Outside The Box
Outside the Box is the podcast for real estate agents who want to grow their business. Every episode provides actionable strategies that help you grow your repeat, referral, and sphere of influence business. Referrals don’t happen on accident—they happen on purpose, and we bring you insights from top agents and coaches who have mastered the art of relationship-based growth. Tune in for practical, proven tactics that will help you generate more business from the people who already know, like, and trust you!
Outside The Box
The Power of Client Events: From Pie Parties to Paper Shredding
Greg Anderson, a seasoned realtor with Baird Warner, shares how his background in hospitality prepared him for real estate success and reveals strategies for building a thriving referral-based business. His commitment to exceeding expectations and maintaining meaningful client relationships has resulted in consistent business even during market fluctuations, proving that authentic service creates lasting client connections.
• Transitioning from hospitality to real estate provided valuable skills like multitasking and maintaining composure during challenges
• The mantra "exceed expectations" guides Greg's approach to client service and relationship building
• Creative client appreciation events like Thanksgiving pie giveaways and document shredding services keep past clients engaged
• Greg's office collaborates on client events, serving over 700 pies annually and creating memorable community experiences
• New agents should focus on low-cost marketing methods like business cards and social media rather than expensive programs
• Concentrate marketing efforts on your closest 250 connections rather than trying to reach everyone in your market
• One thank-you note to a former neighbor resulted in approximately 15-20% of Greg's entire sphere of influence through referrals
• Staying in touch through home anniversary cards and regular communication transforms clients into lifelong referral sources
• Testimonial Tuesday social media posts remind past clients of Greg's continued real estate service
Ready to build your sphere of influence? Start by exceeding expectations in everything you do, stay in regular contact with past clients, and focus on creating genuine relationships rather than just transactions.
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Justin Armbruster – https://www.instagram.com/armbruster_jd/
Chad Armbruster – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadaarmbruster/
As a new realtor, your funds are limited as far as getting your name out there, because once you do that, those people will refer you to others, and those people will refer you to others.
Chad Armbruster:Thanks for joining us on Outside the Box, where we talk through actionable strategies that help you generate more repeat referral and sphere of influence. Business Referrals don't happen by accident. They happen on purpose. For those who don't know, my name's Chad Armbruster, ceo of BizBox, and alongside me, as always, is my co-host, full-time realtor and son, justin Armbruster.
Justin Armbruster:Today we have Greg Anderson with Baird Warner joining us all the way from Libertyville, illinois. Greg has been serving buyers and sellers in the Northern Illinois area since 1993 and has sold over 500 homes in his career. Greg, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Chad Armbruster:So, Greg, tell us how'd you get into the real estate business?
Greg Anderson:Well, I was actually. Before I got into the real estate business I was in the food service business and hospitality. So throughout high school I worked in restaurant, started to really enjoy that and went to school for it, got a degree in culinary arts, hotel management. But as I kind of went along in that career, realized how long the hours are, how much work you have to put in and you really don't have a lot of a life. So although I really enjoyed it and I'm kind of a workaholic, so it didn't bother me too much I also had a girlfriend at the time and who's now my wife, and I was just never able to see her and I could tell that was putting stress, you know, in a relationship and decided that I would get out of that.
Greg Anderson:My dad encouraged me. My dad was actually a realtor at the time and also a full-time professor at our local junior college here in Grays Lake and he said well, why don't you look into real estate? You know it's also, you know, pretty long hours, but it's customer service oriented and you know I think you do good at that. So that's what I did. I got licensed my first year. I kind of had to juggle a little bit of both. To keep the income coming in, I got a job at a country club doing kind of an easy job, just waiting tables and trying to build up my business at the same time as that, and kind of the rest is history. Within about a year I quit the job at the country club and just started chasing down leads and building my sphere.
Chad Armbruster:So how long were you in the hospitality business before you switched over?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, I would say probably. It was probably the early 80s that I got into restaurants. I started working at like age 13, washing dishes for cash, and then, yeah, and then I would say in 93, I was licensed. So maybe about 10 years, 10, 11 years before I went full time as a realtor.
Chad Armbruster:So you, it sounds like, if I'm doing my math right, it sounds like you got into real estate fairly young. Is this is that right?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty much right out of college I was only in the hotel industry maybe a year or two. Ironically, before I got into real estate I kind of I was doing the management side of hotel. I was working at a major conference center in the area that had a really good reputation and I kind of worked through their whole system. They knew I was going to school for it, so they let me work in the kitchen and the dining room.
Greg Anderson:Eventually I came to the position of food and beverage director and it was very, very stressful. So then at that time it was about the same time we got married I also decided, you know what, maybe I just need to go back to my joy of cooking. And so I worked in a French restaurant cooking for about a year, and then that kind of got me to the point where it just wasn't, as you know, as satisfying as being around the people. I think I liked being around people and when you're in a kitchen you're just kind of stuck there. You know making food, which is I do enjoy cooking, but I think I had gotten that taste of being around people and being service oriented. And so that's where I started talking with my parents and my dad encouraged me. It's a people business. Real estate's a people business. Why don't you do that? Usually you get holidays off and the hours aren't as intense as a restaurant or hotel.
