This week we want to make some suggestions for “working” your network.

By “working” your network we mean staying in touch with your network partners, putting your face in front of them, reminding them on a regular basis that you’re still around and still looking forward to sharing information and doing business with them.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Create a Network Partner List – Build a “formal” list that includes the name, postal address, telephone number, email address and other relevant information for each network partner. By a “formal” list I mean something written down or stored in your computer somewhere.

Most agents have access to all kinds of “contact” software. Many of these programs are overkill for this purpose, and force you to spend more time figuring out the software than actually using it. Whatever you do, don’t get caught up in the “system” at the expense of actually corresponding with your network partners.

A good place to start looking for referral network partners is right here at AgentMapIt. To use AgentMapIt as a source for building a network list you should look through as many member profiles as possible, and then make a list of the ones you want to contact. Then you might try sending an introductory email something like this:

Hello Alice,

All the best,
Renaldo Realtor

2. Contact Method and Frequency – Decide how you’re going to contact your network partners, and how often. If you like using the telephone, probably a call every couple of months is sufficient. Or if you prefer email, a regular email every two or three weeks is probably not too often.

Either way, try to have something interesting to say. If you have a blog it is always effective to refer to a recent post in your email messages. Blog posts don’t have to be long and involved – perhaps something of interest about the real estate market in your city, recent trends or sales figures, or an interesting video you stumbled onto. Remember, one of your objectives is to demonstrate that you are an expert when it comes to your local market.

3. Other Networking Websites – As you probably know, there are many social networking websites you can take advantage of to stay in touch with different groups of people. Some like ActiveRain and AgentMapIt are specifically for real estate agents. Others like Linkedin are for more general business and professional networking. Still others like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are not specifically for business networking, although many people claim they can effectively be used for business.

None of these sites will be effective networking tools for you if you don’t put some effort into them. As I have said elsewhere, “As with all other social networking sites (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), the benefit you derive from them is completely dependent on the effort you put into them.”

And personally, although I am a member of many different social networking sites (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, ActiveRain, to name a few) I find it impossible to spend enough time “networking” in this way to get any real benefit from these sites.

In other words, don’t bother with sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and ActiveRain unless you intend to spend some time working on each of them. You won’t get anything out of them unless you put quite a bit of time and energy into them.

I have come to the conclusion that the best way to use social networking sites is to choose one (or maybe two) and concentrate on that one alone. That means you should take a close look at the objectives you want to accomplish, the people you want to “network” with, and the opportunities for exposure within each of these sites.

That is one important reason why we have designed AgentMapIt to have a very narrow focus. AgentMapIt is primarily meant for networking with other agents for the purposes of generating referrals. So if that is something you think you should be focusing on, then AgentMapIt is the ideal place to help you build and “work” your network.

As an agent you need a game plan for getting referrals, and this series of short articles presents some suggestions for developing one.

First, be aware that we are not talking about “regular” referrals here – for example, where a satisfied client recommends you to a neighbor, family member, friend or associate. “Regular” referrals like this are extremely important, and every agent needs a strategy for generating those referrals too. But developing that type of strategy is not what this article is about – at least not directly.

As an agent you obviously know what is meant by “agent-to-agent referrals”. But it might be useful to be a little more precise in defining what we might call…

The Two Sides of Agent Referrals

A typical scenario is where a long-standing client of yours is moving to another city and has no idea who to contact in that city to help them find a home. Should they call around in their new city to find an agent? Should they contact a relocation company? Or should they talk to you – someone they have come to know and trust in real estate matters?

If they do come to you and ask you to make a recommendation this will very likely result in what I like to call an “outbound” referral. Your client comes to you to sell their home. They also ask you for advice on finding a home in their new city.

You say, “No problem. I can set you up with one of my associates…” You phone around, or contact one of your established associates in another city, make an arrangement with the other agent, and eventually you are paid a commission by the receiving agent.

Using similar terminology I will refer to the other side of an agent-to-agent referral as an “inbound” referral. In this case you are on the receiving end of the referral. An agent in another city sends you a client and you take care of helping them find a new home. You get the selling commission, and you give the referring agent a percentage – usually about 25%.

All agent-to-agent referrals have these two sides. It is outbound for the referring agent, and inbound for the receiving agent. It is a good deal for both agents. The receiving agent has a new client dropped in his or her lap, and the referring agent gets a handsome commission for making a few phone calls.

Developing a Strategy

So what kind of strategy can you use to get referrals like this? In a word, it all comes down to “networking”. Networking means first, developing a network of contacts in as many other cities as possible.

Second, it means “working” your network to raise your profile.

Third, it means doing business with your network partners as often as possible – helping them out and sending them new clients. That means sending outbound referrals at least as often as receiving inbound referrals.

But that is only the beginning of an effective strategy. I will expand on each of these points in the next few articles in this series.

The purpose of AgentMapIt is to give member agents a way to increase referral traffic going back and forth between each other.

What do we mean by “referral traffic”?

We mean referrals business that goes two ways:

Incoming referrals – referrals from other agents
Outgoing referrals – referrals sent to other agents

My general impression is that most agents understand the importance of incoming referrals. But they generally do not see the importance of outgoing referrals. Or if they do it is not usually reflected in the conversations I have with them.

Most agents go out of their way to present themselves as trustworthy, competent, knowledgeable and experienced so that other agents will feel comfortable in sending clients their way.

But they spend much less effort trying to generate outgoing referrals. Very few – at least as far as I can tell – actually go out and look for this kind of business.

But agents who only go after incoming referrals are missing an important opportunity.

Why?

First, they are leaving a lot of money on the table. As most agents know, sending outgoing referrals to other agents is easy money – much easier than actually handling the sale.

Second, if all you ever do is talk about the referrals you would like to receive, you are breaking one of the cardinal rules of marketing. The best way to impress your customers, clients and associates is to tell them how you can help them – what you can do for them.

What other agents really want to hear is how many referrals you are going to send to them. As far as I can tell, this is seldom used as a networking strategy to forge relationships with other agents.

But just think about it for a minute. When you network with other agents which do you think is more effective:

“I’m looking for network partners who will send me referrals.”

or

“I’m looking for network partners where I can send referrals.”

The second, right?

So to all those people (and there have been a few) who have said “I don’t really get into referrals much,” my response is “Why not?” Isn’t that a service you should be offering your clients and their families? Wouldn’t they appreciate it if you could help them with relocation when they require it?

As an agent do you just sell houses, or do you do more than that? Don’t you try to build an ongoing rapport with your regular clientele, provide information when they need it, and make recommendations when you can?

In other words “referral networking” is something you can do with your established clients rather than just with other agents. In fact it gives you something very valuable to say to them – a reason to contact them. Your message can be something like:

“I not only help clients buy and sell homes, but I am a relocation expert. The next time anyone in your circle of family and friends needs relocation advice, don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

From what I can tell there aren’t many agents using this approach. That means there is a service vacuum in your community. And you are the perfect person to fill it.

Welcome to the AgentMapIt.com blog – “AgentMapIt Referral Network”. We will announce changes, updates, and improvements to the website as well as network enhancements here in the blog.

We will also highlight members from time to time.

Also we will publish articles and videos about referral strategies that are employed by members and others in the industry.