Lasting Connections with Clients | Coltyn Simmons

FULL AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION: 

Justin Stoddart 0:01
On today’s show, we are going deep on why relationships matter more than ever, and why you need to develop relationships and create connections with those relationships that will last the test of time. I’m thrilled about today’s guests about today’s topic, stay with us welcome back to the Think bigger real estate Show. I’m your host Justin Stoddard, thrilled to be with you today again to go deep on what you need to do to create lasting connections with your clients. So that again, you aren’t starting every year over as if you were your first year in the business, but starting every year over building on what you’ve built in the past. Today’s guests name is Colton Simmons. He is out of the Las Vegas market. He’s a homebuilder. He owns a real estate brokerage company. Colton has a it’s a pleasure to have you on the show today.

Coltyn Simmons 0:57
Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

Justin Stoddart 0:58
Yeah, how is it sunny Las Vegas right now? Right? Good, sweet, right? 80 degrees, beautiful weather,

Coltyn Simmons 1:02
it’s starting to warm up, it’s getting into the 90s. And, you know, we’re gonna turn the corner and get into the hundreds probably in a few weeks. But, but as it as it heats up, it just, you know, adds a little fire fuel to the fire, get us out there and make more relationships.

Justin Stoddart 1:19
Alright, let’s talk really quickly, again, your background, you guys have a very successful construction company, also a real estate company. Give me just give us a quick version of how you got involved in this amazing industry.

Coltyn Simmons 1:31
Alright, so growing up, my dad was a contractor, my mother was a real estate agent. So I had both spectrums, my entire life. I was playing baseball, with the Tampa Bay Rays, got done playing baseball decided, What am I going to do with my life. And I had both real estate and construction. So I just jumped in, and I started to kind of fuse the two together. And so now I have a real estate brokerage and the general construction company. And we’ve kind of used it together and ways that we can help our clients additionally with like update before you sell programs, where we update their house at no cost out of their pocket, sell the house for maximum value, they get reimbursed at Close of Escrow, we do a program like that. We also do programs where we get them into the house that they want, and then they move into that house, then we go back through remodel the house, or remodel the new house. So we’ve really implemented both strategies to give our clients a more full spectrum approach to our relationships.

Justin Stoddart 2:34
Golden I love the offer, I can’t tell you how much I love the offer. I always tell agents, if all you do is the same thing as the next guy, the only thing you’re going to be compared on is speed and price. And that’s not a game you want to be playing in. Instead, look before you get to the table. And after you typically leave the table or when your competition gets there and leaves and say what concerns are preceding that what what concerns are come after that. You start to solve those concerns. And all of a sudden, you’re all by yourself, right? Because you’re taking care of those additional concerns that they also need. What a brilliant offer well done. For those that are listening, follow this guy, he’s got some some some great ideas and build a great business around this. Our topic today called really is about creating these lasting connections with clients. I know you and I feel very similarly, that we see a lot of people chasing this chase in that it typically it’s around cold market stuff, right trying to get strangers to like us strangers to send us business strangers to, to, you know, entrust us with the biggest financial decision of their lives, oftentimes, talk to us about why that might not be the best idea.

Coltyn Simmons 3:41
Well, at the end of the day, a lot of times I start the whole conversation with you got two buckets, you got a bucket of people, you know, and you got a bucket of the people you don’t know. And that’s how I start my conversation with a lot of my realtors. And in the way I think about myself. And really my job is to nurture the people that are in the bucket of people I know, nurture them, keep those relationships strong. Because I know that that relationship will supersede any technology or eye buyer that comes along 99% of the time every once in a while it won’t work out but it is what it is. So that’s just the numbers of the game. And so now my next task, and really what my day should be focused on is how can I get people out of this bucket of of people I don’t know, into the bucket of people I know and nurture them and bring them to the next level of you know, levels of communication. So, for me, there’s my brain has always thinking of ways that we can service our client at a high level, high level high level. Well now because of technology. A lot of agents are really dependent on Zillow leads realtor.com leads or brokerage leads. And to me that’s a It’s a disgusting feeling inside when you have no control of what’s coming down the pipeline. And we all know that conversion at a high, high rate on some of those platforms is like a two to 3% conversion rate, which is awful. With the amount of money you have to spend there. But when you actually take a look back at close transactions, at least for me, majority of the close transactions I’ve had over the, you know, the hundreds that I’ve had over the last few years, I would say at a minimum 60% has been from sphere referrals, past clients, and things of that nature. And so it’s like so many people want to spend money on Zillow and all these different ad things and shiny objects. But how much money time and effort are you actually putting back into your moneymaker, which is your referral sources, your sphere, your past clients, and unfortunately, most agents brokerages are not focused enough on that topic. And and that’s one thing that I wanted to set out from the very beginning with any of my agents as that your long term success will be directly determined by how many people are in that bucket of people, you know, and how well you nurture that relationship. And so that’s the basis for a lot of the things that we do at our brokerage period.