Justin Armbruster:So working in the hospitality restaurant business and then switching over to real estate was? Is there anything you learned from your prior profession and career in the restaurant business that maybe helped you today?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, yeah, definitely, justin. I would say being able to multitask was one. I mean, when you're in that industry, you're always doing a lot of things all at once. I would say you know being able to handle big challenges without losing your cool. I think in the restaurant industry you deal with that a lot. There's oftentimes surprises that you don't expect and that can definitely correlate to real estate. You know there's so many things in real estate that you just you don't know when you wake up that morning that you're going to get that call or that attorney letter or something going haywire with the mortgage. You know, and so it's helped me to keep my, keep my cool, which I think is important when you have clients that you know you want to help them keep their cool as well. They're looking to you for guidance, not emotions.
Justin Armbruster:I hear that a lot from, whether it be friends or people I know who've gotten into the business and then quickly get out. You know they would call me up like I don't know how you do this or I don't know why you like this is crazy. You know it's so stressful. You're constantly trying to put out fires and I think it does take a certain personality because you know I always chuckle. I love it. You know this is great. You know this is part of my job and I don't you don't always think through like, well, that's a part of the job that you know a lot of the population is not interested in. You know having that responsibility or can't- Good point, yeah, good point.
Greg Anderson:Yeah, I think there's a thought process that a lot of people think. You know real estate's just you know, you show a few houses and you get to the closing table. You know, maybe write a contract and that's about it. But, as you know, it's a daily process of keeping that deal together until closing. Process of keeping that deal together until closing.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, I remember when I was first training. You know, as you know, in real estate there's always fires you're putting out and a lot of times they're different fires. You know you'll learn from each transaction. And but I was asking my mentor and my grandfather at the time, who kind of trained me. I said, have you ever ran into this problem before? When am I going to know everything and feel comfortable handling everything? And he kind of looked at me and he goes never. He goes. That's part of the job. You know. It's a constant. You know calling people, figuring things out, and you have to be willing to. You know, dig into things.
Greg Anderson:That's so true. Yeah, and that's a good attitude to have, because you'll never stop learning in there. You know, you may have a few repeat problems that you've solved before and you'll say, oh great, I've done that one before, but then there'll be a new one. That'll pop up, for sure. Absolutely.
Chad Armbruster:So something that you had mentioned since you had gotten into real estate young. Did you find that was a challenge? Because you know, you hear lots of times, it's, you know, people's biggest investment that they'll ever make. Do they, you know? Did you find that they felt comfortable or not comfortable, you know, turning that over to you, or what was your experience?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, yeah, no, you, you definitely when you're brand new you do feel a little bit underconfident because you go through the education part of it, which is not that long of a process. You take a test and then you, you, I guess I did have some underconfidence there, and so you try to make up for it in other ways. You know, and so for me I, my personality, is kind of be a people pleaser anyway, so it was pretty easy to do with being in the service industry. So, but that's that's really how I tried to uh make up for it. You know that I had more energy than my fellow realtors. I had more um skills, ability to juggle things and stay calm and put out fires, like you said, justin. So that's where I tried to make up for it, and it didn't always work.
Greg Anderson:You know there's always somebody that wants you know the experienced realtor, and the minute they ask you you know how long you've been in the business. It's kind of hard, but I think most people, if they feel like you're confident just in your general abilities to handle things and then you just have a good, good basic knowledge of real estate, I think they people will think that since they're young, you know they have to almost say to their client you know their clients, don't worry, I'm okay. I've only been doing this a year but I'll be good. You know you. You really don't have to say any of that. You just you, just you know. If they ask you, you tell them, but if they don't, you just try to make up for it with all of your other strengths that you have.
Justin Armbruster:Oh, I love that. I uh being young in the business and I've been doing this for a little bit now so I have some more confidence. But I've learned to some ways to kind of play that off, because I do still get asked you know, how old are you? You know, have you sold houses before? And you know I have to tell people yes, you know I'm.
Justin Armbruster:You know I've been doing this for a long time, but back in the day, uh, uh, you know, a couple of years ago, back in the day, and you know I get asked you know how, how, how old are you? And my go-to response, which I found worked well, was how old do you think I am? You know, and you just kind of play it off as a joke a little bit. You know, how old do you think I am? You look like you're 29. Like, and you know, at the time you know, 22, 23,. I'm like, yep, let's go with that, I'm 29. And you just move on and you just kind of, you know, play it down a little bit.
Justin Armbruster:But yeah, it's all on how you handle it If you go in an immediate defense. You know, yeah, it's, you're going to be in a defensive posture and they're going to feel that. But if you play it off and you, you know, hey, you know, even if you haven't done it for super long, but I have a great office around me. I have support. You know, while a lot of agents are balancing multiple deals, I might only be balancing yours. That means I have eight hours a day to knock yours out of the park and give you the best service I can.
Justin Armbruster:Everyone else you're not getting that much time.
Greg Anderson:Yeah, that's great, that's wonderful. Yeah, that's a good way to say it. And I love that you have the humor too, because I use humor a lot in my business and it helps, it keeps people relaxed and calm and it also, I feel, kind of exudes some confidence on your part. If you're, if you're willing to joke about something, then you're you know you're confident person.
