Firm Foundation needs to have strong database

An excellent Keller Williams teacher, Dick Dillingham, presented a workshop on how to develop a business plan yesterday. "A Goal without a plan is just a wish", he said.  The main building block to a successful career as a Realtor is the database.  So, here is the assignment that you need to work on daily.

1. Add as many names to your database as you can daily. Remember, each person knows at least 200 other people.
2. Put everyone in! Include Realtors you meet at Family Reunion or other Real Estate functions. Someone you met from Texas may need a Realtor to refer to in your hometown.  Or you may need to refer someone to a Texas Realtor some day.  Collect business cards from local vendors. Remember local dentists, pastors, plumbers, accountants, people from church and their children getting married, all need houses! They all need to know you!      
3. Fine tune your database.  Throw out duplicates, update contact information (reason to call?), keep good notes on them so you remember your last conversation, who they are and where you met them. A name without any contact information or point of reference means you don't know them and they don't know you.  Change that, if you can. Try to find their contact information somehow.  If you can find their number, call them to apologize for not keeping them in your loop, and from then on, definitely contact them regularly. Calling to apologize is a great reason for calling!  If you can't find them, delete them from your list. 
4. Aim to connect with every person on your list, somehow, every month. Connecting can be accomplished in many ways: phone call, email, e-newsletters, social media messages, comments on their posts, chatting on IM, birthday card,  postcards, note cards, letters, drop-by visits with gifts, lunch, mailable branded items of value like magnets, sports schedules, etc.  Take a class on the 33 Touch and 8x8 programs and come up with a plan, a simple system that works.
5. Work your database so that barely mets and haven't mets become mets and eventually raving fans!  Your mets and raving fans will be happy to refer friends, family and coworkers to you.  Treat them like gold for they are your source.
6. Concentrate on adding quality information about each name as you add it to your database: name of newborn, birthdates, anniversary, settlement date of home you sold them, and notes about the transaction. In their file, save a HUD from the settlement to send end of year, a picture of them, a picture of their new home, new child, or of their current home if they are an out-of-state buyer.  I also recommend keeping a log of email messages exchanged during a transaction.

I will be asking you to bring a report weekly to your coaching session showing how many new and improved names you have added to your database.  Growing your database is addictive and fun!  And it is foundational to your successful real estate career.  So Get growing!!

CALL RUTH PARKER, C2S COACH for Keller Williams Realty Midway   484-784-2124