Collaborate with Your Referral Sources
When we listen, we can detect areas in which to offer help and provide tools.
The best, most effective strategies for acquiring and maintaining new business do not depend upon the delivery of pastries or a free lunch. Today, gaining business means searching for and then filling needs, recognizing gaps, appealing to goals, and ultimately providing tools for achieving those goals.
A defined process that leads to a better understanding of a prospect’s pain points, coupled with a plan of attack, enables a title agent to bring value to clients.
We’ve all been there. After weeks, perhaps months, of professionally approaching a real estate agent or lender prospect, the much-sought-after initial meeting gets scheduled.
Our thoughts turn toward how best to provide value to the prospect, within the bounds of compliance, that will sufficiently attract them to begin using our services.
Too often, however, our approach centers around providing the laundry list of goods and services our company offers. We run through that list hoping that at some point our prospect will react favorably and drill down into the particular offer they find irresistible.
In reality, this approach almost never works. What we have unwittingly done is wasted the prospect’s time by offering products or services that are not needed. The meeting ends with a polite “thank you,” and “we will let you know.”
There is a better approach, and it involves putting ourselves in the place of our potential referral source so we can view their business challenges through their eyes. It is a given that they are faced with the same type of struggles we face when trying to obtain business. They are seeking ways to attract their own referral sources, and they are spending time and money to do so.
Instead of laying our tools on the table hoping one will be useful to our prospect, the better approach would be a consultative one. Use the first five minutes of the meeting asking questions about business strategy and goals, methods currently being employed, and the history of success and failure.
When we listen, we can detect areas in which to offer help and provide tools.
For real estate agent prospects, this may involve keying-in on monthly meetings put on by the broker in charge. It is their obligation to provide meetings and speakers to bring value to their franchise, and to attract and keep top agents.
An offer to sponsor the food, as well as line up industry speakers, will go a long way toward obtaining an endorsement from the broker, while earning valuable face time with the agents with whom we are trying to connect. Providing a short segment on title insurance itself will show your prospects that you are a subject-matter expert and worthy of their consideration.
For lender prospects, offer to line up a real estate office presentation, with them as the main speaker, on lending topics of interest to agents. Again, offering to help with the food, line up the presentation, and participate in the program will bring value to your relationship with that lender. It is possible to work collaboratively with your prospects, employing a consultative approach and filling needs and gaps to help them in their business. This places you and your agency top-of-mind when the decision is made for title work.
Tags: business, Frank Camperlengo, title agents