KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The End of Pop-Bys

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

Are you still doing pop-bys or being told that you should do pop-bys in order to get more business? Oh my gosh, guys. On this episode, hey, there I am. On this episode, we're going to be talking about that you never need to do another pop-by in your real estate business again and what to do instead. Welcome to the Influential Agent Podcast, where real estate entrepreneurs come to learn how to generate and convert more leads by using the latest in technology, social media, and lead generation systems. Here are your hosts, international speakers, and veteran agents, Amber Joy and The Rook. Oh, yeah. We'll get in next time.

I don't know if it's just my headphones, but I heard nothing during that entire segment. Because I didn't want you to hear it. I'm kidding. That's not true. I always want you to hear it. Hey, babe. Do we need to start over so we can. can make sure it's all working properly? Nope. Imperfect action. Okay, okay, okay. So you guys, I'm really excited about today's episode, but Jason, if you could let us know who is sponsoring today's episode. Oh, guys, today's episode is being sponsored by Sphere Influencer. It is the single most effective sphere marketing system to build relationships and get more referrals than ever before. You can get more information at getspereinfluencer.com.

All right, today's topic is all about pop buys, you guys, and I have tried a ton of marketing ideas over the years. And the one that we're going to talk about today, I've been waiting a long time to talk about. Now, why did we wait so long to talk about this topic? Well, honestly, it's because there's a lot of people that are very passionate about this particular topic. Passion is not the word I would use. They're possessive. They're like fiercely protective. Well, and I didn't want to ruffle feathers.

I'm just one of those personality types that I don't like conflict. I don't like nasty comments. But at the same time, I'm passionate about helping people be better in their businesses. So it's time to stop avoiding what needs to be talked about. And we're going to keep it 100 with you today because we care about. you and we care about your business. So we're going to talk about pop-bys today. It is so cool. Yeah, guys, it's always an interesting thing. I remember when I first got in, this was 2009. We talked about doing pop-bys. I was going around the office asking agents because

I actually didn't know what that meant. And so I got some interesting stories, interesting advice that I definitely want to cover. But babe, this is definitely your, topic so I want you to take a lead on this also jason i want to welcome you back to the podcast it's been quite some time since you have been on with me so i am thrilled to have you back with me babe that's just that i would get that out of the way well i'm always hearing now for the uh for the audience in case they're like what the heck is a pop-by now most realtors know what a pop-by is pop-by is one of those words that's real estate specific mostly. I'm not saying there's no other industries that use it, but it's typically used in real

estate. I think it was made famous by Brian Bafini, if I had to guess. I'm not positive, but, but pop by is in case you are listening and you're newer to real estate and you're like, what the heck is a pop buy? Well, a pop buy is a is in real estate anyway, involves giving past clients and sphere members a small gift. I wrote this down to keep me on track. Usually one that has a marketing slogan attached. Now, the name comes from the fact that you have to pop by the client's home in order to give them the gift, which then opens up the opportunity to catch up, reconnect, and even ask for a referral.

Now, back in the day, this was a brilliant strategy because, I mean, this probably came out 30 years ago. I mean, I don't know because I've only been in real estate 20 years, but it wasn't new back then 20 years ago. can only imagine how long it's actually been around. Well, the concept, at least from the research that I did, kind of evolved from the door-to-door salesman back in the days where everybody wore suits and hats, even though it was 90 degrees outside.

And it kind of evolved from that, maintaining those relationships, those door-to-door salesmen would then return to just kind of increase sales, going back to their book of business. So that's just my stuff. Well, and, you know, things evolve, you guys, but yet I feel like this category has not evolved very much. Now, real estate trainers back in the day told us to do this. And again, I think it was highly effective back then because it's all we had, as you're saying.

But like anything else, if we are still doing marketing strategies that were invented 30 years ago, if not more, I know for sure it was around 20 years ago, when I got licensed, then we have to be wondering to ourselves, is this still the most effective way to get business the same way 30 years ago, even though things have evolved? So if you are somebody that does pop-byes, I can already tell you right now that there's going to be people listening to this later on and get, some people get highly offended at the idea of, you know, you've got your two groups of people, actually, you've got on both sides.

One group is just highly offended that I would even say, how dare you say that I've been doing pop-bys forever and it works so good. Okay, when's the last time that you can attribute a sale to a pop-by of some popcorn that you brought by that says, just popping by? Well, I think that's a misconception because I know that people will easily say, well, I get referrals all the time. but is it to the relationship that you've built or is it to the activity of the pop-i? Or is it to the actual popcorn, yeah. Right, because what you're saying starts to resonate. There's a cognitive dissidence. I know what you're saying makes sense, but it's counter to what I've been taught for a very

long time. Therefore, my brain is going a little z-z-z. And so it's one of the things that we have in our industry that not only does the idea behind it hasn't evolved, but the methods haven't evolved. Now, for our coaching clients, we are teaching strategies that have a foundation that hasn't really changed, but the method at which we apply that, you know, that idea has evolved with the time. So going from phone calling to video notes and video email, that's an evolution. Same idea, but there's an evolution in the of the steps of how you do it.

