That was you?
I had been in the real estate business about 6 months and still working to find my way. I had not submitted to the advice of my team leader to start making cold calls (and I never did) because I wanted to work by referral with folks I knew.
I was in a conversation with a lady from church while we were working the ‘coffee cart’. She mentioned they were thinking about selling their house.
Now, I had been sending a monthly mailing to her at her home address for about 4 months. It was a decent newsletter type mailing and each one cost me about $1 to print, stuff and post.
I replied to her comment that “I can help you sell your house” and she looked at me really funny. She said “You’re not a real estate agent, how can you help?”. I was stumped for a second but finally I told her I was an agent and I explained how I had been mailing stuff to her.
Now it was her turn to be stumped. She asked me what the mailing looked like and after a few seconds she exclaimed “That was you?” We laughed and began to talk about how I could help but that lesson stuck with me.
She had no idea I was the one behind that ‘junk mail’ and she was throwing it out until she realized who it was. So what’s the lesson? Do not assume what you mail out has the intended result. Most people get way too much junk mail and NEVER see what you mail them.
Call them, go see them, take them to coffee or lunch and build a relationship. It’s how working by referral works. I still mail stuff but it’s to folks who know me, like the stuff and might even miss it if I stopped.
If you want to make sure the folks you mail to open it, write them a handwritten note in a nice small envelope.
I promise, it will get opened and might even saved.
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-616-1578 Direct
Photo by Cabanillas.- 