How to Call Your Sphere

At BrokerBuzz, it’s our view that “sphere” (those people that know you, like you, and would be willing to use or refer your services to others) is one of the most viable yet underutilized lead sources available to agents. If you don’t have enough business, pretty good likelihood you’re not making the most of your sphere connections.

So, if you’re looking for guidance in this area, here’s a quick sphere calling playbook that you can implement on the fly, and for additional support, here’s a link to our calling best practices.

First Call to Sphere

1. Reintroduce: When calling your sphere contacts the first time through, the objective is to, in effect, reintroduce yourself to them. You’re not just their friend, acquaintance, co-worker or whatever, but you are also a real estate professional who is available and more than capable to handle their needs should they have an upcoming real estate transaction. 

2. Add Value: You’re reaching out and interrupting someone’s day. Think of what can you provide in the call so that it’s a positive experience for your contact and you’ve positioned yourself as a resource that provides value.

3. Establish Open Line for Future Communications: While objectives of the call are to reestablish yourself as a potentially valuable resource for your contact should they have any real estate needs; you’re not going to get any results if you only reach out the one time. Getting results from your leads, including sphere contacts, is driven by persistence and consistency. Structure the conversation so you leave the door open for future reach-outs. 

4. Script: Call, open up the conversation with pleasantries. When the time is right, say something to the effect of what’s written below in the italicized font (by the way, the best approach with call scripts is to use them as a guide and make them your own. Vet the script, rework it to how it best fits you and your objectives, practice until it sounds natural and rolls off the tongue, then put it into action!):

Hey, I’m sure you’re aware, but if not, I wanted to let you know I've been working hard on growing my real estate business. A big part of that is building my business through word of mouth. 

My goal is to establish myself as a resource for anything home related, not just if you need to buy or sell. This is for homeowners, prospective homeowners, etc.

So if you have any needs, like if you’re looking for a lender for a refi, or a contractor for a home project, or just have questions on sale prices or what’s going on in your neighborhood, please know you’ve got a resource you can go to anytime.

No pressure, no obligations. When it comes to housing, people need a resource they can trust, and hopefully I can fill that role.

Same goes if you have any family, friends, co-workers, etc. that may have a need.

And of course if you are thinking about buying or selling or have something real estate related coming up, I’d love to have the chance to earn your business. 

Hope that’s a positive for you, that you’ve got a “go-to” in real estate for any questions or needs. Do you have any questions right now? Anything coming up? (pause, let them fill the void).

Sounds great. Looking forward to (next steps).

Follow-up Calls to Sphere

1. Check in Quarterly: keep track of your contacts, reach-outs and conversations. The goal is to keep the relationship warm and stay top of mind should they have any real estate needs.
   Plan to check in at a frequency where you stay on their radar but it’s not so much where it’s overbearing or annoying, nor so infrequent they’ve forgotten about you (nothing worse than reaching out to a long lost sphere contact and they’re excited to tell you they just bought a home).   

2. Have a reason to call: Easiest is if you add your sphere contacts to your CRM and put them on an automated drip of high value email marketing (or at least not schlocky email marketing, as you find with some of the real estate CRMs available). If you don’t have any other reason, you can always call and ask if they’re getting what you’ve been sending, and if they have any questions on it or on the market, etc.

3. Better yet, get a Hook: In this context, a hook is something of value the prospect may want or need, to increase the likelihood of converting them from contact to client status, should they have an upcoming real estate need. For example, google or call some lenders in your area that offer 0% down payment or other incentive programs. Make contact, learn about their program, and use it as a hook. Now when you’re calling your sphere, you can leverage something like the following (again, this is just a call guide/starting point. Vet the script and make it your own, for best results):

Hi, reaching out again… I’m sure you’ve been hearing about mortgage costs and home affordability challenges in real estate. This is such a huge factor for so many, my goal was to see if I could find some resources to help make it easier for those thinking about jumping into the market.

From that standpoint, I have connections to lending resources that offer low and 0% down payment programs for some buyers, instead of the typical rates that can go up to 5,10 or even 20% and beyond. Buyers have the potential to save thousands and make that next home more attainable.

I’m reaching out to get the word out on this, and wanted to see if it’s something that might be a benefit to you directly, or if you know of anyone thinking about buying, or selling or buying, that wants to look into their options? (pause, let them fill the void).

In closing, sphere contacts are a big opportunity, but they need to be worked properly. Treat sphere reach outs as a regular, routine effort. Results won’t happen overnight, but if you’re putting in your dues and focus on providing value and putting your prospects into the best position to succeed, you’ll start to see more and more direct and referral opportunities coming back to you. And if kept up with, that flow will become a deluge.