Chad Armbruster:That makes sense. So you had mentioned sphere of influence. So I guess the questions you know what's the one habit or routine that's helped you consistently stay in front of your sphere of influence and generate repeat referral business?
Greg Anderson:and keeping the referral business. I guess it just starts with the transaction in the beginning. Um, and my, my real mantra in anything that I do is just to always try to exceed everyone's expectations, and so I got that from the service industry. It was one of the the conference that I worked at. I mean, it was like that was the phrase exceed expectations. And so when I start with that and you build like the trusting relationship with your clients, and then in any tasks that you do, you just always keep this mindset of I could do this. But how do I do it so that I exceed their expectations, so that every time I communicate with them or do something for them, they're just wowed, like, oh my gosh, this is unbelievable, I wasn't expecting this. Um, so then, and after the transaction, um, just trying to stay in touch with them, I, I, I treat them as trusted friends. You know, even if they were more of uh, you know, you get some clients that are so warm and fuzzy and they, they definitely want to be your friend for life, you know, in addition to being a realtor. But then you get other people that are more personality, like engineers or accountants that you know. You know, why does Greg want to be so friendly to me? You know. But you know, if they're on social media, you know I make sure that they're connected with me and not just in a business way. But I'm kind of my is to, I'm kind of an open book, so I'm willing to share things about my personal life, my personal story, and relate it to to them. As far as when they tell me a story, maybe I can be more relatable. But going back to your question, you know being very interactive with them after the transaction, whether it be phone calls, social media interactions, and so not just posts where you're posting about yourself, but congratulating them on the new baby, you know, commenting on their vacation photos, you know. So that they're not always just thinking of you as a realtor but they're starting to think of you as a trusted friend who happens to be a professional realtor at the same time.
Greg Anderson:And then I have the advantage I work in a really large office. We all have a mentality of just service, service, service, giving back, and so we do a lot of events at our office for clients. We've got a big banner that we put outside our office whenever we have these events that say client appreciation event and clients will come to our office for different things. We just got done in right before Thanksgiving, the week of Thanksgiving, where we gave out jumbo pies. We get from Costco apple and pumpkin and then we kind of bill it as like an open house client appreciation event and they can come in and get a pie chat with us. We have snacks and beverages and you know we're playing holiday music in the background. It's just really nice, festive but casual. You know where they can. Just if they want to come in and just pick up their pie, they can do that. But if they want to stay a little while, they can do that as well.
Greg Anderson:And then we do tax assessment seminars. So if they're when the tax bills come out, if people think they're over-assessed, we have seminars on how to protest your tax assessment and you know how easy it can can be. And we have lawyers come in sometimes to talk about doing a will or a trust. Just trying to think of all the different events we do here. We do a paper shredding once a year where if people have papers they want to shred, all they have to do. It's really we started during covid. They just pull up to our building and it's like a drive-through. They they pop their trunk, we pull out all the papers, and it's like a drive-through they pop their trunk, we pull out all the papers and then we shred it right in front of their eyes and they just love it. So it's kind of giving back and letting them know that we're here to serve them all the time, not just when they're ready to sell their house or buy a house.
Justin Armbruster:So your pie Thanksgiving open house? Talk to me a little bit about that, because it's not a. A lot of realtors give out pies over Thanksgiving, try and see clientele or whatnot, but it sounds like this is a little bit different. This is like an open house, you guys, do you invite them in to hang out? What does that look like?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, yeah, it's like a two to three hour event. They RSVP in advance. So we advertise it, you know, through our CRM and then over social media. Some, some agents will actually text all their clients about it. You know, I've got my sister is my real estate partner and she does it a little differently than me. She, she actually will text as many agents or as many clients as possible to come. When they come to the event, I mean, they are kind of really welcomed like a VIP kind of experience. So they come in the front doors and we have people greeting them. They come into the I'm looking in my office because I'm here right now but they come into the.
Greg Anderson:We've kind of got a kitchen area of our office where we serve, you know, punch, hot chocolate, all kinds of goodies, stuff for the kids, and then my sister and I we do the most pies almost every year.
Greg Anderson:So we again another advantage of the building that we're in it used to be an old bank building so we get to set up our pies in this giant vault where they used to have the bank vault, and so it's really kind of a picture perfect place. A lot of people will do their pictures right in front of the vault. Oh, that's cool, it's really neat, yeah. And then you know, our tables are covered with tchotchkes, you know, potato chip clips and things and candy for the kids, and it's just. You know, we try to make it a really cool overall experience, not just for the adults but for the kids. And you know I have clients whose kids have been coming to these events now, that are now, you know, out of college and ready to buy houses, and so you know, you try to hope that you know over the years that they've been coming to these events enough as kids, that now, when they're grown up, oh my gosh, who else would I go to to buy a house or sell a house? You know.
Justin Armbruster:Right, you've been going to Greg's Thanksgiving party for the past decade, of course, yeah, absolutely.
Greg Anderson:Yeah, yeah.
Justin Armbruster:So just to understand the dynamic of this party so you have a brokerage you're a part of and you know you and your sister are on a team, but you know the entire brokerage works together on this party and you just each invite your individual clients to attend. Is that right?
