In the latest RISMedia webinar—”Help Your Agents Increase Referrals in Any Market”—sponsor spokesperson Stephanie Alfonso, senior director, Sales Enablement and Field Education at Elm Street Technology; and panelists Jillian Young, president of Premiere Plus Realty in Southwest Florida; and Kevin Laugharn, principal and director of Marketing for Alta Realty Group, discussed how the significance of referrals cannot be understated. Referrals are a powerful tool for real estate agents to propel business growth, ultimately establishing a robust network of satisfied clients. Whether you are a seasoned agent seeking to amplify your success, a budding agent looking to establish a strong foothold in the market, or a broker looking to encourage agents and unlock new avenues for business expansion, a strong strategy for increasing referrals can be a game-changer.
The webinar was sponsored by Elm Street Technology and moderated by Anthony Lamacchia, broker/owner/CEO of Lamacchia Companies.
Key takeaways:
Panelists offered some top tips for how brokers can help their agents increase their referrals regardless of the business climate, mortgage rates or other factors:
- Brokerage leaders need to reveal. They need to be the revealers of opportunity, especially when the market is not like it used to be. And they should be the leaders of providing education.
- If you have a database that’s been around for many years and haven’t done the proper maintenance, it starts to do agents a disservice. Go in and analyze who the contacts are, making sure they are still worthy of being on your list.
- Brokers are in the business of helping agents and facilitating those relationships that are happening. They need to be their agents’ connectors and need to know what agents are doing in terms of their farming area, and what their particular specialties are.
- Contact people who give bad online reviews and say, can we work on that? Can we correct that with you? It’s always better to respond to those for your reputation management so the audience can see that you have a professional response.
Here’s what our esteemed panelists had to say:
- “I tell agents all the time to be in their clients’ inbox and their mailbox. You’re not going to reach hundreds to thousands of people in their mailbox, so that narrows it down to your preferred client list, maybe your top 100, and have preferred-client newsletters going to them, whether at a brokerage level or an agent level. Print is not dead.” –Stephanie Alfonso, senior director, Sales Enablement and Field Education at Elm Street Technology
- “One thing that we encourage our agents to do, and train them how to do, is create community guides on their website. We have a very robust blog platform that every agent can utilize. We’re a very lifestyle-oriented community with golf, tennis, beach and waterfront life, and we encourage agents to connect with the local businesses there.” –Jillian Young, president of Premiere Plus Realty
- “Something all agents have in common is they refer businesses on a daily basis. You’re always referring painters, contractors, lawyers, etc. It builds trust with local businesses in your area so they will also refer you. It’s a two-way street.” –Kevin Laugharn, principal and director of Marketing for Alta Realty Group
For more information on how you can help agents increase referrals in any market, check out the full webinar here.
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