Welcome to our monthly feature, Close-ing Time – in partnership with TheClose.com.
In this episode Chris Linsell from TheClose.com talks about his concerns that the market is moving towards unhealthy balances. Chris also explains what your sphere of influence really is and how to make the difference between your sphere of influence and your contacts. Chris shares three ideas agents can use to understand where people are at in your sphere. Last, Chris and DJ discuss the importance of nurturing and managing customer relationships.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Chris Linsell can be reached at chris@theclose.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and today is our monthly series called closing time with Chris Lindh sell from the close.com. Now this is a partnership between keeping it real and the clothes.com. And let me tell you about the clothes. Now the clothes.com is the kind of real estate website designed to give agents teams and brokerages actionable strategic insight from industry professionals. They cover real estate marketing, lead generation technology and team building strategies. From the perspective of working agents and brokers who want to take their business to the next level, please visit the closed.com That’s th e c l o s e.com And subscribe to their newsletter so you can get notified every time they publish an article. Now with us, as always, is Chris Lynn sell. He is a staff writer and real estate coach for the close. Chris is the closest resident expert on real estate topics ranging from marketing lead gen transactional best practices and everything in between. He’s a licensed agent in the state of Michigan. And Chris has been part of hundreds of transactions from modest rural starter homes to massive waterside compounds. When he isn’t writing, you’ll find Chris fly fishing or performing on the stage in his community theaters, production. And Chris Welcome once again to keeping it real. We’re excited to have you,
Chris Linsell 2:07
DJ, thanks for having me back. Hope everyone is having a great start to the year can’t believe it. It’s February and just you know, just into February where we’re recording this, but the year is zooming by. I’m excited for new opportunities here
D.J. Paris 2:20
zooming by and vaccinations are rolling out and it is it is a very exciting time. And we we hope that everyone is stays healthy and happy. And we are in the final stretch of least this level of fear that we’re living. And I’m hoping by summertime we’re all being able to move about more freely and without as much worry. Right now there’s a lot going on in real estate as well. It’s it’s the it’s that time of the year where things tend to slow down. And I was asking Chris about his local market. And I was saying isn’t it great that we have all these buyers who now can afford bigger and better homes because the pandemic might have pushed them to expand the size of of where they live in rates have made it possible to buy more? And Chris said yes, that’s true. However, inventory, it goes so quickly, in your local area. Same here in Chicago, it’s just incredible. how quickly things get snapped up.
Chris Linsell 3:19
Yeah, it really is. And you know, I there is a fine balance and don’t hear anybody don’t let anybody hear me complaining about a really active market. I think a really active market is great for real estate, we want buyers and sellers to be exchanging exchanging listings very quickly, that just that means that there is activity and interest on both sides of the transaction, which is good. This is you know, push towards a really healthy, balanced market. But you know, I was telling DJ earlier, we’ve got listings in my local market that are going, you know, multiple offers within 24 hours, sometimes 10 or even 15%. Above the asking price, you know, which you know, might indicate a bit of an unhealthy balance. But you know, a little too early to say for sure at this point. So I’m telling real estate agents right now you should be continuing to prep for one of the biggest sellers markets you’ve ever seen and probably ever will see in 2021. There are definitely some strategies you can use on that. So let’s capitalize on on on great demand and and hopefully we can pull some more sellers into the game
D.J. Paris 4:32
here. Yeah, it’s great opportunity to reach out to everyone you know who owns a home and just ask them about what their plans are over the next 1224 36 months to see if maybe they are also in the process of thinking about moving either to a lot of people are moving due to schools, you know, different school districts might be right now, of course, there’s still at least here in Chicago a massive problem with public schooling. I don’t know if that exists It’s elsewhere as well. But here in Chicago, it’s kind of made national news or the teachers are, you know, having some issues around returning to classes, but they’re really a lot of people I know are moving, simply to get away from that and move into other districts where they have different roles. So great opportunity to call everyone you know, who owns a home and just say, Hey, what are the plans? So,
Chris Linsell 5:22
absolutely, you know, that is, that is an interesting, it’s an interesting move, I think, for 2021. In a lot of people’s eyes, this idea that you would be actively soliciting from the people that you know, but you know, we’re in a spot right now, where it is, in a lot of ways, it’s a customer service, to be able to reach out to the people who you know, that are homeowners and say, Look, right now is possibly a once in a generation opportunity to sell your home for more money than you ever thought you could. Even if this is not something that you have actively considered, I just wanted to give you the options right now. Because even if you decide you don’t want to sell, you know, as a real estate professional as as your personal connection to real estate, I wouldn’t be doing you a good service, if I wasn’t at least providing you with the knowledge that you could use to make a good decision.
