Brian Buffini and several other lesser known real estate sales trainers preach a gospel known as “by referral only”.  The idea is that you someday provide such incredible service that your past clients will beat a path to your door in droves, and you’ll no longer have to advertise.

No, wait, that’s not really the idea.  That’s the idea behind the title.  If you search for “By Referral Only” on Google, you’ll find four or five companies doing pay per click advertising on that keyword, as well as a host of websites.  So the idea is “by referral only”, except when it’s not.

My own business philosophy is that referrals are the icing on the cake of doing a good job, not that I should be sending out some expensive drivel to everyone every month reminding them about daylight savings time and when they should prune their dinkleberries, meantime begging for referrals every time.  (Of course, if I were selling the expensive drivel, I’d probably tell you how important it is, too, but I’m not).

So I suppose that given that my marketing is successful, and given that the “by referral only” crowd clearly indulge in the same sort of not-by-referral-marketing that I do, I’ve historically taken a bit of a dim view of the whole by referral only movement (if that’s what it is). 

Lately, however, my marketing-friendly business model notwithstanding, I’ve been very fortunate in that my own personal business has been comprised almost exclusively of referrals from past clients, friends and other folks I know wanting to do business with me. 

The other night I got a call from a past client who bought a home in El Dorado Hills earlier this year referring his brother-in-law, who’s looking for an investment in the greater Sacramento area. 

Vicki and I were also very gratified recently that our real estate transaction coordinator, who — because of the business she’s in — knows a lot of different agents (including some that I would consider to be real “heavy hitters”), chose us to list her home for her.

In addition to those two that I’m working on now, my last two closed escrows are from folks I know personally.

Of course, marketing is the art of getting people you don’t know to like you, but it’s gratifying to know that the people who do know me think well enough to use me, too!

blog comments powered by Disqus