Personal relationships are the lifeblood of any sales-based business, and this is doubly true in luxury real estate. Achieving real estate success means cultivating meaningful connections with your clients and establishing an authentic rapport based on trust and demonstrated results.
The difference between a realtor who’s able to create lasting connections with his or her client and one whose interactions are purely transactional is the difference between real estate success and failure.
There are multiple reasons to focus on relationship-building in real estate, but the top of the list? Referrals!
Let’s be honest: luxury real estate is a challenging business. After each sales cycle,, realtors are effectively unemployed until the next client comes along. How many times have you found yourself scrambling after fresh leads and coming up empty?
Referrals from past clients fill in the potential sales gaps, and establishing an ever-expanding personal network of dedicated clients, vendors, and other real estate agents help you achieve a level of stability and real estate success that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
Cultivating and sustaining personal relationships with your clients is all about making meaningful connections. Generic form letters and one-size-fits-all marketing campaigns have their place, but they often don’t go the extra mile and create the sort of durable, long-term relationships that result in the kind of dependable leads and referrals that make for real estate success.
What we’re after is a one-on-one connection, the kind of connection that naturally develops client confidence and even dependency, evolving into the baseline of your business.
There are multiple approaches to forging interpersonal relationships like these:
Educational Seminars
Hosting a free educational event in a prospect’s home is a perfect way to not only show off your own expertise, but to tailor the information to your potential client’s specific needs, thereby establishing credibility and fostering trust. Professional seminars for first-time luxury buyers can be extremely helpful!
Handwritten Notes
Emails can be useful, but nothing compares to the handwritten thank you note when it comes to putting a human touch on the sales process.
Additionally, you may consider personalizing any farming postcards with a quick, handwritten message addressed to the recipient. Farming cards inform the first impressions of potential clients, and the point is for them to perceive you as less of a salesperson, and more of a knowledgeable friend who they can rely on.
Personal Phone Calls
This method of communication would obviously work best with your list of previously sold clients, and the point is not to sell, but to check in on them like a friend. Ask about their work, their interests, inquire about their lives generally, and be sure to listen! Investing a little time to let people talk about themselves will yield a huge return in sales and referrals.
The Institute Can Help
Of course, these are just a few simple ideas of how to meaningfully engage your clients to create the kind of real estate success that you’re looking for. Should you decide to earn your Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist designation via the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, you’ll not only learn effective strategies to further strengthen and expand your personal network, but you’ll also be equipped with exclusive tools that will benefit both you and your potential clients.
You’ll have access to OWL (Online Wealth Lookups), which will enable you to more effectively evaluate affluent prospects, providing you with an accurate snapshot of their financial condition, allowing you to better tailor your approach to each individual client, resulting in stronger relationships and increased personal credibility.
You’ll also be given access to Wealth-X Prospects Research, which provides Institute Members with extensive dossiers on wealthy prospects around the globe, affording you the knowledge and expertise necessary to understand, attract and communicate with potential high net-worth clients.
Additionally, the Institute provides Members with access to Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands Digital, an online reference guide that educates Members about cultural guidelines, taboos, and best practices when meeting prospects of all backgrounds around the globe. The more culture-specific knowledge you have, the easier it is to create lifelong relationships with influential and highly connected affluent individuals.
Do Your Clients Believe In You?
Want to know more about mastering relationships in luxury real estate? Listen to the latest episode on our Podcast, Estate of Mind, to hear an exclusive Luxury Live segment featuring Institute President Steve Yarrow on how to “ditch the pitch” for better relationships and how to make your clients “believe in you”!