Greg Anderson:That's yeah you got that exactly right, justin. Yeah, and we all kind of come together. There's a committee that we put together where people in charge of different things and everybody goes to Costco the same day to pick up all the pies. It's really a it's a team event and then it's an individual event because once the party starts, you know nobody's nervous of one client seeing another agent and you know, cause that that can be a little bit awkward and but if you have a good trusting relationship with all of your colleagues, it should never be an issue, although you know it's a small world and I have.
Greg Anderson:I know there's a client that comes to my event every year and I know she would never go anywhere else, but I also know that her kids know, her kid, you know, and and they still say hello to each other. So it can be a little bit awkward, but but at the same time everybody kind of has their own. Either If they've got quite a few pies, they get conference room, and if they don't, you know, if it's just like six pies, they'll have a little table. There's one agent who actually makes it like a drive-through, like we do with the paper shredding event, where she doesn't even I don't know, for whatever reason it works for her, but she just says here's when the pies will be. You know, come, drive up and I'll hand it to you right to your car. And I think that's a neat idea too, because then they don't have to get out and but they get to see her smiling face and she wishes them a happy Thanksgiving, and it's just a real warm, fuzzy event, yeah.
Justin Armbruster:I hope that answers your question. Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's a. It's a unique line of thought because most realtors that I talk to are in such this. You know I have to do it all myself. It's my business, you know I. You know if I'm going to put on a party, it's for, you know, justin Armbruster's clients and I think it's a limited mindset and you know me, by myself, I can only put on such a good of a party. You know I only have so many past clients, you know, and so I can't go to all of this work on something when it's. You know, I'm just going to have, you know, 20 families pop by, you know, on a particular Thanksgiving. But you know you partner with some agents in your office. You can really do some cool things that your clients get to be a part of and, yeah, there's going to be some overlap, but as long as you're okay with that, you can really go above and beyond if you're willing to partner with your other agents, even if you're not on a team.
Greg Anderson:Absolutely yeah, it's the power of leveraging. You know and leveraging what you have so that the overall outcome is beneficial to all. So you know, like you said, we I think Kelly and I we gave out a little over 200 pies, but our whole office as a total gave out over 700 pies, and so you get that many people coming to a building. You know it's like the place to be and you know you, you, you use, you know the client experience is like, wow, this is so cool. You know and, and, and. I know there's gotta be people that run into each other. They're like oh, I didn't know you used so and so, or use this firm for real estate. I would have known, you know.
Justin Armbruster:Oh, absolutely, what a great one. I'm picturing this bank vault full of pies. That picture just doesn't leave my head. That's super cool. But to what an awesome look on your guys's company, to on your firm, which is a reflection of you know, greg Anderson, a reflection of you too. Guys' company, too, on your firm, which is a reflection of you know, greg Anderson, a reflection of you too. When you know there's 700 pies being given out and you know the place is packed, you know it's. It is a great you know reflection to the, you know the city and the general public of your firm and how many clientele you got, how much clientele you guys serve too. So that's a huge win.
Greg Anderson:Thank you, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's definitely a win-win for all.
Chad Armbruster:So now I I did have some questions. I wasn't a little bit intrigued about the shredding, the, the. How does that work? I guess specifics Do you? I assume you hire a shredding truck to come by and yeah, yeah, that's again the benefit of working you know before we get into that, the Outside the Box podcast is all about repeat and referral business and great realtors know the key is serving your clients.
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Greg Anderson:Some realtors will choose a firm that maybe gives a little bit better commission schedule. For instance and I'm not saying mine doesn't but our firm pays for the paper shredding truck. I don't know, it may be, I'd have to look into it it's probably like three to 500 bucks for for a truck to be here for two, three hours. But, um, you know, it's just how can you say no not to jump onto that, because all you have to do really the day of is show up, be willing to pull some Kate, you know cases out of the trunks of the cars and and and help shred, you know, and it's just two or three hours. So you know again, it's not, it's probably not as big as the pie event, you know, but it's. You're kind of diversifying the flavor of what you do for your clients.
Greg Anderson:So the people that come to the pie event might not come to the paper shredding event. It seems like we get a little bit more older people that come to the paper shredding events. You know they had a house for a long time and they it's time to get rid of some stuff and but then again, that's, that's good, because if you can get everybody to come to one of your events. You've done your job. Now Everybody feels special.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, and the best part about these events that you mentioned is you know it's great touch points with your clients, but they want to be there. You know they are choosing to come see you, greg Anderson the realtor. You know it's obviously for the paper shredder or for the pie, but it's not like you know you're doing a pop by and interrupting their night or something. Or you know you run into them at Dylan the store or whatnot and the grocery store and you know you're you're holding them up for five minutes. You don't feel like an inconvenience. They are choosing to be here and they're excited about it. That's awesome.
Greg Anderson:Oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah, and even if they don't attend the event and even if they don't have the need for the paper shredding, they know that you thought of them. They get the invite. Yeah, absolutely. Wow, what a nice thing to do, even though I'm not in that category, you know right. It just spreads that goodwill.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, we do some similar events at my office and one of them that we do during Christmas time is a Donuts with Santa, where we hire a Santa out, you know, have families come through with young kids and you know I have a lot of young couples that don't have kids as clientele and you know, in my head I'm like, ok, they're going to have no interest in this event, but I'm still going to send them one. I want them to know that they're invited, they're appreciated and, who knows, maybe they have a niece or a nephew they want to bring, or whatnot. But yeah, I see what you're saying. It's a great touch point that this might not apply to you, but I appreciate you so much. If you'd love to come, we'd love to have you.
