All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends – all things being not so equal they still prefer to do business with their friends. Put another way – if you are specializing in a niche market you need lots of friends in that market – you need “social leverage.”
According to Jeffery Gitomers, a well known networking expert, “you need to begin by understanding the power of building relationships and keeping a little black book to help you manage them is essential.” On the technology side there are a number of options to replace your little black book like Powermate’s Agent Business Builder or Microsoft’s Outlook overlay called Active Agent just to name a couple.
Jim Remley, in his Accredited Luxury Home Specialist course, notes that the important thing to remember in working with affluent clients is that they value “high quality” relationships in their network. They view them as an asset, something they cultivate very carefully over time. Remley says it’s not the system you use to maintain the relationship that’s important … it’s the relationship.
If there is one person who is living proof of the power of “social leverage” it’s Bill Clinton. For most of his life one of the final tasks of the day was to make a 3x5 card for each person he met that day. On the card he would write all the relevant contact information along with other important information including how and where they met and any other information he gleaned. Strong relationships are built on frequent personal contact and today’s technology makes that super easy – far better than 3x5 cards.
Whether you are working the Luxury Home market or any other specialized niche, in continually refining and building your sphere of influence it is very important to “tile” your database based upon your key relationships. It only makes sense to identify who in your database fits that profile as they are the ones that you need for “social leverage.” But having them identified in your database is just the first step.
These are the folks that have most likely helped you the most as a direct result of your relationship with them. The question is – have you helped these folks to achieve “their” goals? This fundamental question rests at the very heart of building a powerful network, which is to understand the goals, aspirations and dreams of your network partners. When you help them realize their ambitions you are building relationships. In his ALHS course Remley says this is not just connection power, it’s growth power, success power and fulfillment power – it’s “social leverage.”
The need to build social leverage is applicable to any niche and if yours is in the luxury home market one place you can gain the skills and tools necessary to build this type of relationship with luxury buyers or sellers is the Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS) course from the Luxury Home Council. You can find out all about the course and how it can solidify you in this specialized market segment. Click here for more information on the ALHS designation
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