Justin Stoddart 6:31
You know, it’s interesting, we spend, we’re oftentimes willing to part with dollars to go get new clients, right. But we’re, we’re looking at, you know, the money spending, like you said, on our existing sphere, and it’s like, well, that’s a lot of money. I don’t know if I can do that. Or if I can, you know, pay for that. But you’re right, like the investment inside of that group of people that are already sold out on you, by the way, their future business, and their future referrals are yours to lose, like they’re going to be your yours unless you fall off the map. Right? Like it’s, it’s, it’s a pipeline, it’s almost like an annuity that’s going to pay you in the future. Unless, of course, you don’t take care of them, right. And I think when I see agents really treating their business, like a series of transactions, those clients are going to treat them very much like a transaction, they’re going to exchange you for the next person that happens to come along. Right when they need that person, right, as opposed to saying, No, we have somebody, like we have somebody in this business, we have an advisor, we have somebody who has spent time adding value to us that they’re willing to moving forward, continue to advise with you right, and not be chasing these other shiny objects in the form of agents, you know, down.

Coltyn Simmons 7:39
Unfortunately, when it’s easy to do, it’s easy not to do as well. And that goes for nurturing our past clients, our sphere of influence. And typically, our sphere, our database, our past clients are the first to get taken for granted. Why? Because we think that they’re going to do business with us forever. They think that they think that our relationship is so great, that they’ll never use another realtor. Well, unfortunately, with over, you know, how many realtors in America alone 1.4 million, like, if they’re if they don’t get introduced to another realtor, or have a family member say, Oh, I have somebody that you should use? Well, it’s going to happen where your relationship is going to be tested. And if you take that for granted, well, then you’re going to be seen it on on Facebook. Oh, look at my new house. And you’re sitting there going, huh? Oh, my gosh, I missed that opportunity. Why? Because you’re too busy chasing these new shiny objects. And and it happens far too much.

Justin Stoddart 8:50
Tell us a little bit about what you believe are wise investments in this process. Right? There’s, there’s a couple investments one is time. Right. And one is money. Now obviously, we need to be prudent even and how we spend that because we’d like we don’t have unlimited of either of those. So what are some some recommendations that you have, that you say this is a wise investment of time and or money to take care of that group of people who have already used this already sold on us would use this again, as long as they don’t forget about us.

Coltyn Simmons 9:20
So there’s two types of equity you can put into your database sphere and past clients. One is check equity, where you can write a check and send them mailers, you could send them gifts, you can do all those things. The other is sweat equity, where you’re actually you know, knocking on the door, you’re taking them to lunch, you’re taking them to coffee, whatever it is, you’re you’re actually putting in the effort yourself. Okay? I think that the ratio should be you know, 5050 however, kind of what we’re talking about before we started the podcast is i I’m kind of coming from the baseball world, okay, I grew up playing baseball and as A hitter, you know, one of the most important things in the game as being a good hitter, when you’re at a lower level, you’re just trying to hit the ball, you’re just trying to put it in play, you get up there, you just want to hit it hard. Well, once you get to the advanced levels, you know, college and professional stages, what a lot of the coaches are, then teaching you is you got to split the plate, okay, you got to go up there with a pitch in mind and a location in mind and put a really aggressive swing on it. And if it’s not there, you don’t waste your time or effort on that pitch. So as you have this bucket of of people, you know, and the sphere, the past clients, the database, you have to now start to split those into relevancy and priority. Okay, now, you’re not going to be spending a whole lot of check equity and time equity, which at the end of the day is a check equity, when you look at your time spent and what you get back on that investment. But once you get to that point, you have to really separate who you’re spending the most time and effort on. And so you have to split the plate with those types of people. And so that comes with time, I can think back right now. And I know I can think off the top of my head of four people in the last four years that have given me multiple referrals, well, that’s somebody, I’m going to put a good amount of check equity, I’m going to send them, you know, little gift cards, I’m going to take them out to dinner, I’m going to actually be providing them with a typical generic, you know, updates on the market, so that but then there’s the people that are past clients, still friends, but I’m not really going to rely on them for a whole lot of referrals. That doesn’t mean that I totally abandon them. But there’s somebody that I do more of a general touch approach to where we’re maybe touching them with an email, maybe a mailer every once in a while, and then a quarterly call, okay? So when you break down your sphere, your database and your past clients, you have to now start to split the plate and prioritize who you’re putting the time and effort into to get the maximum result back. That’s, that’s the process that I think of,

