While having excellent presentation skills with your clients and prospects in business situations will carry you very far in your real estate sales career, nothing will solidify your long-term relationships with your clients more than regularly schmoozing with them in social situations.

When you only know your clients and prospects as "a real estate agent," there is not much differentiating you from the other top agents in your territory other than your reputation and personal presentation skills. When your clients and prospects get to know you much better in social situations outside of business, you then fall into a completely different category in their minds as far as who you now are in their lives. You then become a friend to them instead of just a real estate agent. And one thing is for certain--people are very committed to doing business with quality people who they feel are their friends.

A friend of mine named Elliot is a top insurance salesperson. He is also great at socializing with his clients and prospects. I was asking him his strategy for building close, long-term relationships with his clients and prospects and he told me the following story:

"Jim, I love to socialize and entertain in my home. I also love classical music. Something I began to do several years ago and still do now is hold parties in my home with incredible food and a concert pianist playing sonatas on the piano. Whenever I hold these parties I always invite all my good friends and my business clients, too. I also tell them that they're welcome to bring any of their friends to the party.

"Very soon after I began hosting these parties something interesting began to happen. The friends that my clients had brought to the party would ask them how they know me. My clients would then tell them that I'm their insurance agent. Their response would then be something like, 'Wow, my insurance agent never invites me to incredible parties like this! In fact, he never even calls me anymore!'

"Soon after each party several of the guests of my clients would then call me to discuss transferring their insurance business over to me. And the funny thing is that I never began hosting these parties as a way to generate more clients. I began hosting them because I love entertaining guests, and I love classical music!"

Now as far as your own real estate business is concerned you don't have to throw parties in your home with concert pianists, but you can begin to see how the power of socializing can dramatically improve your business. Elliot loves classical music and entertaining. You, on the other hand, might love playing tennis, golf, or joining an association that revolves around something you are strongly interested in. The point is to pick something you love and get involved with other people who love it also. When you begin to bond with people who share the same passion and interest for something that you do outside of work, these people will become very interested in doing business with you.

So now my question for you is...where can you socialize and get involved with people who are prime prospects for your real estate business and also do something you enjoy on a regular basis?

For you it might be a cause that you believe in, it could be an association that fights to make the neighborhood a better place, or it could be a business association that focuses on an industry or on ideas and subjects that you have an interest in. The point is to get involved somewhere where your prospects are involved and where you also share an interest with them.

There is a ton of new business waiting for you out there as long as you're willing to do what will have you claim it for yourself. And, people definitely love to do business with others that they socialize with on a regular basis. Increase the amount of socializing that you do with your prospects and watch your real estate sales begin to take off!

Published: December 31, 2002

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Jim Gillespie, Ph.D., is America's Premier Real Estate Coach℠. He has over 20 years of experience in real estate sales and is a past president of three different real estate companies. His FREE real estate E-newsletter with tips and creative ideas to help agents make more money is now read by over 35,000 agents nationwide. You can subscribe to his FREE E-newsletter by visiting RealEstateSalesCoach.com or contact him at Jim@RealEstateSalesCoach.com.