Ep. 204: Your End-of-Year To Do List

Your End-of-Year Checklist

Closings aren’t just for home sales!

In this week’s Silver Dollar episode, Luke and Josh suggest three items that should be on your end-of-year checklist:

  • Reach out to clients
  • Focus on your list
  • Prepare your marketing budget

Of course, there are many more tasks you’ll need to check off, but these three will help set you up for a smooth start to the new year.

Reach out to clients

Any time of year is a good time to reach out to your clients. But the holidays at the end of the year make it especially easy. It’s a natural gesture to wish clients health, happiness, and good times as they celebrate.

When reaching out, try to use each client’s preferred means of communication (it’s a detail you should have in your database). If you don’t have that piece of information, then consider these:

Send a text

Sending text messages can be time-consuming, so you may want to reserve this method for your core clients.

From a marketing perspective, a typical text is fine, but sending a video text is a powerful way to make an impact and to stand out because not many people do it.

Text messages have a high success rate in getting through to the recipient, which is why Luke and Josh recommend them:

  • The average open rate for text messages is 90% within 3 minutes of receipt.
  • The average overall open rate for text messages is 98% (email is 20%).
  • The average response rate to a text message is 45% versus 6% for emails.

Make a gratitude call

Some people shy away from making calls because they don’t know what to say. It may be because they think they need to have a full-blown conversation and dread awkward pauses.

Your goal is to express thanks, and it can take as little as five minutes. If a conversation naturally develops, that’s great. But if it doesn’t, that’s okay too. Express your gratitude, wish them well, and move on.

If your comfortable with more conversation, consider using the F.O.R.D. method. Ask about their Family, Occupation, Recreation, or Dreams.

Be sure to capture what you learn in your database.

Write an email

At a minimum, send each client a sincere holiday to thank them for being in your life. Wish them a happy holiday and let them know you’re always available to help.

Focus on your list

The slower pace at the end of the year gives you a chance to finally get to some office housekeeping. And there’s no better place to start than your database.

Cleaning up the records in your database will give you a nice head start come spring.

  • Identify your core clients.
  • Segment your list in a useful way.
  • Follow your clients’ social media accounts to find out what you can about them and place the relevant details in their record.

Prepare your budget

Most agents simply do not spend enough on their marketing. And then they wonder why they aren’t getting more leads.

How much to allocate to your marketing will depend, of course, on how much you have to work with. Most agents decide on 10% of their GCI but others spend more, with top producers spending 30% or more.

Even if you are working with a small-scale budget, the important point is to have a budget, whatever it is. Determine some middle ground between the budget you really want with the money you have. Keep in mind, marketing is not an expense. It’s an investment.

Once you start spending, keep track of what’s working. If something is working well, put more money in that bucket. If something isn’t giving you a return, stop using it.

Bonus

Remember that you are in a marathon and not a sprint.

It’s been a long year, so take time to regenerate. Feed your mind, body, and soul.

Spend time with family, friends, love ones—with whomever it is that inspires you—and do things that make you happy.

Then focus on your goals for next year and be prepared to CRUSH IT!

 

Key Points

  • Text messages beat emails in overall open and response rates.
  • Thank you calls are easy and won’t cause stress if you don’t force a conversation.
  • Capture everything you learn about your clients in your database.

Action Item

Execute one of these end-of-year tips.

Connect | Resources

Ep. 81: Increase Your Income with Gratitude with Kim Angeli.

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