Greg Anderson:Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, things like that. Just, they do make people feel special and that's what you want them to feel is, so that when it's time for them to sell or buy a house, you know going with my realtor, who's always going above and beyond.
Chad Armbruster:Yeah, well, and the, the tax service, or you know, you mentioned the pies, the shredding, and then the tax service. The tax service and the shredding is also something you're providing, a service, I, you know I and it's it's a little bit related to real estate, so I guess I thought that was original as well. I mean, is that, is that the, the property tax service? Is that something that's been deemed as helpful? Yeah, definitely, you know, and it gets, it gets conversation started.
Greg Anderson:Property tax services that's something that's been deemed as helpful. Yeah, definitely, you know, and it gets. It gets conversation started. You know, you get some people here. Illinois taxes tend to be pretty high, and so sometimes people come here with the idea of they want to protest the taxes but in reality they'll tell us, like you know, in the next year or two we're out of here, you know, taxes are too high, and so, again, it kind of gets those conversations started where it's not an instant I'm gonna sell my house, but it's a, you know, put me on the calendar in two years when I retire, I'm, you know, I'm out of here, and so, yeah, yeah, we try to make sure that they somehow relate to real estate so that when they do come in there's there are those conversations.
Greg Anderson:I can only think of one event we used to do that really wasn't, you know, related, and it was. We called it the Holiday Gala, and that became a huge thing too. But what we did is we invited all kinds of vendors into our office where they'd pay a small fee for a table. That would all go to charity and then people could come and shop for their holiday gifts, you know, and we would, we as an office, kind of all leveraged to have the food and the drinks and door prizes, and it was kind of a client appreciation event, but it was. It was not always. I loved it in the sense that it really brought out a lot of people, but, um, I didn't feel like it was quite related to real estate and um, and so eventually we we stopped doing it. It was just uh it was a huge thing, um, and as successful.
Greg Anderson:but I I like you said, chad, I like the ones that deal more with where it's just kind of on the edge, where it's a little bit of real estate could be talked about, like. Like, when you do estate planning, you know people, um, I just moved my mom a couple years ago into memory care, unfortunately, but you know she had to sell the house and so, um, you know, if people don't have a will or a trust, you know that's where you can get those conversations started, where you bring in the attorney that's an expert on that and then afterwards or beforehand they start telling you the story of. You know, I don't know what I'm going to do here, but I knew I had to get my will started and eventually we got to get out of this two story so we can get a ranch or whatever it gets conversations going.
Chad Armbruster:That's good. So what are some common mistakes that you see realtors make when they're trying to grow their real estate business?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, that's a good question. I think, at least when I got in, there were a lot of temptations to just kind of try everything, kind of the shotgun marketing approach where you know, oh my gosh, that sounds so good and this sounds so good. Approach where you know, oh my gosh, that sounds so good and this sounds so good, let me, let me try all these things. And I think the biggest mistake is number one just trying to go after too many things at once. And then the number two mistake I would say is, especially as a new realtor, your, your, your funds are limited as far as getting your name out there.
Greg Anderson:So I always took the approach, um, because my funds were limited um to looking at what is efficient but doesn't cost you anything, or or cost you the you know the least um, for instance, uh, when I, when I got in the business, um, postcards were a huge thing. I know they're not now, but you know, uh, people would say, oh, greg, you got to do these monthly recipe postcards. People love them. You know they get the cards, they keep the card because it's got the recipe on it, and but you know, those are always expensive and so I can't remember who taught me. But they told me. You know, your business card is one of the cheapest forms of advertising. You know, and my, my father father, who was a realtor, he was not afraid to hand his business card out to anybody and um, he even had a story of um.
Greg Anderson:He was meeting a utility person it was electric or gas, you know for one of his clients and he handed his business card to the utility person just because my dad was a real good people person. I mean, he, even though he would hand the card out, you never felt like he was being salesy. It was, you know, let me have this great conversation with someone and at the end I'm going to give him my card and um, anyway, the guy ended up buying a house from my dad, like a year later. You know, and I think as realtors, oftentimes we think that, um, we can't make an impression on people and we can't. You know, I wouldn't, I don't want to give him my business card. He'll just think I'm a greasy salesperson. But you know, so that was.
Greg Anderson:That was a cheap form of advertising, social media that's free. I mean, for the most part, you know, don't, don't get tempted to. You know, do all the boosting and and you know all of all of the thing that costs you money. Just get out there and actually, you know, leverage the stuff that's out there and where people are at, so, facebook and Instagram, linkedin, and do it efficiently. So I use Hootsuite to post, you know, to all three of my social medias at once. So you have to not spend so much time and so much money just trying to create something you really want to go with, what you're comfortable with and, hopefully, what won't cost you much.
