Real Estate Common Sense

8 Ways to Touch Your Sphere of Influence

• Lisa Spencer • Season 1 • Episode 4

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The National Association of Realtors claims as much as 82% of an agent's business can be traced to their sphere of influence.  Yet, many agents resist tapping into this valuable resource.
In this episode we will share the 8 ways to Touch Your Sphere of Influence.

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Welcome to real estate. Common sense. I'm your host. Lisa Spencer. I grew up in a real estate. Family was a top producing agent and a managing broker for over a decade. Leading an office of over 400 agents. What I've discovered is common sense is not that common. This specially when it comes to launching building or expanding a real estate business. I have interviewed thousands of agents and helped hundreds launch, successful careers. In today's episode, we're going to share eight ways to touch your sphere. Sphere of influence or SOI, as you will hear it referred to in sales circles is the backbone of most businesses. The national association of realtors has identified that 82% of all real estate transactions originate with an agent sphere of influence. Yet in my experience, agents resist tapping into this amazing resource. When I've asked why the usual responses. I don't want to bug my friends and family. Stop it. You are only bugging them. If you're bugging them about giving you leads or selling their house, rather than being a trusted resource for all things, real estate and a supporter of them and their goals. The other comment I often hear is I don't have a sphere of influence, no excuses. The real estate industry is under attack by big tech and more and more advanced artificial intelligence. So if you want to stay in business, you're going to have to learn, to pull your people close and become the first name that comes to mind when they encounter someone who has a real estate need.

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This leads us to a very important side note. Many people misinterpret, what a sphere of influence is. And as I just mentioned, these are people that know like, and trust you, and that will refer real estate business to you in the future.

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Some people borrow. And if you were here, you could see my hands making air quotes. The mailing list of their PTA or ha. Association. And they call that their sphere of influence. Or perhaps it's people that have called in on leads on their listings or people they've met at an open house. That is not your sphere of influence that really qualifies as a database, but sphere of influence is a very special subset of the database. These are people that are actually in a relationship with you as their trusted real estate advisor. And the only person that they recommend people to is you. That is your sphere of influence as we're going to talk about it today. So, how can you get in that kind of relationship with people? Well,

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This is going to require you to know more because those who know more can do more. And those who do more will likely make more money. The first step is learning more, and that is why you're here. Back when we talked about selecting a broker, we discussed exploring the technology that your brokerage will offer to support you. I hope you selected a broker with an awesome property valuation website or widget. That is available for you to help you grow your business. If not, you may have to invest in one. You will not be able to draw people away from Zillow. If you don't have a website, they can reference at 2:00 AM and their bunny slippers. If you're able to regularly push home valuation emails once a quarter, but monthly is best to your sphere of influence. Then that's another great tool. So let's give this conversation some stucture.We're going to cover eight ways to touch your sphere of influence. And before we cover that, You must decide how many times you want to connect with your sphere. When I began in real estate, the research said we need to connect with our sphere every 16 days. Gary Keller introduced the 33 touch model in his book, the millionaire real estate agent, and has updated the model to 36 touches a year. This may seem overwhelming unless we create a system around communication. There's also the question of cost. So, how am I going to introduce a system that can grow your business? As quickly as you can establish a core group of 50 advocates. These are people that you have had a direct conversation with about referring business to you? The conversation goes something like this statistics show that you're likely to encounter six people that have a real estate need this year. Can I count on you to give them my contact information? Or better yet. Will you get their permission to share their information with me? Once you've established your 50 core advocates. They are going to get a postcard magazine or newsletter in the mail. Then an email newsletter or home valuation. And then some type of personal communication. A, text message and instant message a phone call or my personal favorite, a handwritten note. They're going to get these things every single month, a postcard. A home valuation and some type of personal communication. As your business and resources grow, you can add more people and broaden the definition of the people in your sphere of influence. One mistake agents make is going too big, too soon. Whether it's due to budgetary or time constraints. They just take a shotgun approach and provide scattered messaging. Email is free and everyone gets too much email, just sending 36 emails a year is not at all. What we're talking about. The more creative and fun, you can be in your communication with your sphere. The more interactive it will become. It is the conversations that occur around these primary activities, that foster referral. So it is not productive to host a party for 200 people and then be too busy managing the event to have conversations. If you do host a big event. Then be sure to block. Thank you for attending conversations in your calendar. I just gave away one of the eight ways to touch your sphere of influence. So before I do it again, let's start the list. Here are the eight ways to touch your sphere of influence.

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First on the list for ways to touch your sphere is direct mail marketing. This is the backbone of my multi-level marketing program for my sphere of influence.

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Putting a plan in place to send a direct mail piece once a month, whether it be a postcard or a newsletter or some other sort of inspirational message you'd like to share is a great way to have a set and forget way of contacting your sphere of influence.

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Research from MailChimp a well-known email marketing platform. Shows that only 20% of all emails are opened. High quality, personalized postcards with a clear, concise message that aligns with your brand are an effective way to remind people that you are here for all of their real estate needs. The easy way to accomplish this is to send a nicely designed once a month, jumbo postcard with all of the properties you recently listed or sold. You have 45 seconds from the mailbox to the trash can to make an impression. And the thought we want to encourage is boy that Lisa is a busy agent. She sure sells a lot of homes and people sure do trust her to sell their houses. Before sending just listed, just sold postcards to a circle prospecting target, or a geographic farm. Your sphere of influence should be the first to receive your real estate marketing postcards. So I hope that gave someone a new thought around just listed, just sold postcards. Number two reminders. These can be delivered via postcard, a monthly newsletter, or even through social media. You can send a yearly calendar. Time changes are a great reminder. We should also change our smoke detector batteries when the time changes. So wouldn't that be a helpful reminder for people? How about filing the homestead exemption? No one wants to forget about that tax benefit. How about community events? Are there concerts or food drives or other special events going on in your community? A school calendar can sometimes be helpful or local sports schedules.

