One of the most popular ways of gaining new leads is establishing your real estate sphere of influence. Once you understand the benefits of building one and how much profit it brings, you will most probably add this technique to your real estate business plan.
What Is a Sphere of Influence?
Put simply, your sphere of influence are all the people that know about you as a person, you as a realtor or real estate agent, and about your real estate business.
This includes a variety of people, from your family members and close business partners to acquaintances and neighbors. Once these people know you, they should also like you and should come in some form of contact with you.
Now, you should know that just because of that, you have some influence on them. In return, they also have their sphere of influence and can further influence other people in your favor.
Who Is My Sphere of Influence?
Once you know what your real estate sphere of influence is, you also need to understand which people in your life could be your SOI. Here is who you can take into consideration:
Distant family members
Your close friends
Your child’s friend’s parents
Your spouse’s friends
Your neighbors
Acquaintances from the gym
Professional relationships like your old business partners, your accountant, and others.
If you’re scared that you won’t have enough contacts, don’t worry, you probably have much more than you think. For successful agents, SOI in real estate is an ever-growing theme, which expands with every new contact they make. Plan accordingly, and don’t stop there, since your sphere is expanding every day.
How to Build a Sphere of Influence?
Building your sphere of influence in real estate is dependent more on you as a person, and on your social impact, than on any strategies. Of course, there are some key guidelines to this technique, and these include:
Start with Your Existing Contacts
Even as you enter the real estate world, you, as a person, already have a sphere of influence. These are the people you influence and interact with, that are already in your circle. You can reach out to them, and let them know about your new business, and point out that they can contact you if they have any real estate needs.
Organize Your Contacts
The step of organizing your real estate SOI will probably take up most of the time. For brand new agents, a spreadsheet will do the trick. Next, they need to round up all of their contacts. If it’s the first time you’re contacting them, add them into segments: Friends, family, acquaintances, and so on. After you hear from them, add them into additional groups: Interested, buyers, sellers, etc.
Reach out to Your Real Estate SOI
This step is simple: Contact your real estate sphere of influence like you normally would. In other words, if you typically e-mail your contact, reach out to them via e-mail, or even post, if you call, do so again. Last but not least, comes social media, which has become a big part of our lives.
You can reach out to your contacts through different social platforms too, but more on this theme later. In the end, you can also segment your contact list by how you want to contact them: mail, phone, text, and so on.
Develop Your Message and Send It Out
Your sphere of influence in real estate is waiting, develop your message script and keep it concise and simple, and then send it out via desired means.
Get out There!
Taking part in community events, getting involved in charity, and joining a club will help you in reaching out to new potential leads, all of which will be part of your real estate sphere of influence.
Social Media Sphere of Influence
Before social media, one grew their real estate sphere of influence through mail and networking, but in today’s fast world, it’s much easier to influence your contacts through the mass messaging that is social media. These platforms allow you to grow your contact numbers exponentially and be reachable at any given time.
There are numerous social media sites and apps you can choose to focus on, some of these include:
Facebook: The mighty giant with billions of users.
Twitter: Communicate in brief texts.
LinkedIn: The most formal of all social media, this is a business-oriented site.
Instagram: Communicate through photos.
In conclusion, social media can be your means to growing your sphere of influence in the most economical way there is. We strongly agree with using it as a means of communication in your business strategy.
Why Do I Want to Expand My Sphere of Influence?
After going through these steps and facts about real estate SOI, you might still wonder: Why is this sphere of influence in real estate so important?
Because most of a real estate agent’s yearly revenue and business comes from their sphere of influence. Research shows that 65% of an agent's total revenue comes from their sphere of influence, or real estate SOI. That is, 64% of all home sellers have worked with their agents in the past, or have found them through referral of a friend or family member.
That is why every real estate agent should work to expand their real estate SOI, reach out to it, generating more leads for their business.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter if you reach out to your contacts through e-mail, post, social media, or in person, the key thing is that you’re reaching out. If you plan on growing your business, it pays to update your contact list now and then, and stay in touch with your real estate sphere of influence. Some of them might grow into leads, and eventually into sales.
We hope this brief article helped you with answering your questions about how to build a Sphere of Influence in Real Estate, and that you will add this technique to your business plan.