Justin Stoddart 12:13
I think it’s super important. Again, if you have a database, let’s say its friends, right sphere, right? Let’s call it sphere, which includes clients, I agree, includes friends whose family, you’ve got that group that already loves you, they already know you. Okay? They are not all created equal. Now, they might be in the eyes of God, right, but they’re not in the eyes of your business. 100% agree with you is that if you try and treat everybody the same, everybody’s going to get vanilla, because there’s just not enough for you to go around with enough resources to give everybody a high level. So everybody gets downgraded. But as you identifies put the plate I love that term, to really be able to edify Okay, who are the key players here, that really would create a great ROI for my business, I like to put it this way is that if you were investor in your business, let’s say you were to put in a million dollars into your business, Shark Tank style, million bucks. Here you go. Right? How would you want you spending your time? Would you want you spending your time with people who are just friends and are actually going to produce a return? Right? And I think the reality is, we are investors in our own business, we are the Shark Tank, we are putting a million dollars into our business. So we do need to ask ourselves that question. It’s like you’re saying, like, who should I be spending the more valuable time with Who should I be pouring more resources into, because again, they’re not in the eyes of your business, they’re not all created equal, I think that’s super important for us to recognize that,

Coltyn Simmons 13:30
and not carry change, that can change because if I have somebody that’s working at this facility, and they’ve been working there for 10 years, and then all of a sudden, they get they pull themselves out of there, and they start working somewhere else, because this has actually happened to me, somebody was working in a certain industry where they’re isolated, they were an architect, they basically showed up did plans, worked on a set of plans didn’t really talk to anybody. At that point in time. He wasn’t, he’s still a friend, I’m not going to just totally abandon them, you know. But once he started work at this new place that actually had him interacting with clients and different things, all of a sudden, I started getting referral after referral after referral. So that can change but you have to at least set a baseline of, of, at a minimum, anybody that’s in this bucket is going to get this at a minimum, okay? And then from there, like I said, start splitting the plate with because because if everything is a priority to you, and you’re in your in your system, then nothing is a priority. If you’re treating everybody exactly the same, all you’re doing is is just waiting for somebody to raise their hand. You’re not You’re no, like Zig Ziglar said, you’re either a wandering generality or a meaningful, specific way. You have to be that way when you’re talking about putting your time and effort into these past clients and sphere because like I told a couple of my agents to this and if you actually break down, the time spent on a transaction and the money you made on that transaction, you’re probably making more money than most high price attorneys in this town. And you’re going to start delving out some of your time to these minor things in your life, you got to be really strategic and meaningful about where you’re spending your time. At this point, when you find out your time is worth 25 bucks an hour.

Justin Stoddart 15:21
Yeah, fantastic stuff. Man, I love it. Let’s talk really quickly. Good. The promise of this show was to give people some ideas of what creates a lasting connection, right? So there’s a split the plate concept, you start to really divide your database and towards people that you love people that are sold out on you, and people that can really produce a great return right? In my world, I call those I call at least an upper echelon of that group, your upstream partners, right people who know that a transaction is coming before your competition, and they can let you in on that and refer you in high quantity and quality right for you, for example, as a home builder, and architect is a beautiful one. That’s what I use when I was a home builder. Right? For others. There’s a number of categories that I teach inside my coaching programs exactly how to do that. But let’s talk a little bit about what you found for not just that group, but for people in general, what what is a lasting connection mean for you cold? Like how do you create that.

