Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Can a real estate agent work by referral and still serve a lot families? There is a myth that in order to scale up a business, you have to pursue cold leads. One couldn't possibly have a big enough sphere to to serve hundreds of families with their real estate needs each year.
And even if they did know that many, how could they possibly give them enough attention for it to turn into business?
My guest, Laura Gillott, helps to bust these myths and show a model by which she served 526 families in 2018... 80% by referral!
Show Notes
I'm excited about having Laura Gillott here with me today. Laura, thank you for joining me.
Thank you for inviting me.
Yes, I'll start by saying I've got a more sultry voice, than normal. So, if the audience is wondering like, this is really enjoyable, don't worry, I'm not going to charge you for this episode. This one will also be free despite how much you might enjoy my relaxing voice.
So with that being the case, let's dive into the topic, Laura. Let's share some of your statistics, your with the Gillott Home Team out of Lebanon, Oregon.
Yup. Small town.
How many people live in Lebanon?
16,800 people.
16,800 people. Last year from Salem to Eugene, you guys serve 523 families.
526 families.
526 families were served by your team. So one would have to think if you serve that many families, you must have a massive Zillow budget. You must have a massive cold market marketing machine. True or false?
False. Very false.
Okay.
Yeah. We buy no Zillow leads. We are a premier agent on our listings. [engine roaring in the background]. Sorry. We have someone trying to drag race in front of our building.
It is Lebanon!
Right? Yes, good old Lebanon. Our budget is small there with Zillow where we're just a Premier agent with our, with our own leads there. About 80% of all of our business last year was just based off relationships.
Wow. So let's do the math. Let's say 80% of 523. Now, I made a commitment once to never do math in public, but that's gotta be somewhere around 450? I'm assuming somewhere in that range.
Yep, yep. Either past clients or referrals you guys closed. Meaning that's how much business you closed by referral from your sphere.
Yes. We include sphere in that or people who have referred themselves from our reputation and things that. For example if they just came in and said, "Hey, I want to list my home with you." "I'd like you to help us find property." And part of that is because we meet a lot of people through our events and we offer classes to help the community in buying homes. And then that helps us get those people walking in wanting help.
So I think one of the big myths, again, that real estate face is "Do I go quality (sphere) or do I go quantity (cold leads)? Some would believe, "I could never possibly know enough people to generate a mass amount of business by sphere." Right? So let's talk about, it's not just your sphere, right? You have a a great team.
We do. We do. When we get their sphere involved in this too and we market to that sphere. We give them the newsletter each month. We invite them to the events. Of course all of our past clients we offer items of value. We do the pies twice a year our client database. Anybody that gets the newsletter is invited to the rest of the events. We pair up with the Chamber and do National Night Out. Next month we have Biz Expo. We'll invite the whole database to the Biz Expo, let them know if they visit the booth, that we have something special for them. You're just trying to get as much face to face time with their clients as possible.
I love it. That's the goal, right? Face to face time with your clients in an era filled with bits and bytes where there's so much convenience in doing things electronically, that's been your secret sauce is getting face to face with people.
Yes. Getting face to face and then you know, it's for us, we don't do any cold calling, but what we do is lead with items of value or leave with contribution. So we'll call and say, "Hey, we've got an investor class coming up on Saturday. Do you have any interest in coming? Or do you know anybody that does?" And so that way we're just not calling saying, "Hey, give me your business, give me your business, give me your business."
I love it. So again, the way that I see you solving these two problems, or busting these myths, BTW--this episode's gonna be Mythbusters. The first one is that a combined sphere, you've got a good size team and all those people contribute who they know. The second myth that people hold is, "Even if I have that many people, how can I possibly take care of them? How can I possibly get face to face with that many people?" And what I hear you saying is a key to your success has been events, both ones that you're putting on, right? Like client appreciation events and then also events that you're not even hosting. Like the Biz Expo. It's not your event. You've got to space there and you're using it as an opportunity to reach out and invite everybody to come participate at that event.
