5 Savvy Ways to Stay Top of Mind and Become a Referral Machine

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If you don’t work your database, the next agent will. But there aren’t many real estate agents who love making regular calls to their past clients and sphere.

So how do you stay top of mind with the people who are most likely to refer you?

On this week’s Walkthrough, Josh Anderson shares five savvy things his team has done to stay top of mind and build a 75% referral-based business. You’ll learn the programs they use to make sure they get regular “touches” not only with their database but also with the Nashville community at large. (And don’t miss the accompanying free downloads available in our Facebook listener community!)

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Links and Show Notes

• Josh Anderson – HomeLight agent profile
• The Anderson Group Real Estate Services – Josh’s team’s website
• Join our Facebook community for The Walkthrough listeners
• HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center
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Full Transcript

(SPEAKER: Matt McGee, Host)

Ask any football fan, and they’ll tell you that success comes from what happens in the trenches. It’s all about blocking and tackling.

[Sound: Football game, players blocking and tackling]

That phrase, blocking and tackling, has jumped out of football, and it’s now synonymous with things that are fundamental in any business, in any part of life.

So, what’s the real estate version of blocking and tackling? Lead generation and lead conversion, for sure. But I think something even more fundamental is working your sphere, working your database. It sounds easy. Let’s do monthly calls to our database or quarterly calls, or maybe twice a year. But then we get busy. The daily grind of transactions gets in the way. All the calls we’re making are to existing clients, other agents, lenders, title companies, you name it.

What if you had a system, though, that made working your sphere and database fun, consistent, and profitable while also being of service to your database and the community? Today, an agent in Nashville, whose team gets 75% of its business from referrals and past clients, shares his system for staying top of mind. Five things he’s doing that you can do, too, and some supporting documents that you can download from our Facebook listener community. Lots going on. Let’s get started.

This is “The Walkthrough.”

(INTRO MUSIC)

What’s up? Hello there. My name is Matt McGee. I’m the editor of HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center. Welcome to “The Walkthrough.” This is a weekly podcast. We have new episodes that come out every Monday. This is the show where you’ll learn what’s working right now from the best real estate agents and industry experts in the country. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re on a journey to find out how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

I’ll give you the full contact info for me at the end of the show. But if you want to connect with me and today’s guest, find us both in our Facebook listener community. Go to Facebook. Do a search for HomeLight Walkthrough. The group will come right up. We will also be uploading some PDFs that support what we’re talking about today, PDFs that you can download and start implementing what we’re talking about.

How do you stay top of mind with your database? Is it fun? Are you giving value to your past clients? Are you creating goodwill with them and with your community as a whole?

You know, I feel like there’s probably not a lot of real estate agents who would say that it’s super fun to sit down and just go through your database one by one and making calls to everyone. But then, of course, you remember that phrase, “If you don’t work your database, the next agent will.” So, you have to do it.

That’s what’s really cool about Josh Anderson’s system. As you listen to him explain it, yeah, there’s work involved, but it sounds pretty fun, too. And it creates a lot of goodwill while keeping his team top of mind.

A little bit of background about Josh. He started in real estate 15 years ago. He formed his team, The Anderson Group, 10 years ago. Right now, the team has five agents plus five more of what Josh called new or junior agents, and then five admins. So, 15 people total. They serve the Nashville market. Last year, the team did $135 million in volume. About 75% of that business came from their database, from staying top of mind.

On today’s show, Josh is going to walk you through the five anchors, the five pieces of his referral machine: giveaways, client events, a loyalty program, he has a registered nonprofit, and he also offers a concierge program. It’s all stuff that you can R and D, rip off and duplicate. And as I said, Josh even has some PDFs that you can download in our Facebook community.

We’re also going to have, like, a bonus section at the end of the conversation where Josh shares his system for getting client reviews. And he also explains how that makes this referral machine even stronger.

So, be ready to take some notes. A lot of good ideas in here that will get you thinking. Here’s my conversation with Josh Anderson about building a referral-based business.

