Haven’t Contacted Your Past Clients in a While?

If this article title sounds like you, you are in good company. Many in the industry have not been doing this as well as they should, including me! I could claim to have a good excuse, as I’ve been out of the St. Louis area for 10 years. But I didn’t do as good of a job keeping in touch as I should have. I’m luck to have found 11 of my past clients still living in the home I sold them, one of which dates clear back to 1983. I love to joke that I’m too good with buyers and don’t get much repeat business. But how much referral business has this cost me over the years. So I’m writing this and organizing my thoughts as much for me as for you. At least I only have to apologize to these 11 people and about 10-15 others I found. At least most of those sold after I left the area! But it would have been nice to have had them contact me and ask for a referral of someone good. And what about all the others who moved again before I left here! In fact, poor record keeping and organization in the years I was busiest left me with no record of much of my sales! And back then the MLS only kept records of sales for 2 years. From what I see now in the MLS, they started keeping sales records longer in the MLS the year after I moved. So there is no way I can find those names!

If you are fairly new to the business, please let my story above be a lesson to you. Start now keeping your records of your sales and start keeping in touch with your past clients as soon as the sale is closed.

But for those who are in the same situation I am in while I’m writing this article, here are some ideas I picked up several years ago. I hope to have my past clients contacted soon and hope this article inspires you to do it too. These ideas are from an on-line Mastermind Group that I have been a member of since 2000. One of them members confessed that he had not been doing this good and asked for help.

Some of the responses were:

Compose a letter to them that apologizes to them for the lack of contact and tells them that you are now working to build a referral business and need their help.
Offering special services for past clients.
Take the time needed to rebuild your relationship with them, then the referrals will come naturally.
Do not pressure them to give you leads.
Pledge to yourself never to let this happen again and create an action plan on how to keep in touch with past clients in the future.

The author of this article is Linda Grissette. Some of you may remember her as Linda Grayson. Linda is a Broker-Associate with River City Real Estate. She is also the company trainer. Learn more about how River City Real Estate can help you make more money...even in today's market...browse through this site.

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