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The idea is that you can send these reminders through the mail, through a postcard. Or on social media, through instant messaging. Maybe a text. Uh, or even an email.

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Which leads us to source number three, email. As we just mentioned only 20% of emails are opened. So, how can you increase your chances? Well, here's five tips for improving your opening rate. First is use a very strong subject line. It's really helpful. If you can include emojis or their name in the subject line.

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As well as personalizing the email itself.

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keep emails short and to the point don't go on and on. No one really wants to read a long email. Use images and video, and then most importantly, offer something of value. This is where a monthly home valuation is handy because it is customized to their home. And they are often colorful and interactive. You may choose to send a newsletter with local statistics or even an email with embedded video with local market information just remember these five tips and use email sparingly, or you will be unsubscribed.

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If you're using a robust CRM program, then you should be able to know when someone unsubscribes from you. And also when they're opening your emails. This is a great time to follow up with a phone call because without reminding people of the value of these great reports that you're sending them every month, you could accidentally fall victim to the unsubscribed button.

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At this point, if you're building a multi-level marketing strategy for 36 touches, you've accomplished 24. We have our monthly postcard. And now a once a month email newsletter or value report that our sphere of influence is receiving.

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Number four. Handwritten notes. As we mentioned, only 20% of emails sent are opened handwritten notes, however are nearly always opened because they've become such a novelty. The 2020 household diary study produced by the postal regulatory commission estimates that households receive an average of only 21 pieces of handwritten mail per year. Handwritten notes do not need to be reserved for big occasions thinking of you get well. And thank you. Notes can all be an uplifting hug in an envelope. Remember people are getting less than two handwritten pieces of mail per month. Much more special than the 200 emails a day.

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The handwritten note becomes more of a responsive part of your sphere of influence plan rather than a systematized one. And I think it's important to block time in your schedule to write those handwritten notes. I just simply made a point that I would write at least 10 handwritten notes per week. When you do it and how you do it is going to be in response to what you see is happening in the lives of the people in your sphere of influence. And don't forget to do this part. It is absolute magic.

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The fifth way of touching your sphere of influence seems to be one that a lot of people feel they have to grow into.

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We already mentioned you hosting events. But if you're not in a position to host your own events, you can be a resource for gathering people for community or office sponsored events.

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You can invite others to share in parades food drives, electronics, recycling concerts in the park and other festivals. By doing this, you're communicating to your sphere that you live, work and believe in the community you serve.

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Hosting events blends nicely into our next way of touching your sphere, celebrating the holidays.

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You may choose to skip holidays altogether as a touch for your sphere. Because in this world, there is always a way for someone to take offense or you may choose to go all in. There's an agent in long beach island that took a picture of himself and a wide array of holiday costumes at the beach. This is a good reminder to be efficient with our time. And our photographer. He took all of the photos on the same day, but got leverage all year. Would your friends enjoy, uh, pet pictures with Santa. Or a pie giveaway held at the office. Even a year-end thank you. Party can become a special occasion that your sphere of influence looks forward to each year.

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Using holidays to connect with your sphere is highly personalized. Just be your authentic self, if you're really into those holidays. And the people that are in your sphere of influence are as well, then celebrate it and have lots of fun. Be creative and resourceful. You can use any method. You'd like. However, it's important to remember that these are personal invitations and that you want to be sure that the people receiving invitations to these holiday celebrations share your desire to celebrate.

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The seventh method to connect to your sphere of influence is really a subset of our sphere of influence. And that is your fellow entrepreneurs or other small business owners.

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For me, my business to business sphere of influence became one of my largest referral resources. Can you support your favorite ice cream shop plumber, painter, or pizza palace by creating a best list. This can be a list you publish on your website, or you could go all out and do monthly video interviews with local business owners to help support and grow their business. Researching and preparing your best list will also come in handy as a part of your buyer resources. When you're giving tours to local buyers, You can add credibility as a community leader and a support of local small businesses. After all, as realtors, we are a local, small business. Our last source is social media. Social media platforms and postings are a subject for many future podcasts today. Consider that rather than getting anxious about what you should post that was, that will attract referrals. Consider social media, a tool for you to engage with your sphere of influence through commenting on their posts. If you have some time, go to YouTube and search the instructions on how to form and utilize a friend list on Facebook. We can all get overwhelmed and overstimulated. If we depend on our feed to show us what to interact with. Be purposeful about creating a friend list and then comment like, and share the big news of the people in your sphere of influence. This is especially helpful. If someone in your sphere is launching a small business podcast or a special project. Your being supportive of their posts will go a long way in building trust in your relationship. And that brings us full circle to the definition of sphere of influence. A group of people that know like, and trust you. And that will recommend you whenever they encounter someone that has a real estate need. Perhaps you've heard most of this before. So, when are you going to take action on putting a plan in place to engage your sphere of influence? Maybe to tell you heard just one thing that made you feel inspired. So, when are you going to take action on that one thing? What opportunities have you missed in referring people to other. Other businesses now is the time to take action and build relationships that will not easily be taken down by AI. Algorithms and other agents.

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We hope you've enjoyed the eight ways to touch your sphere of influence. And we'd like to invite you to tune into our next episode where we'll reveal the 10 questions to determine seller motivation. Thank you for tuning in to real estate. Common sense support for agents launching, building, or expanding their real estate business. I'm your host, Lisa Spencer, sending love and wishing you success.