(BEGIN CONVERSATION)

Matt: Was there, like, an aha moment earlier on where you realized, “This is how I want to build my business,” or maybe an aha moment where you realized, “All right. I’ve kind of got this figured out. This is the direction I want to go.”

Josh: Well, I say, 15 years later, I’m not sure if I have it figured out yet. I think my aha moment was at least with regard to doing referral business was going to lunch with my cousin who owns a business in town. It’s an arbor and landscaping business. He just kind of told me, “At year three, you’re going to start getting referrals if you continue to do the same things that you’ve been doing,” which was kind of the basics of the business. And that’s what I’m really good at, is doing the basics. It’s boring, and I think a lot of agents have a hard time doing the same mundane things over and over. But it’s consistent and predictable. So, that’s what I love about it.

So, at year three, I did start getting repeat and referral business. That’s when I realized I really do kind of want to work with people I know, like, and trust, that already know, like, and trust me. It felt so much easier and more natural to do that. And it also seemed a lot less expensive from a marketing perspective to be able to go out and work with those people that I already know.

Matt: You just called what you’re doing sort of boring. It’s, you know, the fundamentals, right? The blocking and tackling of real estate. But Josh, there’s nothing boring about taking those commission checks to the bank. Right?

Josh: Oh, no. I love, love long, romantic walks to the bank. I love it.

Matt: That’s such a great line. Hey. We all know, building a referral business is all about staying top of mind. You and I have talked about four or five different ways that your team does this: giveaways, client events, you have a loyalty program, you formed a nonprofit. Why don’t we start to unpack each one of those, if we can? Let’s go in that order. Let’s talk first about the giveaways and the client events because there kind of is some overlap there. But dive into what you’re doing in terms of giveaways and staying top of mind.

Josh: So, we’ve always done giveaways to an extent. 2020 made us really ramp up our giveaways because we’ve historically done lots of client events, and that obviously changed for 2020. So, we did a lot of giveaways as far as, like, next…well, later this week, we’re doing our Father’s Day giveaway which is a Traeger Grill. Last year, we did a Big Green Egg. And there’s different ways that we’ve marketed and advertised it. And there’s also different ways we’ve had them. For example, we’ve had them call in between 9 and 1 on a specific day. And everybody…it’s all hands on deck. Admin, agents, everybody’s taking phone calls.

So, we’ve had them call in. We’ve also done, like, a Google Form or a SurveyMonkey to where they can just input their information between a certain timeline. And then we call them outbound calls just to verify, “Hey. You are entered. This is your correct information. How is the house, by the way? Is there anything you need?” So, it’s kind of a built in touch program for myself and the agents to be able to do a giveaway and check back in. I realized a long time ago that agents probably aren’t going to make four phone…you know, a quarterly phone call. And so, our giveaways and our client events made it really easy to do giveaways or check-ins with our clients, and our referral sources.

And then we’ve done smaller giveaways that are, like… You know, for Cinco de Mayo, we gave a gift card away to a local Mexican restaurant, and basically went on Instagram and did, “Here’s how you win. Like and save the post. Follow our business page and follow Josh. And then tag any friends that you’d love to go have Mexican with.” That allowed us to get lots of engagement and lots of traction on our Instagram page.

Matt: So, when you’re doing these giveaways, is it specifically focused on past clients in your sphere, or is it also just open to the general public, anybody that sees you on social media?

Josh: The answer is both. For the smaller Cinco de Mayo and, like, International Tequila Day, just like fun little things that are $25, $50, $100 giveaways, that’s for anybody on social. So, we will post…we’ll be doing it through Instagram, but we’ll post it on LinkedIn and Facebook, for example, and drive them back to our Instagram page. For the bigger events like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we really kind of reserve that for our database of past clients, agent referrals, and referral sources.

