Many inexperienced real estate agents or brokers are reluctant to hand out business cards because they either lack self confidence or feel like they might appear to be over aggressive. Hundreds of times I have observed real estate professionals who hand out one business card to a couple, usually a husband and wife, after a preliminary discussion on their specific housing needs.

You should never hand out one business card. On numerous occasions whenever I saw this happen my comment to the guilty agent or broker was this: What are you trying to do, give out one card so the husband gets ½ of a card and the wife gets ½ of a card?

Business cards are cheap relatively speaking and you can make them work for you. My view is that you should never give out less than two business cards. If you know how to communicate with prospects and have a sense of humor you can use this idea: Give the couple six cards and tell them not to throw them away until they are out of sight. I used this technique hundreds of times and when I ran into the prospects months or even years later they always showed me that they had kept my card.

Just a reminder that business cards are important and you should never be afraid to hand them out to your prospects, clients, or friends. If you would rather not get any more business just give them one card!