But this thing, this thing is still the same. Well, and I think what you're saying resonates with me, which is some of those people doing Popeyes that are like, absolutely, I can attribute those to sales. One, has it been in recent years or over the last 20 years? Because, yeah, it for sure has in the last 20 years. But what you said is those people that were dedicated to Popeyes were dedicated also typically to a tight relationship with their sphere,

also contacting them, providing value. you, that is why you saw a lot. Now, the principle, as you said, maybe still tried and true, but the method has to change. But when we were talking about people being in two different camps, I just want to finish that thought real quick. On one camp, on one camp, it was people, agents who they're not sure if it's working anymore, okay? Maybe it worked in the past. They're not sure if it works anymore. But we have a ton of agents in the other camp who are like, like, oh, thank God. I'm so glad you're telling me a different way to generate referrals than pop-bys because they have this guilt because they haven't been doing it consistently. Because if you,

I mean, technically studies show that you need to have a quarterly contact with your sphere of influence and quarterly pop-bys, okay, in the pop-by strategy with your key players in order to stay top of mind. Well, if you are driving around quarterly to deliver all of these things, you might as well be an Uber driver at that point. And it becomes something that wasn't sustainable long term. And they weren't able to be consistent. And then they felt guilty about it. So just one campus is it still effective? And two, I'm so relieved to hear that there is another way.

Well, and here's the thing also, before we get into the two reasons why, pop-byes are no longer effective. I just want to go back to talk about the evolution of things. And one of those is how we interact with people on a day-to-day. And so this concept of someone's popping by your house absolutely was a thing back in the 50s, 60s, even into like the early 70s. Now, this is different than if you guys are saying, oh, well, I have stuff all the time. I'm not talking about your get-togethers, with your friends where you say, hey, we're having a game night or come over, we're going to have some wine,

take some pictures for the gram, and it's going to be just an amazing time. They stay for like two hours and they're gone. That is not what we're talking about here. People still do that. I get that. We don't. But the difference being is if one of your friends or even an acquaintance

just stopped by the house right after you got off of work. It's not the same vibe today as it was. I remember mom always had like those white boxes of like coffee cakes that we weren't allowed to eat and it was just there. And I saw a comedian talk about this exact same thing. It cracked me up because I remember having like a dish that you weren't allowed to eat because it was for company.

I'm like, well, when are they getting here? It's, you know, it's because. we had neighbors. It's like our first house and Plano in like 74. People actually talk to each other. Yeah. And I remember mom and dad was like, hey, let's go stop by so-and-so's house. I'm like, I don't want to go over there because he's got this massive telescope that he never lets me look at. So I don't want to go. That's just childhood trauma that I'm hearing now. But anyway, the society that we are in is counter to some person that you had an interaction

or a transaction with just stopping by. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Coming in. Seeing your house. You're like, I haven't cleaned it. Actually, the actual term pop-by gives me anxiety just saying it. Because I'm like, oh, please don't pop by my house. You know, and I think that makes me as an agent have stink and thinking about door-knocking

pop-bys or any of that stuff because if I don't want someone to do it to me, I don't feel good about doing it to someone else. And so, you know, Jason and you and I will be driving down the street and this is going to sound so bad, but I'll be seeing, there seems to be, I don't know if it's just my neighborhood or if this is everywhere, but it seems like the households around here have this long wooden decorative piece right by their front door that says welcome down it. I don't know if you've seen those, but I see them on so many homes. And I'm like thinking myself, I would. would never put one of those up at my house like welcome who who are you welcoming because unless it's in pizza or amazon like i'm probably not answer that's a lie i should make one that just says no thanks that's just that's going to be a brand new thing is like uh no thanks i'll have another one that says turn around or just we're not home or did you text first are you supposed to So that just goes to show that the times have changed.

So our marketing has to change too. So if you're still being told to do things that were effective 20 and 30 years ago, whether it's pop-by or another marketing strategy, I want you to rethink that. But we're now going to give you two reasons why pop-bys, or we just gave you one of the two reasons, but two reasons why pop-bys are no longer effective is number one, people don't want you to pop by their house. Okay, we just kind of covered that. They, uh, people are busy.

The way people communicate has changed. Just popping by is not really an effective strategy. And the second reason, and we're really passionate about this reason and it's the biggest reason for us is that pop buys are not scalable. Oh, that's, that's so huge. And we don't do anything or coach anything to our coaching clients that is not scalable. because at every point in your career, you are raising the bar, you're trying to grow your business, and you can't grow something that isn't scalable.

Yeah. And the reason why I like this is the fact that it's unemotional. Not the reason why I don't like it's unemotional, but it's data, it's data driven. There is going to be a capacity that you reach, that you are not going to be able to take those gifts out to people. Another aspect of it not being scalable is a cost association with it, where if you break it down on a cost per lead or a cost per transaction, the numbers just rarely add up or there's going to be a tipping point where those numbers simply flat out don't make sense.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely. So if it's not scalable... If it's not scalable, then stop doing it. Cut it, right? All right, so what are your thoughts on Popeyes? If you're a listener, I'd love to know, what are your thoughts on it? We don't have to always agree.