Greg Anderson:I guess, yeah, to answer your question, just be careful to not be tempted into buying into this program or that program because it can be really expensive, including buying leads. I don't have anything against people that have to buy leads, but sitting in an open house is free. You can do two open houses for 52 weeks and you're bound to get some leads that you're not going to have to pay zillow or whoever to for the lead. You know, don't don't be dependent on paying people for the leads. Just get out there and make a good impression and the lead will come to you yeah, absolutely.
Justin Armbruster:And I wanted to touch on what you said, uh, a second ago. You said, uh, people are often they get, uh, what's the word? Uh, shiny, uh, shiny, uh, yeah, they get what's the word? Shiny, shiny. Yeah, they get distracted. There's so many different things you can be doing. And one step further you know, one of the things that I made a mistake early in my career that you kind of hinted on, is thinking that everybody who can buy or sell a home in your city is your target audience. And that's not exactly true. You know, if I you know, you have a limited budget for your marketing. Instead of trying to advertise to the entire, you know, northern part of Illinois, it's like, why don't you try and isolate your top 250 friends that you know who are in your sphere, friends that you know who are in your sphere? But what if you spent your entire marketing budget on just going after that portion of people? You're going to do way better than spending, you know, your limited market trying to go after the whole pond.
Justin Armbruster:And so being more intentional doing parties, uh, taking people to coffee, catching up with people, you know how can we have? You know, go after this liver and dominate this, and then that's where you're going to get your business from, versus trying to spend your money pulling in from everywhere.
Greg Anderson:Yeah, I agree, and I think that's a good investment, justin, because once you do that, those people will refer you to others, and those people will refer you to others. And as you go through your career as a realtor, it gets easier, because now you're not going after cold leads, You're being handed warm leads or hot leads where they just say, hey, my friend tells me you're the best, where do I sign? I'm ready to go Versus? Hey, I found you online and I'm interviewing four people and please convince me why I should hire you. And, by the way, do you give a discount? You know, right, absolutely.
Greg Anderson:That's where it gets. You know you want to do what you were saying, which is, you know, stay concentrated to just those top two 50 or whatever the number is and and focus on them. And they, they know you, they, what's there's I can't remember who it is Joe stump or one of them that know you, like, like you and trust you. You know Um, um, and then they'll just keep referring you and it just gets. It should keep getting easier. At least it has for me um and I'm not, you know, top volume, big time agent.
Greg Anderson:but what I, what I'm proud of, is that every year I'm consistent, whether it's a down market or a up market. You know, I, I can stay consistent and I really think that that's because of the sphere. If I hadn't had that quality sphere that I had, you know, I'd still be chasing down cold leads and it's not something I enjoy doing.
Justin Armbruster:No, absolutely, and I think something that you know, you should, you should be proud of and other agents should strive to be like you in that real estate can be a super stressful career when not only the you know the actual work is stressful, but chasing down leads, trying to, you know, sell homes, trying to, you know, make ends meet, is super stressful. But it sounds like you know you're at a point in your career you've done all of the right work for so long that clientele are just coming. It's an. It's a nice quality of life that you have, that you're working with people who you wanna work with, who know you like you trust you already aren't nagging you about your commission every single time they see you.
Justin Armbruster:And I have an agent in my office who I look up to and we were talking about how to win listing appointments. When someone's interviewing someone and he just and it changed my perspective on how I want my business to be but he goes. I haven't interviewed for a listing appointment in years. He goes. 99% of the people. A listing appointment in years. He goes. He goes 99% of the people that call me like they know they want to work with me because I have a past relationship with them, so he goes. I don't really know what you guys are talking about, but you know he was joking. You know everyone you're going to interview every once in a while. But I was like that's nice and I was like I interview for everyone and it sucks. So it sounds like you're in a similar situation.
Greg Anderson:Yeah, very similar, and that's yeah, my biggest fear is when I get the call of somebody who did find me online and nobody referred them. They just said I just saw you and I'm interviewing three people. You know, now I have to really scramble to get my game together because you know I'm not used to that and it's a good place to be in, for sure.
Chad Armbruster:So, Greg, if you had to start over today, what would be the top priority for building a strong network?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, that's a really good question. I think if I were to start over, I would probably get more involved in organizations, more involved with things like, maybe, coaching. My wife was always nudging me to coach my son's teams soccer or basketball and I just didn't either. Either I didn't feel I had the time for it or I'm a little bit introverted and so I didn't really want to be out there and put myself out there. But looking back, I probably should have, because a lot of my early leads came from just sitting, what we call floor time. I don't know that many offices do that anymore, but it was basically when the phone rang.
Greg Anderson:If somebody wasn't working with a realtor, you would take the lead and run with it, and so in the community where I live we have a lot of different towns within like a 30, 40 mile radius, have a lot of different towns within a like a 30, 40 mile radius, and so I kind of became the expert on everything around me, because I that's where the leads would come from.
Greg Anderson:So I might drive 40 minutes this way to sell hours or 40 minutes that way. So I guess what I'm getting at is if I would have probably stayed more just in my community and got to know more people and became part of more organizations. I might not have had to do that as often and I'm not complaining, you know 40 minute drive is not that bad to go get a lead or list a house. But the community where I live, you know the prices are higher and so a lot of the communities where I was selling in were a lot lower priced communities and again, I don't have any regrets on that. But if I were to start over, I probably would have focused more on the community that I lived in, get to know my neighbors better, get to know people on you know all of the youth activities and not be afraid to, you know, hand out my business card or mention what I do for a living. So I think that that's that's one of the biggest things. I would do over a little bit better.