D.J. Paris 6:18
And that script right in and of itself. I know Chris just said it off the top of his head, but it was very good. So for anyone that is looking for, you know exactly how to say it what to say, Chris just said it so eloquently. imperf almost perfectly. So rewind and write that down, because it’s a perfect excuse to pick up the phone, and not sound salesy, but to say, Hey, I, I was thinking about you, and I just want you to know what’s going on in the market and wanted to find out what your thoughts are on your plans. So thanks, Chris. That was That was awesome. That was an unexpected tip. Because what really, what we’re really going to talk about today is sphere of influence. Chris was mentioning that on the close probe, which actually, before we get into it, we should mention what the close Pro is. Chris, do you mind sharing that?
Chris Linsell 7:01
Yeah, not at all. So if you’ve, if you’ve visited the close, so glad to have you at WWW dot the close.com, it’s super easy to find us go check it out, we’ve got so much free stuff on there, the vast, vast majority of what we’re doing there is totally free. We don’t even you know, you don’t need to even you know, put in your user information, just come read some articles get better at real estate. But if you want to take the next step and leveling up your business, we do offer the close Pro, it’s a paid membership that unlocks our resource library that has absolutely an incredible amount of scripts of checklists of long form strategy guides and downloads, everything that you could use or that you could possibly want, including cold calling scripts, and email templates. I mean, just honestly, there’s so much stuff and we add stuff to there every single week. And you also get access to courses and some group coaching that we do every single week. And right now we’re in the middle of of a boot camp in our coaching area that we’re really excited about. And you know, for people who have not joined the closed pro before you could join right now we’ve got all of the boot camp episodes we’ve already done there in the archives, you can go to get get caught up close Pro, it’s 35 bucks a month, if you want to bill monthly, we now offer we’ll also offer an annual subscription that comes out to just 25 bucks a month. So if you want to pay upfront, comes out to 25 bucks a month, save a little bit of money, tons of great opportunity there. And I’m live every single week and answering emails every single day on the closed Pro. So if you want direct access, we gotcha.
D.J. Paris 8:44
Yeah, definitely head over to the clothes.com. Look for the close Pro on there and check it out. It’s an amazing system or amazing service rather. And for 25 to $35 a month is a pretty reasonable bargain, we can all probably reach into our pocket books for that it’s not going to break the bank. And even if it helps you just sell one additional home or transact one additional unit this year. Boy, you’ve it’s an amazing return on investment. So everyone head over to the clothes.com Check out the clothes Pro. But Chris, tell us you’ve been talking a lot about sphere of influence. And so yes, I had, we had a conversation just before we started about this, we’re both very passionate about it. So let’s let’s talk about it.
Chris Linsell 9:26
Yeah. So I just want to challenge anyone who’s listening to this to think about what you think your sphere of influence is, you know, think about and let’s break down those words sphere of influence, who are the people that you influence with your actions. And I’m going to challenge challenge some folks right now because I bet you there’s a bunch of people who are kind of mentally flipping through the Rolodex and they’re thinking about Zillow leads, and then thinking about people that they met at the coffee shop who they just gave a business card to, guys I’m sorry, I’m just gonna call like It says here, that is not your sphere of influence, you have no influence over those people. They might have talked to you once or twice, and you might have their email address. But as far as influence goes that, isn’t it. Your influence your sphere of influence are people who pass what I like to call the postcard test, which is if they get a postcard from you in the mail, and it’s got your face on it, that they would be able to identify who you are. If they if they get a real estate postcard in the mail, and it’s got your headshot right on the front. They say, Oh, yeah, that’s Chris. Oh, yeah, that’s DJ, I know who that is. If those people cannot pass the postcard test, their contacts of yours, their potential influence people who could be potentially influenced by, but these are, these are not in your sphere, your sphere, they gotta pass the postcard test.
