Real Estate Agents and Their Sphere of Influence (SOI)
As a real estate agent, it is important to understand what your sphere of influence (SOI) is to understand how you can generate leads for your business.
You can consider people who do not dislike you as people who you can influence. People you have met throughout your life both personally and professionally can be a part of your SOI.
It is important to brainstorm and think about who falls within your SOI to decide how you can let them know about your real estate business. People in your SOI can help generate leads for your business. Your sphere of influence may include the following people:
- Former classmates
- Your family and friends
- Your spouse’s friends and family
- Social media friends and followers on different platforms
- Members of the same social clubs (fraternities, sororities, country clubs)
- Members of other groups (nonprofit organizations, parent-teacher association, parents from children’s sports teams, homeowner’s association)
- People you do business with (your doctor, lawyer, hairstylist, barber, veterinarian, work colleagues)
- Your email list
Building Your SOI
There are ways you can build your SOI to help grow your business.
You can consider growing your SOI online and offline to make sure you do not limit your growth to only one style of business expansion. Consider doing the following steps such as:
Get Referrals
Ask people in your SOI for referrals. People you know may know someone in need of a home. Your former customers can be a good source of new leads for your business.
Happy customers may provide good leads to new customers who need to buy or sell a home.
Direct Mail
Send out direct mail to homeowners in an area that you feel good marketing to in the states where you have an active real estate license. Direct mail for real estate agents is a great way to reach someone who you have never met who may enjoy working with you.
If there is a neighborhood that you want to work with, consider sending the residents postcards with updates on the market. You can send homeowners automated home valuations to peak their interest.
Social Media
Consider posting on social media accounts so that your friends and followers can see the work you do for your real estate clients.
Social media posts can help you get leads from people who may need a home now or in the future. Post your available properties on your social media accounts to generate interest and sales for your business.
Your SOI can share your posts on their social media pages, which can grow your SOI outside of your current network. You can also consider giving out gift cards to people who share your posts as a thank you gift for helping you grow your business.
Attend Networking Events
If there are networking events in your area, attend them to meet new people and grow your SOI. You can attend events as a guest or have a table and pass out business cards to people who visit your table.
People who give you their contact information can go on your email list and you can reach out to them to see what their real estate needs are now or in the future.
Consider going to Real estate investor meetings to see how you can assist investors who need properties. If there are online meetings, consider networking with business owners and tell the guests about your real estate business.
Local Advertisements
As a real estate agent, it is important to show you support for your community. Consider advertising in local publications such as newspapers, online groups, or giving donations to school events.
You can participate in booster clubs for local schools by giving donations. Supporting teen scholarship pageant and fundraisers help students win scholarships and increase your SOI.
Keep in Touch
There are ways you can keep in contact with your SOI. Schedule time to keep in contact with your SOI.
You can use your calendar to block out time to follow-up with your SOI and note upcoming events. You can document the birthdays of people in your SOI such as friends, colleagues, and former customers.
Also, schedule time to personally update your social media sites and respond to your friends and followers online. It is important that you comment on their posts and not delegate all your social media interactions to an assistant.
Follow-up with people you have met at events and send them emails and special notes, so you do not lose contact with people you have met throughout your life.
Use Technology
Business systems and technology can help you grow your business and increase your SOI. Consider subscribing to text message services so you can advertise properties.
You can use keywords that allow people to opt into your messages. Using a text message service can help you send messages to people based on the properties that meet their criteria from your listings.
You can also send emails to people and include pictures of the properties you list. Use a service such as Real Geeks to help meet your marketing needs and increase your sales.
You can schedule your emails each time you sell a home to inform people of the sale and give your email list an idea of the properties you list and what properties sell for in the current market.
Use an autoresponder to send out emails to your email list of potential buyers when you have a new listing to see if they are interested in the property that meets their desires.
Show Gratitude
It is important to show gratitude to former clients. Agents can use direct mail for real estate clients to send thank you cards. Treating your clients like they are special is a very important part of increasing your SOI to help grow your business.
This may be effective when a homeowner has worked with you that has really enjoyed working with you.
Showing appreciation to former clients may help them see you have not abandoned them after the closing and help build the relationship beyond the sale or purchase of their last property.
People who have purchased a home in the past year may want to help you grow your business if they are happy with their purchase and see that you remember their anniversary of the purchase or special events such as their birthday or wedding anniversary.
By keeping in contact with people in your SOI, you can have a successful real estate business. While former clients may not want a new home within the next year, they may need to move if their family grows.
It is important to keep in contact with former clients on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn because you may see that they got a promotion or need to move to a new city due to a promotion or military transfer.
It may be easier for people to choose to work with you when you make it a habit to stay in touch with them.