It pays to know what the consumer is thinking...so that you can adapt your business practices to meet the consumer's needs!

I came across this survey result and sent it along to my fellow CRS (Council of Residential Specialists) instructors.

"iHouse Web Solutions recently surveyed a number of real estate agents. Their survey is not as comprehensive as some surveys we as CRS instructors have seen, but I thought the section ‘Movement of Marketing Spend’ had some interesting conclusions.
Their survey ranked lead sources as follows

1. Client referrals
2. Repeat clients
3. Professional network referrals
4. Agent’s own Web site
5. IDX search on the agent’s own Web site

"Least valuable lead sources? Print ads and open houses.
You can view the results here."

I draw several conclustions from the iHouse survey:

• Satisfy today’s clients and you’ll have tomorrow’s referrals.  Service (before and after the sale) is the name of the game.
• Again, satisfying today’s clients and keeping in touch with them means that they will return to you in future years.  You do have a system for regular contact with your past clients, don’t you?
• Networking with your fellow agents means business for you.  Here, we are talking about your being active in your local association, attending state, national and franchise conventions.  Again, you should have a good followup system where agents who can send you business hear from you regularly.  Simply handing out a business card at a cnvention and asking for referrals just doesn’t do the job!
• Having a deep, consumer-oriented Web site is a key to succeeding in today’s world of real estate.  Remember: 84% of consumers surveyed by NAR last year went first to the Web for information on houses and agents.  Without a strong presence on the Web, you are swimming upstream when it comes to generating new business!

Whatever your market condition is at the moment, you can be doing a good business…..just pay attention to what brings in whatever business is out there and go after it!

BTW: Have you signed up for a CRS 2-day course yet?  They make you money!  Go to CRS.com for a list of courses and locations.

It’s a beautiful day here on the lake in Reston…hope it’s a beautiful day wherever you are, too!

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