One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors is this: "All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All not being not quite so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends." Jeffrey Gitomer leads of his Little Black Book of Connections with those two sentences. And that is before you even turn to the table of contents page!!! So you KNOW it must be important. And it is. Whether you are a Mortgage Officer calling on Realtors, a Realtor making a listing presentation, or WHATEVER it is you are doing, if you develop a friendship, it becomes easier to make connections with them for a specific transaction or series of transactions. AND when that friend refers a client to you or you to them [this is a two way street], you have someone who already has begun to trust you. And once trust has begun, it is a whole lot easier to build even MORE trust.
Nobody likes to receive cold calls. Just as much as people don't like making them. So by looking at people differently, as potential friends, you will increase the odds of getting warm referrals. And the more warm referrals you get, the less cold calling you need to do. It is a cycle. And it really makes sense when you think about it. Gitomer also says [before the table of contents] that "you don't need more techniques and strategies, you need more friends." Pretty simple stuff. Instead of the great products, great service, great prices mantra that everyone touts, why not try to get to know something about that Realtor or that client that you can ask about during your next visit or conversation? Don't you think, "Hey, Jim. You must be happy about that trade the Red Sox just made" will mean more than "We just came out with a new program"? The discussion about the program will come in time. Especially, if Jim talks about a transaction that is not going so smoothly and you can relate it to what you have to offer. And even if you offer a suggestion to complete a nearly complete transaction, you will have helped. If the competitor cannot complete the transaction, at least you made the suggestion. And if they can as a result of the transaction, guess who looks pretty good? And that is a perfect opportunity for follow-up and to ask for the shot at the next transaction. You provided a solution that got the agent paid or thought of something that might have gotten the agent paid.



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