getting referrals

I was on another forum, and someone posted a great idea. Only problem is the thread hasnt been active for some time now. So I thought I would get the perspective of the people on this forum.

The OP idea was to contact a real estate company, and team up with them. You provide them gift certificates for free for their previous clients that they sold houses to or sold houses for, the gift certificate being a free sitting and free print.

This looks good on them because it makes them look like their taking their customer satisfaction to the next level. This is good for you because basically you are getting a ton of referrals. The customer will probably think the real estate company purchased the gift certificates from you, so it doesnt look like your giving away something which I know some photographers think devaluates thier product.

I think this idea is more for the businesses that are starting and need more work. Which I fit in.

This idea would also work for other businesses such as car dealerships, especially ferrari, bmw, porche, etc. If you have one near you, which I dont, which stinks.

And another idea is possibly contact insurance companies to.

So I was wondering what you all thought about this.

I just looked into a few companies in my near by town where my studio is located. Theres century 21, remax, and a couple smaller companies that seem to have more staff than the other two. The sort of customer I want will be the ones buying the nicer houses, not trailers, but that being said ive seen some really nice double wides.

I wonder if I should contact all the companies, or if I should focus on just one company and look into contacting other branches of that company in near by towns.

Im also wondering if I should call ahead and make an appointment, or just walk in and present my idea and portfolio to the person in charge. would this be considered solicitation?

In the UK Venture use this approach at least with car dealers (sure they don't give it away!).

Initially the customer thinks it's a great idea but when they get high pressure sales pitch at the viewing session it suddenly turns a bit sour!

Not saying it's a bad idea but just be careful how everything is worded and make sure you have some form of contract in place.

Hmm, a contract isnt a bad idea. I dont believe in high pressure sales, I think in the long run it will hurt the return customer business.

Im curious how many customers each real estate company will have, from the last year. I know this is different from area to area so Ill have to ask them when I talk tot hem. Im not sure about giving them 1000 coupons for free portraits since Ill be committing myself to that many portraits with the chance of not getting any sales.

And theres the option of instead of giving this away to the real estate company, they pay something like 10% of the coupons actual value, guaranteeing me some money. But then they might be less likely to do this offer.

I don't know if I'd do that. Correct me if I'm wrong but you want to be offering a free session and a free print (or prints)? How do you plan on making any money?

perhaps by selling additional prints to them? take more than one shot. plus if they like your services, then maybe they will think of you in the future as well.

I dont plan on giving them a full hour session, if things are going great Ill take more pictures. Odds are that they will buy more sheets and perhaps other things like wall prints.

Plus I think Ill give them the option for on location, which will have an additional fee. I find studio portraits boring to do, I prefer to be on location and outside. : )

I had additional ideas today to. By working with the real estate company, the employee's may decide to schedule a family portrait. They may consider you the next time they need to update their employee picture for the website/business cards. Perhaps offer them free business cards if you took their picture, and put on it somewhere "photographed by such and such photography" with the contact info.

That's not a half bad idea!
When we moved in our house, our realtor stopped by a month later with a thank you card and a $50 Home Depot gift card!
We thought that was very thoughtful!! It was totally unexpected! Because of that kindness, we never thought about using a different realtor the few times we thought about moving! (Just goes to show, a little bit can go a long way to some client)!

Sounds like the doug box letter to me.

doug box letter?

http://onetoonecoach.c​om/

Sign up for his newsletter and the text is there for you.

thanks for the link! its a shame his links don't work in the freebies business articles section. But I am signed up for the newsletter.

I work with over 250 agents in my city and I can promise you this, most of them won't do it. If there is nothing in it for them....they just won't do it. Sure, there are the few (about 10%) that get it, but most only care about the sale.

If you really want to work agents that are all about the extra mile, contact the Brian Buffini organization. This guy's whole concept is about bringing value to people. Tell them you are looking for an agent in your area and ask them if they will send you some referrals. This entire organization is all about referrals, so the names you get from them will be agents that 'get it'. If your market is anything like mine, it will be about 10% of the agents....maybe. But, it's a great start. You don't want to go throw out a bunch of coupons to people that won't use them, you want to align yourself specifically with agents that think like you. These agents will have databases that they are in contact with EVERY MONTH. So, a referral from them will actually go somewhere.

With that said, you have to create 'value' before you can expect a referral. I would consider doing a portrait shot for the agents themselves, in return for them helping you build your business. You give them value, they refer you.

Here's the link http://www.buffiniandc​ompany.com/

If I was you, that is where I would start. Like I said, the agent names you get from this company will be the ideal agents for your business plan. Best of luck to you and I hope it works out!

wondering why the agents would do it... what is their motivation?
I am not sure what the target market age is for family portraits but I would be surprised if it coincided with the typical age of the home buyer.
Try it at a maternity ward and offer the hospital pictures to put on the wall. New families are always in to getting portraits. You shoot a ton and make it tough for them to choose just one. Offer birth announcements, thank you cards, greeting cards then try to get them in to a portrait a year program to keep them coming back. That is where you bring in the profit.

zagiace wrote in post #10460006
wondering why the agents would do it... what is their motivation?
I am not sure what the target market age is for family portraits but I would be surprised if it coincided with the typical age of the home buyer.
Try it at a maternity ward and offer the hospital pictures to put on the wall. New families are always in to getting portraits. You shoot a ton and make it tough for them to choose just one. Offer birth announcements, thank you cards, greeting cards then try to get them in to a portrait a year program to keep them coming back. That is where you bring in the profit.

This is the best plan of the bunch! Not to mention, if you build a relationship with the parents at birth....guess who they call each year for updated photos to send to family? My wife makes sure we do photos of my son every year to send to family.

Yeah, I REALLY like that idea. If I did portrait work, my next call would be to someone in the maternity ward to set up a meeting.

I would think a hospital would not be to excited about giving the contact info for newborn families. Too many crazy people, this would mean you would almost have to print onsite and give your contact info.