How Shelby DiBiase Took Her Repeat and Referral Business From 10% to 50% in 3 Years 

 

About the Episode

On today’s episode, I talk to Shelby DiBiase, a team leader who started her real estate career in 1997, and built on her foundation of high customer service skills from 7 years of waitressing. She actually got into real estate after being encouraged to do it by regular customers at the restaurant she worked. 

 

She has thrived through the many phases of the real estate industry, including model home centers and REO. She once struggled to maintain both her database and her REO business, but she turned that around and now over half of her business comes from her sphere of influence. Shelby understands that the key to success in today’s real estate environment is growing and nurturing a database, and in just 3 years, she has been able to grow her repeat and referral business from 10% to 50%. 

 

She has always had the perspective of putting excellent customer service first. Her team is built on administrative leverage because it ensures that her service is always consistent and strong. “If you don’t run smoothly, it doesn’t matter how many sales you do, you’re going to crash and burn.” Many agents focus too much on leveraging their sales and while this brings in new business, it doesn’t do anything for nurturing existing and past clients. Shelby employs the power of client appreciation events, newsletter and social media content and constantly improving her skills and knowledge. Her database-based business has quintupled because of it. 

 

The biggest mistake many real estate agents is being too focused on the shiny new object in the form of a brand new client. But when we don’t pay attention to repeat and referral business, we leave money on the table and let future opportunities slip through our fingers. It’s important to build a business that can nurture our sphere of influence, because those people will become our raving fans who will bring us business for years to come. 

 

The lesson we learn from Shelby is that we can boost our repeat and referral business, even if we’re building it back up from scratch. It’s possible for our repeat business to go from the recommended 15% to even more of that, and never have to worry about where the next deal is coming from ever again. 

 

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About;

05:15 - How Shelby’s real estate career started in a mall

10:18 - Keeping up a Freddie Mac account and her real estate database 

14:30 - Why Shelby has more admin staff than sales staff 

17:22 - How to make sure we’re sending out great content to our sphere

23:58 - The value of having multiple pillars in our businesses  

28:00 -  The value of being omnipresent 

45:30 - How Shelby dresses for success 

Guest Info

 

Shelby is an Associate Broker & Team leader of the DiBiase Team, specializing in Traditional Sales, REOs & short sales.

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dibiaseteam?lang=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedibiaseteam/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dibiaseteam/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQvrXmopmkDdYR-jGC--5Qw

 

Resources Mentioned

 

Go For No by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton

 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson