From maintaining relationships to fighting property tax bills, successful real estate producers shared their best methods for winning clients at Inman Connect Now Thursday.
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Customer lifetime value falls into the six-figure range, so it pays to have winning strategies for meeting their needs over a long period of time.
That’s according to Jennifer Wauhob, Houston-based team leader and largest producer, who shared her insights into maintaining long-term customer relationships, during an Inman Now panel discussion on Wednesday.
Major producers have shared some of their strategies for winning homes to customers, maintaining relationships with those customers and winning in today’s market. They said some strategies can help with…should we call it a crazy market?
Jennifer and Hope
“Stop calling it a crazy market,” said Jennifer Whoope, Houston-based team leader with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene. “This isn’t a crazy market, it’s a complicated market.”
There are indications of multiple shifts in recent months including increases in inventory, home prices and interest rates that have put pressure on the affordability of homes.
Whooppe said agents could win if they acted as a strategic advisor to their clients.
“I need to know my numbers, I need to know what’s going on in the market, I want to know what’s going on with interest rates,” she said. “Our job is to know all the options available, to be able to explain them and what is happening, [and say] “Here’s what we can do to get you home.”
Here are the top tips shared by Wauhob and Phil Sexton, co-owner of Team Sibbach at eXp Realty in Phoenix.
Focus on existing relationships
Whooppe said the lifetime value of the client is a $125,000 commission.
For this reason, teams can expect a higher return on investment from maintaining meaningful relationships with existing clients than from spending money to meet new people.
Sexton called this type of approach “odd marketing”.
Phil Sexton
“They want to go out first and spend money to meet people they’ve never met before,” Sexton said. “When I talk to them, ‘Well, how much do you invest in the people you already know? “They look at me like I’m crazy.”
“Let’s make sure we take care of these people first and then we can go out and invest more money in weird marketing,” he said.
Provide helpful customer service
as gas prices Rise to record heightsSexton has offered more than 1,300 people a $50 gift certificate for their favorite gas station.
It was his team’s way of showing that he was thinking of them, while feeling more pain at the pump. (It also has him taking center stage with the current business group.)
“It ended up costing us $10,000, $12,000,” he said. “I’m expecting a 10 to 1 return on that, because that connects with the existing business.”
Wauhob had another strategy with a lower price tag but a high response rate.
“We offered everyone in our database to help protest their property taxes,” Hoop said.
With property values rising rapidly, tax bills followed suit. Many municipalities allow owners to wade through a high rating, and the Wauhob team has offered to do so for them.
“I got a higher response than I think I should have ever done,” she said. “He was valuable to people, and he was helping them.”
“I spent $0 on it,” she said.
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