For as long as I can remember I have been intrigued by the process of finding new clients.  As a real estate agent back in the mid-80s I had to find a steady stream of new people who needed my services.  Then, as now, the competition was strong…there seemed to be too many real estate agents chasing too few potential buyers and sellers.  Finally, I settled on working with people who had publicly announced that they wanted to sell their homes.  You might wonder who those people were and how they made that announcement.  The answer?  Expired listings and for sale by owners.  The best part of that was most agents did not want to work that market segment, so the competition was drastically reduced. My success in doing so taught me the value of finding a market segment that needed my services5.

To that point, some years ago I became aware of an annual publication produced by the National Association of REALTORS®.  It’s called the Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers and you can read about it here: https://realtytechbytes.com/the-2014-nar-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers-is-out-and-you-need-it

I bring this up because one of the questions they asked the people surveyed was if they would refer the agent they used to buy or sell their home.  The overwhelming answer was yes.  In a follow up question they asked the respondents if they had actually referred that previous agent.  The overwhelming answer?  NO!

So, where is the disconnect?  An obvious answer is that they respondents had no one to refer, but seriously?  Most of us know someone in our neighborhoods, our church, our organizations and in our daily lives who is contemplating a move.

I think that the disconnect comes from the fact that people don’t know how to refer someone, and even more to the point, there is nothing in it for them to make the referral!

That’s where ReferralRock comes in.  This web based service helps “businesses  get more referrals by making it easier for customers to refer a business to their friends by utilizing proven referral marketing strategies and tactics built into the service.” (From their website)

They do this by creating a website where people can go to make referrals and get rewarded for doing so.  The person making the referral can track the referral they made to see if it results in business and if so can track their rewards.  It’s easy for a person to make a referral, little more than a few clicks, and they can personalize the information that they give to the person being referred.

Setup didn’t take very long and when you are finished setting up your referral campaign you are given options to share your referral campaign out on social media, email the link, or even put a button on your web site.

It’s in private beta right now, but I received an invite within hours of requesting it.  Once you are in and set up the site is free for the moment, but the site does say that it will be $49.00 a month at some point.

So here is the deal, go to http://referralrock.com/ and click the large blue button to request an invite. When it arrives, take action and create your campaign and get it out there!  It’s free now, and since we are in the season of holiday parties and much social interaction, wouldn’t it be nice to give the people you meet an easy way to refer you that also rewards them for doing so?

While you are at it, click here: http://jerrykidd.referralrock.com/promotion/1/ to see MY referral site.  Go ahead and refer someone to me and if they become a customer you’ll earn the reward I posted!