D.J. Paris 10:53
Yeah, I like that. That’s a really, really good I really even sort of begs the question, are you sending people who you consider to be in your sphere of influence, some sort of regular messaging, whether it’s a postcard, an email, a text message, a comment on a social media post that that they created a telephone call, of course, there’s a million ways to do that. But if you do communicate, and social media is a great example, because it very similar to the postcard tests. Because I know for me when people friend me on Facebook, and I apologize for any for saying this, if anyone’s listening is going to not feel special at the moment. I just accept everybody because I, you know, we do this show, there’s a lot of listeners, people just friend me, and I appreciate that. And I just go, I don’t know who they are, necessarily. And in fact, or they might be a realtor in the local area here in Chicago, I oftentimes, I might see one mutual friend or 10 mutual friends, but I still typically I’ve never met that person. So if they commented on one of my posts, I would be appreciative of that, but I really wouldn’t know them. And I wouldn’t, I would hope they wouldn’t consider me to be in their sphere of influence.
Chris Linsell 11:59
Yeah, absolutely. So. So let’s, let’s think about our sphere. And, and, you know, different. What I’m about to say here has certainly been talked about before, but I’m hoping I can frame it a little bit differently for folks. So let’s talk about what your sphere is, in order to qualify to get inside the circle, these people have got to know you, they’ve got to recognize your face on that postcard. So that’s the first level, your sphere of influence, the outside of that sphere is made up of people who know you. And it’s going to take a certain amount of communication, of nurturing of, of effort to maintain that relationship with the people who just know you. But inside the people who know you, there’s another layer, it’s the people who know you. And they happen to like you, too. These are people who, who, you know, if if they sent DJ a friend request or commented on his photos, DJ might comment back or like their comment and say, you know, what, I not only do I know you, I recognize your name, I recognize your face. But you and I have enough of a history where I like you, I want to engage in a back and forth with you. That’s the second layer of the sphere. We’ve got people who you know, and who know you, we’ve got people who know and like you. And then in the core in the center, there’s the people who know, like, and also trust you. And that last one is big. Think about the people who you you know, in your life that trust you, I bet you it’s the your your close family, your close friends, and I bet your past clients, and probably most of your, your current clients to most of the people that you’re working with right now that trust you to deliver exactly what you say you’re going to deliver, whether it’s information, whether it’s opportunities, whether it’s training, these are these are people who are on the inside of the circle. This is your sphere, guys, your sphere are people who know, you know, and like you or know, like, and trust you.
D.J. Paris 14:07
Yeah, it’s such it’s such a good distinction. And so as as we’re defining our sphere, and by the way, if you haven’t defined your sphere, what a great opportunity to do that will give you some some suggestions today, but I just few minutes prior to jumping on this podcast with Chris, I am in the process of closing and I needed the developer, it’s a new development wanted me to do an inspection. And you know, they’re gonna have people there from their side. And I wasn’t totally sure how the process works. I kind of forgotten from the last time i i purchased. And so I had asked my boss and I said, you know, I’m going to want to bring my own inspector to right. And he’s like, definitely bring your own inspector too. So thankfully, and I thought and then I thought for a moment I went, Oh my gosh, I don’t even I mean, we’ve I’ve got a list of inspectors that that I can refer that I can reach out to but I don’t really know them. I mean, I know their names. I don’t know I don’t like them because we haven’t built a relationship. I don’t dislike them. I just don’t know them all that well. And I certainly don’t know if I can trust them. So I’m like, Okay, well, I guess I could go to Google and look at the reviews. And that’ll probably let me know who to trust. I said, but boy, I still just don’t know how any of these people operate. And I went, Oh, my gosh, I totally forgot. I have a friend who has been an inspector for 27 years, who’s nearing retirement. And he’s excellent. And I just had his knee, he escaped me for a moment. And so I’m going Oh, thank God. And it just alleviated a tremendous amount of anxiety. So we just have to remember how important it is for your clients, or for your sphere of influence to get to that level of trust. Because, boy, people just stop looking. Once they know they have somebody who they can trust, they stop looking for other providers, I immediately ceased my search for inspectors, and I’m reaching out to mark and that’s and then I’m then I never had to think I don’t have to think about it again. And it’s, it’s a lot, it’s really, really important to get to trust.