Justin Armbruster:That's. That's a great piece of advice. That's, that's fantastic.
Chad Armbruster:Yeah.
Justin Armbruster:So don't be shy.
Chad Armbruster:There you go. So what do you think is the key to turning a one-time client into a lifelong referral source?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, I mean, the key really is staying in touch, making sure that you build that trust in the beginning and keep that trust. And so you do need to always remind people. I guess that's why I do my, my social media posts. I try and do like a testimonial Tuesday every Tuesday, just not because I'm unsure of myself or because I'm trying to reach out to cold leads, it's to kind of just remind my sphere that I'm out there, you know, and I'm still doing business Like I've always done. I'm still getting these types of testimonials that they would, you know, hopefully it brings back memories when they read the testimonial. So I guess, you know, in addition to all the events that we talked about, you know, it's really just staying in touch with your clients.
Greg Anderson:So there's so many different ways of doing that. You know, home anniversary, sending them a card or a phone call or a text sending them a card or a phone call or a text. It's just amazing how many people don't remember their client's home anniversary. So I've got all of those on my calendar and can I say every year I hit them with a happy home anniversary. I don't, I'm not perfect, but it's.
Greg Anderson:It is important to just, you know. Catch them on those, on those moments where they can be reminded of the experience that they had with you and that you know. Don't treat them as a transaction. Treat them as a trusting, lifelong relationship. And I'll even tell people that you know, while I'm working with them, that my goal is to have you as a client for life, so that they know what to expect after the transaction. They're going to keep getting mailings from me. They're going to keep getting phone calls and texts from me and they'll know that when I say that, I mean that and hopefully then they start referring people to me whether it be family or friends or coworkers start referring people to me, whether it be family or friends or coworkers.
Justin Armbruster:Those home anniversary cards, that's a powerful form of marketing. That's just easy and not in the sense you know it takes time, it takes discipline to write those, especially when you have as much experience as you and past clients like you do. I mean if you were diligent in every single one, I mean you could be writing a home anniversary card every day. And so you know it's not easy in the sense that it's easy to do, but it's easy in that it's a, it's clear, you know it will work. It's a, it's a great touch point and I have an agent in my office who's been doing this a while and he has been diligent. The one thing he does in his marketing is home anniversary cards and he has been writing home anniversary cards to this past client of his for 22 years and he just got a call for them for uh, for him to go and list their house, that he sold them 22 years ago and so they took a photo when they uh went to go list it when it's sold.
Justin Armbruster:But he told us that story. I'm like that is a powerful testimonial to some of you know, just being disciplined and doing, doing things like that.
Greg Anderson:Yeah, that sure is yeah, and 22 years you know people could forget who you are or where what you know. It's amazing how people's memory they you know. If you ask them who was your realtor seven years ago, a lot of people couldn't answer that question. So, yeah, so keeping in touch is so, so important yeah, so just a quick follow-up on testimonial tuesday.
Chad Armbruster:How does that work? Do you just think of somebody to ask for that? Do you kind of do that you said, do you do that weekly or?
Greg Anderson:yeah, yeah, I try to do it almost every week. There's some weeks I forget, but, um, I I do have it on my calendar and, um, luckily, um, our, our office will send out, um after the transaction's over, you know, a request for a testimonial. Um, I don't always receive them, and so, um, I'll also ask my clients, um, either right at closing or on final walkthrough, you know, if I can send them some links to do a testimonial, and that seems to be more effective, and so I actually have on my we use Gmail. So on my Gmail there's signature lines you can set up custom signatures, and one of them is you know, thanks, it was great doing business with you set up custom signatures, and one of them is you know, thanks, it was great doing business with you. Here's some places where you can, you know, write a testimonial and I'll say, if you want, you can even copy and paste them to all of these, you know, depending on how ambitious people are, to give you a testimonial, and then I'll send that to them, either right there from the closing table or right after, and I'll get a pretty good response from that, and then, once it comes in, what's really nice is that it'll come in through our system and then post automatically to our company or my.
Greg Anderson:The company has a you know websites individually for each agent and it'll go right into my website. So oftentimes when I'm setting up a testimonial on a two, you know, monday for Tuesday, um, I'll just go to my, to my Web page and you know or to Zillow I think I've got a bunch on Zillow and then I'll just choose one that I know I haven't used in a long time and you know, you just copy and paste. I have a template set up for how I want it to read on each social media, so I'll just copy and paste. You know, especially with Instagram, you want all the hashtags, so I'll copy and paste all those. So I try to be efficient about it because you don't want to spend an hour every Monday doing a testimonial Tuesday. So you just you just try and get it done in like 10, 15 minutes and then set it up and it's good to go.
Chad Armbruster:That's good, so can you share? Do you have any significant referral success story? What you believed maybe contributed to that success.
Greg Anderson:I don't know if I have any that I you know where people have said I saw your testimonials. Unfortunately, you just have to believe that it's getting. It is getting out there. It's either reminding your past clients of you at that moment and then that's when they give a referral, but I wish there was a way to measure that. Maybe there is, and I don't know.
