Take 5
Want More Listings? Start Getting ‘Face-to-Face' & ‘Side-by-Side' With People
with Tommy Choi
TRT: 4:35
Transcribed


Tommy Choi directly addresses camera:  Over the past 12 years, my teamWant More Listings? Start Getting ÔFace-to-FaceÕ & ÔSide-by-SideÕ With Peoples referral business has fluctuated between 89 to 90 percent. And, we don't buy leads. I'm Tommy Choi, co-founder of Weinberg Choi Residential at Keller Williams in Chicago, Lincoln Park. Let's take five minutes to talk about how you can build relationships with people in your database so that you're top of mind when it comes time to buy or sell, or they have a family member or friends who are ready to buy or sell.

First, real estate is based on relationships. Building relationships is one of our team's core standards. And how do you build relationships? For us its through face-to-face interactions.

Everyone on our team is responsible for meeting with 10 people each week, that's two a day. That's our standard, and that's in order to ensure that it gets done, we focus on time blocking and structure. So, to be on our team, lunch is from noon to 1:30pm and team members never eat lunch alone. Then, from 3pm to 4pm, we have face-to-face meetings, grabbing coffee with someone, getting a quick snack or catching up. Every team member does this religiously. 

For many real estate professionals, there is the hesitation to pick up the phone and make that phone call. Whether it's asking them if we can help them out with their real estate needs or asking for the most important thing, a referral, right? Who do you know that's looking to buy or sell? That hesitation comes from the fact that you don't feel that you've earned the right to ask for that business. So, flip that around. Rather than asking them for business, think about how can you ask them about a problem that you can solve for them.  What information can they offer, can you offer, to help them? 

A second touchpoint for us is through events. We hold four signature events each year. And, we ask each salespeople on our team to hold at least one event each quarter for them. It doesn't have to be a big blow out event or anything extravagant. It could be as simple as a first-time homebuyer social or an educational event. Our lead buyer specialist, Krista, invites a past client over and have pizza with her. 

Another way to connect with people is through charity. We have a charitable arm called 365 Days of Giving. Each month, we choose a local nonprofit in our community and we support them in one of three ways. We either help them raise capital for an event and donations. We raise awareness by promoting their cause, their mission, or an event of theirs's, or we donate our time and give them the sweat equity and volunteer hours. While doing that, we bring our database in. We invite them to serve with us.  And serve our community together. So, this  tapping them on the shoulder asking them, “Hey, we're making and serving 500 meals for the homeless at the Lincoln Park Community Shelter. Can you join us this Friday at noon? That's a huge touch point, right?

Because not only do you get to serve with them side-by-side and give back in the community that you serve in and you live in together.  But it's a great way to stay in front of them.  Continue to get that referral. Be that touchpoint.  

Of course, we also have strategies to stay in front of our database, such as monthly email blasts, social media groups, sharing relevant content and sending out postcards. Do they hang on to this stuff? Of Course not. You just want them to remember that you sent them something, you want them to stay fresh and top of mind.  Which will help you set up the face-to-face meetings.

For us, this system of face-to-face touchpoints evolved over time. But, at the core of it, my partner, Josh Weinburg, and I, we didn't want to knock on strangers' doors. We didn't want to call expired listings or "for sale by owners". We wanted to build a tribe of people who are amazing, supportive and who we could have authentic interactions with. 

We realized that our goals shouldn't be about transactions or sides or sales volume. Rather than calculating how many homes we needed to sell next year, or how many people we needed to help buy, we focused on how many people we needed to meet to make a meaningful relationship and impact with. Right, who we needed to cultivate with. And that was when our business really grew.