We can still be friends. But let us know in the comments what your thoughts are on. All right. So what, like when you listen to this, and again, it's, I, I think about, I've talked to so many realtors, and we've had these conversations on the Popeye thing. And I said, let me ask you a question. Do you like doing Popeyes?

And they're like, no. I'm like, if you hope that the person is not home so that you can just drop it off and bail, that's a sign. It's kind of like when you call someone and you're hoping they don't answer, you know, it's like, yeah. But not just that. I have actually, I'm glad you brought that up because I've actually heard agents say that. Don't worry, Amber. I don't disturb them. I just pop by and drop it off at the

front door. Well, wait a minute. The whole point of the pop by was to relationship build and catch up and possibly even ask for a referral. So if you're just dumping it at the door, isn't that doing a lot of work for not really seeing the result that you need from it? So and how lasting is a gift. Okay, now this is going to be shots fired, but how lasting, shots fire is a gift going to be? How effective is it? Meaning how memorable is it if it is just a trink it? Because a lot of the times, in order for agents to afford pop buys to that many people,

it is a bag of popcorn, like just popping by or it's, it's popcorn. It's lottery tickets. It's the seeds, the forget-me-nots. So I'm wondering how effective is that to be like, if you were to get that from somebody, does it make you go, wow, they are the real estate expert? Did you see those seeds that they just dropped off at my front door? I mean, they're the ones we're going to call.

Yeah, but it's the same. I think, I just don't understand how the two correlate. But at the same time, I will say that is, to me, the agents doing what they were taught to do. And I think that's the disconnect. Because you've got. It used to work. Yeah. Well, it used to work.

So what you have is you have a generation of realtors when this used to work, teaching in an era where it no longer does or giving advice or being on a panel and saying, hey, this is something you should try. I remember because I did it or I did it, built a relationship. I'm still doing it, but again, it's not the activity that's getting me the business. It's the relationship that I built over the years. Yes, exactly.

And that's just key. So I think that while shots are being fired, can I shoot one more? Yeah, let's go. Okay. I did my DJ horn. If shots are being fired, I'm not going to lie, if an agent has time to deliver popcorn to 100 houses or whatever it is, I'm thinking to myself, they may not, they must not be a very busy agent. They must not be very successful.

Now, while that's not necessarily true, are we inadvertently leaving that perception with someone? I wonder because if somebody's highly successful, they're not driving around popcorn bags. I can tell you that to. Okay. But I know this, though, because I've spoken with agents. So here's the perception. Your perception is spot on. Dang, I thought you're like really busy, but you're able to stop my house.

So the agents like going, well, no, they feel super important because I'm stopping by and I'm talking to them. Like, do they, though? Well, let's, so we've talked about enough about why we don't like them anymore. Okay. You know, but let's move on to what do you do instead? Because like you said earlier, it's not that the concept isn't good because the concept of relationship building with your sphere. Y'all know I, that is my bread and butter. That is the crem de la creme for me.

And it will always be the foundation to any agent's business. That is your warm bread. I mean, I am here for it. So the concept of relationship building with sphere and rewarding them for referrals and catching up with them, connecting with them, that is still golden and always will be. But the method, like you said, has to evolve past what it was 30 years ago. So what is the method now that you could be using? And to me, it's going to be a VIP program.

Oh, VIP. I'm sorry, I was just excited with that. So a VIP program is what we use and what we coach our agents to use because it's a formalized way to reward your top refers. Now, the VIP program, let me just clarify, is not for your entire sphere of influence. So if you were doing pop-bys to your entire sphere, let me just tell you, you should be having quarterly contact with your sphere. but those are not pop-byes and those are not VIPs unless they're actively referring to you. So you've got your sphere of influence, which is the foundation to your business, and you should be contacting them. Now, we do video notes quarterly, and then we have two videos going out on social media and via email to our sphere database. So we've got lots of touches. We're interacting with them

on social media, and that should be a campaign and important. But then, when those people send you referrals, those are the people who we call our VIPs. You might call it something else, but VIPs is who we're going to figure out how do we reward those referrals. And instead of doing pop-bys, what's better now? Okay. Oh, we can't hear you, babe. So again, if you guys are just tuning in, we're talking about pop-bys and the fact that they're

just not scalable or effective. And so we're about to dive deep into what can you be doing instead. And that's the VIP program. But they break down like, I love how you broke down that not everybody should have it. I love how you say that, okay, it's not for your sphere. There is a difference between sphere and VIP. And I've seen agents make this mistake where they're like giving gifts to everybody. Like, oh, I love all my people.

Well, that's fantastic. But as far as a business outputting money and not getting that in return, I talked to an agent. I think it was either late. It was late last week where it was, well, I give everybody gifts. I'm like, okay, but what about the people who never send you business, do they get a gift? Because if you're just giving me gifts and I, you know, I use you to buy my house, but that was like eight years ago. and I just keep getting gifts from you. Why would I send you business?

