What is CORE Client Development?
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Service-Oriented Lead Development (SOLD)
Even if you give great service, you still need clients. Traditional real estate sales training focuses entirely on “prospecting,” which at least recognizes that new clients are the lifeblood of a healthy real estate career. But traditional prospecting methodology, with its intense focus on manipulating people into working with you, is not a sustainable business in an era when clients are going to choose their agents based on personal and online reputations. Instead, we need a way to generate business that is consistent with the fundamental client-oriented philosophy of the C.O.R.E. system.
We call it service-oriented lead development, or S.O.L.D., the idea that you can generate a steady stream of new clients by simply using that same three-part method of identifying needs, determining how to service them, and then executing while building the relationship. Where traditional prospecting was all about what your prospect could do for you, service-oriented lead development centers on what you can do for your prospective client. What are their needs, what can you do to service them, and can you build a relationship with them by servicing them?
For example, traditional prospecting teaches you to call the neighbors in an area where you’re holding an open house to solicit them into also listing their home: “we know when one home comes on the market in a neighborhood, several others soon follow, so when do you plan on moving?” But that’s a tough call to make, because you know in your heart that you’re probably not being truthful, and the only purpose to your call is to try to solicit a listing.
Instead, service-oriented lead development teaches you how to make that same call from a service-orientation: what service can you provide to the people in the neighborhood of your upcoming open house? Well, what if you were calling them to let them know as a courtesy that the open house was coming up, and to alert them that there might be some unfamiliar drivers in the neighborhood? After all, people with small children might be concerned if random buyers from out of town were driving through the neighborhood with maps in their laps looking for open house signs. So you call them with the following message: “The Smiths asked me to call the neighborhood as a courtesy to let you know we’re doing an open house this Sunday at 1PM, so there might be some unfamiliar cars driving in the neighborhood.” Is this the most important service you can provide to the neighbor? No, of course not. But is it something that is a legitimate service, to let them know about the open house in a way that does not solicit their business? Yes.
That same service-oriented philosophy animates all the business development techniques that we’ll teach as part of the C.O.R.E. system. If you’re contacting an expired listing, instead of simply asking whether they’re looking to hire another real estate agent, ask them if they’re curious as to why their home did not sell, and offer them information about expired listings that might interest them. Instead of calling a for-sale-by-owner to ask how long they plan on trying to sell the home on their own, offer the need they have for information on how to sell your own home, in the hopes that if they are ultimately unsuccessful (which they are likely to be), they’ll remember the service you provide. And instead of simply calling your past clients to see if they know anyone planning on moving, provide them with information they might need about the market or the community, to build that relationship and keep your name on the tip of their tongues in case they come into contact with someone who needs a great real estate agent.
You can implement a service-oriented lead development technique in every part of your prospecting campaign. Whether that prospect is someone in your Top 100, your Sphere of Support, a FSBO or expired, a neighbor for your new listing clients, or someone you meet at a party, they all have needs you can identify, meet, and use to build a relationship that will ultimately lead to a transactional opportunity.
We don’t teach that Service is paramount to a successful real estate business because we have no interest in helping you build your business by generating new clients. Without a steady flow of new clients, you won’t have anyone to provide consultations to or provide great service for. Rather, we believe that great service is the key to developing those new clients, because the service-oriented lead development method is actually a superior way of building a relationship with a prospect in the modern skeptical era. The S.O.L.D. system is more effective at actually generating new clients, because it approaches potential clients on a level of respect and not manipulation. Moreover, the S.O.L.D. system gives you a method of building your business you can be proud of, and might actually engage in. We all know you’re not ever going to make cold calls for more than three days, no matter how many sales rallies you go to.