How do you create a tribe that consistently and predictably refers 1 or more people to you each and every year? It’s simple…you become a Tribal Leader.
Are You A Tribe Leader? Or just another Agent or Lender?
A Tribal Leader is a person who has anywhere from 25 to 150 people, who introduce, refer, or recommend at least one person a year to you, every year, that eventually buys, sells, or borrows.
There are people in our community with tribes of 50, 60, 70 people and they generate 50, 60, 70 referrals a year. There are some who have 25 people in their tribe and they generate 25 referrals a year, while others have 100 to 150 people in their tribe who generate 100 to 150 referrals a year. But the optimum or the maximum number of people per tribe is about 150 people.
There is a lot of research that says 150 is the magic number that builds life-changing businesses on the higher end. On the lower end, you could have a tribe of two.
So the key is that whatever size of the tribe you have, whether it’s 2 or 150, is that you have to have the capacity to handle that business. Don’t worry so much about the size of your tribe right now, instead, concern yourself with your ability to deliver an experience that is highly referable, for every referral that comes in from your tribe. Once you can do that, the conversation turns to, how big do you want your business to be?
It ALL Starts with the Celebration
When we talk about the tribal experience, it begins in the last 10 days of the transaction. The last 10 days are when most of the problems will occur in a real estate transaction. You get paid because of the complexity of the last 10 days.
The real estate industry calls it the close, but a tribe builder calls it a celebration.
This is that moment in time where the transaction is complete, and the relationship begins. This is where people shift from being a client to becoming an advocate and friends.
This is when people say, “I’ve got a friend in the real estate business who can help you.” They’re not actually referring to you as a friend during the process, because the focus is still on and about them. You are their agent, helping them buy a house. When the transaction is complete and you’ve actually closed, that’s the celebration, now the friendship begins. In this time period, you’re really put to the test. It’s the first 30 days, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days after the celebration – this is when you need to be the closest to them.
If a problem is going to arise, this is where they come to surface in the first 90 days after a person buys a home. Now, I’m referring mostly to buyers, or if a seller moves out of the geographical area, you’re no longer providing this type of local support for them. So, mostly talking about people who are staying in your tribe locally.
It’s after 90 days, we ask ourselves, what are we going to do for them for the rest of their life?
So you want to divide these periods of time up to create a tribal blueprint. You have to determine what actions you need to take in the first 30 days…days 31-60…up through 90 days after the celebration to keep in contact, get referrals and continue to build the relationship. That’s designing a tribal blueprint that BUILDS your business.
Focus on the Celebration
The industry refers to it as closing and closing means what? Finished, done, over, I got paid, thank you, next, we’ve closed. The door is closed, it’s goodbye. Right?
What does the celebration mean? Celebration means the beginning of something. A celebration means we’ve arrived at a place together and we’re celebrating. It’s a moment in time that we pause and we acknowledge what we’ve accomplished. We celebrate when we graduate high school, but as parents, we don’t say we’re done. We say, “Okay, ready for the next leg of the journey.” It is a cause for pause. So we pause for a minute and we celebrate with our clients this moment in time, where they buy a home or they sell their home.
Now, what is a good celebration? What are the keys to a great celebration? Thanking them, the triumph of a great adventure, ask for opportunities to help their friends, and discuss the highlights of the transaction. All of these are great.
I want to create a real clear frame of the key things we want to occur in the event called the celebration:
Stage It
We want to stage this event so it really looks and feels like a true celebration. Regardless if you are at the title company office, or if you’re at their house, or you’re at the lawyer’s office. Some states handle the closing differently than others; regardless, create the event. The experience occurs when the documentation is exchanged, deeds have been signed, keys have been handed over, all that stuff. The important thing is that you stage an event somehow.
Ask For It
Now that we have framed the behavior and situation, we are primed to ask for a referral. This is the moment where you ask for a referral and you use the magic words that we teach at By Referral Only, which is simple:
[blockquote text=”I’m curious… who is the next person you know that’s most likely to do what you just did?” text_color=”#1e719e” width=”90″ line_height=”undefined” background_color=”” border_color=”” show_quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_color=”#1e719e”]
Now, describe to them what they just experienced them doing.
[blockquote text=”You just moved out of an apartment into a home of your own. You got a nice, big, large backyard, in a great school district, much closer to work. Now, as you think about your friends, your family members, your colleagues, other people from the apartment complex, I know you know someone. Who comes to mind first?” text_color=”#1e719e ” width=”90″ line_height=”undefined” background_color=”” border_color=”” show_quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_color=”#1e719e”]
“You just moved out of an apartment into a home of your own. You got a nice, big, large backyard, in a great school district, much closer to work. Now, as you think about your friends, your family members, your colleagues, other people from the apartment complex, I know you know someone. Who comes to mind first.”
Slow, deliberate, organized, spoken clearly. “I’m really curious. Who is the next person you know, that’s most likely to do what you guys just did?”
Speak those words clearly at the celebration, you have earned the right to do that. Plus, now you have set the framework for referrals that shows them that you are worthy of helping their friends and family, and with the right continued relationship building and follow-up, they will do just that!
