100 Ideas for Socially Responsible Prospecting for Realtors
Real Estate Agents: Feeling uncertain about nurturing your client database? We’ve put together a list of socially responsible activities to keep your business growing and your clients engaged!
Database/ Prospecting
1. Create your Top 50 favorite past clients list and gather their information.
a. Birthdays, anniversaries, closing anniversary, wedding anniversary, hobbies, charities, restaurants, etc. Don’t have this info? Call them or send an “All About You” form.
2. Create a list of your Top 50 VIPs.
a. These are the people who are important to you in your life personally and professionally – dot connectors.
3. Create a list of your Top 50 Business People (Potential referral partners, builders,
CPAs, etc.).
a. Same as above. I can send you the templates for these lists.
4. Plan your neighborhood farming campaign (Think who, what, where, when).
5. Call 10 of your past clients every day and ask how they’re feeling and if there’s anything you can help with. Tell them you’re thinking of them.
6. Call 10 of your VIPs every day. Ask them how they’re feeling, how their business is going and if there’s anything you can do to help. Tell them you’re thinking of them.
7. Call your sellers in process and buyers and sellers under contract every Tuesday and Thursday.
8. Call your preapproved buyers every Wednesday with updates.
9. Send 5 hand written notes per day (that’s 150 by the end of the month!)
10. Research 3 CRMs for your business.
11. Call 3 new builders per day and ask how you can help.
12. Send an Evidence of Success to your database every month.
13. Send a Letter of the Heart to people in your Top 50 lists every month.
14. Reach out to your best divorced past clients and ask them for a referral to their family law attorney or mediator. These professionals are great referral sources.
15. Reach out to your best self-employed borrowers and ask for a referral to the CPA who does their taxes. These professionals are great referral sources.
16. Send postcards to the neighborhood you’re farming with a list of price ranges of the active buyers who need to buy now.
17. Post the message in #16 to social media.
18. Interview a mortgage expert to talk about rates and when to consider refinancing.
19. Send a video to your clients and social spheres about Fannie and Freddie mortgage forbearance.
20. Create a client gifting program (new buyers, sellers, under agreement, approval, closing, anniversary, birthday, etc.).
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Send a pack of “Forget me Not” seeds to your clients with a note saying they’re in your thoughts
22. Send all of last year’s clients copies of their closing disclosures for tax prep.
23. Send cute, branded onesies to your clients with new babies.
24. Create a virtual home selling/buying SOP. Zoom, social media, phone, text, virtual showings, etc.
25. Call clients from the first year you were in business to let them know you’re thinking of them.
26. Call all of your past clients to see if they’ve looked into refinancing their current mortgage.
27. Ask your past clients if they use a financial advisor. If they don’t, refer them to one. If they do, ask them for an introduction.
28. Ask your past clients if they use an estate planning attorney. If they don’t, refer them to one. If they do, ask them for an introduction.
29. Buy 25 Berenstain Bears Moving Day books from Amazon and send them, along with a handwritten note on the inside cover, to all of your current clients with young kids.
30. Send “peeps” to your clients letting them know you’re checking in and care about your “peeps”.
31. Send preapproved clients Bob’s Housing “Return on Investment” video exercise.
32. Send last year’s clients branded “Kiss the Homeowner” grilling aprons along with a ‘smores kit. You might as well grill in style!
33. Memorial Day and July 4th: Set small American flags by the road in front of all of the houses in the neighborhoods you farm. It’s a nice gift for the residents to wake up to.
34. Buy a chess timer and time out all of your REAL prospecting time for one week.
35. Provide expired listings greater than 6 months old with stats on the market. Show them people are buying!
Tech, Social Media, Zoom and Video
36. Register for a Zoom account.
37. Host a virtual open house through Zoom
38. Host a virtual walk through for a new listing
39. Host a virtual Happy Hour for your “Top” lists (past clients, VIPs, friends, family, etc. Trivia night, raise a glass, etc!)
40. Interview a local expert in town on best practices in social distancing
41. Interview a local expert on causes in your community important to you.
42. Interview a local business owner, share the video and post to social media.
43. Interview a home inspector about best socially distancing practices during a home inspection.
44. Learn how to use TikTok. Make one and upload it. ESPECIALLY if your kids are horrified by it!
45. Sponsor lunch for local social providers. (police, fire, town employees, food pantry, medical staff, etc.).
46. Host a virtual happy hour for the social spheres you belong to (church, book club, Rotary, etc.)
47. Zoom Fundraiser: Host a happy hour and have everyone in it Venmo you $5. Donate the money to someone/a group who needs it and thank your attendees.