Yeah, the Boys and Girls Club did a Brewfest and they shut down Main Street. We asked have a booth there and then we gave away a growler and then we invited people to come down to visit us at the event, helped market the event for the Boys and Girls Club and helped them raise money. When they signed up for the growler, we had over 500 people sign up for the growler. A handful of them said, "Yes, I would like a market analysis," or I would like a list of properties and I would like to be on your newsletter."
And now once they say they would like to be on our newsletter, we can continue telling them about the other events that are going to be happening in the area where we're going to be at. So we can continue that connection with folks. You do it on a mass level without spending that much many.
Right! What does a booth at the Biz Expo cost you?
A couple hundred dollars.
A couple hundred dollars turns into probably thousands of invitations and contacts.
Yes.
Hundreds of face to face contacts with a couple hundred dollars and some people staffing an event. Right?
Right, and the agents go and we just take turns, rotating in and out of there. We try to make the most of every event. So even at that event, because there's going to be 150 other booths there, we like to get protein packs, a water bottle and we go around and visit the other booths, give them an option to get something out of our cooler and thank them for coming. We learn a little bit about their business, ask them if they have any clients with real estate needs and let them know that we'd like to be their connection. We connect with them, they connect with us. It's a way to go around and talk to people without just saying, "Hey, we're a real estate team. We'd love for you to give us your business." If instead you go with contribution and give them the protein packs and a water, and of course we have them labeled with our team on there, it's a way to break the ice and to come from contribution.
The intentionality is strong with what you guys do, right? You don't just show up at an expo. We've all probably been a part of some sort of expo where we're like, "This thing is kind of a bust. Nobody's here!" But you're looking another layer below that to say no, there are people here just sitting in the booths like us thinking "This thing is maybe not as strong." And I'm not saying this about their expo. That's a mentality of "What if we go to this expo and there's nobody there?" Well, there's actually going to be somebody there. It is going to be other vendors at minimum, right? Go create some new contacts, offer value to them right now. You brought them into the fold, into the family.
Yup--so there's definitely people there. When we're there we're not looking at our phones, our heads are up and we're engaging. We're asking people to sign up for our drawing. We're offering them a free piece of cake. It is just the little things that we can do just to get the buzz going. And then again, you have to invite your database to come to the event because then people want to stop at your booth because people want to come by.
You know, if I were putting on a big expo, your team would be the first one I would call. I would say, "Get the Gillott Home Team there because there's a lot of people right there. Let's give them a discounted price to get in because we're getting a lot of people through the door just because of how they promote their events.
Yeah, we do have that with different community events here and nonprofits. They're like, "Can you put this in your newsletter or can you invite your database to come to this?" So, we just help get the word out for that and we want to help the community. They support us in our ventures and the more that they can help guide people with their real estate needs to us, the more we can contribute back to them.
At the core of all of that is how do we build and strengthen relationships? How do we serve families? How do we help take care of their real estate needs? Right?
Yeah.
So, it is very powerful. And as I mentioned earlier, that's just part of the equation and making this work. Then when when a client does get referred to you make certain to have the systems in place, that you provide them that a wow customer service from start to finish and with great communication. So when they leave there, they want you to be their Realtor for life. They want to be part of the community of Gillott Home Team and be involved with our events and things. If you don't do a good job, they're not going to come back.
Yeah, you're right, it doesn't matter how good your events are. If the real estate service on the backend isn't great, it doesn't matter. They'll love you as a party planner and as a community organizer, but they might not love you as real estate agents. So tell me how with all the effort you guys put in getting face to face with people, how do you be sure to not take your eye off the ball of "We actually do serve people at a really high level from a real estate standpoint.
So we do have systems in place from, let's just talk about from when a listing, from the very first time they walked through the door saying they have need, all the way to the end. It's pretty much systematized out that there is a person and a checklist and communication that's going to happen all along the way. To the point where like the agents have conversations with their clients weekly, they're doing a recap. The recap goes to the client, to us the leadership team, to the listing success team that helps with the admin. They do that weekly and then the leadership calls twice a month to just check in with our clients just to make sure everything's going well. You just can't let time go by. So they're calling, we're calling and then the success team calls once a week also, or actually once a month. They are just checking to make certain their signs are standing straight that there's no issues. "Did you see the latest advertisement? Did you get chance to review everything?" We do that just to make certain that there's all of that communication going on. So if a ball gets dropped or if someone's having some issues, we can correct it right away and not let it go on.
