We now are transitioning to a new leadership team. It is a group with great energy and vision. There will soon be changes with a new website and a new reservation system. While these changes may cause some short term problems and issues, it will greatly streamline our systems and reduce the time spent by our volunteer board members and chairs. I appreciate your patience as any change often comes with some temporary issues and problems. This is particularly true when it involves new technology.
In conclusion, I hope that you will join me for the 2010 Leadership Program's class presentation. The Leadership Program participants will make presentations on leadership transitions and systems and mentoring that will outline a framework for future programs and initiatives.
Elizabeth Robb, 2010 WCR-STL President
IN THIS MONTH'S E-ZINE
• President's Message, p. 1
• Editor's Notes - In This Issue, p. 2
• 2010 Expo & Fashion Show - A Passion for Fashion, p. *
• National Women's Council of REALTORS® 2010 Annual Meeting Draws Crowd to New Orleans, p. *
• Leadership Series Update, p. *
• Articles from Guest Blogger Anne Marie Malfi, p.
• Support Our Newsletter Sponsors, p. *
Michelle Silies, WCR-STL Public Relations Chair
Metropolitan St. Louis WCR's 2010 Expo and Fashion Show a Huge Success!
Members and guests of the Metropolitan St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Council of REALTORS® enjoyed an exciting afternoon and evening on November 10th as the chapter hosted its 2010 Vendor Expo and Fashion Show. The event was generously sponsored by the chapter's Affiliate Members INhance IT! Moving Forward, BPG Home Warranty & Inspection, First American Title and USA Mortgage.
Held in the Versailles Ballroom of the Sheraton Westport Chalet, the event featured numerous vendors who opened their booths at 4:00 p.m. free to all who chose to browse their services and merchandise. Attendees were encouraged to bring donations of gently used clothing for Dress for Success, a local charity providing professional attire, support network and career development tools to disadvantaged women.
The event featured a cash bar with complimentary drink tickets sponsored by Continental Title Company and a ticketed plate dinner. Letty DeMay, President of the St. Louis Association of REALTORS®, hosted the evening's program with a special performance by The Jeweltones and the Fashion Show beginning at 8:00 p.m. Macy's provided casual, professional and evening attire modeled by local real estate professionals and affiliates who were sponsored by chapter members, expo vendors and industry partners. The Fashion Show was orchestrated and emceed Liz Connolly of INhanceIT! Home Staging and was an audience favorite as they enjoyed their colleagues working the runway.
Topping off the evening was the chapter's successful Silent Auction fundraiser and a 50/50 Raffle to benefit the President's Choice Charity for 2010 - Metropolitan St. Louis WCR's Scholarship Fund, initiated to assist the professional development of WCR REALTOR® Members by providing funds for professional development courses sponsored by the Metropolitan St. Louis Women's Council of REALTORS®, the St. Louis Association of REALTORS® and the National Association of REALTORS®.
Metropolitan St. Louis WCR is grateful to SLAR and the real estate community for their support of this event and the continued support of the chapter's efforts to provide professional education and leadership training for REALTORS® and Affiliates in metropolitan St. Louis area.
NATIONAL WOMEN'S COUNCIL OF REALTORS® 2010 ANNUAL MEETING DRAWS CROWD TO NEW ORLEANS - By Jan Thomas, 2010 WCR Missouri Treasurer and 2011 WCR Missouri President Elect
Missouri members of the Women's Council of REALTORS® traveled to New Orleans this month for the annual meeting of the National organization. The conference was held at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel November 3-7, in conjunction with the National Association of REALTORS® annual meeting.
Included in the program for 2010 were two PMN courses (The Business of Your Business and Leadership Skills Training), presentation of the Strategic Plan for 2011-2013, awarding of PMN designations, Regional Caucuses, educational sessions, speakers, strategic forums, the installation of 2011 line officers, and election of 2011 Financial Secretary and three new members of the Executive Committee.
Missouri was well-represented nationally. Jean Ewell, 2009 Metropolitan St. Louis Local Chapter President, is a Leadership Training Strategic Forum Committee member. Randi Bishop of Columbia served as Regional Vice President for Region IX in 2010. Missouri State President Barb Keathley, State Women's Council Governor Caroleen Ferrell, Regional VP Randi Bishop, and Local Chapter Presidents Cindy Williams, Elizabeth Robb, Stephanie Biggs, Tami Adams and Mary Richards cast their votes in the electoral process, where Jo Kenney of Georgia ran from the floor to win the spot of Financial Secretary on the national officer line.
PMN certificates and pins were awarded to Missourians Elizabeth Robb, Carolyn Mantia, Michelle Silies and Jan Thomas, all from the Metropolitan St. Louis chapter. The Strategic Plan for 2011-2013 was presented and approved by the Governing Board. The National Governing Board elected three new members to the Executive Committee: Bob Nachman of Arizona, Melissa Zimbleman of Nevada and Sandra Hunt of Texas. Educational opportunities included a panel on political involvement, technology training, leadership opportunities, business planning, future real estate trends, evolving with the times and orientation sessions for incoming officers.
