Mark Waldhoff of Champaign, IL may fly a little under the radar for someone who closes over 200 homes a year on average in a market of around 250,000 people.

His secret? Mark says that the power of his business comes from his database.

In fact, the conversations he and his team have with their databases contribute to more than 60% of their business each and every year.

Simplicity Creates Consistency

Mark hasn’t set out to speedily make it to the top of the pile when it comes to real estate. Instead, his approach has been slow and steady. After all, he knows that while everyone may have different goals in mind, when you come at it from a business mindset and look to have fun while you grow, you’re bound to experience success.

Because his market is a university town with a lot of turnover, he has about 17,000 total people and 1,700 Mets in his database. Mark knows that this is too large a number to really build relationships with and touch often in a limited amount of time. This means he has to prioritize his reach outs and has created a tiered system to do just that.

• Tier 1: Those people he calls on a regular basis and has relationships with.
• Tier 2: While still important, these people are on more of an automated follow-up system and their reach outs generally consist of the drip campaigns and client event invites.

For Mark, his tiered system falls in line with his overall approach to business: don’t overcomplicate things. In fact, he says it’s the simpler systems that most often are the ones to get followed day-in and day-out.

Take Mark’s ongoing approach to his database of further proof that simplicity pays off when done consistently. His team’s core activities consist of:

• Quarterly touches with the database
• Five calls per day
• Inviting people to events
• Providing something useful during outreach

As Mark says, it’s not even necessary for people to answer every call they make. Rather, it’s the consistency of hitting the baseline number of calls each day that matters. When his team reaches out, their goal is to provide value instead of just “checking in.” The goal is to stay relevant and helpful without making communication feel forced. This is where the Local Legends list comes into play.

The “5-Star Local Legends List”

One of Mark’s most effective database strategies begins with a simple question: “Did you have anyone work on your house this past year that did a really good job?”

This question is foundation for what he calls the “5-Star Local Legends List,” a vendor guide built entirely from recommendations from clients and the people in his sphere.

His process is quite simple. He reaches out to people in his database and explains that they are updating their list of trusted local vendors because clients ask for recommendations all the time. From there, he asks whether they’ve worked with anyone recently they’d recommend.

Mark has found that these conversations get more responses than almost any other type of his outreach because people like to share recommendations and talk about projects they’ve done. And as a result, his database relationships get a little deeper each time.

Take, for example, someone mentioning to him that they recently redid their deck. This can turn into a conversation about why they upgraded it and maybe even segue into life changes or future plans on their horizon. And because the conversation feels helpful and personal instead of like a sales call, he’s likely to learn more about people’s lives than he otherwise would have if he didn’t take the time to learn why they decided to take on that recent home improvement project.

It’s important to note that the final Local Legends list isn’t simply a compilation of all the names and businesses he hears about. Rather, they generally look for at least two recommendations before adding a vendor to the guide. And as a beneficial aside, the Google Form they use to collect updated vendor information simultaneously helps them to clean up and update contact details inside their database.

Keep the Database Clean

Updating the database and preventing it from becoming disorganized is also a key attribute of Mark’s database system. He recognizes that tags, categories, and lead sources can get messy over time. And when that happens, agents often stop using their databases to its full capacity.

However, Mark knows staying inside the database on a daily basis is essential for his business to succeed. And the cleaner and more organized it stays, the easier it is to communicate consistently and build meaningful long-term relationships.

As he’s grown his team, Mark hasn’t lost sight of what makes his database focus a success story. Mark understands that consistency matters more than complexity when building a referral-based business. In other words, he knows he must commit to a standard when it comes to reach outs and keep is database clean and organized so he knows how best to prioritize within it. Finally, he makes sure his conversations feel natural by providing the people he talks to with useful items. It may not sound like rocket science, but these are the habits that result in his business going strong and continuing to grow.