Well, that's also not scalable. Yeah. That's not scalable because of the money you're spending to people who aren't actively sending you referrals. So while you should be talking to and relationship building with the person that bought from you eight years ago, it's not the same as a VIP. That person is considered sphere of influence. Okay.

So you have to determine for your business, what your criteria is for VIP. Now, I'll tell you what we train our coaching clients and what we do is that it is a 12-month rolling program. Because the VIP per our sphere is already getting massive value, no matter how long ago they referred to us or used us. But the next level is actively referring to us. We'll get that next level service, which is VIP. And it is a 12-month rolling service. Before I tell you how we determine who's in it, I want to tell you that it has. has to feel special like you said if if everybody's getting it it's not special yeah the whole idea

of a VIP club means very important person or we like to say very influential person and if you i feel like we just went to church there for a second come on okay so if you are a VIP that means you are set apart it's no i don't go to clubs but let's see if you went to a club i'm just like making this up but yeah club wait DJ Oh, yeah. Got the DJ horn. Let's say if you were into going to the clubs, they have a VIP entrance. Yeah.

That doesn't have to wait in line. Well, those people are going to want to go to that club because they feel important. They're going to, those influential people are going to want to keep coming back. Well, they know this. It's no different for your referral people. If they're treated the same as everybody else, then there's nothing VIP about it. The other reason is if you let everybody in on it, it's not scalable, you guys. if you let everybody in on it, if you did a gift, for example, you're going to have to give everybody

seeds like we were talking about before to be able to afford it. Well, that is not, or popcorn popping by eye, okay, that is not a memorable gift for somebody that's sending you referrals. So what I would rather do is take the money and instead of spreading it across my whole sphere, I would rather take the money to formulate a VIP program that will highly reward. the specific individuals that are sending me referrals, and that will be so much more effective than trying to water down the money across the entire sphere who isn't necessarily sending me any referrals.

So there's a huge difference. Now, having said that, there's no better place than your VIP program to spend your time and money, but it has to be on the people who have earned it. Now, I know when we go into this VIP guys, and it's awesome, and there's three, there's three massive components to this. Let's just focus on one.

And the one I'd like to focus on because it does relate to Popeyes is the unexpected appreciation gives. And I really want you to break down what this means because it's so powerful. And it is such a more effective use of your time. And you'll get far better results than doing the Popeye. So instead of Popeyes, yes, we do the VIP program, which as you said, has three components. We'll focus on the one today that's replacing Popeyes, which is unexpected appreciation gifts.

And that means, oh, but we didn't cover who is in it. Should I back up just for a second? As far as the difference between your, oh, like how to how to. Yeah, I mean, they might have questions. Who's your VIPs? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is it a 12-month rolling program?

But who qualifies to be in your VIP? Well, you have to decide on your own who that is. But for us, our qualifications are rolling 12 months. So anybody who has referred to us in the last 12 months, or were self-referred, meaning they used us. Or it was an investor who continually uses us. Now we have tiers in ours. You don't have to do that in yours, like tier one, tier two, tier three. Some people call that silver gold platinum.

Silver gold platinum. It doesn't really matter. The concept's the same. But tier one, we keep it simple, is one referral or self-referral, and tier two is two or more, or two, and tier three is three or more. You get the idea. F, BFF, BFF, friend, best friend, and then best friend forever. You could have those tiers, whatever you want.

We just went to junior high all this time. Okay. So that's how we determine, and we have a spreadsheet that is very clear when referrals come in. that we track those on. And we just audit it. It just takes five or ten minutes a month to audit that every single month because it's a rolling 12 months. Now, why do people fall off of it? Well, if they stop sending referrals, they fall off of it, no different than any other referral program.

Now, a VIP program, you guys, is nothing other than a customer appreciation program. Well, think about Nordstroms. They have the Nordy Club where you can earn benefits. Or think about Kroger, the grocery store, where I get my gas. at a discounted price because I have earned points in their customer appreciation program. I'm more of a Kroger person versus a Nordy person. I got the Kroger reference, Norty, you lost me.

I was like, what? We're not in that many VIP clubs, are we? So the point is, is how many do you think, what I want to ask you is, do you think that Kroger would keep giving me discounted gas permanently, just because I shopped there one time? No? No.

I have to continually earn points to gain that privilege as part of their customer appreciation program. So you should be the exact same way. Now, don't get me wrong, when they fall out of the VIP program, they're still in your sphere, and you're still providing massive value and you're still relationship building, but the VIP is just another level.

Now, they may fall out and come back in, and that's totally fine. Now, here's the thing. You're not telling them. I think that's an important thing to distinguish here. It's not like you're going, hey, calling up your friend like, hey, Sarah. I just wanted you to know. I'm really sorry, but I did my audit today.

And it has been a 12 months, and you are kicked out of the VIP program. That'd be a cool call to make. Can you imagine how awkward? It wouldn't be. It just depends on how you do. It's like, yeah, hey, Mike, what's going on? A, you're not supporting my business anymore, so you're out. You've been voted off the island, yes.