Chris Linsell 15:52
Absolutely. And you know, I this is a little bit, maybe just a smidge of a tangent here. But I did, I said something you said something that was, I think, pretty profound here that I want to just draw a little bit of attention to, you mentioned the role that Google played in your potential kind of resolution of this problem. And I want to point out to you guys, to anyone who’s listening, I want you to think about the marketing efforts that we as real estate agents often take on. It involves things like a, like a public facing website. It involves things like a Google My Business listing, and involves things like a social media presence. And I want you to think about how each of those things, they serve multiple purposes. But what is social media for social media is so that the people who we would like to do business with us can get to know us on a social level, and get some social proof that we are who we say we are, dare, dare I say, get to the point where they can follow along with what we’re doing and kind of get to like us a little bit. Why are we soliciting reviews from people so that people can go on and read those reviews and say, like, okay, a dozen of the people in my community have said, This person is good at their job, I can trust this person. Yeah, this is we’ve got no, we’ve got like, we’ve got trust all in that development. And this is why the sphere of influence is so powerful, because you’ve already got those things, you don’t have to convince someone that you they know you that they like you and that they trust you your sphere of influence, you’ve got those advantages built in already. And that’s why identifying and nurturing that sphere is such an important thing for a real estate professional.
D.J. Paris 17:40
So would you recommend, you know, pulling up your CRM or your contact list and give a sign in assigning each contact in their, you know, know, like, trust sort of designation?
Chris Linsell 17:53
Absolutely. In my particular CRM, I have. I have little tags, you know, you can tag your your contacts, from my sphere of influence people who just who know me, I tag with a K people who know and like me, I tag with KL people who know like, and trust I tag tag with K LT, because and then I can sort them by that. And I do want to point out, there’s something important about what I just said that maybe we should kind of rewind to, I said, people that know me, right, are people that I know, right? And people that know, and like me, not people that I know and like, not people that know, like, and trust me, not the other way around, guys, as real estate professionals, you’re going to have a lot of people who trust you in a way that you don’t trust them. Because you don’t have that kind of personal professional experience with them. There’s a lot of people who have trusted you to be their fiduciary through the biggest financial transaction of their lives, you have not had that reciprocal relationship with them. So just because you don’t trust someone on that intimate level, doesn’t mean that they don’t trust you. So as you’re thinking through your sphere, make sure you’re identifying from their perspective, do they know and like me, not the other way around. Of course, we want to like everybody but identifying Miss identifying, going the wrong direction is going to cause your sphere to be all out of whack.
D.J. Paris 19:29
So let’s talk about some of the indicators that people trust you. Obviously the most obvious one is are they referring business to you? Well, we would assume that if someone refers business to you that there’s a high level of trust or it’s just you know, your your mom or dad who wants you to be successful, but they probably had trustee as well. But but so that’s an obvious thing. But you know, I also think about people who who comment on social media, but if you’re posting something and somebody is a cheater cheerleader for you and says congratulations, you’re killing it. That’s probably somebody who doesn’t just like you, although they do. But they also probably have some degree of trust for you as well because I know I don’t cheerlead people or congratulate people that I don’t have some sort of intimate say, even if it’s just a surface level intimacy, some sort of connection that’s a little deeper. So anyone, of course, that’s referring business, but also people that are actively involved in your life, if they’re participating in your life, whether they’re a friend, or whether they’re commenting on social media or just responding when you reach out to them to check in on him. And, you know, sending them whatever communication you’re sending, that would indicate some level of trust, or do you have do you do have a different definition of that?
Chris Linsell 20:47
No, I think you’re right on right on the money there. I do think it is challenging sometimes. And we’ll certainly call out the differences between identifying a personal relationship within the sphere like, is my neighbor, for instance, my neighbor knows me and likes me, I’m convinced of this, we’re friendly, we sit we greet each other by name, with this person asked me to, you know, put the mail, you know, on their on their dining room table for two weeks while they’re on vacation. I don’t know. I mean, that would be an indicator of trust, I would like to think so. But I wouldn’t be offended if that wasn’t the case. Personal Relationships are kind of sticky sometimes. And it’s hard to suss them out. But I can tell you, from a professional standpoint, I typically use the following litmus test, you know, I do, I like email marketing, email marketing is a great way to connect with people, especially passively, it doesn’t require a lot of a lot of, you know, daily lift. And you learn a lot when it comes to email marketing. So if I send somebody an email via email marketing, and I see that they open the email pretty consistently, this is someone I can say, knows me. If I have that same person, if they have also followed me on social media, that’s somebody who I think, knows, and likes me. And if somebody has opens my email follows me on social media, and recommends me either through referrals through some sort of review somewhere, maybe they recommend me to their friends on social media or something like that. This is an indicator of trust. So that, you know, there are different kinds of markers everyone can use, these are the markers that I use, you know, if you hit those three markers, it kind of is an indicator that you are in one of those three spheres. But you know, there’s all sorts of systems that people can use on that sort of thing.