Chad Armbruster:Right.
Greg Anderson:What about? What about just generically speaking? You know, do you have a big referral success story that you've had in the past? Or yeah, that definitely Chad. I have one client. His name is Jeff.
Greg Anderson:I hope I don't make this too long of a story, but to me it's just the best story because I was doing a realtor open house on a I think it was on a Wednesday for my area and the town I was. It was the town I grew up in, actually and Jeff, who I knew from the neighborhood when I was growing up, but we ended up going. He went to Catholic school, I went to public school he walks in with his mom and I knew that they had lived right around the corner and I think he was probably just out of college at the time and I was probably as my first year, maybe my second year, in real estate. He walked in, said hello and they just, you know, they saw our signs, so they remembered that we used to live in the neighborhood and they weren't interested in the house, they were just kind of being nosy neighbors, you know. But also to say hello to us. Um said hello. Um asked him what he was doing for a living. He was working at a credit union, um, doing car loans, and uh, we had our, you know, nice conversation. I thanked him for coming and after they left I said you know what I've got it? Of course, as a new agent, you've got all the time in the world. So I sent a thank you card with my business cards and said you know, it's just so great that you came, it's so nice to see you. Thanks for coming.
Greg Anderson:I really didn't expect anything to come of it, but he ended up buying his first place with me. He called me maybe a year or two later, bought a condo with me. He ended up selling that condo with me, ended up buying another house, selling that house, buying another house. But that's not even the story.
Greg Anderson:The story is that he is a big networker himself and so he knew tons of people and so, um, he would refer me to somebody uh, usually someone that worked at his credit union, and they were all friends. They were all in the age, same age group, and so when they'd go look at the house, he would introduce me to all of the friends because they would all come with that. One friend who wanted to buy their first house and he'd be like this is john mary jody and I knew they all worked at the credit union so I looked them all up. I started putting them on my crm at the time I don't remember which one it was. Uh, some put them on my. Uh. I've got one other thing I'll show you before we end this. Um, I send out an annual calendar with a letter every year to my clients. Put them all on my mailing list so they would get a calendar and I cannot tell you.
Greg Anderson:If we were to look through my list of I've got like 400 people on my SOI list I would say probably 15 to 20 percent of it is from this guy either directly or indirectly this guy, either directly or indirectly, because because of the yeah, the type of person he was kind of, you know, brought in the same type of people and then they, you know, and so not only was he a referral base, but all of his friends and co-workers were kind of the same mentality and and yeah, it's just, it's just amazing. I'd like to go one time and go through it with him and just say you know, because of you, you know, these 47 people out of my whatever number, you know, 400 are because of you. Meeting with you that one day, when you came through my Realtors Open House.
Justin Armbruster:Oh, that is so funny. I can see it now how one thank you note leads to 50 transactions over a course of a career.
Greg Anderson:It's just crazy. That's the magic of this business and the fun part of this business is that you never know who you're going to be facing that day. That could change your whole business model. You know and what you're going to sell and how much you're gonna do that year, and it's just, it's just amazing and it's fun. In fact, I saw him last night in Target. I was at Target and he's just a plain old guy. He's extremely successful, owns a couple of his own businesses now and but he you know he wouldn't know it. He was walking through Target in his blue jeans and t-shirt and said hello to him and he's actually a financial planner now and I'll be meeting with him in December.
Chad Armbruster:Yeah, that's a great story, that's perfect.
Justin Armbruster:So before we get out of here, we like to end our time on Outside the Box with some rapid fire questions. They're either or questions, the first thing that kind of comes to your mind. We want to hit you with them, so hit us straight. Let me know when you're ready Okay, ready. When talking to a client and helping them with their home search, do you refer them to Zillow, realtorcom or Homescom?
Greg Anderson:None of the three none of the three love it. Neither do you set them up on an mls search or something. Yeah, yeah, we have a one that's probably more local to the area. That, yeah, so I can kind of keep track of them and and watch what they're doing.
Justin Armbruster:Love it. Strong stance Are you an office guy or a home office guy? Home office guy Home office Instagram or Facebook. Facebook Facebook Podcast or book.
Greg Anderson:For me, because I'm an old fogey book, I guess Audiobook or book, book, book, book.
Justin Armbruster:What's the most impactful book that you've read?
Greg Anderson:The Slight Edge. I can't remember who wrote it but it's a good one.
Justin Armbruster:Is it a business book?
Greg Anderson:Yeah, kind of business, but also life Really really gives you an idea on how to do life continuously.
Justin Armbruster:Love it, love it. What is the most underrated app on your phone, business or personal?
Greg Anderson:That's a toughie. I'm going to go with Hootsuite, hootsuite.
Justin Armbruster:Love it. And finally, if a listener wanted to refer a client to you, what local areas do you serve and what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Greg Anderson:Sure, so anything in the northern Illinois area up to the Wisconsin border is kind of me and the best way to reach me is by cell phone.
Chad Armbruster:I can give that out if you want. Yes, absolutely yeah, go for it 847-650-7171.
Justin Armbruster:Awesome, Greg. Hey, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. It's been a pleasure.
Greg Anderson:Oh, it's been a pleasure here too. Thanks for having me.