But, you know, you can get back in. You're not telling them. This is an internal. It's the same as Kroger doesn't tell me, ha, ha, you don't get discounted gas this month. They don't do that, okay? It's just you either have it or you don't. It's internal behind the scenes that our team knows. They don't specifically know.

So 12-month rolling program, now I will say I've had people that never fell out of it because they were so impressed with our service and the VIP program that we were always top of mind to continually give us referrals and they stayed in it all the time. Well, there's a couple. But there's a couple things to this is, and I understand if you're listening to this, and you're like, man, that's a lot. It's why we don't continue to get referrals. I mean, I'm listening to everything you're saying, babe.

And it's 100% true and it's genius. But the reason why we keep going back to the Popeyes is we're kind of hoping. I'm just saying that rural tours who are doing Popeyes, like, we don't go back to Pop-Ly. The reason is because this is all systematized. And you have to be organized. You have to be organized in order to have the systems, know who's in your program, have to have who's on what level, who's in charge of this rolling 12 months. I'm trying to make a living.

I'm trying to just help my people lead gen. I got 17 hats to wear. So, you know, that's a lot. You know, everything in order to scale your business to new heights, it's just about taking a step back to take 100s, to take 10 steps forward. So all you have to do, now we give this to all our coaching clients, but for those that are not, and all you have to do is create spreadsheets one time. and be committed to using them.

So all you have to do is take a second to create some systems and then they run forever. It's really not that difficult to put some of these name on a spreadsheet when they send a referral. Now, we even have a checklist for when a referral comes in, all the different things that needs to be done. But as long as you have a system around things, it actually can run very smoothly. And then it's very easy to delegate out 100% of our VIP program for our coaching clients is not done by them. It's done by someone else. So, you know, you just have to have the system. You don't have to have the time.

That's the awesome thing. So 12-month rolling program, you decide who's in it. I just gave you our criteria, though, with best practices. And when it comes to trying to, even though there's three components in our BIP program, and we'll talk about all three in a different podcast episode where we're talking only about VIP. But when it comes to pop buys, the thing that has replaced pop by, in this day and age is for most agents, that became client events. Okay. So maybe they're holding a

yearly client event that they put a lot of time and money into. And I used to hold those as well, you guys, and I loved them. They were very expensive. They were time consuming to do. And guess what? Not everybody could come. And I don't know if you guys have read the book, Gift Dollars. by John Rulin, but he has a lot of, that's a great book to read. He has a lot of stats in there about how not only did COVID change the game, you guys, as far as not being able to go to events. So we have to all adapt. But even now that people are going to events, guess what?

The stats are showing people don't want to go to your events in most cases, unless they're one of you like top five or 10 friends. Okay. even if the event is awesome, people are busy is what it is. It's not that they don't like you or they don't like your event idea. They're extremely busy. Think how busy you are. They are too.

And the second thing is that they have family. If they actually have free time, they want to spend it with their family doing the things that they love. And realtors know how many events are happening out there. I mean, we go to, you know, you had the happy hour rotations, November, December, it is all about. every Christmas party that every title of company is having. And those are massive shindigs. But realtors will even skip those. And there's definitely going to be amazing food there.

I mean, food's amazing. But again, if I've got a truncated amount of time that I get to spend with my family and there's a party that like, I'll... You're going to spend it with a family. I'm going to spend it with family. Or, you know, like, look, I, I just put on my yoga pants. I'm not getting back in them, out of them, you know, so I'm going to miss that event.

I mean, the book just basically says that we're delusional if we think that most people want to go to our events. And that kind of hit me in the face like, oh, my gosh, that's right. If that's true. Also, another reason why, so not only are we saying Popeyes is outdated, apparently we're saying client events are outdated. I thought I heard you saying that as well. That's going to. Here's a thing. Again, it goes, I always go back to.

I got to stop saying here's a thing. It's weird. We have a different perspective of the marketing that we do. And when we have these conversations, oftentimes, it's like, well, mine work. And in my head I hear, oh, well, not my kid, you know, or, oh, not my representative. It's the other people that are very bad. But my events, people love, you know. I'm sure that's for other people, but my events, I have so many people there.

But every single time I break into the analytics of the cost, the time, the cost of time, the business that was brought in, it's not worth it. And let's say you had 20 people come and then they brought some family members so it felt more like 30 or 50 people. It may seem full. it may seem like a success, but guess what? You might have 50 to 100 people in your VIP program. They're not all going to come. Whereas if we choose to do unexpected appreciation gifts instead of pop-bys, instead of client appreciation events,