D.J. Paris 22:47
And I have a quick suggestion, this is also a tangential thing. But this just happened to me the other day, so I was on LinkedIn. And LinkedIn is great, because there’s an opportunity to endorse people. And to write a review. Of course, you can do that a lots of other places as well. But LinkedIn has really sort of built into their, their whole infrastructure is, is endorsing, and writing referrals and reviews. And I had completely forgotten that this was an a feature in LinkedIn. And so I got to notice that somebody had written me a recommendation or referral, I forget what they call it at LinkedIn. And I went, Oh, is maybe it’s a new thing. I just really wasn’t paying attention to LinkedIn for a long time. And and then I went and I looked, and what’s interesting about LinkedIn is there are I, when I went to log into my account, I noticed there were eight other recommendations that were pending. So So I, I don’t know how it all works with with LinkedIn. But in my particular circumstance, people had written me had taken the time to write really nice things, former co workers mostly, and and had said, and this is going back like 10 years, and I must have always missed the notification, I went, Oh, my gosh, I have all these people that wrote these really lovely things. And so I have to approve them. And I guess that’s so you have control over your profile. And if you don’t want something there, you don’t have to have it. So I approved all of them. And I went, Oh my gosh, and I read these wonderful things people had written about me, and immediately I thought, okay, do what can I do to support them? Because these are people that I also liked, know, knew and trusted. And, and I thought, Okay, well, I’m gonna go write, you know, recommendations for them as well, because I felt authentically that they are also really excellent in their profession. So I went and did that. And I was thinking, Boy, you know, if I was an agent, and maybe one of the first things I would do if I was free, on an afternoon, I might spend an hour thinking about all the people that I trust, and I would go into LinkedIn, I would write a recommendation, but then remember that I didn’t even know people had written recommendation about me so I would also send them an email and say, Hey, just wanted to let you know I don’t know if you got a notification but I wrote a wrote a little, you know, testimonial for you and I just wanted to let you know and you know, hey, hope it helps, you know, in your career or whatever. So I just wanted to throw that as a thing because I didn’t even know people had written for me. And if you’re looking to find out who trusts you write some write some some recommendations for place people you trust, and a lot of times they’ll fill the reciprocal need to want to do the same.
Chris Linsell 25:20
Yeah, that’s a great idea. And in fact, that actually leads right into the next thing I was going to say, which is, you know, when you identify where people are in terms of their level in your sphere of influence, it’s a pretty understood fact that the deeper they go, the closer they get to know like and trust, the more fertile that that contact is going to be in terms of leads and repeat business. Now, with that in mind, it is going to be the best move for real estate agents to get as many people into that know, like, and trust category as possible. And one of the ways that you can do that one of the ways you can move people from no and like, is to offer a sign of trust to initiate that relationship with your sphere. And DJ, you give a fantastic example, I’ll give you another hypothetical. And I bet you there are some agents who can take this hypothetical and run with it. Let’s say you’ve got a mortgage broker in your local market, who maybe deals a lot with first time homebuyers, and you happen to service a lot of first time homebuyers, this is the sort of person that you could write a review for, reach out to them and say you do really great work, I just wanted to let you know I appreciate the work that you’re doing. I know you’re doing quality stuff, I’m going to be sending you’re sending you business, from my sphere, because these if people aren’t looking for the service, I want them to work with you. That just demonstration of trust going one way is going to automatically create the need for the recipient of that trust to evaluate, do they trust you. And if they do, they’re going to turn around on that they’re going to want you to know the same. And so you have these kinds of grease, these elements of grease to kind of grease that relationship a little bit and kind of keep people moving towards the center of that know, like and trust circle, which is a pretty powerful movement, you get that center packed full of contacts, all of a sudden, you’ve got a pretty active referral business. Yeah. And
D.J. Paris 27:25
Chris is really talking about a pretty well respected and acknowledged sort of social psychology phenomenon called the law of reciprocity, right? So yeah, if we demonstrate, you know, a certain level of giving to someone else, in this case, hey, Mr. And Mrs. Mortgage Broker, I, your I’ve heard, you’re amazing. I would like to start so I need the partners that I refer people to to be amazing, you’re already amazing. Is it okay, if I start sending clients over to you, which hopefully they would be thrilled. And then of course, the you know, the underlying consequent consequence of that is that hopefully they would of course reciprocate. Of course, they may or may not, and you’ll evaluate that relationship over time. But it is something that you know, going first is really, really important always go first. So, you know, if you go to, and this is really important, Chris just said something very big, which, which, of course, we all know, but it’s worth repeating. Because it’s so obvious, it’s, I would call it the elusive obvious, which basically is, Chris, that the closer somebody is to that, that center of your sphere where they know, like and trust you, you know, the higher percentage probability that they’re going to utilize you for a real estate transaction. And you know, that’s true. And then you think, Okay, well, how do I deepen those relationships? Well, going first is really important, you know, and like, for example, think of the, you know, while I don’t know how many people are using as many dry cleaners as they were pre pre COVID But you know, any service professionals in your life, whether it’s, you know, a dry cleaner, a local restaurant, or anything that you’re utilizing that you’re a big fan of in restaurants are such a good example because we all have favorite restaurants. And we also have restaurants that we’re not as passionate about. And right now if you’re getting you know, right now restaurants are struggling and so this would be an easy way to reach out to them and say, you know, and post a really nice review on Google or Yelp or Facebook or whatever, and then maybe even reach out directly to the restaurant and say, hey, you know, I’m sure this is a difficult time for you I wanted to let you know I’m such a fan. I want I went ahead and wrote a review for you and that’s all you really have to say and boy boy, any business owner is thrilled when somebody reaches out and does something nice like that.
