Last April I wrote a two part series about finding new clients using social tools, and in Part Two of that series I talked a little bit about working with only those people that you like.  Here are links to those articles because I think that you should quickly review them as they will set the stage for this one.

https://realtytechbytes.com/get-new-clients-using-social-tools-part-one/

https://realtytechbytes.com/get-new-clients-using-social-tools-part-two/

And then last week, I wrote an article that sets the stage for this week’s article.  You can find that here: https://realtytechbytes.com/how-can-you-use-social-media-in-business/

Today I want to expand on the concept of working only with people that you like.  At the risk of stating the obvious, working any other way opens you up to having to deal with the clients from hell.  We’ve all had them.  And we’ve all vowed that never again would we work with turkeys.  But then we’ve all found ourselves working those kinds of people again!  Why does this happen?

In my opinion, it’s because we don’t do enough of the right kind of prospecting.  More on the right kind of prospecting in a minute.  But, for now, if you don’t have a steady stream of good, qualified prospects flowing towards you, you are inclined to work with whomever shows up.  Prospecting does give you the ability to choose the client who is motivated, reasonable in their expectations, and has the actual ability to perform, either as a seller or a buyer.  When you have to work with people who don’t fit those criteria you can end up with the client from hell.

If you are an experienced agent with years worth of transactions under your belt, the process of finding clients that you like is made somewhat easier.  What you might want to do is to sit down with a pad of paper and start reviewing your past clients and quickly categorizing them into 3 columns.  Favorite Clients, Neutral, and Turkeys.

Once you have done that, spend a little time with each name on the Favorites list and start to figure out why they were favorites and write out a little paragraph on each one.  Try to capture the details that made them a favorite.  You might want to do the same with the Turkeys column as that will help you decide who to avoid!

Once you have done that, go through those paragraphs of Favorites and determine what they all have in common.  What you are looking for are things that you can quantify.  Is it profession, geographic, familial status, the type of home they bought or sold?  What was it about them that put them on the Favorite list and can you spot trends?

If you are new to the business and don’t have enough past transactions to make this work, just substitute your friends and acquaintances for past clients and then run through the exercise.

Once you have developed a profile of the clients that you want, it then becomes a matter of prospecting for them.  And most likely that process can utilize social tools like Facebook and LinkedIn!  Both of these platforms let you use their advertising networks to prospect for that “right” client…the one who would be thrilled to work with you!

I want to be clear about something at this point.  Nothing I have said here should be taken as advice to circumvent fair housing laws. You cannot discriminate against any one because they are members of a protected class.  But as near as I can tell, unreasonable sellers and buyers (and general turkey type people) are NOT a protected class!

Go out and find the people that you enjoy working with and you will have a much happier business experience!