PLEASE NOTE: real estate brokers, mortgage brokers, financial planners, insurance brokers (and other small business operators)
Would you invest $ 15.28 to secure $ 10,000?
If you answered “Yes”, read on. If you said “no,” read on to find out why you’re flushing tens of thousands of people down the toilet.
In real estate, home loans, underwriting insurance, and even financial planning, there is a long period between the beginning and the end of a sale. During this period, there is a lot of tension and stress for most of the parties involved.
It has always been my point of view to “communicate too much” during this period to ensure that a satisfactory result is achieved for all parties; mine in particular.
That is why I developed and used the “Reed 5 Step Customer Care Program”.
Communicating with the parties to a transaction is easy to do and, in the same vein, easy not to. At the end of each week, I send an email to all concerned giving them an update on the progress of the deal. People like to be informed.
While this is fine and essential, I go a step further to provide “outrageous” communication. I want to make sure that my name is on the minds of all parties involved and make sure that the process concludes with a favorable outcome.
Below is my 5-step process based on my own real estate sales business in Queensland, Australia. Obviously, you will need to tailor this approach for your business, which may include adding a few steps or increasing the timeline.
Step 1
Once a buyer has signed a contract to buy a property, they are sent a card congratulating them on their purchase. The card should arrive in 2-3 days. The title inside the personalized card says:
Congratulations! You have already won
The card then briefly describes what the process is from here on. Then I conclude the card with:
Thank you, we appreciate you choosing us
Step 2
In the first 5 business days, the buyer has the option to exclude himself from the contract. This is known as the “cool down” period. It is also during this time that a building and pest inspector normally inspects the property. Again, this can be a tense time for all parties, so Card 2 ships on Day 5. Here I use a few different headlines:
Your house has passed with flying colors
14 Grange Crescent says ‘thank you’ for believing in me
Step 3
In Queensland, most properties are sold subject to financing, which generally must be satisfied within 14 days of the contract date. This is probably the most stressful period for both buyer and seller; Not to mention the real estate agent, financial broker, and attorney. My third card says:
Sit back, relax and have a latte
Congratulations on your financial approval. You are now halfway (assuming a 30 day agreement) to owning your new home at 14 Grange Crescent, Ascot. Why not sit down, take a breath and enjoy a coffee with us … etc etc.
I include a Starbucks gift card with the greeting card. I would also send a card and a coffee voucher to the vendor.
Stage 4
With the property being settled in 30 days from the contract date, I would send my fourth card in this series with the title:
welcome home
I also include a small gift for the buyer; usually something for the home. If the buyer is an investor, it could include a book on real estate investing or something similar.
I also send a card to the seller and include a gift basket as a thank you for your choice to select my agency.
Step 5
Within 2-3 days of the arrival of the card and gift packages to both buyer and seller, I send my final card requesting a letter of testimonial from each party. Generally, I help each party by providing some questions that they can answer about our service during the transaction process.
Again, I usually attach another Starbucks card to thank you for sending us a few words.
Not everyone does it, but we usually get more than 50%. These testimonial letters are gold and help us secure more business.
Naturally, during the sales process, we talk to all parties and provide email updates. We also send the attorneys and financial agents involved some Starbucks gift cards during the process. Lawyers and finance brokers are excellent referral sources for our business.
Now reading the above, you can see that this ‘outrageous’ process secures us a lot of ‘$ 10,000 sales’ (average commission for our area, but of course this can be much higher. $ 15,000, $ 20,000 or even $ 50,000) for a token outlay of around $ 15 – $ 20 plus free slippers. We have very few contracts that go down. Communicating with all parties reduces their stress levels and increases our chances of a successful sale.
The biggest investment in the process is time and effort.
But we have found a service that simplifies this for us. We can choose from more than 10,000 quality physical cards, upload a handwritten message, include a photograph; all for less than $ 1. We just click ‘send’ on our computer and the business prints the card, stamps it, and ships it to us. We don’t leave our office. The service is global with printing facilities in the US and Australia.
We can even select gifts with this company and they will send them to us. We can choose from gift cards, books and magazines, personal development, car care, gifts for him, gifts for her, home, office and many more. Yes, Starbucks cards are included!
The process can be automated so that cards and gifts can be sent on future dates. It is easy.
Embrace the 5-step process above and secure more business. Enjoy!