48. Display your clients’ new home on your Zoom virtual background on their next buyer/seller update.
100 Socially Responsible Business Ideas for Real Estate Agents
49. Keep track of new listings, UAG and closings in your town(s) and post to social media 1X per week.
50. Create a small business mastermind group on social media.
51. Host a SURPRISE! birthday party for someone over Zoom.
52. Interview local bank managers to see if you might be able to do business together.
They get walk-in preapproval inquiries. They could be good referral sources.
53. Send a video to your clients on the importance of a home equity line.
54. Refer them to your favorite local banker.
55. Research and interview reverse mortgage loan officers (be sure it’s all they do).
56. Hire a magician, sponsored by you, to perform a magic show for kids over Zoom.
57. Sponsor a socially responsible food truck for your neighborhood.
58. Sponsor a socially responsible food truck for the neighborhoods you farm.
59. Cancel your Zillow lead account
60. Post to your personal Facebook page every day. (Be vulnerable, relatable and authentic).
61. Create a Facebook professional page (If you already have one, update it).
62. Create a Facebook group just for your clients. (Community events, tradespeople recommendations, etc.).
63. Update LinkedIn
64. Post to your personal Instagram account every day. (Don’t have one? Make one).
65. Color your hair? Post a video on Facebook of you doing it yourself.
66. Sponsor a socially responsible ice cream truck for your neighborhood or the neighborhoods you farm.
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Education/Training
67. Research business coaching companies and commit to one.
68. Catch up on your CEs.
69. Read The Carpenter by Jon Gordon.
70. Read Traction by Gino Wickman.
71. Read Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy.
72. Read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson.
73. Call the 3 Realtors you admire most and ask them if they have time to share ideas with you.
74. If you’ve wanted to get licensed in another state, get licensed in that state.
Community Involvement
75. Volunteer at your local food pantry and post their needs on social media.
76. Donate blood and post their needs on social media.
77. Make a “Thank You” sign to leave at a local hospital.
78. Buy gift cards from local restaurants to give away to clients and people you care about.
79. Find the least expensive gas prices in your area and post to social media.
80. Talk with the person running your local place of worship and ask how you can help.
81. Contact your local senior center and ask how you can help.
82. Buy 100 potted plants/flowers and put them outside the employee exit at a local hospital so doctors and nurses can take one on the way home. Post “thank you” to social media.
83. Send care packages to people you love in the medical field.
84. Join your local Rotary group.
85. Visit your local town hall and fire department with pastries and coffee every week.
86. Reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce and get in on their virtual activities.
87. Contact a teacher at your local high school to see if they’d be interested in having you present to their class as a special guest – business, marketing, selling, etc.
Post on social media.
88. Buy masks and donate to a local shelter, homeless, church group.
89. Check on the elderly people in your neighborhood to see if they need supplies.
90. Organize a neighborhood food drive. Leave little green bags and have people leave it on their front steps. Pick them up, donate the food and return the bags.
Post to social media.
91. Meet your town’s local VA rep and see if you might be able to serve Vets coming to them with homeownership questions.
Don’t Forget You
92. Write down at least one thing you’re grateful for every day.
93. Call someone you love and tell them you love them. Just because.
94. Consolidate all of your credit cards and keep only 2. One for business and one for personal use.
95. Think of the top 3 job duties (not having to do with prospecting) you despise or you’re WAY overpaying yourself for and hire someone to do them.
96. Look at all of your business expenses from last year and cut your 3 biggest losers.
97. Plan your next vacation (but don’t book it yet).
98. Discover new trails and outdoor activities in your area and post to social media.
99. Call the person that got you in to real estate and thank them.
100. Remind yourself that real estate is fun! Enjoy the grind and keep swinging!
Extra Credit!
101. Call Leslie Heimer at 407-233-4077 for all of your clients’mortgage needs.
Leslie Waters Heimer
Orlando Market President & Sr. Lending Partner
LESLIE WATERS HEIMER