Matt: Okay. That makes sense. And you sort of started to touch on this. Let me dive in deep on the actual execution of one of these giveaways. Because I know when I’m on Facebook, I’ll be scrolling through my feed. I will see a couple agents doing some creative things like this. So, you set up a time. You’re giving away, you know, a Traeger, whatever it might be. 9 to 1 is when they can call in. All your staff is there at the office just ready to answer a phone call. And they call in, and you’ve… So, if these folks are already in your database, what is the conversation like? What are you hoping to get out of that conversation?

Josh: So, for the bigger giveaways, it’s really just kind of a check in of… You know, a lot of times, it’s making sure we have all their correct contact information. Sometimes, we…you know, our ultimate goal is to get personal cellphone numbers and personal email addresses. And we obviously already have their address and things like that. But we’re trying to make sure we always have good data on our clients. And, you know, we do surveys a couple times throughout the year as far as, like, trying to figure out their kids’ birthdays if we don’t get that during the transaction. Trying to get their kids’ birthdays or their pet’s name or what’s their dream trip. And it’s not because we’re going to necessarily send them on their dream trip. But if we can buy a $60 coffee table book about the Amalfi Coast and that’s their dream trip, every time that’s sitting on the coffee table and they look at it, they’re thinking about that trip. And they’re also thinking about us probably since we gave it to them.

And so, we’re trying to get as much data on our clients. And I always kind of liken it to Amazon. Amazon knows you, and you don’t know Amazon. And it’s pretty amazing how personally they know you. They know your buying patterns. They know what you’ve looked at. They know how often you order. They know which subscriptions you have. Like, they know you better than probably your spouse as far as your shopping, how you buy things.

Matt: You know, I worked in marketing for many, many years. And there was a phrase, you know, “He who has the most data wins.” And the more you know about your clients, what you just said, you know, “I know their pet’s name, I know the kid’s birthday, I know what their dream vacation is,” those are all…you’re just opening doors to future touchpoints. Right?

Josh: Right. And so, it makes it really easy. So, you ask what we ask. I mean, you know, most of these people are past clients or referral sources. So, we’re just saying, you know, “Hey, Matt. How’s it going? Thanks for entering. We have you. You are entered into the giveaway. By the way, how’s the house? How are the kids? Hey, it looks like you just had an anniversary. How’s everything going? Hey. By the way, do you need anything on the house? We have contractors, and painters, and handymen, and electricians. If you ever need anything, certainly give us a call.”

And so, it’s really not a script as much as it’s just having a conversation and being human. I think people get really caught up in scripts of, like, “Hey. We need to ask people all the time, what are they looking to buy, sell, or invest in real estate.” I think people turn off to that script at some point, and they just want you to just check in and be genuine.

Matt: So, we talked about giveaways, which you said during the pandemic were obviously a real key thing. Do you also do in-person events? Is that something that you did before the pandemic and something you’re going to be going back to as we’re opening up?

Josh: Yeah. So, we’re trying to figure out right now, you know, something easy that’s probably still outdoors like a…you know, we’ve got a minor league baseball team in Nashville. It’s got a really amazing park…or baseball stadium. And so, we’re probably going to do, like, a baseball game. It’s going to have food and beer. We’ll open it up to the first 100 or 150 people. So, we’ll probably do just something kind of outdoors like that, or we’ll rent the park for the day and do food trucks and things like that.

You know, usually, we do one decent size event per quarter. And then we usually have one big event per year. And so, the event could be as simple as, “Hey. We’re getting a snow cone truck, and it’s going to be on Saturday from 9 to 11 at our office. Stop by.” It could be, “Hey. We’re having pictures with Santa in November.” A lot of people probably don’t want to go to the mall and the mall’s not convenient or easy, the parking and all the stuff. So, if we can do something like that and it’s easy for them, it’s just an easy touch because we get to say hi, they take pictures, and they leave. So, those aren’t big, super expensive.

And then for my top 50 referral sources, I typically do a big dinner, and it’s pretty expensive. It’s like a five-course meal. It’s usually at my house. It’s a really amazing event.

