Realty Coaching International

You can increase your business in 90 days or less!

Tips for Successful Networking

We often have more networking opportunities than we realize. Standing in line at the bank, traveling on an airplane or attending a social event are all opportunities to make connections. We are always interacting with people. Of course there are also the structured networking events like business card exchanges and chamber of commerce events where our focus is meeting people.

I’ve met people who go to networking events frequently and when I ask them how much business they have received from the members they comment "very little". When we talk about their strategy it becomes obvious why they have not been successful. If you’re thinking networking doesn’t work for me, these ideas can help.

Tools for effective networking

Have a short, informative 30 second commercial. Think of a creative way to introduce yourself, including who you are and what you do. An example “My name is Jane Doe and I am a Real estate agent specializing in farm and ranch properties”. Be sure to practice several different introductions until you feel comfortable with your message.

Networking in Your Niche

Niche is a situation or activity specially suited to a person's interests, abilities, or nature. What is the best way to go about networking in your niche? The way to kick an online social life is to get space on the many alternatives available for social networking sites. Real estate specific social networking sites also exist. The aim of these sites is plugging you into a community of like minded web surfers.

 

Social networking sites like Digg, Myspace and many more are for the most part very general in nature. The next evolution of Social sites will be smaller Niche sites. A great example of this is ActiveRain.com. These smaller sites have a specific user group, i.e. you can find exactly which one has your target audience. It is much better than joining a multi-million member site and wonder about the percentage of people who will be interested in real estate as all the people here would specifically be interested in real estate. ActiveRain.com is a site that works via word of mouth advertising, gaining a thousand members or more every month. This is niche networking at its best.

The site is all about real estate and those that support the real estate industry. Real estate agents, loan officers, staggers, and others have a place to talk about the industry, network, and share ideas on how to better serve your clients. Also members have blogs that can be used to drive traffic to their main sites to generate business.

Coffee or Dining with Prospects to Fill the Real Estate Pipeline!

Let us say you have this customer showed interested in doing business with you but you have not made a closing with them yet. As most people are busy, it is difficult for them to come to your office or for you too schedule a meeting them. You could utilize lunch or coffee breaks to get to meet them. Meeting your prospects over lunch or coffee has its advantages. Firstly, the environment is very casual, there is no tension. Secondly, you get to know your customer and their requirements better because they are relaxed. Moreover, you could use such opportunities to convince that reluctant client into upgrading into a house which is better fitting to their needs. We can conveniently say that movement of people is what keeps the real estate market well oiled and running.