Q. How do you bring in new leads?

I won’t pay for leads

Honestly, do the hard yards and find customers yourself.

I’m a new broker, and I don’t have any referral partnerships yet, so that’s another opportunity for me. I would want organic referral partners, though, because I have decided I don’t want to pay for leads. 

I have bought leads in the past. For anyone out there that is thinking of buying them, honestly, it’s the biggest waste of money buying. 

Buying a book is great, but buying leads is terrible. You don’t get sticky customers. You’ll get clawback. 

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Building relationships and turning up

I think it’s about building a relationship with someone that is going to get you organic leads. If you just see them once, they’re not going to remember you. So, I think building the relationship is really important. 

For example, my dad (who is also a broker) is in a car club, and they go there once a week – it’s called the GT Club. He’s got a lot of work from that. My business partner goes to BNI as well, and he gets random customers all the time from that. He catches up regularly with people within that group. So, it’s worked really well.

So, I think building those relationships and being there all the time means you will get some really great work from that.

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Sitting near all the action

I’ve based myself in an office with a real estate agency. If you’re going to have an office, I think it’s a really good idea. Just hire a seat. And if you’re in there, you’re front of mind, and you build more of a friendship with these close referral partners.

A big thing is to show what you can give to your referral partners first. If you just cold-call referral partners, it’s going to be too transactional. If you can at least give them something, a solution for one of their clients, then you will find that then they appreciate that and want to repay it. For example, I deal with a lot of real estate agents, and I remember one experience where they sold a property to a lady, and she hadn’t provided the contract to the bank four days out from settlement. I remember turning it around really, really quickly. And the agent saw just how much effort I put into getting this property settled, which obviously benefited them and the customer. That’s when their eyes opened, and they saw that I worked really hard to get something done for them. 

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Nurture your leads

I was very lucky that I was able to get a really good lead source when I first started: my mate, who’s now a leading buyer’s agent. So, I was very lucky to get a really good lead source there to get started. 

But once you get a bit of momentum, you start to build a referral network from your clients. I would say your leads are your number one referral source. So, nurture your leads. And be active with your referral partners and business partners and anyone that you’re working with. Make sure that you give so much value through the process that you both win on all sides.

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