B2B Sales in Real Estate

New Real Estate Agent Training: B2B Sales

In real estate, agents are quick to have many conversations with potential consumers, however, they forget about business contacts. REALTORs that overlook business to business (B2B) contacts are missing a large potential source of referrals. Just like other business owners, real estate agents can build strong relationships with other business owners in their city.

In real estate agent training podcast, you will learn how you can build your B2B sales business in real estate.

Podcast Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Rev Real Estate School. The podcast with quick tips and actionable advice to help you sell more real estate in today's world. And now your host Michael Montgomery.

[00:00:11] Hello and welcome back to Rev Real Estate School. I'm your host Michael Montgomery. Today we are talking about a cool concept and it's B2B sales in real estate.

[00:00:22] So we're not very used to talking about B2B sales. B2B sales if you haven't heard of it, is business to business. Oftentimes these are sales people that are dealing with other businesses. In our industry take for instance a website provider that is talking to a real estate agent. That website provider is in the business to business sales role. They are dealing with another business owner. Typically we are in what's called the B2C. We're business to consumer and because of that we sometimes forget about the opportunities that lie within a B2B sales role in real estate.

[00:01:01] What do I mean by this? When we're out there and we're selling properties to consumers oftentimes these consumers all have relationships with other business owners business owners can be a huge source of additional business for us. But sometimes we don't think too much of it. When was the last time that you thought about how you can help somebody else get a sale? This could be in the real estate space. So, I mean you could be referring a property inspector or a lawyer or something like that but you could also be sending somebody to a restaurant to a coffee shop to a certain store that you know in town there's a number of different referrals and b to be opportunities that are out there. This has been a huge source of business for me over the years because I've built relationships with awesome business people within my community. The thing about business owners is they get it right they get it especially salespeople and business owners that are in the B2B sales business. They understand the value of referrals and they understand the value of forming relationships with you as well as you with them.

[00:02:10] Let's talk about a few strategies here that we can implement right away. The first thing is try to think a little bit beyond our normal service providers. A normal service providers like we were talking about lawyers lenders title reps inspectors these sort of people that are directly impacting our business and directly associated with us. Not that these aren't good sources of business. They can be great. However, oftentimes they are dealing with a lot of other real estate agents. Think of B2B connections as beyond just your service providers. But if you are using service providers and if you do want to form stronger relationships with your inspectors and lenders in order to get business from them then you have to go a little bit further than other real estate agents. So what do I mean by this? I mean sending a handwritten card to your inspector after they've done an inspection or a lawyer I mean reaching out to them and just taking them out for coffee versus them taking us out for coffee.

[00:03:09] Building stronger relationships with our service providers as well as looking outside of our service provider network next where do we meet these people that are outside of our service provider network? Well I think the best place in first place that you can start there there's a number of different networking groups that are out there you can check out Meetup.com, Eventbrite, even Facebook events. But I would recommend your chamber of commerce if you have a Chamber of Commerce in your city. This is a great spot where a lot of B2B and B2C business owners go to meet people just like you. This can be a great spot where you can just have natural conversations with other business owners in your city. One of the main tips I have around this and if you have been following our stuff for a period of time you may know this but instead of going to these events with the idea of how can you find somebody who knows somebody who's going to sell turn that and flip it around so how can you go there and find somebody who needs your help. How can you help them versus how can they help you? This mindset shift has a huge impact on how you interact and how you're perceived for that matter too. So focus on that when you are building relationships within your business community in your city and the Chamber of Commerce is a great place to start.

[00:04:28] Next a common question is do I start a networking group myself or do I start taking people out one by one and my recommendation here is starting a networking group is awesome. It's a great idea. However if you're just getting started with this then the chances of you getting a group together that all end up showing up on a continuous basis and maintaining that over a period of time is slim. So sometimes I find when you're trying to put a group together the buy in becomes a little bit less whereas when you're inviting somebody out for coffee or lunch or something like that then chances are they will show up and chances are you will actually be able to build more of relationship with them. Now depending on your personality type you might be so much more extroverted and really want to build a networking group and start that from scratch it's going to be quite a bit of work. I would recommend even if you are more on the extroverted side you want to build this up. Start with more of the introvert approach and take people out. One on one and really get to know them get to know where their struggles are. Get to know how you can help them. And naturally it will come back to you.

[00:05:28] Next let's talk about how often we should be meeting up with these people. What I recommend is if you're if you're new to this and if you're new to reaching out on a B2B level try to reach out to one person a week maybe go for one coffee a week with a new business owner or somebody in the B2B network that you can start chatting with and then on an ongoing basis from now on moving out. Try to reach out to them once a month. So you're going out for coffee with a new person once a week. If you can and then with that person you're trying to reach out to them once a month in one way shape or form. That's an email. A quick text message phone call or if you're getting together and having other coffee or something like that. But I find the once a month has a very very big impact on them remembering you. And again remember like we talked about at the start is they understand. They understand that you are looking for business as well. And we can work together on that front..

[00:06:22] So to quickly recap. Remember that you can definitely reach out to your service providers lenders lawyers that sort of thing but also look beyond your service providers. And if you are reaching out to your service providers make sure that you are going over and above what other agents might be doing in your community in order to really differentiate yourself as a real estate agent. If you're taking them out for coffee and lunch and sending them thank you cards chances are they will think of you when it comes time to send a referral. Next make sure you focus on your local Chamber of Commerce. You can also use Meetup, Eventbrite, Facebook all sorts of things and those can be great but your local Chamber of Commerce typically has people that have a little bit more of a buy in so they can be a great great place where you can start meeting other business owners try to reach out to one new business owner a week take them out for coffee. Do what you'd like to do there and then after that put them in your CRM and remind yourself to follow up with them about once a month in one way shape or form and you will start seeing referrals come in like crazy from your B2B network.

[00:07:28] Thank you very much for listening to this episode. Remember all you have to do is write and review the show go over to our website let us know where you did that and a top producer will give you a call and you can chat about anything on your mind. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you in the next lesson.

[00:07:42] This episode of Rev Real Estate School has come to a close. Thank you for tuning in. We will see you back here for the next lesson.