Coltyn Simmons 16:14
So a lasting connection to me is follows along the terms of of our mission statement, which is I want to provide as much value to as many people as possible without any expectation of compensation. So what that means is I want to provide value to people, whether I’m getting compensated or not. So just because somebody is in my sphere in my database, doesn’t mean that their only value to me is if they’re buying or selling real estate. So I want to provide value to them in any way possible. Because I know that the more that that I can help them. It’s like a political race, okay, if I’m running for governor, Okay, I gotta make sure that I stay top of mind with as many people as possible, and strike a chord with as many people as possible. So when that time comes to vote, they you know, they raise their hand to vote for you. Well, it’s the same thing as a realtor, okay, you might be able to help them with moving something or help them with grocery list or, you know, maybe they’re sick, or their kids need a ride to school somehow shape or form, you provide value to them. So that you’re staying top of mind, too, when the time comes that they’re thinking about buying, selling or investing in real estate, they know who to vote for, which is you, right? So a lasting relationship is providing value to whoever they might be, without any expectation of compensation. Because the second you start thinking about what’s in this for me, you start to get jaded on your decisions on who you’re going to help and who you’re not going to help. So you have to be ready to do these values provide these values with no expectation of compensation. And then at that point, what I tell everybody, water will find its level, okay, so you might have a bad month, you might have a great month, but at the end of the day, water is going to find its level. So if you provide enough value to enough people, you will, the world or the you know, whatever it is, is going to the universe universe is going to compensate you accordingly to the value you put into the universe. And I fully believe in that. And that is one of the reasons why I started to implement the construction and the marketing in the different tools that we’ve implemented within our brokerage, a lending side a title side, because I want to be able to provide as much value as possible to our clients to where even if I’m not in touch with them, the experience was such a great experience, that long term, they couldn’t see themselves working with anybody else. Now, the icing on the cake is if I now nurture that relationship, and show them that I care and have a little bit of vulnerability about myself to be transparent with them and be a true friend. Well, now you’re not talking about competing with other agents, you’re talking about completely wiping them off the map. You know, everybody’s like, Oh, you want to compete in this market Screw that. I don’t want to compete with other realtors, I want to make it to where there is no other choice but me, because I’m the only one that can provide everything in one spot that they need. So I’m not in competition with a whole lot of other agents because there’s not a whole lot of agents that can do what I can do. Now you’re on a different playing field. Why? Because you’ve established that relationship with them by providing value.

Justin Stoddart 19:44
I think your business model is speaks volumes about how you differentiate and I love how you shared that right? That once you split the plate. It’s not just that but it’s the fact of again, going back to this concept of what does a typical real estate agent do? What is the start time At the end time of their value in the marketplace, how do you go before that and start adding value before you get to the like where the typical agent steps in? And then how do you add value after the fact to where you continue to add value beyond that, once you start to do that you completely differentiate yourself. You said something there that I want to highlight. I don’t know if you meant to say this, but But it’s super powerful. And I want to dissect a little bit you had mentioned that you want to do stuff that that others can’t do. Now, I think the word that you could have used is that that others would would not be willing to do. Let me take that scenario for a minute. If you were to say others that others are not willing to do. To me that sounds like almost like desperate, like you’re almost like, like spending so much like you’re willing to go do stuff that’s that’s that’s not necessary, or, or isn’t that helpful, right? That isn’t, that’s, that’s almost like an act of desperation. Whereas the way you’ve positioned your offer, you’re doing stuff that others can’t do it. In other words, you’ve set up your company to such a level that even if others were willing to, they can’t, because you’ve got a skill set, you’ve got a network, like you’ve really positioned yourself, not just because you’re willing to outwork other people, because others will eventually catch up to that, right. But if you can actually out position yourself to where others Absolutely, they can’t, they can’t go in and do what you guys do before the home is sold. They can’t do what you guys are are able to do after the home is purchased. Like those are so unique. That it again, it makes you really stand out in a crowded market. And like you said, people, especially when inventory is tight, right, you’ve positioned yourself so nicely that others, they can’t keep up with how valuable that is to the consumer right now. I mean, it’s absolutely brilliant. I think that there’s a lot to be said there. Now, I’m not saying that everybody’s listening to this needs to go start a construction company and do that. But I would encourage you to say, what are the other concerns that my clients have, that I’m going to either a bring in house or find a very close referral partner who’s the best in the world at that thing. And I’m going to make their offer become almost part of mine, right? Maybe it it does become part of yours. Or it becomes such a close relationship that they get favorable treatment, timing, pricing, etc. Because you brought them in to solve that problem the other day that the client doesn’t necessarily care, they just want that, like all the concerns that they have in front of them solved. And so I think you can start to get strategic about how do I position myself to be able to take care of more concerns,