Chris Linsell 29:36
Oh, Big time, big time. And you know, I think also it’s worth mentioning here that there are going to be times I certainly I have these times there’s going to be times when real estate agents are struggling with what that one to one connection, what that go first should actually be and in moments like that, I want you guys don’t get discouraged. Bye bye that kind of inability to know exactly what’s next, there are other steps that you can take. And I just want to throw out three ideas that you can use to help understand where people are at, in your sphere of influence, if they’re in there at all. And these are, these are three things that you can do to kind of help help kind of bait a response out of these people. The first thing is definite demo, demonstrate some evidence of success, show that you’re working as a working successful agent. A great example of this would be a postcard with a just sold property on it. But instead of circle prospecting around the property that you just sold, send it to your sphere. And on the postcard said, I just, I just sold this property. There are other listings out there right now. Or excuse me, there are other buyers that are hungry out there. Is there anybody? Are you or anybody you know, interested in selling right now? Don’t send it to the properties around the Senate to your sphere, this is an evidence of success. So that’s one, the second one is evidence of knowledge. Figure out a way to make a community communication, maybe it’s an email post, maybe it’s maybe it’s something like a Facebook Messenger or something or other something like, you know, the market is really strong right now. You know, homes in your neighborhood are selling on average 15% above asking price, you know, right now, I don’t know if you thought about selling but right, now’s a great time, or you or anybody you know, interested in selling because I’ve got buyers who are interested, this is evidence of knowledge. If somebody responds to your evidence of knowledge, then they probably know you or no one likes you or maybe they know like and trust you. And then the last thing is evidence of action. Post something, you know, my favorite. And my favorite evidence of action right now in northern Michigan, is I’ve got a one agent who I’m very close personal friends with every single Saturday, he is hosting open houses. And every single Saturday like clockwork, he is posting a picture of a recently shoveled sidewalk, Open House opens on half an hour just finish the sidewalk. It is it is predictable. It is honestly it’s adorable. And people react to it every single time. This is evidence that you are active in the market. If you provide some evidence of success, evidence of knowledge and evidence of action, where your sphere can respond to it, you get a quick idea of where people are at in that process.
