Working by referral is the essence of our company. As Chris discussed in his previous book A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to the Good Life, it is much easier (and less stressful) to take the long view for your business and create advocates for your services and expertise.
During his first year as an agent, Chris discovered Top Producer, which was the premier real estate tool for managing client relationships and helped him leap-frog far more experienced agents in his office.
Top Producer also made him wonder why his brokers did not run the entire office around these basic principles. Later as a RE/MAX franchisee, Chris was introduced to Buffini and Company. Buffini and Company is a real estate coaching company that champions systems for working by referral. When Chris brought their 100 Days to Greatness training program, now called Peak Producers, to the agents in his office, Chris began to envision a real estate office environment where working by referral was an integral part of the DNA.
Chris soon found that only a small percentage of his agents were willing to commit to the work and the processes that working by referral entails. After all, taking the long view is not always conducive to making next month’s mortgage payment. Nevertheless, the agents who did embrace the concepts were by far the most productive agents in Chris’s office. They were also the ones who required very little of Chris’s time.
Chris started to dream about what his life would be like if the only agents he employed were agents who wanted to work by referral. What if he built a company around agents that shared this philosophy? He may not have the largest firm in town in terms of agent count, but he would likely be the most productive, and dare he dream, the happiest?
Building a company around ongoing productive relationships with our biggest fans seemed like a no-brainer for Chris. The icing on the cake was creating over time a predictable, sustainable, and even steadily increasing income stream. Working by referral is the first step to a profitable brokerage.
That wraps up this week! I’ll see you next week for The Client Experience: Avoiding the Commoditization Trap