The Power of Personal Notes
Is there a correlation between the number of personal, handwritten notes a real estate professional sends customers and their volume of real estate transactions?
Motivational speaker Brian Buffini thinks so. “People love being appreciated and valued and thanked, and in the modern world today, [a handwritten note] is even more powerful than ever before,” he told attendees at one of his seminars for real estate professionals.
His Peak Performance program comes with a kit that includes note cards. He advises agents to send two cards a day. A Youtube video he shares touts agents who have followed the advice with results that he believes are tied to the number of notes they send.
Larry Kendall’s Ninja Selling program also encourages its agents to send two cards a day.
“There is quite a bit of research on the power of personal notes,” says Kendall, noting that even former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning has been revealed to be a note-writer. During his football-playing prime with the Indianapolis Colts, Peyton was known to send handwritten notes to retiring players.
There must be something to it.
At a time when technology is transforming the industry, relationships are more important than ever; REAL Trends conducted a consumer study that found that referrals still were the top resource for consumers to find an agent.
Randi Pereira, a Keller Williams agent in Prairie Village, Kan., says that sending personal notes spurs from her decision to be a relationship broker over a transactional broker. Pereira, who began sending personal notes after attending Buffini’s Peak Performance seminar, says that notes help cultivate relationships.
“It’s personal and it takes time to sit down and write someone a note. I think the person receiving the note feels special,” she says. “Everyone loves getting mail! It also gives me the opportunity to tell someone how much I appreciate them, because I really do, and that I’m available if they need anything.”
Don’t think you can do it? Kendall’s Ninja Selling book suggests starting with one of three magic phrases: Thank you; congratulations; or I was just thinking about you.
“Start your notes with one of these phrases, and you’ll be off and running,” Kendall writes. He encourages real estate professionals to make it a practice to pen two notes (or more) each day–before turning on their computers and being distracted by other things.
“What a great way to start your day,” he says, “making yourself and others feel great.”