Matt: When you’re doing the events, do you partner with a lender or a title company to ever offset the cost, anything like that? And related to that, do you ever…during the event, do you get up and give a speech and introduce yourself, have your partner introduce him or herself as well?

Josh: I typically don’t have the cost offset just because I want it to be a pure Anderson Group client event. That’s not to say that we haven’t had people help us before. I typically don’t get up and talk. I think they’re there for the event, and they don’t want, like, kind of a sales pitch. And so, I know people have done that.

You know, we’ve done a couple of movies before on Saturday mornings. And I have, you know, gotten up and said, “Hey, guys. Thanks, everybody, for coming. You know, if you have any questions afterward or you need anything, certainly give us a shout. We really appreciate you guys being clients. We know you have a lot of options when it comes to real estate, and we appreciate you showing up and letting us have the opportunity to help you.” So, I make it short and sweet if I’m going to do something. Usually, we don’t really do anything. I just go around…I’m very purposeful about walking around and shaking everybody’s hand, and talking to everybody for a couple minutes here and there.

Matt: We’ve discussed giveaways and client events. Those are two of the primary ways that the Anderson Team stays top of mind with its database, two of the anchors of this 75% referral-based business. They also have a few service-based programs that create connections with their database, and even the community at large. They have a concierge program that helps sellers pay the cost of home improvement. They have what they call a loyalty program that offers various tools and housewares to clients in need. Josh is going to talk about both of those in just a few moments.

Right now, as we get back to the conversation, we’re talking about Re:home. It’s a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that Josh created six years ago. It’s sort of a combination of KW Cares, which is the Keller Williams national charity, and Habitat for Humanity. Josh says that Re:home serves the Nashville community, and creates a lot of goodwill and word of mouth in the process.

Josh: It’s strategic giving. And, you know, we want to help as many people in the community as we can. It might be a $500 thing. It might be a $15,000 or $20,000 thing. We’ve done everything in between that. It’s been things that we’ve helped where our office building in Nashville is, the neighborhood. We’ve helped them just do neighborhood cleanups and plant trees, and pay for that kind of stuff.

And we’ve also done…you know, we had a…I think I was telling you, we had a lady that her mom and her sister both passed away within a few months of each other. And she acquired two houses in addition to her house, two houses worth of furniture and just junk, just stuff. It was really, like, kind of a hoarder’s house. There was stuff everywhere. She couldn’t even park her car in the garage. There were leaks in the ceilings. The landscaping was a disaster. We went over as a team, cleaned up all the landscaping, got all the stuff out of the garage, brought it all to Habitat Store and the Goodwill and threw it away at the trash dump. You know, we had our contractor go in and fix the ceiling, fix the leak, update everything. And that was, like, a $20,000 deal.

And we’ve done things that were small, like, you know, a past client that went into a wheelchair on fixed income. You know, couldn’t afford really to do a wheelchair ramp. And so, we’re just trying to do things in the community. Community has been good to us. And so, for us to be able to give back to the community, it feels really good. And it’s helping people that need help, that truly need help.

Matt: Tell me about the level of goodwill that you’re creating by doing this kind of stuff.

Josh: I think we’re doing it on a somewhat small scale, but it’s helping people we personally know or somebody in their family or somebody in their church. I think it creates a ton of goodwill. I think everybody listening to this podcast in the future should try to set up a…it’s really easy to set up a…you just need to get with an attorney and do a 501(c)(3). You know, there’s paperwork involved, but it’s very simple to do. And if you’re going to do some kind of giveaways or something, there’s really nothing better you can do in your community, especially if you’re from there, you live there, you’re planted there. You might as well do it. It goes a long way.

(Man: You love getting testimonial from past clients. A great testimonial tell the world what it’s like to work with you. It helps you convert leads into clients. It helps you grow your business. We love getting testimonials from listeners like you. Your review tells the world what “The Walkthrough” is like. It helps us grow and get better, too. So, when today’s show is over, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen. Thanks from all of us at HomeLight.)

