When it comes to relationships, quality is often favored over quantity.
It’s true in our personal relationships—you probably have a core group of 2 to 5 friends you are closest with, then a scattering of other pals you see occasionally.
And it’s true in our professional relationships. As a real estate agent, I’m guessing you have a list of Top 25, 50, or 100 clients that you consider your VIPs, and they get a lot more attention and love than the rest of your database.
And that’s exactly how it should be. Those high quality relationships are priority #1.
Further down on your list of priorities, however, it doesn’t hurt to also always be growing your sphere of influence. The more people you meet, and the further you extend your reach, the more future business you’ll earn.
Some of the people you meet will just be passing acquaintances who eventually unsubscribe from your newsletter. Others will say, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of her, she’s big in this area” when their friend mentions your name. Some will become your clients, and later, referral sources. And some will be added to your list of VIPs, because they have become your most high value, revenue-generating advocates.
So yes, it’s important to always be meeting new people and growing your sphere. Because you never know when—or how—you’ll meet those life-changing individuals.
5 Ways To Expand Your Sphere of Influence
1) Get involved in your community.
Whether you decide to join a book club, sponsor a kids craft booth at your town’s fall festival, or volunteer regularly with a local nonprofit, being active in your community is a great way to meet new people and build your sphere.
Be genuine in your community involvement. If you’re doing charity work, your top priority should be to help others, not yourself.
Lender and motivational speaker Dave Behr can tell you exactly how it must be done: “My mother taught me to never walk into a room and say, ‘What can I get?’ Always walk into a room and say, ‘What can I give?'”
Related: To Get Real Estate Leads, Give Back
Learn how Dave Behr followed his “heart for service” to provide free motivational seminars during the pandemic—and how his genuine act of service grew his SOI.
2) Talk to strangers everywhere you go.
As children, we’re taught to avoid “stranger danger.” Fortunately, as adults, we can typically have perfectly lovely—and sometimes wonderful—interactions with strangers.
Whether you’re at the dog park, standing in line at Starbucks, or sitting in the auto mechanic’s waiting room, you are surrounded by opportunities to meet people. Strike up a conversation and turn those strangers into new acquaintances. Be authentic, helpful, and friendly. And before you part ways, hand them your business card to invite them into your sphere.
Not sure what to say? Check out these tips for striking up a conversation with a stranger!
3) Boost your SEO to get found in online search.
To extend your reach online and drive more people to your website, it’s a good idea to spend a little time on search engine optimization. Identify your target audience, figure out what information they’re looking for online that you can provide, then create content to meet their needs.
For example, if you are a real estate agent in Denver, you might write blog posts about “moving to Denver,” “buying and selling a home in Denver,” or “how to buy your very first home in Denver.”
A few SEO tips for realtors:
- Use ChatGPT to help you brainstorm topics, identify keywords, and write blog posts.
- When you have a lot of information to share with a lead or client, don’t send it all as emails. Instead, publish it to your website, then share links via email and social media directing people to read the longer content on your website. All of those links driving visitors to your website will signal to Google that you are a high-authority website and should be ranked accordingly.
- Remember that while it’s important to use keywords in your content, your top priority should be to provide value. Write for people first, search bots second. If it’s not useful or valuable, no one will read it.
To learn more, check out these articles:
- The Bare-Minimum SEO Guide for Real Estate Agents
- How a Blog Can Help With Real Estate Lead Generation
- Content Marketing for Real Estate Agents: 7 Steps To Get Started
4) Get more online reviews.
Another way to extend your sphere online is to make sure you’re getting plenty of good online ratings on Google, Yelp, Facebook, Realtor.com, and Zillow (these are the top online review sites for agents).
The best time to ask a client for a review is 3-5 days before or after closing. Feel free to offer suggestions: “It would be really helpful if you mentioned that time I…” or “I’d love it if you mentioned my speciality in relocations.”
Don’t forget to share your reviews on social media and embed them on your website for all the world to see!
For more tips, check out our list of 11 Best Practices for Getting Online Reviews.
5) Explore a new local business each month.
This sphere-building strategy doubles as a social media tactic. One day every month, pick a local business and go check it out. Introduce yourself to the people who work there, learn about what they offer and how they add value to the community, and ask them if you could take some photos for a feature on your Instagram or Facebook.
Your online audience will enjoy following along as you uncover hidden gems in your town. The small business owners will appreciate you promoting their business. And you will expand your sphere of influence.
Related: The Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Becoming a Neighborhood Expert
Position yourself as the go-to agent for your neighborhood or market. In this article, you’ll find tips for becoming a neighborhood expert and best practices for sharing info about your local market.
Grow & Nurture Your Sphere of Influence with Realvolve
With the right technology on your side, you can be smarter and more efficient in growing, nurturing, and managing your sphere.
Realvolve allows you to use automated workflows to help you grow your sphere. We provide some pre-built workflows (two great ones for growing your SOI are the Get Reviews and Past Client Follow-Up workflows), but you can also customize existing workflows and build your own.
As a real estate CRM, Realvolve integrates with tons of third-party apps (via Zapier) for easy contact import, provides you with relationship scores, and notifies you when it’s time to reach out to a contact to continue to nurture that relationship.
Every person and every process that’s a part of your real estate business can be managed in Realvolve. And since we believe the formula for real estate success is people (relationships) + process (systems), we feel it’s safe to say that Realvolve is the perfect tool to bring along on your climb to the top.
Get in touch today to learn more about Realvolve!