D.J. Paris 32:36
Yeah, boy, you just you just said that all three of those suggestions are so so critical. And so if you’re thinking, Well, how do I and I want to just talk about the second one for a moment, the the evidence of knowledge, you know, this is with social media, this has made it a lot easier to get your knowledge out. Of course, there’s just listed just sold posts that that we see. But those are very common. And there’s nothing wrong with doing those, I just would encourage you not to only do that, because you now have the ability to take your phone, turn it around, and instantly stream on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn even. And you can YouTube, of course, and you can actually start to talk directly to the people that at least know you. And then you can convert them through your knowledge into Oh, wow, this person I like this person, I’m seeing how they interact on social media. But I’m also paying attention to the the information they’re sharing. And as Chris was saying, he just mentioned that. And so if you’re thinking, Well, how do I do this? Well, of course, you know, there’s lots of direct ways to do those indirect ways. And social media is a great way. And if you’re like not super comfortable getting in front of a camera, then then start to make that a goal to to maybe create a series maybe it’s a little video series, where you talk to first time homebuyers on social media, where you talk about the home buying process, you talk about all the steps it takes to close or how to transition, you know from from renting to buying, I guess we reset first time homebuyer but, but there’s lots of opportunities there to become, you know, a knowledge source, but you have to earn it, that’s something you really have to earn. And you have to demonstrate it and you have to demonstrate it a number of times in most cases. So if you’re just sending out, you know, one postcard to your sphere to, you know, explain to them that you have had success, or that you’re doing one video on social media, you really have to commit to a to a structure because branding 101 says, you know, the average person needs to see something many dozens of times really before they end up taking action. So you have to create a structure, if it’s emails, create content in those emails that’s actually useful to the people you’re sending those emails to make sure that it’s something that they would want to open as Chris said, he looks to see who opens his content. Well, if Chris’s content isn’t good, even the people People that know like and trust him won’t be opening that email, and Chris will be getting a mixed message. So Chris knows that everything he sends or projects out into his sphere needs to be really, really thought through so that it doesn’t negatively impact how people think about us all because people can move away from trust knowing and like, if you’re not consistently demonstrating, you know, what you have to offer?
Chris Linsell 35:25
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, that brings up the kind of the last, the last point for me, which is, when you identify that somebody is in your sphere of influence, don’t think that your job is done. Because it like you said it is, it’s easy, it’s easy to drop out of that sphere of influence, if you’re not properly managing those relationships. And I just encourage people to think about your own personal relationships, we all have those best friends, who we can go a year without talking to. And when we finally get them back on the phone, it’s like, no time had passed. But let’s be honest with ourselves, those relationships are not the norm, those relationships are the exception to the rule. If you go a certain amount of time, without speaking to somebody without reminding them that you care about them without being a part of their daily life, you are going to take a step back in your relationship. And when it comes to a real estate relationship, specifically your sphere of influence, that could mean the difference between whether or not somebody sends you a referral. That could mean the difference between whether or not somebody mentions you at the next HOA or PTA meeting. I mean, these are relationships that you need to covet, once you get them to the place that they belong. So don’t think that your job is done. After your sphere of influence has been identified. Your job then becomes how do I keep these people there?
D.J. Paris 36:52
And I would like I’m going to ask Chris, when asked you a question that there’s not a there’s not a specific answer, but I’m just curious to get your thoughts on, you know, we we’ve identified, you know, if you’ve if you’ve taken action, or considering taking action with some of the steps that Chris has mentioned, the first first step is to of course, identify and categorize the people in your contact list. And do they know me? Do they like me? Do they trust me and making sure you have those, those categorizations what I’m curious on, and you’re a practicing realtor, so you will have better better data than me. And this might even just be your own anecdotal sort of thoughts. But for somebody that just knows you who doesn’t yet like or trust you, doesn’t mean they dislike you or distrust you, they just don’t know you well enough, they just know your name. I wonder what percentage of those people would choose to use somebody who they only, like only know at that point, and then also curious as as they get to like you, I wonder what percentage that goes up to and then of course, trust, you know, I imagine it’s such a significant percentage to go from know like to trust that by the time you get to trust, you know, you’re reasonably confident that anytime they need, unless, of course, their brother is also a real estate agent, which of course that happens to But assuming they don’t already have a real estate agent that they are going to I wonder what what the percentages are just curious if you have any general thoughts about what that what that looks like?
Chris Linsell 38:22
Yeah, you know, I don’t have a specific percentage in mind, but I can tell you this, that the the stats tell us that somewhere on them in somewhere north of 70% of buyers end up working with the first real estate agent that they come in contact with. And with that being said, it is it tells me that if I if I can know somebody if I can make that initial know and get into their get into their you know, circle the people that they know and maintain that relationship. I’m going to pick up a decent amount of business just just from that. But you know, in my personal experience, when I can get somebody into the center into the know like and trust area. It’s a virtual lock when that person has real estate business. I’m there and the reason why this is for in my experience in my personal journey professionally is think about DJ and I were talking about accountants a little bit earlier before we hopped on the air here. DJ said I called my accountant. We have a set of professionals in our lives. We have our lawyer we have our doctor, we have our accountant, we have our therapist, we have our whatever fill in the blank that last one that should also be real estate agent. I have I have my real estate agent. You get to the level when you get somebody in that know like Trust circle you have, there you are their real estate agent. And in the same way, that when they have a sore throat, they’re gonna go see their doctor, not just some random doctor, they pull out of the phonebook. Once you get them in the circle, they’re making an appointment with you, not with some rando, because you are their person. And the further you get away from that, that, you know, kind of nucleus of know, like and trust, the less likely it is that they’re going to go there. But you know, even on the outside, even when somebody just knows you, you’re going to pick up more business, but it just goes to show how valuable every time you take a step into that, you know, the closer to the center of that circle, how much more valuable that becomes for your business.