Matt: That nonprofit isn’t the only way Josh’s team is helping clients and the community. They also run what he calls a loyalty program. It’s an idea he borrowed from an agent in Dallas named Russell Rhodes. It’s a simple concept, really. All the stuff that the team has bought over the years to put on those big events, well, they make those things available for free to clients. So, listen as Josh talks about that and about a concierge program that helps sellers pay for home improvements.

Josh: There’s a lot of things that I think people need once or twice a year that…and this kind of started with me needing a trailer. And I was like, “Well, I’ll run it through the business.” And so, we had it wrapped for the Anderson Group. Now, anybody can use it. So, it started with a trailer, and it’s a trailer and a truck, and a power washer, and a backpack blower. You know, cornhole boards, like outdoor lawn games, margarita machines. So, it’s just a different thing. And we’re always adding to it. We’ve got outdoor tables for, like, a barbecue or if you’re having an outdoor dinner that you can put table coverings on. So, we’ve got all these different things that we personally have used over the years. And we’ve just kind of run it through the business because we needed them, and then we realized everybody else needed them. But they only need them, like…like, how often do you need a pressure washer? Maybe once a year, maybe twice a year.

The other program, I’m not sure if we talked about it or not. I’ve got one last program called a…it’s a concierge program. And it’s similar to the Compass Concierge Program. I just do my own interest-free loan to a client until closing. And then they…you know, when they’re…they just pay it out of the equity of their house. But I realized in 2019, before COVID even, and COVID made it more apparent, there’s a lot of people that have a ton of equity in their house that don’t have cash flow.

And so, I’m fortunate enough to have the cash flow that I can help clients. And some of them are only, like, $7500 jobs. I also did one earlier in the year that was like a $68,000 job. But the cool part is I don’t have to go to corporate. I’m the one that makes the decisions on it. And so, even if it’s for somebody else on the team listing a property, all they have to do is come talk to me and we’ve got to get with the title company, make sure they’ve got the equity they say they have in their property. And then we do a promissory note.

And the nice part is it’s kind of a never-ending listing agreement. So, we kind of lock them in. On the front end, it’s a value proposition, and on the back end, we have kind of a forever listing. And we pick our own vendors. The homeowner really doesn’t have any say so on who we use because we’re paying for it. And they’re already proven people that we’ve used before. So, it’s been a good program to kind of set us apart to get a couple of listings here and there that we otherwise might not have gotten.

Matt: And just to make sure I understand, when you’re doing this, what is that money being used for? Are we talking like home upgrades and that sort of stuff?

Josh: Anything that somebody would need to get their house ready to be put on the market, to show in the best condition possible. I’m not going to do a $250,000 flip on a house for somebody. But, you know, if they just can’t justify 20 grand worth of work and I feel very strongly that it’s going to make a difference in how much money they make on their property and they have the equity to do it, then I’m going to push them to do it. If they don’t want to do it, then fine, we won’t do it. But if they go, “Hey, I’d be willing to do this, but I don’t have 20 grand laying around,” “Okay, great. Here’s what I’ll do for you.”

Matt: When I think of staying top of mind, the first thing that comes to mind is regular calls, texting your database. Are you, like, all-in on that? Do you have a block of time set aside each day for that kind of thing?

Josh: Most of the agents on our team probably do more buy side deals than list side deals. And so, I think it’s very hard when you’re out showing properties and running around to consistently do that. But that’s the reason we kind of implemented some of these other things. I would also say, I’m in the office and I’m making the majority of those calls, texts, voicemails. I make those even to clients that I didn’t work with personally. They might be part of my personal sphere or database, but I might not have worked with them. It might have been, you know, Stefanie or Caroline on my team that worked with them or somebody else that worked with them, that actually serviced the transaction.

