Building a Sphere of Influence Referral Database for Real Estate Agents

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Brian Eisenhower speaks with Mercedes about her impressive journey in real estate over the past year. Mercedes shares how she increased her transactions from 32 to 50 by leveraging her Sphere of Influence (SOI). Through a systematic approach, including making weekly calls, setting up automated drip campaigns, and sending monthly mailers, she effectively marketed to her SOI and significantly raised her average transaction price. The conversation sheds light on the strategies and efforts that led to her success, offering valuable insights for other real estate agents seeking to tap into their SOI to grow their business.

Highlights

• Mercedes increased her transactions from 32 to 50 by focusing on her Sphere of Influence. 🎉
• Her average transaction price jumped from $230K to $292K. 💰
• The majority of her new transactions (30 out of 50) came from her SOI. 🤝
• She managed to list 15 deals out of those 30 SOI-based transactions. 🏡
• Mercedes systematically contacts her SOI of 250 people to maintain a strong connection. 📞✉️

Key Takeaways

• Tapping into your Sphere of Influence (SOI) is key to increasing your transactions and average sale price in real estate. 📈
• Consistent communication, such as weekly calls and monthly mailers, strengthens your relationship with your SOI. 📨📞
• Automated email alerts can keep your SOI informed about neighborhood real estate activities, adding value to your connection. 📧
• Mercedes' approach of focusing on SOI helped her achieve a 75% increase in transactions in just one year. 🚀
• Systematic marketing to a well-maintained SOI list can turn leads into consistent sales. 📋

Overview

Mercedes, at just 28 years old and with four children, managed to significantly increase her real estate transactions from 32 to 50 in a year. This remarkable growth was achieved by tapping into her Sphere of Influence (SOI), which was a major portion of her client base. By systematically contacting her SOI and offering consistent value, Mercedes managed to transform her professional standing, closing more transactions at a higher price point.

A big part of Mercedes' strategy included making weekly phone calls, setting up a drip campaign, and sending monthly mailers to her SOI. This regular contact kept her top-of-mind for her clients, many of whom were inspired by the information she provided, such as neighborhood market updates and real estate value insights. By adding value to her communication, Mercedes stood out in a competitive field, ensuring that her SOI turned into consistent sales opportunities.

Mercedes' story is a testament to the power of strategic marketing and relationship management in real estate. Her ability to increase her average sale price from $230,000 to $292,000 underscores the impact of a well-nurtured SOI. For real estate agents, her approach offers a roadmap to success: invest time in your SOI, deliver value consistently, and maintain systematic communication. Through dedication and strategy, Mercedes exemplifies how to turn connections into growth.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Guest Introduction The chapter opens with music playing in the background as the host, Brian Eisenhower, introduces the session and welcomes the guest, Mercedes. Both express their gratitude for being present. Over the past year, Brian and Mercedes have collaborated on a project which yielded positive results. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss those results and share insights from their work together.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Mercedes's Past Performance and Challenges The chapter titled 'Mercedes's Past Performance and Challenges' discusses Mercedes's achievements over the past year, during which she successfully closed 32 transactions. At the age of 28, Mercedes is not only a young professional but also a mother of four, which highlights her ability to manage her career alongside her family responsibilities. The narrative aims to illustrate her determination and competence, perhaps drawing a parallel to a country song about resilience and multi-tasking. The plot hints at events or changes that started to unfold about a year ago.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Planning for Increased SOI Engagement In the chapter titled 'Planning for Increased SOI Engagement', the focus is on strategizing to boost engagement with the Sphere of Influence (SOI) to increase transactions. The dialogue highlights breaking down current transactions to understand the sources, revealing a mix of online leads and connections through the SOI. Recognizing these two primary sources helps in targeting efforts to enhance business from the SOI.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Implementing the Plan and Current Success The chapter discusses the goals and successes of implementing a business plan, focusing on an individual who aimed to increase the number of listings and price points in their real estate transactions. Out of 32 transactions, only 2 to 3 were listings, demonstrating the challenges faced. The effort was compared to the demanding nature of raising four children, highlighting the hard work involved in the process.
• 02:30 - 04:30: Methods of Contacting SOI The chapter discusses the importance of tapping into one's Sphere of Influence (SOI) to increase listings and reduce time spent on transactions. The main focus is on creating a strategic plan to leverage one's network effectively. The chapter also highlights a significant increase in transactions, with the person closing 50 transactions this year, marking a 75% rise in productivity.
• 04:30 - 09:00: Results and Future Goals The chapter discusses the sources of transactions, noting that a significant portion, about thirty, come from the sphere of influence, with over half being derived from this source. Of these, 15 transactions are listings. Additionally, 20 transactions are conducted online. There is a noted increase in average price point, now at $292,000.

