This article is intended to provide you with the direction and the tools you'll need to build a financially rewarding and personally fulfilling referral business. And, do not be misled by those diehard sales-dinos, you can get a referral today.

Your job as a real estate professional is to gain the confidence of the people you know and will meet, such that they become proactive on your behalf. The people you know can lead you directly to a potential client. But it takes work.

If you create a plan and follow it, you will build a steady stream of high quality referrals predisposed to utilize wonderful you and you'll also uncover any immediate business just as effectively as lead generating, prospecting and closing sales-dinos.

The key is to have enough people enthusiastic about you to refer substantial business. It is word of mouth with a mission.

Your business plan shouldn't be viewed as some mind-numbing, number crunching exercise, but rather an autobiography to be reviewed and revised, only limited by your imagination.

Step1: Get a clear focus

"The purpose of a business is to create a customer." -- Peter F. Drucker

You must commit regular time and energy to creating future customers that are ever more profitable to serve.

Most advertising is intended to trigger an immediate response. No customer exists until you create them. So, why not improve your chances for long term success by rejecting the notion of "any client, anywhere, any time" in favor of attracting the perfect client for you.

Step 2: Evaluate the marketplace

Never lose sight of your ultimate target, the listings of first-time sellers. With so much of the industry targeting first time buyers, it's just good business to create listings -- with buyers who haven't worked with any agent before.

First time home sellers tend to be concentrated in entry-level neighborhoods. Listings are rarely the result of a perfectly timed cold call, however. Real estate listings are the natural consequence of a handful of predictable life events. Marriage, birth of a child, career advancement, job transfer, retirement, divorce, injury, illness, aging, and death carry with them vitally important decisions and forward planning regarding real estate.

Studies show that 71 percent of home sellers listed with the first and only agent they spoke with, suggesting that the agent wasn't being plucked from the yellow pages at the last minute but was very likely part of an ongoing deliberation regarding future real estate needs. Your purpose is to be your clients' trusted advisor while they are considering the impact of these life events.

You don't want to be in the position of competing with other agents, days before the decision.

Step 3: Analyze the competition

What the competition lacks in real advantage it makes up for in sheer numbers. That fact alone deserves special attention. How many are there in your region? What do they do to create customers? What products and services do they provide?

What makes you stand apart?

Over the last few years I have heard the emergence of the phrase, "I do real estate" to describe one's occupational status. That just doesn't cut it.

Try something like this instead, "I assist my clients in making the best use of their and other people's money to acquire assets and homes, that will appreciate in value and on which the profits can be 100 percent tax free. Is that something you'd be interested in hearing more about?"

Step 4: Define your market

Your marketplace is the combined spheres of influence of every individual for whom you have a name, address and phone number. It is young and old of every race -- of which 7 percent sell their homes each year.

The real estate business should be about helping your community take advantage of the extraordinary benefits of leverage, utility and tax-free profits associated with planned real estate ownership. The role of trusted advisor emphasizes the fiduciary duties of the business over the more functionary.

Step 5. Develop your strategy

Meet people. Make friends. Ask for referrals. Give service, and ask for referrals.

The best places to meet people who are likely to be good referral sources for you are the places you like to go do the things. People who share the same interests and passions often share a sense of camaraderie.

The possibilities are endless -- from evening classes in your favorite topics to a local hot rod club, from community involvement to great books discussion clubs. Do what you love to do and you will attract the best referral sources and, by extension, the best customers for you.

Step 6: Create your marketing plan

Marketing is showing your product in the best light, so that the consumer wants or needs to have it. You are your product.

Your goal is to take and hold the number one position in the minds of at least 100 selected individuals, such that any time those individuals think about real estate or home loans, your image pops into their mind. It's all about positioning. Hold educational seminars or mail out brochures about different programs available in your area. Show you potential client that you are not all about the money. By being an active member of your community, and having your name out in public, people will begin to associate you with real estate.

Step 7: Launch the plan

Now that you have the plan, go out and do it. Talk to people about your business. Raise their antennas so that they are alert to circumstances which lead them to refer you.

The point of meeting people is not to "do a deal today," but to illicit their voluntary support in reaching your goal. They must know that you have a goal and understand how they can help you achieve it.

Communicate often with clients -- face to face in lunch meetings, over the phone, in email, and by regular mail.

The final step of the dialogue is intended to pave the way for follow-up.

Send a note within three days to thank them and remind them. Make a follow up call within three weeks. Continue to send real estate information. If they, themselves, are homeowners, send a regular CMA, suggesting that they use it to make sure they have adequate insurance and to remind them that they have equity which they might wish to further invest when the time is right.

Published: May 4, 2006

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George W. Mantor is known as "The Real Estate Professor" for his wealth building formula, Lx2+(U²)xTFP=$∞. A proponent of educating consumers on using homeownership as an opportunity to build an estate, he has set out on a crusade to educate small real estate investors, fellow practitioners, seniors, and high school and college students about the risk-free benefits of planned real estate ownership. His consumer education efforts include a long-running radio program, Mobile Information Center, monthly workshop series, public appearances, informative website and frequent articles. During a career that has spanned nearly three decades, he has amassed experience in new home and resale residential real estate, resort marketing and commercial and investment property. He is currently the founder and president of The Associates Financial Group, an independent, locally-owned, full service real estate and mortgage brokerage, dedicated to creating long-term relationships with clients. Prior to starting his own firm in 1992, he had been Director of Training and Customer Service for Great Western Real Estate. In addition he has served on virtually every real estate committee, including a term as a Director of the California Association of REALTORS®. He is the creator of the Personal Best System, a business and life planning process and the Red Zone Time Planning System for Business Professionals. In addition to Realty Times, his articles have recently appeared in Real Estate Finance, National Real Estate Investor, The Real Estate Professional, Broker Agent News, and RIS Media Power Broker Network Report. He is available for speaking and customized training. His website is www.myafg.com and he can be reached at GWMantor@aol.com.