an energizing week

So, my new office manager has been a very helpful business partner thus far, and I am more and more glad about making the office switch that I made.  One of the things that he has encouraged me to do is to call all of my contacts (I have a list of 288 names, most of whom have received my monthly newsletter and/or infrequent e-newsletter updates over the past year), and to make sure that I am a) not being an unwelcome nuisance in my correspondence with them and b) to ask if they have a "family Realtor."  I am roughly a quarter into getting through the list and it's been a very good experience thus far.  My past experiences with "calling rounds" have been through fundraising when I was a campus pastor, and those were tough calls.  These calls have been far more rewarding relationally, as I really am not asking anyone for anything except for them to think of me when they or their friends are buying/selling real estate.  It's been fun to catch up with people I haven't seen in forever, and going in alphabetical order through the list means that I am talking to family one minute, a former training client the next, a poker player after that, and then an acquaintance from church. :)

 

Meanwhile, Long and Foster just rolled out the Silver Team, a designation for those who have done between 1-3 million of production in a year.  On Monday, I spent the entire day at a Silver Team seminar that really helped me take a hard look at my business plan, something I have not done in a while.  The phone calls I've made lately, plus some of the talks I heard that day have gotten me brainstorming about ways to better reach out to my "sphere of influence."  These are people that I like (many of whom I have worked with on some level, socially or professional), and I want to find more ways to show them that I really do care about them, where they are in life, and how I might be able to better help them get where they are going.  I'm looking to roll out at least 3 events next year, plus build on the contact systems that I already have set up.  Don't get me wrong...my business will never get to a point where I am not doing things to market to people I don't know, but studies have shown that such marketing is 17 times less efficient financially and, worst than that, in my opinion, it is about 100 times less personally rewarding as you are doing it.

 

Okay...I'm in a blabbing mood, so I'm going to cut myself off. :)

 

Peace,
Greg