If you've been in our business for awhile now you probably have a good number of clients you've already closed transactions with. But one of the problems in our industry is the nature of our business doesn't normally require ongoing contact with our clients after we've closed transactions with them. Attorneys, CPAs, and insurance agents all have ongoing relationships with their clients throughout the year. But as a real estate agent, once you've closed a transaction with a client, it's easy to get out of relationship with the client unless you proactively do something to avoid this.

When you get out of relationship with your clients and haven't contacted them in sometime, you make it very easy for them to begin working with another agent whenever they're ready to buy, sell, or lease again in the future. And if it is your intention to build a solid base of loyal clients who will continue working with you throughout your career, getting out of relationship with your clients is the last thing you want to do.

In addition to mailing to your clients on a regular basis, you want to be contacting them on the telephone from time-to-time also. Business professionals who have clients normally contact them on the telephone at various times throughout the year, and you should be doing this also. And if it's been years since you've talked with some of these people and you're feeling guilty about it...don't worry. You'll feel a lot better once you've reconnected with these people once again, and they'll probably be very happy to talk with you, too.

When we begin our careers as real estate agents we often don't have any prospects we can immediately begin working with. Our lives often become this process of trying to find people we can show properties to in the hope of successfully closing transactions with them. The problem, though, is if we don't watch out, we can just continue repeating this cycle. And in the process of continually looking for new people to work with, we can completely ignore the people we've already worked with successfully.

If you know it's been awhile since you've contacted a good number of your past clients, I have a recommendation for you: Take about 5-15 minutes and make a list of all of your clients you haven't spoken with for awhile. Then schedule some time to contact these people and get on the phone and call them. In the process you'll be reconnecting with old friends, you'll find out what their current needs are, and you'll be able to ask them for referrals, too.

As an agent you want your business to involve both closing transactions with new clients, and keeping your old clients loyal to you. When you stay in contact with your old clients and show them that you care, you maximize the probability that you'll be the agent they'll want to work with once again when the time comes for them to buy, sell, or lease another property.

Published: October 7, 2004

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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.