In a recent article, I talked about getting credit repair referrals from professionals in credit-related industries which should be part of every credit repair marketing plan. If you haven’t read that article, I encourage you to do that first, Credit Repair Marketing Plan – How to Get Referral Business. Let’s now take it one step further and discuss the topic of managing those referral relationships.
Continue to Make Contact
Once you have people in real estate, mortgage, banking, solar, auto, etc. that have agreed to send you their credit-challenged prospects, the work isn’t over. You must continually foster that relationship to consistently get credit repair referrals. Simply because you had one conversation with someone, even though it was positive, it doesn’t mean that they are going to alter their daily business habits. They’ve established those habits over a long period of time. And, as we all know, habits are tough to break. For example, the next time they need to tell someone that they don’t qualify for financing for whatever their selling, they may or may not think of sending that person to you. It’s not yet part of their business habits. So, it’s up to you to continually remind them that you're there for them.
It may just require a phone call a week simply to say hello and ask them if they’ve run into anyone with challenged credit in the past week. If that person is local and works in an office why not drop by to say hello? In fact, put it on your calendar every week to do just that.
Expand Your Contacts
After you stop by their office a few times other people in the office will recognize you and wonder who you are. Ask your contact to introduce you to others in the office that have the same issue that they do with credit-challenged client prospects. You can take that one relationship and turn it into many in that one office. You can become known as the ‘credit lady’ or ‘credit guy’ and get credit repair referrals from an entire office. How perfect is that? Don’t be shy about getting a big bag of candy or mini chocolate bars and breaking them up into smaller bags. Then staple your business card to the bags and drop them off at each desk when you’re in the office.
One person that would be important for you to meet is the managing broker or office manager. Once you have their blessing that office now belongs to you. You can set up seminars on credit once a month. At one point I had 5 Keller Williams offices in my area that I had done just what I’m talking about. They would set up credit training classes for all their new licensees about every 6 weeks. I would go in and train these new agents on credit and of course, what I could do to help them close more business.
Another way to expand your referral contacts through the real estate agents that you know is to ask them if they have mortgage people that they normally work with. Each real estate agent typically has 2 or more mortgage professionals that they use to try to get their clients qualified.
Be Patient and Consistent
The process I’m describing takes time. This won’t all happen in a week. You must be consistent with it. Be in continual contact with your referral sources. Become part of their team along with their home inspector, mortgage broker, home stager, title company, etc.
Coach Tham on How to Properly Give You a Referral
One more important bit of work that you also must do is to teach your referral source how to properly give you a referral. Without coaching a real estate agent, they might just text you a name and number sad ask you to give someone a call. But if they haven’t promoted you or even mentioned you to their prospect, you may have difficulty getting them to take you seriously when you call. Or call you back if you leave a message.
When they have someone that can’t qualify due to a low credit score you want them to share with their prospect that they have someone on their team that can work with them to increase their credit score. They should ask permission of the prospect to be able to give you their contact information. And they should stress to the prospect to call you back if you need to leave a message.
Doing a little coaching with your referral sources will increase not only your odds of speaking to these people but also increase your chances of making the sale. If the referral source, (real estate agent, mortgage broker, finance manager, banker, solar salesperson, etc.) does a good job of giving you this referral the sale will be 80% done before you get on the phone with the prospect.
Learn About Having Your Own Credit Repair Agency
I hope you found this information helpful and of value. If you’re searching for information on how to start a credit repair business, click on Credit Repair Business Opportunity. There you will find out about our business model and how you can own a credit repair agency. There’s a 24-minute detailed business overview. After you’ve watched it, assuming it has piqued your interest, you can click the icon below the video to schedule a phone appointment with us. We will answer any questions that you have and otherwise talk with you to see if our business model is the right fit for you.