As a top performing agent, you don’t need to be convinced that relationships are your most important asset. Yet, creating a day-to-day strategy to develop and maintain those relationships can be a real challenge.

Zvi Band, CEO/founder of the intelligent customer relationship management (CRM) platform, Contactually, recently joined us for a webinar to share the key steps of the CAPITAL strategy for relationship building, unique ways to add value and gain intelligence, and how to effectively leverage a database as your launchpad for growing and nurturing your sphere of influence.

Relationships still rule, but much has changed. Relationships in real estate have always been important. But information and local expertise used to be a competitive advantage; today buyers and sellers have more access to information than ever before.

Technology and data has also changed the way agents and consumers communicate and do business. Additional tech tools, gadgets, and data learnings are available, yet nothing can replace the human side of the business – that’s YOU. From Contactually’s perspective, technology is helping to increase productivity and production – helping the best agents be even better.

The relationships we are building are actively decaying. Between emails, newsletters, push notifications and marketing drip campaigns, we have created a world of information overload. If you can’t remember what you had for breakfast two weeks ago, how would someone remember the details from meeting you weeks, months or years later?

If you want to stay top-of-mind or be the first person a potential client thinks of, you must have a strategic plan. Zvi explains that it’s about having a clear goal, building a process and strategy to execute your goal and then executing it repeatedly.

Key steps of the CAPITAL strategy include:

• Consistency – one of the most important things you can practice. Consistency is all about building and maintaining a habit. Zvi shared the habit loop which includes the cue (what kicks the brain into automatic mode and tells it which habit to use), routine (your physical, mental or emotional response) and reward (the prize telling your brain “this loop is worth remembering in the future”).
• Aggregate – many people struggle to build and maintain a database, but every professional needs to have one. Start simple with a stack of business cards or excel spreadsheet. Collect your contacts into one centralized location where your entire network can be accessed.
• Prioritize – the people in your database matter in different ways, which is why you need to prioritize the relationships that are most important. Consider grouping your database based on the type of relationship (i.e. past clients or new leads) or tiering your database based on known level of priority (i.e. high v. low) so you can focus your time efficiently.
• Intelligence – what do you know about the people in your database? Intelligence is about collecting and capturing useful data. Do this by writing everything down, looking for social objects (i.e., shared resources or experiences) and embracing small talk. Often remembering the smallest detail can make the biggest impact. Zvi suggests including a few points for each contact such as the state of your relationship/their business, notes and next steps from the interaction, and any personal details you remember.
• Timely engagement – so when do you reach out? There isn’t a correct answer for how often you reach out, but what matters is that you are completing consistent points of communication. Set reminder timers that are frequent enough to stay top of mind, while keeping the number of reminders to a manageable amount.
• Adding value – even saying hello is adding value. Every interaction should be meaningful, relevant or valuable in some way. You can deliver value by acknowledging someone with a thoughtful message, solving their problems, making connections and creating experiences.
• Leverage – make your routine as seamless as possible. This could be programming email templates in your CRM or hiring a virtual assistant to outsource mundane, time-consuming tasks. Use automation where appropriate, so you can spend time being authentic with the people who matter most.

Apply these key steps to your marketing efforts and remember these takeaways: our relationships are our most important asset, preach to your own choir, build a strategy and execute consistently.

Watch the full webinar here and learn more at contactually.com.