National officers for 2011 were installed at a Saturday evening banquet: President Margo Willis of the state of Washington; President-Elect Bobbie Nelson of California; Recording Secretary Anita Davis of Maryland; and Financial Secretary Jo Kenney of Georgia.
Special recognition is extended to all the Missourians who were able to attend and participate in the 2010 annual fall conference: Barb Keathley, Carole Harris, Caroleen Ferrell, Randi Bishop, Jan Thomas, Elizabeth Robb, Stephanie Biggs, Tami Adams, Debbie Heidbreder, Leah Petras, Cindy Williams, Edwina Conley, J Morris, Carolyn Mantia, Vivian McBride, Mary Richards, Pat Tackett, Lana Nelson, Sue Arnold, Stella Lee, Cindy Butler and Betty Knowles.
The next National meeting will be the Mid-Year Conference held in Washington, D.C., May 11-15, 2011. Set aside the dates on your calendars and make your plans to attend this meeting, where Chapter Excellence awards for 2010 will be presented! Missouri's local chapters are on track to win!
LEADERSHIP SERIES UPDATE by Jane Martin, Leadership Facilitator
The final Leadership Series Class was held on Monday, November 15th at RE/MAX Results on Manchester. The Participants spent time discussing the implementation of the last session, working on team projects and ended with each making a speech on why members should become involved in the Leadership Series. A video was made of each speech. Time was allowed for each participant to critique their own speech, and the rest of the class also provided feedback. The speeches were an implementation of a public speaking session given by Past National WCR President, Becky Hill, in Chicago earlier this year. An evaluation was completed at the end of the session on the year's program.
The 2010 Participants have been exceptional and have worked very hard to accomplish their group projects. The projects will be presented at the December Business Resource Meeting.
2011 Leadership Series Facilitators Jane Martin, Elizabeth Robb, Jean Ewell, Jan Thomas, Carolyn Mantia, Liz Connolly, Vivian McBride and Michelle Silies are currently in the process of reviewing applications for the 2011 Leadership Series Class. The 2011 Class Participants will be announced at the December Business Resource Meeting. The Facilitators are also in the process of preparing a Training Program presentation on our Chapter's Leadership Series to present to National in 2011.
The Leadership Series Facilitators and Participants are especially grateful to USA Mortgage for graciously sponsoring our Chapter's program for 2009, 2010 and 2011.
I think we can all agree that our clients all want to feel special, whether they are new or they have been working with us for months or even years. They will also continue to go to where they feel they are wanted and appreciated.
Think about it from your own personal experience. Would you continue to go to a restaurant or service provider that didn’t make you feel invited or special? If they didn’t recognize you or provide you with an exceptional customer service experience would you return, mention them to others or would you simply move on?
Have you ever given thought to whether "new" clients are more important than "existing" clients? I think they are both important and each of them needs to feel that way. Surely we all want to grow our businesses and working with new prospects is an essential part of growing our business but just as essential is in how we treat our “existing” clients.
It comes down to having a system in place to stay in contact with both existing and new clients to ensure everyone's needs are being met.
In a previous blog I wrote about how you can categorize your clients in your database to ensure you’re providing them with information that is relevant to them. Feel free to review that information and at the end I will give you a few simple ways to go about establishing ways to stay in touch with both new and existing clients.
Here are 3 Rules to follow to help you stay on the mind of your existing clients. (this will become important for your “new” prospects and clients as you start working with them and establish a good practice for staying in touch with them.)
Rule #1
Call Them. Yes, in this day of technology – emails, social networking and text messages – we often use our phone less to reach out to clients. It could be that we’re busy and multi tasking, possibly we’ve been out of touch with a former client and we’re afraid to pick up the phone and call them or we’re not sure what we should be calling them about. Whatever the reason, we need to let those existing clients know they are “still” important to us. Try it, you may be surprised to hear a happy tone in their voice that they’re hearing from you or what if they know someone that is possibly in the market to buy or sell a home?
Rule #2
Recognize them. There are numerous ways to go about this. A few off the top of my head – invite them to a client event, seminar you know they will find interesting, local events that you are blogging about, blog about their business, refer people you know to their business. The important thing to remember with this one is you have be listening to know your clients and prospects to know what’s important to them – what they are interested in otherwise you are sending them info they don’t have an interest in and that can be a turn off. You want to engage with them and be seen as a valuable resource.
Rule #3
Stay in Contact. This does not mean only when you have work with them, but especially when you don’t! No one likes to be forgotten. Send a personal note, forward an email that you know they will find helpful, follow Rule #1 – the point is just stay in contact.
- Create a schedule of contact in your database or email – once a month (your newsletter – be sure to get their permission), once a quarter (an email, or a call.) Once you put a plan together you won’t have to think when did I last contact that client or you won’t let too much time pass without letting them know they’re important to you.
- While it’s important to contact them, it’s also important to make a note about why you contacted them. Perhaps you sent them a note to remind them of an upcoming event or you forwarded an email and they loved receiving it. This way you will be able to note something that is important to THIS client. Don’t rely on your memory – jot a note in their file or your database.