100% of the people are going to get the unexpected appreciation gift. So going from a percentage to 100%. Another reason why it's more scalable than client, events is typically client events take so much time and money to plan most agents are only doing them yearly whereas statistics are showing if you want to be top of mind you need to be doing them quarterly okay at best case scenario and think about a client appreciation event it's just the one time okay one time a year and that's if they even go to the one the next year or if you even have one consistently so you might be expecting them to remember that one for years and that's just not an

an effective way. So we are saying that instead of Popeyes, instead of client appreciation events, formulate a VIP program and really put your concentrated effort and money into one of the components being unexpected appreciation gifts. Can we talk quickly about what what to send or more like what not to send people as a gift when it comes to unexpected appreciation gifts? Yes, and I, again, I strongly suggest you read Giftology by John Rule, and he's got some great stats in there. And basically, he's saying don't send gift cards, don't send consumables. He even had client appreciation events that were like clubhouse tickets to an NBA game, catered food, champagne, crem de la Crem, but people would remember him less because that's one night and then it's gone and then people are busy. Whereas if you send a gift that is personalized,

to that individual person that is a keeper gift that they're going to remember for the rest of their life, you're going to be more top of mind. Okay, so those gifts are way different than a one-time event. And we can give some examples, but before I give you some examples of what those might be, Jason, tell them what we're definitely not sending as a gift. All right. So what we're not sending is anything with you. your name on it because that's that's not a good name yeah right not the agent's name that that's massive

and and i'm going to say it i love cutco knives cutco knives are amazing but if you give cutco knives and you put your brand on it and again because we were taught that's not a gift it just isn't you know and if you don't agree you know what that is What's that called? It's swag. I'm saying, okay, if you don't agree, then give away pictures of yourself. Instantly, you're like, that's egotistical. Why would I do that?

It's the same thing. When you give me an item, when you wish me happy birthday and put your business card in it, or when you send me a message going, happy anniversary, here's a coupon for a discount to my business. It's, it's, it's ecky. It just is. Well, what it is is, it turns it all into all about us. Because when our name is all over the gift, who is the gift about? It's about us.

Yeah. And that's just kind of defeating the point. Now, don't get me wrong, we love swag. Jason loves swag. I love swag. I love it. I love it. He loves it.

So there is. I will be a walking billboard for people. I don't mind. But that's what a t-shirt is. If you're giving away branded T-shirts, you're like, hey, would you mind being free advertising for me? That would be awesome. And you don't mind it.

I do. I don't wear those. But I would say that there is a time and place for swag. If you're sponsoring an event, we're not saying swag shouldn't be in your business marketing. Maybe you're sponsoring a school event or a charity thing. Well, then you're going to have to have your swag on it. There's no personal relationship on it. But when we're talking about VIPs who are sending you referrals actively, can we not

appreciate those referrals in a personalized way that's not advertising to us, but it's something that they would actually need and want. That's what we need to be thinking about. They're at a next level. This is like, how can I provide value that's a keeper piece that they're going to want to keep for the rest of their lives, or at least for the next year. Now, some of those gift ideas are, you know, we have sent off, I've sent off beautiful throw blankets that they might want to put over their couch that's somewhat neutral in color. It had the family initials embroidered on them, but it wasn't a cheap one. Like it was really nice and it was something they would want to keep.

We have sent cutting boards that were gorgeous. I know it's butcher boards, cutting boards, what do you call them? Charcutory boards. Are really in, yes. Charcuttery boards. To put, those are also in style for decor. So if you pick a really nice one, they're going to want to display that on their counter. And every time they look at it, they're going to be thinking of you.

Remember that one we saw, Jason, that we wanted for. They even had one where if a client had a favorite recipe that their mom packed down, they etched the recipe in the mother's handwriting on the cutting board. So they always remembered their mom. That was next level. All right. So here's a thing. Makes you want to cry just talking about it.

We went to this store and we're, again, VIP gifts. They had these beautiful wooden cuts. cutting boards. And yeah, you could take a recipe. They took like in the mom's handwriting and laser etched it into the cutting board. But here's another thing that happened. Amber broke a glass in this. Thanks, Jason. Yeah, I'm like, look at this. Look at this. This is so cool. All of a barely touch something and like a bunch of glass just comes. I'm not telling about that little barely. That was fun.

I mean, story of my life. Have you ever, you've got that one person in your life. They're like, there's a lot of stuff in the store that's breakable and everything's kind of close together. I don't know if we're going to make it out of here without an incident. And you're saying that's me.

Nice. No. I'm just saying I was asking, you know, people have that. Right, right, right. So those are the types of gifts. Let's get back on track. That are all about them and that are memorable keeper pieces that are really going to be outstanding for the people. I mean, think about it, you guys.

Your sphere knows at least a handful, if not a dozen of other real estate agents. We're at the highest membership of NAR and history. And if they actually pick you to refer to, they're a raving fan, don't you want to reward that behavior? Not just with a gift card, but with something memorable, with something that they would really cherish and keep around. So we would pick those things and we send those off quarterly. Now, if you've never had a VIP program, you may have to start with one a year or two a year until you build up the budget. But what I did is I started slower. After every closing, I set aside $200 of that closing money and set it into a VIP business account, so a separate business account just for the VIP program.

And so I started with $50 a gift per quarter. And then I kind of worked my way up a little. So you want it to correspond to with the kind of relationship you have. So if somebody was at tier two or tier three, instead of just getting the same gift everybody else did, I might get some other gifts that in addition to the cool charcutory board, I might get them some other things that match the sharkutery board and really kind of make their gift even bigger because the relationship was bigger in the sense that of rewards. They had sent multiple referrals.