It's by design, not by chance.
By design, right! It has to be by design with checklists. Anytime there was a break, or there's been something that was missed, then we know we need to up our systems. So that way it doesn't happen again. We make certain that everything gets covered. We fail forward on everything. We view failure as a blessing because when we fail at something, then at least if it was brought to our attention, we can fix it. And that way no one else has to experience that in the future.
I've heard you talking about this before, when it comes to events, you use a very similar methodology. You've got very specific checklists and if something goes awry, it immediately gets added to the checklist "Well, this is the one time, we'll have this problem here." From here on it's going to be solved.
Yeah. Yup. Before I started making it more systemized, I used to just try to keep everything between my ears and try to run it all and delegate everything out. And there was a lot of loose ends and I wasn't being a great agent. I wasn't being a great event host because I just didn't have any systems in place. We were kind of winging it off of our experience, but not writing things down and not having a checklist. So the nice thing is now that no matter if we get a new admin person that's going to come help, they can grab that checklist and start working on it without me having to explain every step. Every step is written down and where the order of things is written down. Everything's there. We just really work it as a system that each year the event can get better and better.
I love what you said about being able to be a good event host. There's nothing probably more frustrating than when something starts going awry. You've got your client base in front of you and you can't focus on that because you're trying to solve a problem. Your role is to get face to face and really have a deep human connection with them and you can't because you're worried about the logistics.
Yes, and that was at the very beginning. I was red faced and running around and tried to get everything done and I was the only person that knew what to do at that point in time. A lot of times things are hosted at my house, so I knew where the extension cords were. I knew where the chairs were, I knew what the ladder was. So, I was the one running around getting everything done and trying to get help. But it was almost faster to do it myself than to ask somebody else to do it. So then that's when I, through coaching got help when they said, "Hey, you need to get some systems down so that way all that stuff's taken care of ahead of time and that you have people on point to help with getting this done. It just makes it a lot easier. Many hands make light work and that's totally true with the events too. The nice thing with events is that they're scalable. So when we first started out, our events were much smaller. As we grew we could just add layer and layer and layer each year. It's not like we started out and did a big event at the very beginning.
Talk to us about that. I would love it if you would share, and I know you've done this in the past, some tool or resource that would help somebody get started. Again, they may not be at a point to scale quite like you are. The checklists are powerful and your systems are powerful. Is there something that we could share with the audience after this?
Yeah, I'll give you our checklist for our Pork and Tunes event. That's our client event. And so that way they can take that checklist and then make it their own and maybe it will remind them, you need three extension cords and do need whatever we have on our list. That just gives you a basis of how to get your list started and how detailed it needs to be. So I can definitely get that emailed over to you after we're done here so we can share that. So when we first started, it was small. It was just a small band and maybe a hundred people, not even probably a hundred, maybe like 80 people. Then it has just grown and grown and grown and grown and grown. Each year we're just able to make it better and add more things to our event. Now we have a car show and then we have closest to the pin. We have lots of games for the kids. There's Texas Hold'em in the shop. There's just a lot more to the event now that we never would have done at the very beginning. But over time has gone on. We are able to have had an add additional layer. We have a face painter, we have somebody that makes ice cream there. It just keeps getting better and better.
Like a carnival--It's like Disneyland in Lebanon. I appreciate this conversation. I guess in conclusion, I'd just like to add that based on your example and your model, you can have both. You can have a lot of production and just work with people that you like and that already know you and trust you without having to delve into chasing internet leads.
