CR Magazine - Summer 2017

Continued from page 13
One thing was consistent though: I was only going to succeed
at a high level if I focused on getting clients. But the question
loomed: How? How in the world was I supposed to engineer a
bunch of relationships and then spin those relationships into
making a living? It was daunting and scary.
THE PLAN
It wasn’t until I read The Millionaire Real Estate Agent in late 2004
that finall found a real strateg to be successful as a O ® .
Among the other useful lead-generation strategies Gary Keller’s
book offered was the ouch model. his plans concept is eas
to understand: buyers and sellers choose a REALTOR ® based on
familiarity, so make yourself “familiar” or “top of mind” for them
when they think about real estate.
Familiarity is a key strategy across industries. For example, soft
drink monoliths Coke and Pepsi have marketing plans designed to
“touch” every American with their brand 3,500-times per year. The
reasoning is simple when oure thirst think of our products first.
The 33-Touch model for a real-estate agent has the same goal:
“When you think about buying or selling a home, think of me!”
Keller’s research in the early 2000s found that for a REALTOR ® to
stay top of mind, they need to “touch” their audience (with their
brand) 33 times per year.
This made sense to me. It’s so simple! I had always been organized
about keeping names, addresses, and phone numbers. I’m a
planner — so putting this marketing plan together was right
up my alley. And the simplicity of just touching people I’ve met
and allowing THEM to contact ME when they were ready (versus
me having to try to squeeze a sale out of everyone I met),
was refreshing.
But the best part wasn’t that it “felt right.” The best part was
the intended results. The research Keller did not only found
the “magic number” of touches needed, but
also what the RESULTS would be: for every
100 people you “touch” 33 times, you get
17 closings.
So I got started: I had just 85 people. These
were friends, neighbors, co-workers, and/or
people who I thought might possibly need some
assistance now or in the future. Under the model,
with just 85 people in my database, I could
expect just 14 closings. In other words, I could
make a pretty-good living, but my database
wasn’t big enough for where I wanted to go.
I aimed high and set my goal at 40 closings for
m first ear. his meant would need to build
my “met” database to about 240 people. I set the goal by doing the
math: with 17 closings for every 100 people (or 1:6). If I wanted 40
transactions, that meant I needed to have 240 mets in my database.
Open houses are primarily where I built my database. People
signed in. I would send them a note on Monday, thank them for
...for a REALTOR ®
to stay top of
mind, they need
to “touch”
their audience
(with their brand)
33 times per year.
• EVERY MONTH: mail a postcard, letter or
other marketing piece that promotes me as a REALTOR ®
(call-to-action, just listed, just sold, etc.) = 12 touches
• EVERY MONTH: send a mass email to
everyone in my met database (newsletter, just
listed/sold, market report, video, etc.) = 12 touches
• 5 TIMES/YEAR: send a specialized/local
marketing piece: a fridge calendar, a Cubs magnet
schedule, a Chicago summer-events schedule, a Bears
magnet schedule, and a holiday card. = 5 touches
• 4 TIMES/YEAR: connect personally with every
person in your database once per quarter. I might email
a list of all the closings in someone’s building in the past
12 months, send a handwritten card with a quick market
stat about their neighborhood, etc. = 4 touches
coming, and ask them to call me anytime if they needed anything
blah blah blah. And parties or networking events worked too:
ME: “So Jane, what do you do for a living?”
JANE: “Oh — I’m a food scientist. What do you do Phil?”
ME: “I sell real estate.”
Boom! We exchange cards, I send them a note “Nice to meet you,
call me if you ever need help buying or selling a home blah blah
blah.” And voila! My database starts growing.
With my database growing, I needed to make
sure I was “touching” everyone 33 times per
year. So I put a marketing plan together, which
you can find above.
In 2005 I started executing this plan as my
primary tool for developing clientele. At the
end of my first full year in the business (2005),
I had a database of 189 “mets.” The 33-touch
model says I should have closed 32 sales. It
was almost dead on! I closed 33 transactions
for $ 11.9 million in sales volume my first year
using only this plan.
Slow and steady, this plan got me through
the housing-recession unscathed (never a “down” year) and my
database has grown to produce a predictable $ 20-25 million/year
in sales volume year after year for my small team in Chicago. If
you can understand and master this plan, you will have a very
successful, scalable and predictable real estate sales business.
14 Chicago REALTOR ® Magazine