So talking about the concept of gift giving combined with tears that you're going to treat someone who has sent you two referrals different than one, someone who sent you three referrals different than two. And so this concept of having your gifts complement each other is a very cool thing. So if I sent you a referral, I'm going to get a pizza slicer with my family name on it. That's awesome. But if I sent you two referrals, I'm going to get the pizza slicer. I'm also going to get the pizza board with the family E on it.

And if I sent you three or more referrals as an example, I get the pizza cutter, I get the pizza board. and I get the custom build your own pizza kit with organic spices. Yeah, I mean, the list can go on and on how you can build that. And it makes it fun. Now, everybody's treated like royalty, but you do want to correlate the gift with the giver. Okay. So if somebody sent you a referral or multiple referrals and you sent them a $50 gift card and you made $40,000.

and commission off those two deals, is that really, is that a direct correlation? So although we're not doing quid quo pro, for those of you that are listening and you're like, oh, Amber is meaning if you close with me, I'll give you this gift card. That's what, okay. So for example, a lot of you might be listening and maybe some RESPA bells are going off for you. You're like, no, that's not allowed. You can't spend $200 on a person. There's a $50 max.

Well, here's the differentiator, okay? And I've done a lot of research on this, is this is not a closing gift. And it's very important that people understand that. This is not a closing gift. It is not tied to a closing, okay? This is a customer appreciation program that I run year round, where when people give me referrals, regardless of whether it closed or not, that's not their problem.

I'm rewarding the behavior. I am rewarding and sending gifts periodically not attached to a certain closing date to my customer appreciation program, also known as VIP, that is not the same thing as a closing gift. Okay. So I don't have a dollar amount that I'm maxed out at because this is not a closing gift. I can tax deduct all of my client appreciation program and I'm not violating RESPA. The only way you would violate that is if you advertised in your advertising hey guys, or even in person, if you send me a referral, I give you X, Y, Z. Well, then that's a violation.

That's why it's called unexpected appreciation gifts. Okay, this is not something that you advertised. If you give me this, I give you that. Okay. This is a customer appreciation program that's running with multiple components and one of them being unexpected appreciation gifts. And we do that in a concentrated effort instead of pop buys, instead of client events. and it's highly effective, you guys, highly effective. Because if you're sending these off quarterly or constantly top of mind, and Jason, let them know that you really want to do your best to create an experience. We're not taking these VIP gifts and popping them by.

That is still not scalable. Yeah, because I think a lot of people hear this like, oh, that's fantastic. I love those ideas. Let me just go to Amazon. I'll find this stuff and I'll just ship. it to their home. And that's actually not what we're talking about. If you truly want to do that, it's better than nothing. You can do this better than nothing. But what I'm talking about is, you know, if that's all you got, then do that. But if you're really looking to that next level,

if you are in a price range where you can definitely afford to do something more than I definitely would do something more, which means like I've got a, you know, branded box with some colored confetti and I'm going to get all those things shipped over and I'm going to get it boxed up and shipped it out to your house because that's how it should come to them. There is a absolute fact that there is a euphoria experience every time you order from Amazon and I don't care what you order. It could be like a big pen. But yes, there is a, you get a dopamine hit when you know there's a package coming. You get alerted there's a package. You get the picture. that is on the porch, and then you go get it.

That's the experience that you can be giving to someone. And I know that realtor is always like, well, it's got to be, I got to have my branding on it. They need to know who it is. Well, that's fine. Get the branded boxes. You put all the components in there and ship it to them. And they have an amazing experience.

And what I'm thinking, Babe, off the top of my head is every time you get your fat, fifth one box, it's an experience. You get elated to get that box. Adults don't get Christmas very often is what I'm saying. And so it feels like Christmas every time one comes because we're so focused on getting our kids gifts and this and that. Adults other than their birthdays and whatever don't. By the way, when we say unexpected appreciation gifts, that brings up a good point of you don't want to be an ABC gifter, okay, which is anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas. You don't want to send gifts when they're expected.

Okay, because why? Because you don't stand out. They've got a bunch of gifts from other people during those same exact times. It's not special. Whereas when you're sending it in unexpected times, which is what we do, that just an unexpected gift. It's kind of like when your spouse gets you a gift unexpected. It's not attached to an anniversary. It's not it's why did you bring me flowers?

It's not our anniversary. It's not my birthday. Just because it makes it more special for some reason on those times. Now Jason knows I don't like flowers. So that's not my thing. But I still get him. But. I'm like, bring me a plant.

I'm the plant lady. As you can see behind me. Okay, so, but they need to ship them. But I say this. Yeah, but I want you to talk about something else, so before I forget. And this is huge. It doesn't have to be. I need my voice for that.

I'm going to say it's huge. Now, this is huge. So you do. It doesn't have to be you. So I want you, can you speak to that? Because a lot of my go, oh, I got to do all this stuff. Yes. Now, you want to make the gift an experience, like he's saying.