They are a lot easier to convert. If you could talk to someone who already knows and trusts you or are referred to someone who already knows and trusts you, it just makes that whole relationship moving forward a lot easier. Then you just maintain that trust all the way through and you can break the barriers and they can know that you are going to go over and above for that client and you are going to have great communication. You're just not doing it for the one and done transaction. You're really wanting to be their Realtor for life and their friends and family. You want to be a valuable resource and you have to explain that to them and you have to ask for business too during that. It just doesn't come naturally for people to refer without you putting it top of mind.
You know, I appreciate you saying that Laura, beause I think one of the big pitfalls of a referral based business is people think that just by serving people and loving on them that the referrals are going to come in as long as I invite them to my event. There's going to be some reciprocation and I wish it were that, that easy. The reality is something else. Right? You actually have to ask. Tell us really quickly. I was going to end but this is so good, I can't stop. Give us an example or two at those events, how you make sure that they know that you want their business and their referrals without sounding salesy.
What we have found to be most effective is at our client event, three or four years ago we started doing door prizes. We have clients come up to our booth that were sitting in the yard with some help from admin and agents that would say, "Hey, please sign up!" We had a bunch of stuff that we bought at community auctions and things that we were letting expire. So it was like, "Let's put all this stuff together and give the stuff away." Who better to give it to your clients than anybody else. So we had everything out. We'd have people sign up and the nice thing is they can then request an updated market analysis, or a list of homes for sale, or if they'd like to receive our newsletter. If there are guests and they weren't already on our newsletter and they could talk to agents right there, face-to-face in the booth and say, "Hey, we'd like to buy some investment property this year." And we would say, "Great," and we write that down. Then we'd go and collect all those and the next week we then can sit down and go through all of the entry forms and figure out, who's gotten needs right now that we can service. Before we had that system, maybe we had a few people come out and say, "I have a need." Then the next day I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, who said that?" I thought I'd remember it, but now I can't remember who came up and talked to me about real estate. This is a way that they at least can write it down. And we have a system to follow up later and before we would get some business from osmosis. But after having them sign in, if they have a need, they're going to tell us right then that they have a need.
What's the question that you asked, and you may have already said it, but I'm going to have you say it again. Once they tell you, you keep track of it, you write it down so that you don't lose it and forget it, but what do you do to get them talking about their real estate needs.
Yeah. So it really isn't a conversation when it's a big event like Pork and Tunes because there's you know, 500 people there. You don't have time to have that at that event. I don't ask them there, I just say, "Hey, how are you doing?" And you'll just have small talk with them at that point. But when they go to the booth, one of the three questions on that entry form to sign up for the door prize item, that's where they write that down on that sheet right there. Before we weren't capturing those leads at that event. Now we have a way to capture. We also couldn't tell if we were to look back and say, "How many did we capture last year? How many did we get the year before?" It gives us a drive like, "Last year we had 230 people sign up, this year, let's try to get more than that. Let's make certain that we're agents when they're standing in the food line that our agents are walking along with a clipboard saying, "Hey, have you signed up for our drawings?" and then sitting there having a conversation when they're standing in the food line because it makes the time go by faster. It's not that they are trapped there to talk to you, but you have a chance that you sit and chit chat with them while they're waiting in the food line. So, just making the most of every opportunity when you have that face to face.
So at the client appreciation events, you aren't necessarily bringing it up except through the drawings, but at the expos and the other events via a raffle form, having them fill out a form. One of the questions is "What are your real estate needs or referral opportunities?"
We find that it's just an easy way to get this back to you.
Then you follow up. This is always so good, Laura. You have so much to share. I know everyone that has ever talked about you thinks, you're number one, a fantastic person. And number two just an amazing producer. So I'm going to put up here on the screen for those that don't know her and would like to get in contact with her. I know our audience is primarily real estate agents, so if you have any referrals between Eugene and Salem, Laura is a great, great resource. I highly recommend her her systems and her team. They really invite you and your referrals into the family and take great care of you, as you can tell. So Laura, I want to thank you again for your time and contributing to the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. I appreciate our friendship and all that you do.
Thank you very much. When I send out that checklist for you, I'll also put in our next event on July 27 and you guys are more than welcome to come down the I-5 corridor and come visit us and come to our event.
