I was interviewed Monday on Real Estate Radio USA (listen here) and in the middle of the interview, I had an epiphany about Referral-Begging... (I love epiphanies, don't you? Although perhaps in the middle of a live national radio interview, the timing might not have been the best).
Anyway. Back to my epiphany. It's about whether or not to ask/beg/bribe your friends for referrals, which as you probably know, is a practice I'm adamantly against.
Yesterday, my seller client (whose house sold in TWO DAYS, yay!) sent me an email asking permission to give my name to two friends who are looking for a real estate agent. ASKING MY PERMISSION! As if I might be far too busy to handle even more clients.
I giggled to myself because that's exactly the impression I want to leave with my world. Of course, I told her I'd be thrilled if she gave my name out and thanked her profusely. Maybe too profusely, actually, but oh well.
But here was my epiphany. By not letting my client know that I <Heart> Referrals, I took the chance that she wouldn't know to send me any. I took the chance, that, egads, she might send her friends to someone else! Oh the horror!!
However (and I'm sure my regular readers know where I'm going with this), I'd MUCH RATHER take the chance of losing potential referrals out of innocent ignorance than to take chance of annoying, pestering or otherwise damaging my credibility with my SOI by constantly reminding them to send referrals my way.
Besides, if I do a great job for my clients and treat them respectfully, they will think of me when the topic of real estate comes up in their social interactions. If they don't think of me, well, it has nothing to do with whether or not I pestered them lately about it...
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