Coltyn Simmons 22:28
if strategic partnerships and alliances with with you, if you’ve done this long enough, you know what the problems that your clients are going to come, you know, are going to come into now, if you don’t want to go get your general construction license, and all the insurances and all the stuff that go with it, and your lending license and all those things, that’s fine. But you need to strategically align yourself with multiple people in your same sphere of business. You know, the lenders, the title companies, the moving companies, you know, the construction companies, to where when a client asks you a question, you’re not sending them to another doorway, you’re just saying, Yep, we can help you with that, too. Because at a certain point, like we’ve all heard, in the absence of value, the only thing that you can negotiate now is your price. So what do you see a lot of right now, you see a lot of commission compression agents willing to do it for less? Why not? Because they don’t want to make as much money. It’s because they got nothing else to hang their hat on. Right? Oh, I can open up a lockbox will soak in every other buyer agent, oh, I can put your listing on MLS will so can every other real estate agent? Well, here’s what I can do. I can update your home, I can do this, I can do this. I can provide this. You want to negotiate price? Unfortunately, I can’t. Because all of these values to me are a value to you. And it’s going to net you more at the end of the transaction. Let me show you how. That’s a whole nother conversation. When the when the seller says, Well, I got somebody else that will do it for less, oh, I’ll do it for whatever we’ll get the listing. That’s most agents negotiation tactics, what will it take to get the listing? I’ll do it for that. And really, it’s a race to the bottom when you start providing less and less value, because at the end of the day, if you’re making less, you got to do more, you got to have more transactions. So you’re doing less on each one. It’s a race to the bottom when all you have to negotiate on is the commission paid and guess what’s starting to happen? They’re starting to take listings and they’re saying listen, the buyer can pay their their broker we’re not concerned with we’re not paying a buyer broker commission anymore. You just pay me 1% they can they can fend for themselves. That’s literally starting to happen because agents are so desperate for an income at all. And God forbid, they have to go back to their old job, they’ll do it for literally nothing in hopes that they’ll get as many as possible. It’s, it’s a race to the bottom, and instead of creating more value for the market, they’re thinking, well, I’ll just do it for less. And that’s where our industry is headed. If we don’t start to create strategic alliances, and bring value to the transaction, now bringing value to the transaction, in my mind is what bringing more dollars to the sellers pocket. That’s why we’ve implemented some of the strategic things that we’ve done by bringing more even if they were to list with a discount broker, you’re still going to net less than when you list with me, and here’s why. And I’ll show you why. And I’ll give you four or five examples. You can even talk to my last few clients, they rave about me, that’s a whole different conversation.

Justin Stoddart 25:55
Oh, mic drop, ladies and gentlemen, absolutely beautiful. You’re right once, if that’s where everybody else is competing, then you go make a case, build a case study around the fact of how you net people, more clients. Now, if you haven’t done that, that becomes your homework assignment, on this very next transaction. What did you do to net your clients more in such a degree that it would offset any discounts at the end of the day, if you can prove that via your your history, it’s over those people, those those discount brokers can’t compete against you. Right, they just can’t you put money back in their pocket time back in their life, you win, right? You win you out, position them, and you want, you brought more value to the marketplace. I love it, man. It’s such good stuff. I love what you’re doing. Any any final words, here, it looks like we’re actually just about out of time. I feel like we could talk for a long time, we see a lot of things in common. Any kind of final words of wisdom around, you know, around this topic.

