Better to Keep Old Clients Than Seek New

The real estate agents you describe in the Nov. 28 story (“Use Me! Try Me! No, Me!” by Julie Tamaki and Sue McAllister) are, almost completely, ignoring a basic principle of good marketing:

It costs far more to attract a new customer (a prospective buyer or seller) than to retain an existing one.

A homeowner who has been happy with his broker is more likely to use that broker again and refer his friends and neighbors to that broker than someone whose contact has been through bus bench ads, postcards and free pumpkins.

The thousands of dollars spent on these promotions would be better spent as donations to causes important to the communities these brokers serve. The brokers would get better returns on their investments of volunteer time than on flooding mailboxes of unknown people.

Admittedly, as a marketing consultant specializing in relationship-marketing strategies, I’m biased. But I firmly believe that people do business with people they know, not with people who are perpetually selling themselves.

Thus, it would be more productive for brokers to stay in touch with their existing customers in a way that is meaningful to those customers, get involved personally in their communities and provide really good personalized service than to contribute to visual pollution and generate more stuff that winds up in landfills.

SYLVIA ROSE

Via e-mail