I love it. I love it. Thank you for the invite. We'll get that out as well. So, alright, thanks everybody.
Thank you for inviting me.
Yes, I'll start by saying I've got a more sultry voice, than normal. So, if the audience is wondering like, this is really enjoyable, don't worry, I'm not going to charge you for this episode. This one will also be free despite how much you might enjoy my relaxing voice.
So with that being the case, let's dive into the topic, Laura. Let's share some of your statistics, your with the Gillott Home Team out of Lebanon, Oregon.
Yup. Small town.
How many people live in Lebanon?
16,800 people.
16,800 people. Last year from Salem to Eugene, you guys serve 523 families.
526 families.
526 families were served by your team. So one would have to think if you serve that many families, you must have a massive Zillow budget. You must have a massive cold market marketing machine. True or false?
False. Very false.
Okay.
Yeah. We buy no Zillow leads. We are a premier agent on our listings. [engine roaring in the background]. Sorry. We have someone trying to drag race in front of our building.
It is Lebanon!
Right? Yes, good old Lebanon. Our budget is small there with Zillow where we're just a Premier agent with our, with our own leads there. About 80% of all of our business last year was just based off relationships.
Wow. So let's do the math. Let's say 80% of 523. Now, I made a commitment once to never do math in public, but that's gotta be somewhere around 450? I'm assuming somewhere in that range.
Yep, yep. Either past clients or referrals you guys closed. Meaning that's how much business you closed by referral from your sphere.
Yes. We include sphere in that or people who have referred themselves from our reputation and things that. For example if they just came in and said, "Hey, I want to list my home with you." "I'd like you to help us find property." And part of that is because we meet a lot of people through our events and we offer classes to help the community in buying homes. And then that helps us get those people walking in wanting help.
So I think one of the big myths, again, that real estate face is "Do I go quality (sphere) or do I go quantity (cold leads)? Some would believe, "I could never possibly know enough people to generate a mass amount of business by sphere." Right? So let's talk about, it's not just your sphere, right? You have a a great team.
We do. We do. When we get their sphere involved in this too and we market to that sphere. We give them the newsletter each month. We invite them to the events. Of course all of our past clients we offer items of value. We do the pies twice a year our client database. Anybody that gets the newsletter is invited to the rest of the events. We pair up with the Chamber and do National Night Out. Next month we have Biz Expo. We'll invite the whole database to the Biz Expo, let them know if they visit the booth, that we have something special for them. You're just trying to get as much face to face time with their clients as possible.
I love it. That's the goal, right? Face to face time with your clients in an era filled with bits and bytes where there's so much convenience in doing things electronically, that's been your secret sauce is getting face to face with people.
Yes. Getting face to face and then you know, it's for us, we don't do any cold calling, but what we do is lead with items of value or leave with contribution. So we'll call and say, "Hey, we've got an investor class coming up on Saturday. Do you have any interest in coming? Or do you know anybody that does?" And so that way we're just not calling saying, "Hey, give me your business, give me your business, give me your business."
I love it. So again, the way that I see you solving these two problems, or busting these myths, BTW--this episode's gonna be Mythbusters. The first one is that a combined sphere, you've got a good size team and all those people contribute who they know. The second myth that people hold is, "Even if I have that many people, how can I possibly take care of them? How can I possibly get face to face with that many people?" And what I hear you saying is a key to your success has been events, both ones that you're putting on, right? Like client appreciation events and then also events that you're not even hosting. Like the Biz Expo. It's not your event. You've got to space there and you're using it as an opportunity to reach out and invite everybody to come participate at that event.
Yeah, the Boys and Girls Club did a Brewfest and they shut down Main Street. We asked have a booth there and then we gave away a growler and then we invited people to come down to visit us at the event, helped market the event for the Boys and Girls Club and helped them raise money. When they signed up for the growler, we had over 500 people sign up for the growler. A handful of them said, "Yes, I would like a market analysis," or I would like a list of properties and I would like to be on your newsletter."