Coltyn Simmons 26:55
You know, it’s one thing to be able to provide the value, but it’s another to get the word out. And I think that your your number one focus is your sphere and database. And everything else around that is either shining a light on or introducing people into that box. And so through your social media, at this point in time was so much noise in the atmosphere, you have to be able to show your value and provide the value in a spotlight for people to share. And so on our team, it’s huge, huge, you have to post on social media. And people are like, Oh, I don’t want to, you know, rave about myself or this and that whatever. Well, a tree that falls in the forest that doesn’t make a sound, who knows, you know, but if you’re an agent that has this much value, or you’re, you know, lending like like the back of your hand, or you can help somebody, you’re really being selfish. And this is the way I explain it to my agents, you’re being extremely selfish, to not go out and share that with more people. The worst thing that’s going to happen is that you’re going to you’re going to educate people, and they’re going to possibly call you or not call you. But you got to get out there and educate people on on what to do and how to how to handle like you said, one of the largest investments of their life. And you know what, most people don’t realize that because they’re not taught to this way, they don’t understand that the home that they live in is the one of the largest investments of their life. And by by handing this off to an inexperienced agent, or somebody that doesn’t provide the values that I do, you’re costing yourself 10 to 20% on the other end, or God forbid, try to do it for sale by owner. Here’s why. Let me show you. The problem is is not enough agents understand their own values. Because I’ve never sat down and put pen to paper. What exactly like you said, How did I provide more value during this transaction? Right? Too many agents don’t understand that about themselves. So how can you then verbalize and express how you brought provide value to the transaction. If you don’t even know, if you just have a license and you’re waiting for the phone to ring? You’re going to be a travel agent real soon. Because how many of you guys know a travel agent that gets you a great deals on travel? I don’t because I go online and get my traveling done? Well, real estate agents that don’t provide value are going to be the exact same, you know, career path, it’s not going to be relevant anymore. You have to figure out a way to provide value, express that value and then talk to people about it.

Justin Stoddart 29:43
And as such great timing, just the fact tomorrow inside of my private Facebook group. successful real estate agents is the name of it. We’re actually going to be doing a workshop on helping you with your marketing positioning. Colton. What you’ve provided here today is a perfect setup for that again, for those of you that are not yet a member of that group, this successful real estate agents Facebook group, join us there. And be prepared tomorrow to put a lot of what Colton is teaching us here into practice. So great timing. Appreciate that golden final question. You are a big thinker. What does Colton Simmons do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your possibilities?

Coltyn Simmons 30:20
constantly learning, because at the end of the day, what I think is is possible is based on what me or other people have already achieved. And there’s things being done that are way beyond what anybody has ever achieved, from big thinkers that think way beyond what the norms are. And you have to you have to surround yourself by by those things through reading through YouTube videos, events, surrounding yourself by the right people that have these big thoughts. Because one thing that I’ve learned, and you hear it all the time, but you just kind of it just kind of rolls off people’s backs, is you are, you’re only going to be as good as the table you’re sitting at, you’re only going to think as big as the people that are sitting at your table can think. Because once you start thinking bigger than them, it starts to get uncomfortable. And so you have to go outside of that and get uncomfortable, and really make big goals for yourself. Otherwise, you don’t know what’s possible. And I truly believe that most of us are operating at a 40% capacity. And we all have so much more potential, so much more potential and value to bring to this world. And you’re gonna you’re gonna go to the graveyard with that inside your soul. And, you know, what are you going to leave with the world? And unfortunately for a lot of us, you’re cutting yourself short by what you’re capable of. And that’s one thing I refuse to. to do.

Justin Stoddart 32:00
It’s great stuff what great, again, alignment and with what with what we see shares, you know that the greatest untapped natural resource in the world is not diamonds, it’s not gold. It’s not oil. It’s actually human potential. We’re all sitting on massive deposits of potential and only in surrounding yourself with other big thinkers Do you start to recognize what’s inside of you? Cool. And thank you for being one of those people today. Helping us to think bigger, helping us to expand our possibilities. It’s been great having you on the show. We look forward to future collaboration. And to everybody listening out there today. My final request of you is this. Go think bigger. Coltyn appreciate you my friend.

Coltyn Simmons 32:38
Justin. See you!