I was recently invited to Dallas, Texas for a national conference of real estate agents, and sit on a panel to share my experience and successes in networking and building business relationships. While I was honored to learn that my peers and mentors considered me to be pretty good at relationship building, I quickly realized that I needed to easily summarize my approach in this area. This is the result of that effort.
1. Be authentic: There’s no one else who has your same story. We all experience life from a unique perspective. When we own our life experiences, we bring something new, fresh, and honest to conversations. People like people who are authentic.
2. Connect: Although we experience life through our own perspective, there is something we have in common with everyone: Find out what it is and let that be a connecting factor to move relationships from awkward first moments to the next level.
3. Have a Servant’s Heart: We are all struggling with something. Have compassion for people and a true willingness to help. Look people in the eye and hear what they are saying. Then ask, “what can I help you with?” or “what’s the one thing that needs to happen for you that would make everything else fall into place?” Would we stand out in that person’s mind? We sure would!
4. Follow Up like a Champ: If there is one thing many of us stink at, it is follow up. Doing what we say we are going to do seems simple, right? A good follow up to a first conversation with someone may be an email (or better-a phone call or hand written note) expressing how nice it was to meet and that we look forward to connecting again at some point. If we have promised an introduction to someone, we need to introduce them. Whatever we said we were going to do to help (see #3), do it – and do it at a level that exceeds the expectations of the other person.
5. Be a Connector: Whatever their answer in #3, surely we can think of someone who could be a good connection. If we are as diligent here as we were in #2 when we were looking for commonalities with our new connection, we have the workings of a great introduction. Find someone our new connection needs to know and send them an e-introduction. Be sincere. Let’s not just fire off an e-intro for the mere idea of sending an e-intro. This e-intro should be meaningful and a connection that could truly be helpful.
Things move so quickly and continue to get faster. We get so many people and products vying for our time and resources that its difficult to organize the information, let alone make a decision to refer a potential client to a business connection we have made. When we can slow down and get back to the basics with face-to-face conversations, authenticity, and the heart of a servant we will stand out from all the other junk. This makes room for strong relationships and solid referral partners. So let’s slow down and get very specific with our relationships. The reward is priceless…great relationships and great referrals…its a win-win for everyone!
Blog Contributer to Rainmakers – Lisa Treadwell
Lisa Treadwell is an Indiana native, born and raised on the west side of Indianapolis and is the Team Leader and owner of the Indy Real Estate Experts of CENTURY 21 Scheetz. She was named “Rainmaker of the Year” by her Rainmaker colleagues in 2014. Lisa believes that our natural skills and abilities are our gifts; and that once we find them, it is our job to hone them and then give them away. Lisa specializes in helping Indianapolis seniors downsize into low or no maintenance living, such as Independent Living, Assistant Living, Skilled Nursing, Memory Care, and 55+ housing options. Schedule a free Downsizing Consultation or get more information about Indianapolis downsizing here.