And now once they say they would like to be on our newsletter, we can continue telling them about the other events that are going to be happening in the area where we're going to be at. So we can continue that connection with folks. You do it on a mass level without spending that much many.
Right! What does a booth at the Biz Expo cost you?
A couple hundred dollars.
A couple hundred dollars turns into probably thousands of invitations and contacts.
Yes.
Hundreds of face to face contacts with a couple hundred dollars and some people staffing an event. Right?
Right, and the agents go and we just take turns, rotating in and out of there. We try to make the most of every event. So even at that event, because there's going to be 150 other booths there, we like to get protein packs, a water bottle and we go around and visit the other booths, give them an option to get something out of our cooler and thank them for coming. We learn a little bit about their business, ask them if they have any clients with real estate needs and let them know that we'd like to be their connection. We connect with them, they connect with us. It's a way to go around and talk to people without just saying, "Hey, we're a real estate team. We'd love for you to give us your business." If instead you go with contribution and give them the protein packs and a water, and of course we have them labeled with our team on there, it's a way to break the ice and to come from contribution.
The intentionality is strong with what you guys do, right? You don't just show up at an expo. We've all probably been a part of some sort of expo where we're like, "This thing is kind of a bust. Nobody's here!" But you're looking another layer below that to say no, there are people here just sitting in the booths like us thinking "This thing is maybe not as strong." And I'm not saying this about their expo. That's a mentality of "What if we go to this expo and there's nobody there?" Well, there's actually going to be somebody there. It is going to be other vendors at minimum, right? Go create some new contacts, offer value to them right now. You brought them into the fold, into the family.
Yup--so there's definitely people there. When we're there we're not looking at our phones, our heads are up and we're engaging. We're asking people to sign up for our drawing. We're offering them a free piece of cake. It is just the little things that we can do just to get the buzz going. And then again, you have to invite your database to come to the event because then people want to stop at your booth because people want to come by.
You know, if I were putting on a big expo, your team would be the first one I would call. I would say, "Get the Gillott Home Team there because there's a lot of people right there. Let's give them a discounted price to get in because we're getting a lot of people through the door just because of how they promote their events.
Yeah, we do have that with different community events here and nonprofits. They're like, "Can you put this in your newsletter or can you invite your database to come to this?" So, we just help get the word out for that and we want to help the community. They support us in our ventures and the more that they can help guide people with their real estate needs to us, the more we can contribute back to them.
At the core of all of that is how do we build and strengthen relationships? How do we serve families? How do we help take care of their real estate needs? Right?
Yeah.
So, it is very powerful. And as I mentioned earlier, that's just part of the equation and making this work. Then when when a client does get referred to you make certain to have the systems in place, that you provide them that a wow customer service from start to finish and with great communication. So when they leave there, they want you to be their Realtor for life. They want to be part of the community of Gillott Home Team and be involved with our events and things. If you don't do a good job, they're not going to come back.
Yeah, you're right, it doesn't matter how good your events are. If the real estate service on the backend isn't great, it doesn't matter. They'll love you as a party planner and as a community organizer, but they might not love you as real estate agents. So tell me how with all the effort you guys put in getting face to face with people, how do you be sure to not take your eye off the ball of "We actually do serve people at a really high level from a real estate standpoint.
So we do have systems in place from, let's just talk about from when a listing, from the very first time they walked through the door saying they have need, all the way to the end. It's pretty much systematized out that there is a person and a checklist and communication that's going to happen all along the way. To the point where like the agents have conversations with their clients weekly, they're doing a recap. The recap goes to the client, to us the leadership team, to the listing success team that helps with the admin. They do that weekly and then the leadership calls twice a month to just check in with our clients just to make sure everything's going well. You just can't let time go by. So they're calling, we're calling and then the success team calls once a week also, or actually once a month. They are just checking to make certain their signs are standing straight that there's no issues. "Did you see the latest advertisement? Did you get chance to review everything?" We do that just to make certain that there's all of that communication going on. So if a ball gets dropped or if someone's having some issues, we can correct it right away and not let it go on.
