Sphere includes more than friends and family

Working a “sphere of influence” business is not about pestering friends and family to help you get leads, according to Jennifer Allan, owner of Sell With Soul, a real estate consulting company based in Florida.

“Your sphere of influence (SOI) is more than friends and family,” Allan said. “To categorize your friends as to whether they’ll make a referral and to bombard them with sales material is an uncomfortable way to do business.”

Allan defines “sphere of influence” as “everyone who knows you and knows that you sell real estate. That includes people you like, don’t like, people you meet every day, new contacts — whether or not you think they’ll make a referral.”

“Many agents use an SOI business model as an alternative to prospecting strangers,” Allan said. “They ‘warm’ call their friends when it’s clearly a sales call; they send mass mailings to their friends and they spam them with e-mails, all in order to avoid cold-calling strangers.

“Strangers will throw your stuff away but your friends want to be polite but you’ve put them on the spot by over marketing to them. Honestly, it alienates friends more than strangers,” she added. “You have to ask yourself if your method would work on you or does it make you feel uncomfortable?”

The best way to grow a business is to be an excellent REALTOR® and provide superior customer service. “Ninety percent of the people in your sphere of influence aren’t your friends. They’ll become your raving fans if they respect you because you’re a great REALTOR®, you love what you do, you know your market and you take care of your clients,” Allan said.

Prospecting isn’t necessarily a numbers game. “Good leads come in one at a time and you need to take every opportunity to impress that client,” she added.

“This is a complete paradigm shift. REALTORS® need to think about quality over quantity one lead at a time and shift away from believing that marketing to your friends is the way to do business. You need to show that you are worthy of their business,” Allan said.

“Consumers are more independent and they get most of their information from the Internet. They’re not willing to endure a long sales pitch,” she said. “The Internet has changed how you have to relate to your customers.”

Working a sphere of influence business isn’t for everyone. REALTORS® have to be willing and able to meet new people. “That means if you can’t or don’t want to be out in the world reconnecting with friends and making new connections, this may not be the best business model for you,” Allan said.