But I typically stay in touch and check in with people. Every time I get a commission check, their contact information is on the piece of paper. And I call every one of our clients after closing and just say, “Hey. This is Josh Anderson with the Anderson Group. You worked with Stefanie at 123 Main Street. Just wanted to check in and see how the transaction went. Is there anything we could have done better, differently?” We want to make sure that we’re doing a “10” transaction all the time.

Matt: Wait. Let me jump in and make sure you heard what Josh just said. This is the team leader of a 15-person team, busy, busy guy. And Josh said that he calls every client after every transaction and asks, “How did it go? What could we have done better?” Here’s why I’m jumping in. Referrals have a twin sister. I’m talking about reviews. They go hand in hand. If you can get one from a client, you can probably get the other. And it creates, like, this self-repeating cycle. More referrals equals more reviews. More reviews equals more referrals. That’s word of mouth marketing in a nutshell.

Reviews are really important to the Anderson Group. I mean, really important. As I speak right now, they have about 400 5-star reviews on Google. They have another hundred or so on Zillow and more than 100 on Facebook. Their HomeLight profile is also filled with reviews. How’d they do it? By being intentional. Listen as Josh explains the team’s system for getting reviews.

Josh: So, we got really purposeful in 2018 to where we’re starting the conversation about reviews at the buyer consultation and in the office, all the way through the transaction. So, it’s the agents asking, the administrative team is asking. We’re asking all the way up till the closing day and then beyond because we know, like, leading up to the week of closing is a little bit stressful and hectic for people, and then, like, a couple days after. So, we wait, like, a week after closing and say, “Hey. Just wanted to check in one more time and see if we might be able to get a review from you if you think we did a great job.”

Matt: Wait. Let me interrupt for a second. This starts, you said, at the buyer consultation? So, this person’s not necessarily even a client yet. You’ve not really done anything for them yet. And you’re talking about online reviews. What’s that conversation like? How do you mention that?

Josh: I think, over communicate the important stuff and setting expectations are, like, two of the most important things we can do in real estate and in life. And so, I start the conversation at the buyer consultation because I’m telling them, “Hey. Here’s what we’re going to do for you. And when we do this, what typically happens is our clients, by closing, have referred us to at least one person and, by closing, they also give us a review. If we deliver on these things that we promised we’re going to do for you, then we expect to get referrals and a review from you. Can we count on you for that?” And they’re like, “Yeah, absolutely.”

Matt: Wow. Okay.

Josh: And so, then as we’re done with the buyer consultation and we’re going to look at properties, you know, they’re getting excited, we’re asking and kind of reminding them and mentioning to them the reviews and the referrals. And then we try to get the review during the transaction at the most high point when they’re just ecstatic. And that’s typically…they go under contract and they’re finally, like, “That’s awesome.”

Matt: Right.

Josh: And a lot of times, our clients…not always, but a lot of times, our clients will go, “Hey. Anytime you want us to give you a review, we’ll give you a review.” The admin team knows, if they say that, you better get the damn review, like, right then and there because from the moment they’re feeling that way, you know, that goes away later that day or the next day or a couple days later. And so, we want to capitalize on that anytime we can. And if it’s a husband and wife, we send those final couple of emails asking for reviews and texts asking for reviews, we send them separately because we want a review from the husband and the wife.

Matt: Can you attribute specific clients and deals to your Google Reviews?

Josh: Oh, yeah. It’s pretty cool. People really do read these reviews. We had somebody call in a couple months ago and she goes, “I want to work with you guys, but I specifically want to work with Caroline in your office because I read a couple of reviews that I really liked about what your reviewer had to say about Caroline.” And I was like, “Cool.” Oh, and we ask every lead that calls in or every lead that we’re not sure, we ask the source of lead because…and they typically say, “Oh, you had a ton of Google Reviews and we read your reviews,” and blah, blah, blah.

Matt: For listeners that would like to have this level of success with referrals and reviews and just sort of this machine that you guys have that’s, you know, 75% of your business is, you know, past clients, via referrals, that’s fantastic. What would you want the takeaway to be? What do you want my listeners to understand most about what we’ve talked about today?