It's by design, not by chance.
By design, right! It has to be by design with checklists. Anytime there was a break, or there's been something that was missed, then we know we need to up our systems. So that way it doesn't happen again. We make certain that everything gets covered. We fail forward on everything. We view failure as a blessing because when we fail at something, then at least if it was brought to our attention, we can fix it. And that way no one else has to experience that in the future.
I've heard you talking about this before, when it comes to events, you use a very similar methodology. You've got very specific checklists and if something goes awry, it immediately gets added to the checklist "Well, this is the one time, we'll have this problem here." From here on it's going to be solved.
Yeah. Yup. Before I started making it more systemized, I used to just try to keep everything between my ears and try to run it all and delegate everything out. And there was a lot of loose ends and I wasn't being a great agent. I wasn't being a great event host because I just didn't have any systems in place. We were kind of winging it off of our experience, but not writing things down and not having a checklist. So the nice thing is now that no matter if we get a new admin person that's going to come help, they can grab that checklist and start working on it without me having to explain every step. Every step is written down and where the order of things is written down. Everything's there. We just really work it as a system that each year the event can get better and better.
I love what you said about being able to be a good event host. There's nothing probably more frustrating than when something starts going awry. You've got your client base in front of you and you can't focus on that because you're trying to solve a problem. Your role is to get face to face and really have a deep human connection with them and you can't because you're worried about the logistics.
Yes, and that was at the very beginning. I was red faced and running around and tried to get everything done and I was the only person that knew what to do at that point in time. A lot of times things are hosted at my house, so I knew where the extension cords were. I knew where the chairs were, I knew what the ladder was. So, I was the one running around getting everything done and trying to get help. But it was almost faster to do it myself than to ask somebody else to do it. So then that's when I, through coaching got help when they said, "Hey, you need to get some systems down so that way all that stuff's taken care of ahead of time and that you have people on point to help with getting this done. It just makes it a lot easier. Many hands make light work and that's totally true with the events too. The nice thing with events is that they're scalable. So when we first started out, our events were much smaller. As we grew we could just add layer and layer and layer each year. It's not like we started out and did a big event at the very beginning.
Talk to us about that. I would love it if you would share, and I know you've done this in the past, some tool or resource that would help somebody get started. Again, they may not be at a point to scale quite like you are. The checklists are powerful and your systems are powerful. Is there something that we could share with the audience after this?
Yeah, I'll give you our checklist for our Pork and Tunes event. That's our client event. And so that way they can take that checklist and then make it their own and maybe it will remind them, you need three extension cords and do need whatever we have on our list. That just gives you a basis of how to get your list started and how detailed it needs to be. So I can definitely get that emailed over to you after we're done here so we can share that. So when we first started, it was small. It was just a small band and maybe a hundred people, not even probably a hundred, maybe like 80 people. Then it has just grown and grown and grown and grown and grown. Each year we're just able to make it better and add more things to our event. Now we have a car show and then we have closest to the pin. We have lots of games for the kids. There's Texas Hold'em in the shop. There's just a lot more to the event now that we never would have done at the very beginning. But over time has gone on. We are able to have had an add additional layer. We have a face painter, we have somebody that makes ice cream there. It just keeps getting better and better.
Like a carnival--It's like Disneyland in Lebanon. I appreciate this conversation. I guess in conclusion, I'd just like to add that based on your example and your model, you can have both. You can have a lot of production and just work with people that you like and that already know you and trust you without having to delve into chasing internet leads.
They are a lot easier to convert. If you could talk to someone who already knows and trusts you or are referred to someone who already knows and trusts you, it just makes that whole relationship moving forward a lot easier. Then you just maintain that trust all the way through and you can break the barriers and they can know that you are going to go over and above for that client and you are going to have great communication. You're just not doing it for the one and done transaction. You're really wanting to be their Realtor for life and their friends and family. You want to be a valuable resource and you have to explain that to them and you have to ask for business too during that. It just doesn't come naturally for people to refer without you putting it top of mind.
