By Matthew Collis

How well are you doing at keeping in touch with past clients and your sphere of influence? What can you be doing better? Answer the below questions and see for yourself. The more “true” answers you get, the better you are at keeping in touch and maximizing your referral and repeat business.

1. I send out a monthly newsletter or e-newsletter.
2. I have all my contacts set up on drip email marketing campaigns.
3. I schedule consistent “keep in touch” calls with my contacts.
4. I organize events every month or year, such as homebuyer seminars and client appreciation days.
5. I sponsor events, teams, and/ or clubs that I know my clients are involved in so I can stay “top of mind.”
6. I use a real estate CRM to schedule and organize my “keep in touch” and communication activities with everyone in my database.
7. I send out direct marketing pieces to my “A List” contacts.
8. I wish everyone in my database a happy birthday when the time comes.
9. I connect with clients and my SOI through social media.
10. I send thank you notes to clients to thank them for their referrals and for doing business with me.
11. I send thank you notes or small gifts to clients on their move-in date anniversaries.

See how you scored:

Eight or more true answers:
You’re an expert at keeping in touch. You have the right mindset when running your business and you know that keeping in touch and staying “top of mind” leads to referrals and repeat business. You work in a highly proactive manner and understand what long-term success in real estate sales entails.

Five to seven true answers: 
You’re on the right track, but you still have some work to do to ensure you’re doing everything you can to get the most return from your past clients.

Less than five true answers: 
You may be doing some things right, but there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done to become a true expert when it comes to keeping in touch and maximizing your number of referrals and returning clients. With some changes, you can make a real, positive impact on your business.

Matthew Collis is part of the Sales and Marketing Team at IXACT Contact Solutions Inc., a leading North American real estate CRM firm. In addition to overseeing many of IXACT Contact’s key sales and marketing programs, Collis works with REALTORS to help them achieve their goals through effective contact management and relationship marketing. IXACT Contact is a Web-based real estate contact management and marketing system designed to help Realtors get more referrals and manage the transaction side of their business.

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