6 Steps for Setting up your Referral System
Systems are the key to continued growth and success in your real estate business. You may have the best intentions for creating good client relations and an effective referral system, but without being organized and having the right systems in place, you’ll probably feel like you’re spinning your wheels.
While you should always be focused on growing your referrals, I think it’s important to make sure you have systems in place before those referrals start rolling in, not after. So try these 6 steps for setting up a working referral system now, before you get any busier.
1. Create your list. Find all those scraps of paper, post-it-notes, emails, business cards from networking events, saved voice mails and wherever else you’ve been keeping contact information, and combine them into a SINGLE comprehensive list.
2. Add contacts from your Sphere of Influence. You know more people than you realize. There’s a great post at Active Rain on Jumpstarting your Database. Use this to fill out the list you’ve created.
3. Once and for all, decide on and USE a contact management system. Top producer, Outlook, ACT, etc. Add all the contacts you’ve listed above into the system.
4. Categorize your list to make it easier to manage follow-up contacts. You can categorize them by past referrals (A=one or more referrals, B= no referrals yet, but probably will with reminder, C=new to list, haven’t bought or sold with you yet, and D=Delete, not going to mail) or just by bought and sold.
5. Put in writing what you will touch people with each month. This way you don’t get stuck without any ideas, and miss doing it. It can be something holiday-related, an article about the market, your current newsletter, a fun postcard, etc.
6. Dedicate one day of the month to your referral activities – sending out your monthly print or email newsletter, writing up notes to your client, sending out new client or referral gifts, updating your database, etc. Schedule it – put it on a calendar where you can see it, and truly dedicate the day to it.
Read More: Focus on Systems
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Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, setting up real estate systems, real estate contact management, Top Producer, ACT, real estate referrals
November 24th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Great post truly. Thanks for pointing it out. It’s amazing how we aren’t always “active” about referral generating activities, that’s something you’ve made very clear here. Thanks again.