And when they receive it in the mail, you guys, and it's so well thought out, whether you shipped it out or you had it shipped out, like the place that Jason and I went to that I broke the glass that we were talking about, they had a system where I could give them handwritten notes. They would keep those on file. And every time I called them and told them to ship something for me that was personalized my clients, they would package it up beautifully and put my handwritten note in there, send it off. So it was an experience even though I wasn't doing it. But then there was times that we wanted to get gifts that I couldn't get the business to do that for us individually with that many people. So I had them shipped to the office and then your assistant, or if you don't have an assistant,

just quarterly, you could be hiring somebody to run this program as just a one-off. They don't need to be a full-time employee. And they can do it for you. In order for it to have maximum impact, you don't have to be doing any of this. You need to have that handwritten notes. But other than that, somebody else could be running this whole thing and shipping it. And it feels special. It feels expensive.

You don't have to be doing the work for it to have a massive impact. And so while the VIP program is the best place to spend your time and money on those relationships, the coolest part is it doesn't have to be you in order to have all of its effectiveness. And it's a great leverage piece. And it's the beginnings of teaching you truly how to leverage your business. 60% of what we do as realtor's is admin work. And so the more stuff I can leverage out if I know, oh, do I go spend? 6K on an article or a magazine that nobody's reading.

I'm a little passionate about that. That's probably going to be another podcast episode. Or do I invest in the people who are actively building my business? And I think that this needs to be flipped on its head. Rilter spend a ton of money and they got no price. problem spending money on, you know, leads and this stuff. Like, okay, what about your sphere? Obviously, you know, that's what we're passionate about. And that's what we're, you know, really good at doing. But the people that are building your business, again, and you said at best,

babe, you sold my $800,000 home and you get me a Starbucks gift card. Or at Thanksgiving, when I'm stressed out, because I got family coming in. you want to pop by and give me a pumpkin pie. And you've never even asked me if I like pumpkin pie. You know, so I'm like, oh, thank you. And, well, it's a human condition where if you give me something, we were taught. You better say thank you. You better act like you like it, even if you don't.

Because as kids, you're like, great, socks, thanks. You know, you could bought a toy with this. But if you are pop-bye giving gifts and the reason why you want to keep doing them is because, well, they love it, if you were to get a gift that you didn't like, would you say you didn't like it or would you be gracious and be thankful? And as soon as you shut that door, you're like going, oh, we got to go to your cousin's house this weekend? All right, grab that pie and we'll take it. We'll give it to them because I'm not eating that. And there's, to me, I just see money wasted. And so the point of leverage, the point of seeing this as a wonderful opportunity for you

to take and really turn on its head and start pouring money into people that are making you money. It just seems like a better way to go. Plus, when you're shipping it, as long as it's a great gift that was well thought out for them, they're going to think, oh my gosh, they're getting them quarterly. They don't know it yet, but they're getting those gifts and they're thinking, wow, this person is high class, this agent is high class versus are they not very busy if they can just pop by? They're high class. They're systematized.

Yeah. and they know how to appreciate me because I know for me personally, I always refer to people because I like them and because they do a good job. But even I, because I'm not expecting anything in return, but even I have a limit of if I don't feel acknowledged, not with a gift, but at least acknowledged for sending them a bunch of referrals, at some point I will start referring to someone else. Because if I don't hear anything from you, I'm assuming you didn't really need those and I'm going to give it to somebody who needed it more than you. So have you ever been loyal to someone? I want to ask the audience, have you ever been loyal to someone until you

weren't? And the two reasons, the top reasons why someone all of a sudden isn't loyal anymore isn't referring anymore. Number one is because they receive bad service. Right. That's not happening with you guys because you're all influencers. But number two, the other realtors. Yeah, we're talking about those other agents. But number two, it's because they didn't feel appreciated. And we all say we don't need a pat on the back, but in reality, you are putting your name on the line every time you refer to somebody. And to not feel appreciated or acknowledged will make someone stop doing it eventually. And so it is important that we have a system for it, that they know we appreciate it, that they know that it's a prior, that they are a priority.

in our lives in multiple ways. Again, this is just one of three components in our VIP program. It's not just gifts. But that is fun. That is memorable. And that feels like you're important. Like you're truly an influential person when you're receiving these. Absolutely. Man, that's powerful. All right, babe. Let's wind it down. Let's go into final thoughts. So final thoughts, you guys, is pop-by's had a great, a great intent. intention, but it has to evolve to the times. And instead of replacing it with client appreciation events, I would say that even that needs to evolve.

And so we gave you one of our components of the VIP program, which is unexpected appreciation gifts. And I want you to consider, instead of everyone, focus on the important influential ones that are already supporting you, that are already your raving fans. Oh, all right. So, guys, thanks so much for joining us today. Now, if you like what you heard, remember you can subscribe to our podcast, listen to future episodes. Leave us a review and share with a friend. Now, if you guys want exclusive content and free tips and the latest in real estate marketing, then check out our YouTube channel and you can just search Influential Agent.