5. Importance of Following Up
Effective follow up with past clients can lead to:
• New Business Through Referrals
• Increased Profitability
• Decreased Costs
• Lifelong Business Relationship
6. Purpose:
• Identify Problem
• Determine Why Problem Exists
• Propose A Solution
In My Study:
• Problem Is Lack of Follow Up
Communication
• Reason is Lack of Follow Up
System
• Solution is Automated Follow
Up System
7. New Business Through
Referrals
• Most agents believe referrals are important
• Happy customers refer family and friends
• No communication= NO REFERRALS!
8. Increased Profitability
• Second homes more expensive than
first
• Opportunity to sell first home
• Referrals from past clients add to
profit
• One client can create serious cash flow
in lifetime
10. Lifelong Business
Relationship
Effectively following up with past clients can lead to a long term relationship
giving you an opportunity to:
• Sell multiple homes for same person
• Work with past clients children
• Create new business relationships
• Build friendships
11. Why Do Agents Fail to
Follow Up?
They do not a have an effective
follow up system in place
12. Why Do I Need A Follow
Up System?
• People are forgetful
• Helps you to be consistent
• Creates accountability
13. What Should My Follow
Up System Consist Of?
• Calendar with reminders
• Contain multiple types of contact
• Database function for customer information
• Ability to make detailed notes
• Sync with phone or tablet
14. Examples
Microsoft Outlook
• Calendar with alerts
• Contact management
• Email
• Sync with phone
16. Conclusion
Follow up communication is an integral part of the real business.
Efficient follow up communication can lead to:
• New business through referrals
• Increased profitability
• Decreased costs
• Lifelong business relationships
17. Conclusion
(cont.)
For follow up communication to be effective you must:
• Have system in place
• Be consistent
• Ask for the business!
Editor's Notes
Hi my name is Joe Napier and today I will be speaking with you about the importance of follow up communication in the real estate business. What I mean by follow up communication is how well real estate professionals keep in touch with clients they have worked with in the past.
According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors over 80% of buyers and sellers would use their agent again. However, less than 20% actually do!
The key question to ask here is why? Why do so many people say they would use their agent again and yet so few actually do?
That’s right! Quite simply the reason most clients do not use the same agent to buy a second home is because they never hear from their agent again after the sale is completed.
Following up with past clients is an essential part of any business. This is especially true in the real estate business. Effective follow up can lead to a new source of clientele through referrals from past clients, Increased profitability, decreased marketing costs, and can create a lifelong source of business for the agent who manages to maintain a good relationship with their clients.
The purpose of this project is to identify a communication problem in the workplace, Identify why the problem exists, and propose a solution for the problem. For my study I chose the lack of follow up communication in the real estate business as the problem. I believe the reason for the problem is that most agents lack a set system for following up with their past clients. For the solution I will offer tips on following up with past clients and offer some options for follow up systems.
According to a survey I conducted at a top producing real estate office, agents believed over 50% of their business should come from referrals. That is recommendations from people who have used their services before. The more you effectively communicate with your past clients, the more likely they will be to refer you to their friends and family. If you don’t follow up they will forget about you and will not refer people to you.
Effective follow up communication can lead to increased profitability. When a client looks to buy their second home, in many cases they are looking to move up. These second homes typically cost more than their first home. Plus you have the added benefit of being able to sell the clients first home for them giving you two sales from one client. We mentioned previously that past clients can give you referrals. Obviously this can greatly add to your profitability since one client can refer several clients who in turn can refer several clients and so on and so forth. So effectively following up with one client can create a lifelong income source for you.
Following up with past clients can also decrease your operating costs. When you follow up with past clients you can mainly send them a monthly mailer, call them or meet with them face to face. On the other hand when you market for new business you often have to create a much larger amount of material since your success rate will be greatly decreased. Many agents also resort to expensive methods to capture new clients. These methods include billboards, advertisements in newspapers & magazines, commercials on radio and TV, and personalized stationery products such as pens, pencils, calendars, etc. All of these methods can lead to thousands of dollars in operating costs. While at the same time the effectiveness of these methods is questionable. It is much more cost effective to market to the people who already know and like you.
The final benefit of effective follow up communication is that you can create a long term business relationship with your past clients. Not only can you represent them on the purchase and sale of their homes, you could also end up working with their children to help them with their real estate needs. You can also create new long term business relationships by effectively following up with the referrals from your past clients. One added benefit of effectively communicating with your past clients is that they could go from being a client to being a friend. This is never a bad thing
So we know the importance of effective follow up communication and the benefits that can be gained by following up with past clients. So then why do most agents fail to follow up with past clients? Of the real estate professionals I surveyed all said follow up was extremely important, yet most of these agents did not rate themselves very highly when it came to their effectiveness at following up. One of the questions I asked in the survey was “why do you believe most agents fail to follow up?” The answer overwhelmingly was that most agents do not have an effective system in place for following up with their past clients. I will now turn the focus of this study on the need to create an effective system and give some examples of existing systems.
You might ask yourself “So why do I need a follow up system?” “Can’t I just follow up with my clients my own way?” Well one reason you need a follow up system is that people are forgetful. With the number of clients you work with increasing over the years, can you really remember to follow up with these clients on a consistent basis? The second reason you need a follow up system is that it helps you to be consistent with your follow up. You can schedule a set number of follow up actions over a set period of time. This way you know you are not touching base with your clients too little or too much. Finally follow up systems allow you to be held accountable for making your follow up communication. With a system in place you can monitor your follow up history to see when you have failed to properly follow up with a client.
So I need a follow up system, but what should it include? Realizing you need an effective follow up system is an important step, but it is equally important to know what your system should include. Some key components of a good follow up are Calendar with reminders; you cant possibly keep track of all your communications in your head. You need a system where you can lay out your communication actions and set reminders to alert you to complete themShould contain multiple types of contact; your system should include telephone calls, mailings, face to face meetings, etc.Database for customer information; your system should include the ability to add your clients personal info such as address and telephone number. You should also be able to include important events such as birthdays and anniversariesYou should also have the ability to make detailed notes so that you can easily recall what was talked about in your last contactAbility to sync with phone or tablet; Finally you want to have the ability to get your customers contact info on your phone or tablet as well as have the reminders alert you ion these devices as well. You are not always by your computer and need to have another way top be alerted about your scheduled follow up.
One low cost example of a follow up system is Microsoft Outlook. It has many great features that allow you to keep client contact information, add events to your calendar with reminders, plus it can be synced with your phone to alert you of scheduled follow up without you being required to be at your computer.
Two very popular contact management systems on the market right now are Top Producer and Constant Contact. These programs can be a bit pricey, but allow you to do much more than Microsoft Outlook. These programs contain all types of templates for letters, postcards, emails, and flyers. Some of these are even specifically geared towards the real estate business.
In conclusion follow up communication is an integral part of the real estate business. Efficient follow up communication can lead to new business through referrals, increased profitability, decreased costs, and lifelong business relationships.
However for your follow up communication to be effective you must have a system in place what system you choose is up to you but it should contain the key characteristics previously described. It must be consistent. You cant expect to be successful at gaining referrals if your client only hears from you once a year. Finally you must ask for the business! Don’t wait for your clients to just offer you people they know who are looking to buy or sell. You must ask them who they know that is looking. If you follow the ideas laid out in this presentation for better follow up communication, I am confident your business will greatly increase. Thank you.