- Invite them to your social networking – invite them to participate and engage with you and your contacts – connections can be made and enhanced.
- Invite them to your blog. Often they will discover you’re writing something of interest to them that you might not know is a “hot” button for them – it could initiate a call or email from this client and you’ve got contact. Especially do this if you’re going to blog about their business or a recent interaction you’ve had with them.
- The possibilities are endless so feel free to share other ways you have for staying in touch with your clients?
My final point is this: Put a system in place, whatever works for you and your clients, to make this happen regularly and consistently.
Establishing a good system for contact with existing clients and prospects is a good practice to follow if you’re interested in growing your business. A trust already exists with your existing clients and that has the potential for growth of your business by way of referrals. If you establish this practice your new prospects and clients will also benefit because you will have an established method of contact from them beginning and won’t have to be focused on playing catch up with them to reestablish that trust.
Don’t let so much time pass that your clients and prospects feel forgotten and then ultimately YOU are the one that becomes forgotten.
What Rules do you follow when it comes to maintaining your “existing” client relationships vs. only being focused on the "new"? Are they different or the same?
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~ Copyright 2010
With so many tools, websites and vehicles available to us to extend our reach and communicate with the general public, I think too often we forget about one of our most valuable resources - our past clients - when it comes to growing our business. They are one of our greatest resources for new business and in this post I would like to share some thoughts and ideas for enhancing your image and becoming one of their greatest and most valuable resources.
Does this scenario apply to you? You're at the closing table with your client, the keys are handed to them, maybe you have a phone call with them shortly afterwards, a few emails are sent to them or dare I say - you have no contact with them after than transaction?
Past clients loyalty can easily be broken unless you have a plan for maintaining these very important relationships.
I've seen it happen and have been employed by agents to assist them in reestablishing these relationships. It doesn't have to be this way - you can maintain your emotional connection with your previous clients and here are a few things to focus on to make that happen.
1. Database
Organize your clients in your database. Move them from "current client" status to "previous client"or to a group that makes sense. See this post in which I described how to organize your database and email campaigns so they make the most sense and keep you efficient with regular contact and with content that matters to them. If you have not been in regular contact (within the last 2 years) you may need to face letting them go, but please learn from this mistake and don't let it happen with any of your clients you are currently or will be working with going forward.
2. Your Personal Story
Twice a year send them a personal note - a story of what you're doing but don't make it all about real estate - you can certainly relate it to what you're doing but share a part of you - the same way you do in your blogs. You may be saying "why would my clients want to know what I'm doing?" Because you've just spent a lot of time with this client, handling a very personal and emotional transaction for them- that's why. Maybe you're known as a Realtor® who handle and specializes in a certain niche that you can relate to your personal life. The point of this letter is to create, maintain and further the personal and emotional connection that was started with this client he minute they decided to hire you.
3. Real Estate Letters/Newsletters/Emails
This is where you keep your clients informed about what is going on in real estate, your market (market updates, highlighting new businesses in your area),(classes you are taking, new team members, etc .) and providing helpful advice and information, for example, the Homebuyer Tax Credit. your business
This is a great way to share your fun side with clients and shows them just how approachable you are and will encourage them to engage with you. Here's a fun site"fun" holidays to celebrate and you can tie them into things you are doing in real estate. For example, February 8th is Clean out your computer day, what a great way to remind your clients to back up their computers and remove any unwanted files, etc. If they're a fairly recent client you can even send them a disk or zip file with all of their real estate documents especially since tax season is coming up. Talk about being a valuable resource! that gives you some
5. Your Brochure and Business Cards
Twice a year send them a reminder of your services. Ever hear the phrase - out of sight, out of mind? This is a great opportunity to let them know you're still active in real estate and to let them know how much you value their business and any referrals (you never know if putting this little reminder out there will bring you a new referral if you simply assume it won't work.) This along with all the items you are sending throughout the year is what builds and increases the likelihood that your sphere of influence will reach out to their sphere of Influence. Do you honestly think they will refer or mention you to anyone they come in contact with if you haven't been in "regular" contact with them?
Another great opportunity to not only share what you're involved in, but a great way to engage your clients. So many of you are involved in giving back to your community - perhaps a client would also love to be involved and you just sparked their interest. This not only gives you the opportunity to interact with them again on a personal level for a cause you both believe in but it helps promote your cause and that's something that everyone can benefit from.
The point is throughout this process, you have shown your clients you care to stay in touch with them and you did it in both a fun and informative way.
Important Reminder:
Be sure to review your all your contact content and make sure you have your blog, website and social networking sites not only mentioned but hyperlinked so it's easy to connect with you.
I hope this post helped you in the following ways:
- Got you thinking about how important it is to stay in touch(both past and present) with your clients
- Created an easy step by step plan for how to connect and stay in touch with clients
- Reminded you to treat your sphere of influence as a valuable resource
- Convinced you that you can be a valued and trusted resource for your clients
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~ Copyright 2010