Building a Sphere of Influence Referral Database for Real Estate Agents Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] hi this is Brian Eisenhower and I am here today with Mercedes Mercedes welcome thanks for being with us thank you thank you for having me it's so great that the plan here today is over the last year Mercedes and I have been working together on something and we'll get some good results and I really wanted to share them with you so Mercedes let's start by going before
• 00:30 - 01:00 this last year okay last year how many transactions did you close I closed 32 units last year you closed 32 years which by the way isn't so shabby I want them to know how old are you right now 28 so she's only 28 years old and how many children do you have four four right okay so she's 28 years old she's got four kids I'm trying to turn this into like a country song so what's gonna so what's happened now about a year ago
• 01:00 - 01:30 we sat down and we carved out a plan yes and we want to increase that 32 and you had and let's break down the 32 transactions to frame to them why some of those 32 transactions were did most of your business come from online lanes okay so you had a lot of online leads oh you're getting those from different sources and then where did the remainder of your business come from from my SOI okay now that's from your your SOI or your sphere of influence so these are people you know and people that that
• 01:30 - 02:00 refer you business to people they know yes okay so so you wanted more than that right I distinctly remember this conversation rat you wanted more SOI you wanted a higher price point and you wanted more listings yes that was the goal right so from that year of the 32 transactions how many of them roughly were listening to three two or three listings out of those 32 transactions so you actually worked pretty hard yeah almost as hard as having four kids you
• 02:00 - 02:30 had a few you were you so because you were hustling showing a lot of property working a lot of nights and weekends he wanted more listings which we all know takes a little bit less time yeah okay so we put a plan in place to really tap into your sphere of influence before we talk about that plan let's talk about your results from this past year how many transactions will you close this is this year 50 so you're gonna close 50 transactions a huge increase yeah that's about a 75% increase in production how
• 02:30 - 03:00 many of those transactions came from your sphere of influence probably thirty so about thirty transactions well more than half yeah now how it's come from your sphere of influence and of those thirty how many listings we talking about 15 so 15 listings okay and then I'm assuming the other 20 transactions were still on lightly yeah online right yes did your price point go up yes tremendously yeah average price point right now is 292 hundred ninety thousand do you remember what it was roughly
• 03:00 - 03:30 before that I want to say 230 about that's a big increase yeah yeah so all of a sudden that's one thing a lot of people don't realize when they tap into and they systematically market to their sphere of influence almost always depending who you are and who you're know or who your friends are your average price point will always be higher than that of leads from people you don't go with you know assuming we don't get one anomaly deal that set your average on but the most point that's what okay so let's talk about the plan okay okay so what did we do what have you been doing over the next year to tap
• 03:30 - 04:00 into your SLI forty contacts yes so you make forty contacts to everybody in your SOI do you know roughly how many people are in your SOI 250 right now I love how you know that number so she has 250 people in your a so on yes so that's 250 you're marketing to and then they all know a bunch of people themselves they probably all know a hundred people at least so now you're actually marketing to 25,000 people through those 250 yes right okay so tell
• 04:00 - 04:30 me a little bit about how you are contacting them so every Monday I go through my list which is an alphabetical order and I'm just made calls it's not the funnest day but every Monday I'm just out making calls at the office touching base just checking in with everybody for my SOI so I call them and I get through my list and and they get emails I actually set up people for my SOI in a drip campaign off of the MLS and even if they aren't