You know, I appreciate you saying that Laura, beause I think one of the big pitfalls of a referral based business is people think that just by serving people and loving on them that the referrals are going to come in as long as I invite them to my event. There's going to be some reciprocation and I wish it were that, that easy. The reality is something else. Right? You actually have to ask. Tell us really quickly. I was going to end but this is so good, I can't stop. Give us an example or two at those events, how you make sure that they know that you want their business and their referrals without sounding salesy.
What we have found to be most effective is at our client event, three or four years ago we started doing door prizes. We have clients come up to our booth that were sitting in the yard with some help from admin and agents that would say, "Hey, please sign up!" We had a bunch of stuff that we bought at community auctions and things that we were letting expire. So it was like, "Let's put all this stuff together and give the stuff away." Who better to give it to your clients than anybody else. So we had everything out. We'd have people sign up and the nice thing is they can then request an updated market analysis, or a list of homes for sale, or if they'd like to receive our newsletter. If there are guests and they weren't already on our newsletter and they could talk to agents right there, face-to-face in the booth and say, "Hey, we'd like to buy some investment property this year." And we would say, "Great," and we write that down. Then we'd go and collect all those and the next week we then can sit down and go through all of the entry forms and figure out, who's gotten needs right now that we can service. Before we had that system, maybe we had a few people come out and say, "I have a need." Then the next day I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, who said that?" I thought I'd remember it, but now I can't remember who came up and talked to me about real estate. This is a way that they at least can write it down. And we have a system to follow up later and before we would get some business from osmosis. But after having them sign in, if they have a need, they're going to tell us right then that they have a need.
What's the question that you asked, and you may have already said it, but I'm going to have you say it again. Once they tell you, you keep track of it, you write it down so that you don't lose it and forget it, but what do you do to get them talking about their real estate needs.
Yeah. So it really isn't a conversation when it's a big event like Pork and Tunes because there's you know, 500 people there. You don't have time to have that at that event. I don't ask them there, I just say, "Hey, how are you doing?" And you'll just have small talk with them at that point. But when they go to the booth, one of the three questions on that entry form to sign up for the door prize item, that's where they write that down on that sheet right there. Before we weren't capturing those leads at that event. Now we have a way to capture. We also couldn't tell if we were to look back and say, "How many did we capture last year? How many did we get the year before?" It gives us a drive like, "Last year we had 230 people sign up, this year, let's try to get more than that. Let's make certain that we're agents when they're standing in the food line that our agents are walking along with a clipboard saying, "Hey, have you signed up for our drawings?" and then sitting there having a conversation when they're standing in the food line because it makes the time go by faster. It's not that they are trapped there to talk to you, but you have a chance that you sit and chit chat with them while they're waiting in the food line. So, just making the most of every opportunity when you have that face to face.
So at the client appreciation events, you aren't necessarily bringing it up except through the drawings, but at the expos and the other events via a raffle form, having them fill out a form. One of the questions is "What are your real estate needs or referral opportunities?"
We find that it's just an easy way to get this back to you.
Then you follow up. This is always so good, Laura. You have so much to share. I know everyone that has ever talked about you thinks, you're number one, a fantastic person. And number two just an amazing producer. So I'm going to put up here on the screen for those that don't know her and would like to get in contact with her. I know our audience is primarily real estate agents, so if you have any referrals between Eugene and Salem, Laura is a great, great resource. I highly recommend her her systems and her team. They really invite you and your referrals into the family and take great care of you, as you can tell. So Laura, I want to thank you again for your time and contributing to the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. I appreciate our friendship and all that you do.
Thank you very much. When I send out that checklist for you, I'll also put in our next event on July 27 and you guys are more than welcome to come down the I-5 corridor and come visit us and come to our event.
I love it. I love it. Thank you for the invite. We'll get that out as well. So, alright, thanks everybody.
Creators and Guests
Host
Justin Stoddart
What is Think Bigger Real Estate?
The road to success for real estate agents is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting the secrets to having it all.