As brokers face assaults on their worth from all sides, an important factor they’ll do right now is to concentrate on boosting shopper relationships, the Glennda Baker & Associates chief stated to Inman Join Las Vegas attendees.
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Glennda Baker, thought-about by many to be the true property business’s queen of social media, didn’t come to Inman Join Las Vegas to debate video.
The chief of Glennda Baker & Associates at Coldwell Banker had one thing extra urgent to speak about on Tuesday: relationships reimagined.
“There has never been a more important time to be in a relationship with your client,” Baker instructed an lively Inman Join viewers Tuesday on the Aria Resort & On line casino in Las Vegas.
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“Everybody is telling the consumer that we’re not worth it. We’re not worth the money,” Baker instructed the group. “All we do is open doors. All we do is take you on a tour. We’re glorified tour guides. I disagree with that.”
For a very long time, brokers have been slotted right into a service supplier position, Baker continued, however right now, shopper relationships are extra essential to concentrate on.
Baker took the chance to take a delicate dig at Zillow and its imaginative and prescient for the business.
“There’s this tech provider — I won’t say their name on video — and they think they can replace us with their platform,” Baker stated. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to be replaced.”
“Everybody wants a piece of the commission and that’s why it’s so important to be in a relationship with your client — so you’re not replaceable and they don’t forget you.”
Baker went on to elucidate how an agent’s previous shoppers and sphere of affect, their neighborhood, and their agent-to-agent referrals are the most important relationships that pay again when it comes to returns.
When Baker creates a brand new relationship, as a substitute of inputting particulars that may get misplaced within the huge black gap of a CRM, she places their contact info, picture and any notes about what she’s discovered about them as a brand new contact into her telephone.
“You gotta take soft and hard notes, and you’ve got to exchange life stories,” she stated.
Along with exchanging tales and changing into a supply for all the things for shoppers, brokers must also learn to be a stalker, Baker stated, tongue-in-cheek.
“This is where I’m supposed to tell you, it’s ok to be a stalker,” she instructed the Join viewers. “If someone posts something on Facebook or Instagram, they want you to know about it … It’s a great opportunity for you to memorialize it for them.”
“If you’re not capitalizing on the birthdays on Facebook, what are you doing?” she later added. “Y’all, it’s free.”
Baker stated she likes to “surprise and delight” folks in her circle by wishing them a contented birthday with a personalized video or by sending them cupcakes.
She additionally likes to host occasions that “create endless opportunity” for shopper connection, Baker added, like her “coffee and comps” occasion, the place she hosts espresso and discusses neighborhood comps and considered one of her new listings, or her “eight at eight” occasion, the place she invitations three {couples} to her house for dinner made by a personal chef.
She additionally hosts an “appetizers and appraisals” occasion, which shoppers discover particularly useful in right now’s market. “People have never been more confused about the value of their home than they are today,” Baker famous.
Breaking bread with folks or inviting them into your own home establishes a extra private connection, Baker famous. Throughout a majority of these interactions, shoppers cross the brink from simply being a shopper into being a pal. The identical transformation happens when brokers assist shoppers memorialize the milestones of their lives.
Baker added that, though closing items could be difficult, they’re yet one more strategy to set up a extra private reference to a shopper.
“Some people don’t believe in closing gifts,” Baker stated. “I’ll be honest with you, they’re tricky. You sell someone a $1 million home, what gift do you give them? They can buy whatever they want.”
One present that has labored nicely for Baker is a cake with a photograph of the shopper’s new house on it. Her shoppers have cherished the present, even when they’re celebrities.
“He saved that cake; he wouldn’t let anybody eat it, because it meant that much to him,” Baker stated of 1 high-end shopper in Atlanta who she helped buy his first house. “That guy bought a $2.3 million house — he can buy anything he wants.”
As Baker confirmed off the customized present wrap she has made along with her face printed throughout it (courtesy of giftwrapmyface.com), she expressed her gratitude on the Inman Join viewers for sharing their time along with her.
“I love being a real estate agent,” Baker stated. “I’m honored that Inman gives me a platform to stand up and speak to you. It means more tho me than you’ll ever know that you took time to sit here. But more than anything else, is that you gave me your attention. Give that attention to your clients. Treat them like the valuable asset that they are.”