D.J. Paris 40:43
Yeah, so well said and just remember, you have to earn every ring, every rung of that sphere of influence. So if you expect somebody to move from, from No to like, you better think about what do I need to start doing over time? To demonstrate that number one, I like this person, and I’m taking steps to get to know them better? And in also, what is it the way that they would like me to do that? And and you know, it’s not just they say the golden rule is do unto others as they would do under you the platinum rule is do unto others as they would prefer you do unto them. So always thinking about what can I do to deepen that relationship? And, and what type of personality style is this person so that I’m, I’m not overstepping a boundary? But what what can I do and if you’re just sitting around waiting, it’s unlikely to shift much you really have to go first and demonstrate I care about you. And if you can demonstrate care and concern. Boy, that is a fast track to trust, I think
Chris Linsell 41:49
I totally agree. I totally agree. You know, we respond as people remember, like, our business is not houses, our businesses, not numbers, our businesses, not markets, our businesses, people. And so if you can connect with your buyers and sellers, on a personal level, that’s where know, like, and trust come. I mean, I, I know that I can afford a house. I like the fact that my mortgage banker shook my hand when I went to his office or you know, elbowed me or when I went to his office now, I trust my mortgage banker, because he texted me at eight o’clock at night and said, How you doing? I know, this is a stressful process. I’m at home. I was just thinking about you. I know you had a tough day to day everything. All right. That’s that’s trust. You know, in real estate agents, we have even more of that opportunity, because we’re literally putting people in their living room here.
D.J. Paris 42:46
Yeah, why? What a what a great place to wrap up. So yeah, so So guys, for everyone listening, by the way, we would love to hear you know, Chris, is is knowledgeable on so many different topics, we would love to hear what you would like us to discuss in future monthly episodes with the close. So reach out to us, you know, you can find us on our website, which is keeping it real pod.com We have a contact form there. Of course, if you want to stream all of Chris’s episodes, scroll to the bottom of the homepage and look for the closing time episodes, we have them categorized, you can play them right from the browser there, instead of having to search through your podcast app for these episodes. And also, please tell a friend, think of one other agent that might be you know, in particular, maybe a newer agent that’s just trying to get started and they’re in the you know, we’re in the middle still have this pandemic and hopefully it’s ending soon, but they’re probably struggling to get started. It’s harder for them right now. Because, you know, they’re not as we’re not as easily able to move about. So send them a link to this episode. This will help them get started with their their sphere of influence. And so find us find us on Facebook as well. facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pot and also everyone please go visit the clothes.com the articles they write every every week are incredible. They’re not fluff pieces. These are really well researched, detailed, long form articles, specifically designed to help you grow your business and oh, by the way, totally free. So it’s it’s the best resource we have found online for agents to just get consistent, great information about about taking their business to the next level. So go to the clothes.com Also, try the clothes Pro. It’s inexpensive, and you get a ton of additional support and community and knowledge. So check out the clothes pro right on their website. Chris, thanks so much for once again being on the show. We love having you and we will see you everyone on the next episode.
Chris Linsell 44:45
It was a pleasure. And hey, actually a special shout out just thought of this. If you are excited about what’s going on on the clothes and you’re like, you know what, I could do that. Right now. We are accepting applications for freelance writers. So if you’d like to write if you know about real estate, if you You think you can get in there and mix it up with me, come on over, we’ve got applications right on our website, we’d love for you to come chat with us about real estate and share your expertise as well. So if you’re a freelancer, if you’re a writer, if you’ve got a real estate background, we’d love to, to hear what you have to say.
D.J. Paris 45:18
And it also demonstrates knowledge and this is an opportunity to then you know, hey, I just had an article published at the close and you can send that out to your sphere of influence and that is, that is another fast track to wow this person really knows what they’re talking about. So published stuff is big. So think about that and head over the clothes and submit some suggestions. And maybe they’ll they’ll have the on on as, as as an as a writer. All right, Chris. Thanks so much. We’ll see everyone next episode. Have a great day. You too.
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