Lars Hedenborg (Real Estate B School founder, author of Scale or Die) argues that database management and referral marketing must be central to any scalable real estate business. He explains why systems that nurture clients after closing (Clients for Life) produce predictable, high-value referrals and recurring revenue, illustrates with a case study (Kirby & Christina Skurat: 777 transactions / $7.7M GCI), and gives tactical guidance (30–60 items of annual value, 57-touch cadence based on MREA 33-touch, add two new database contacts per day). The talk ends with a partnership/call-to-action to work with Lars directly.
Welcome back to Real Estate Team Builders. Lars Hedinburg here, the founder of Real Estate B School and the author of Scale or Die. And you can pick up a free copy of Scale or die@scaleordiebook.com so today I want to do a little bit of a follow up on the episode. Earlier this week, Justin Stoddard talked about like, how do you go after or pursue relationships on a B2B level? So business to business. So you're not connecting with consumers necessarily, but you're working with affiliated service providers to generate multiple deals like, how can I have one relationship and add a tremendous amount of value to one relationship? And that will turn into 10 to 12 referrals or even transactions in a given year. So it was amazing. Today I want to focus on similar, but the concept that many agents that are scaling and they're scaling in a way where they forget about the database and referral marketing side of their business and kind of asking yourself the question, like, what if you could only scale your business based on your database and the service you provide? Like, what would it actually look like? And if you think about the mission in Real Estate B School, I don't talk about it often, but it's to help agents and team leaders build highly profitable businesses through the use of two things, sustainable systems and empowered people in order to help you systematically increase your net worth and time away from the office. And the thing about database and referral marketing is that if you don't do it at a very, very high level, you will never have an exit from your business. You'll never be able to, to ease off the pedal. You'll always be on this sort of hamster wheel of paid lead sources and decreasing returns and increasing grind and what it takes to convert a stranger into a deal. So I don't know if you're like me, but if you've ever been in a position where you've helped a family buy a home and then you find out that they sold the home and they didn't use you, massive frustration. Because the thing is, it's avoidable if we put a system in place to communicate with our database people that know like and trust us, you can actually, you know, sort of put a fence around this, this flock, right? And you could be the shepherd to this flock and add value over time. And so, you know, it's a mindset and a belief system that like no client is left behind no matter what, and your job is to watch over that flock and to make sure that your clients, the relationship Technically in terms of mindset really kind of begins at the closing table, you know, so that's where things get, get exciting is that it's, it's only really starting once you've delivered on the promise, you know, and if you're not making a promise, that's a whole nother podcast episode. But it really doesn't start until you're making that promise. And so if you understood that in a seven year period post closing that that one relationship could yield probably 10 to $20,000 of income per year, like on the low side. But we don't think about it that way. We're onto the next deal blowing up or the next fire in front of us or that sort of thing. So you have to keep in mind that your job is to do a great job to get them to the closing table. But most transactions have turbulence. Your job is to get them to remember that you're in real estate and you're a valuable provider of information and services way, way, way beyond the real estate transaction. And so if you're not systemized in your approach to working with your database, you've got to realize that those holes in your business where that buyer you helped five years ago uses another agent or does for sale by owner even worse, that's your problem and you've got to own that. And so you know, if, and it's pretty simple, you know. And I'm thinking of a client of mine, Kirby and Christina Skurat, who when I started working with them, it was just the two of them and one assistant. And last year they did 777 transactions for 7.7 million of GCI. And the same clients for life system that they put in place when I was working with them, when they were just the two of them, is the same system they have in place now that generates half of the business from a one to many approach, totally systemized approach to a clients for life system. And so just think about that 7.7 million. So 777 transactions for 7.7 million. Seven is the number of completion in the Bible. So I told them, I did a podcast episode with them recently, you guys can go back and listen to it. It was unbelievable. It was awesome. So what is that? Three point, can't do the math. 3.8, 3.9 million or so of revenue associated with just their database. And so it's the mindset of like, how would I treat this system, how would I build out a system, how would I pay attention to it? If I really thought that it was a multimillion dollar system. And you can pay for leads, but then you've got to figure out a way to turn them into clients for life. That's the whole point of the Clients for life program. And you're working with somebody, like, even if it costs a little bit more these days to generate a new client, you're working with them in a way and providing a level of care so that the natural byproduct of that relationship is a referral. And you want to think about it in that regard. And, you know, Clients for life, the program is anywhere between 30 and 60 items of value that you're going to send out in a given year. So it could be a monthly electronic newsletter and then moving on to, you know, a monthly market update, which is a Facebook live, which goes out of the digital newsletter. All the social stuff, the giveaways, the events, all of that. There's a separate, separate social media calendar as well. And you need to feed the database. That's the last point I want to make here, is you need to look to add minimum of two new names to your database. This is your know, like and trust you database. I don't care if you're starting at zero. If you have a goal to add two people per day, every day, no matter what, 365 days a year, you're going to grow your business by leaps and bounds because every year you're going to increase your database by 730 names. And it's just wild, wild, wild. So Kirby and Katrina, they talked about a 39 touch. We do a 57 touch. It's all based on MREA, the 33 touch program. Millionaire Real estate agent, but just doing it at a high level and do it consistently and doing it forever must include a quarterly call to the database. Not necessarily to ask for referrals, although you're going to end the call with the ask. But you're giving an item of value, like, hey, can we sign you up for an apple pie or a pumpkin pie? Hey, when do you want to pick up your. Your pumpkin? Around Halloween? Hey, chocolates, you know, can we, can we sign you up for one or two boxes of chocolates? You need to come into the office, we're greeting them, we're getting referrals. There's a whole process in place for it. So that's my challenge to you, is, you know, what are you doing on a consistent basis for your database and referral marketing efforts? And could you turn a single closing, just like Justin and what he was talking about? In terms of the leverage. What, what if, what if I challenge you to turn every client into seven transactions over seven years? Like, how would you think about your database differently? So that is my challenge for you. So if you're up for it, I can see you raising your hand. Lars, I'm up for the challenge. If you are interested in looking, looking at what it would look like to partner with me personally. Like me personally helping you in your real estate business. Me getting my hands into your business, helping you implement the tools and systems, no matter what stage you are in the journey to be able to scale your business and build wealth through stock and a residual income stream and plug into healthcare options. Go to partnerwithlars.com this is not and will never be the exp show. My goal here is to add so much value that you're going to be interested in the platform and then when you want to have a conversation about it, we're going to have a conversation about it. You guys have my email address. You can Also email me larsalestatebschool.com but check out partnerwithlars.com and we'll see you over there. Much love and respect. Be good.