Josh: Yeah. I think the biggest piece is you can’t be a secret agent. You have to show up. You have to do the basics at a super high level. And doing it at a super high level means you have to do it consistently, day in, day out. I think the greatest business people, the greatest business minds, they don’t make a ton of decisions. They do it very consistently, though. Success is boring from the standpoint of, like, knowing what to do and doing it every day. I think a lot of agents get caught up in shiny object syndrome. And they kind of do other things because it looks cool, but it doesn’t produce. It’s not predictable. It doesn’t produce anything. It’s not proven. And so, I think you got to get comfortable with the mundane, kind of boring, basic things.

The other thing is, I think you have to do what you say you’re going to do every single time. Your word is everything. And do what you say you’re going to do at a bare minimum. If you do what you say you’re going to do every time, you’re already beating, like, 75% of other people. And then if you go a little…like, do a little bit more, you’re winning at a massive level.

(Speaker: Matt McGee, Host)

It cracks me up that Josh keeps calling this boring and mundane, but I don’t know. Like I said early in the conversation, there’s nothing boring about cashing commission checks. Right? You can help a lot of clients and build a great business by blocking and tackling, doing the fundamentals.

I mentioned that Josh has some material to share in our Facebook listener community. Sometime today, we will post…they’re like playbook-type documents. They’ll help you do those big call-in giveaway events with your database. It’ll walk you right exactly how to do that. And then there’s another doc which will help with the smaller social media based giveaways as well. And if you want to learn more about his nonprofit and that concierge program, Josh has info about those on his website. So, I’ll link to his website from today’s show notes.

All right. The takeaways segment is coming up in just a moment. But first, let me share a real quick programming note. Have you looked at the calendar? Next week is July 5th. It’s a long weekend. We’re all going to be celebrating Independence Day. So, there will be no episode of “The Walkthrough” next Monday. Our next episode will be out on Monday July 12th.

All right. Let’s do our takeaways segment. This is what stood out to me from today’s conversation.

Takeaway number one. Seventy-five percent of the Anderson Group’s business comes from their database, from past clients and referrals. Josh says it’s not super sexy. It’s blocking and tackling. It’s the fundamentals. Staying top of mind just works.

Takeaway number two. How does he do it? Well, there’s five pieces to their system that pretty much replaced the need for those monthly phone calls to check in with everyone. The first two are giveaways and client events. Josh described them as a built-in touch program to check in with your database. You do a phone call around the giveaway. You get to see them in person at the client events. And remember, Josh said he’s also trying to get as much data about his clients as possible. The more data, the more and better those future touches will be.

The third piece is Re:home. Josh has that nonprofit where he offers services and help to people in need. It creates goodwill with the community, and again, creates top of mind awareness. And then the last two pieces are the loyalty program and the Concierge Program. Again, creating goodwill with clients and the database.

Takeaway number three. Josh is very intentional about asking for reviews. They start talking about it during the buyer’s consultation. And then they keep asking throughout the transaction. What usually happens is that by the time the deal closes, they’ve often gotten both a review and a referral.

There’s also a bonus tip that I want to share from Josh, those five programs that we mentioned. Josh says you have to promote them constantly for awareness. He posts about these things at least once a month in their newsletter, on social media, and so forth. Josh said, if you just mention things like your concierge program or your nonprofit once a year, it’s not going to be as successful.

All right. If you have questions or feedback for me or Josh, you can leave a voicemail or send a text. The number is 415-322-3328. You can send an email. The address is walkthrough [at] homelight.com, or you can find both of us in our Facebook listener community. Go to Facebook. Do a search for HomeLight Walkthrough, and the group will come right up.

That’s all for this week. Thanks so much to Josh Anderson for joining me. Thank you for listening. My name is Matt McGee, and you’ve been listening to “The Walkthrough.” At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re on a journey to find out how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

Go out and safely sell some homes. I will talk to you again in two weeks, July 12th. Talk to you then. Bye-bye.

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