• 04:30 - 05:00 looking to buy they have a home eventually that they will want to sell or they just like to know the value of their neighborhood so if something sells in their neighborhood they will get an email notification what it sold for and how many days it sat on the market and so they like getting that information knowing what's going on in there I love this because you're adding value yeah it's something you're giving to them you're not spamming them with email what you're doing is setting them up on a listing auto alert search so every time a home comes up for sale or sells in their immediate neighborhood they're
• 05:00 - 05:30 gonna get an email and they can check it out they can actually look through their neighbors houses look at photos learn about it compared to theirs I love that so you're staying first of mine yes in a positive way because you're giving them something they want yeah I love how that takes a while to set them all up on those searches yes I didn't hear much from you but yeah that right but once it's up its up yeah it's going you don't have to do it and then you start earning that mindshare they start learning you know Mercedes Avila Mercedes Apple over time they start thinking of you and
• 05:30 - 06:00 associating you with real estate and they even call me and say why did that house it you know for a month that was a really nice house or oh my gosh they got that price for that house my house is better I could get a lot more than yeah yeah so they're actually having real estate relevant conversations with you um as opposed to just calling your SLI and checking in and seeing how they're doing yeah which kind of gets awkward this is this is actually talking about real estate values yeah shows that they like what they're picking up what you're putting down yeah they like what you're
• 06:00 - 06:30 sending them I also I want to go back to the phone calls too because you do something very unique here we always hear about the the agents trying to make their calls to their SOI every single day right every single day but you said you know what I'm gonna front load this and just get it all over with the start of the week so it's downhill for the rest yeah yeah and it works for you I like it cuz I don't have to go in the office for two to three hours just to sit there and make my calls so I go in the office on Mondays get there about 9:30 and then I stay there until 4:30 5
• 06:30 - 07:00 o'clock and you just make those just held a one day a week yeah it's one day a week and that's just how I've done it this year and I really liked it and how many times okay so you got 250 people in there how many times do you think you call them all we're almost towards the end of the year and I have a few more but by the end of the year they have all been called three times that's perfect that really is great I mean that's a 750 phone calls yeah three
• 07:00 - 07:30 times 250 yeah so that's pretty impressive so amazing work and it's showing up and then you also do mailers - you do a monthly post one once a month and if there's a holiday then it'll be a holiday theme it's not always going to be annoying information it could just be a pop in saying you know Merry Christmas Happy Thanksgiving but every once in a while I will put in there what you know some that have sold with the prices or so it advertised an active listing I have so it varies every month but they
• 07:30 - 08:00 will get that postcard no I love this - because if you think about it we talked about how you're so disciplined on making those 40 contacts a year if we just kind of reverse engineer that and do the math you're making three calls to everyone a year you're doing 12 mailers to them right yeah so that pushes us up to 15 contacts a year right we need to make 40 so that means we got 25 left and we're assuming that between your template emails and your automatic listing alerts for their neighborhoods like we talked about they're gonna get somewhere around that 25 26 probably
• 08:00 - 08:30 more than that with all the listing Auto alerts they're gonna get an adequate amount of emails have to kind of gauge that but should be over 40 contacts per year and if we do that we know that she's gonna get one transaction for every seven people in her database which she's tracking hard right now and next year I think we're about due to sit down and start talking about what the plan is to get that number up with the SOI even further next year as well - so this is awesome Mercedes thank you so much for being with us I really appreciate I
• 08:30 - 09:00 can't wait till next year - the goal is five children and 75 [Laughter] that's awesome all right well thanks again and thank you guys for being with us [Music]