Businesses don’t become successful overnight. It takes experience, hard work and strategy in order to build a good reputation. How are some of Miami’s most successful real estate companies so successful? A combination of business strategies that work when it comes to a variety of aspects – marketing, sales, prospecting and lead generation, to name a few – need to garner the right results for your business.

Master Your Networking Skills

You don’t have to be in an office environment in order to talk about real estate. You’re actually more likely to interact with clients when you’re in a more relaxed environment. People like Cecilia Samaja, a broker with One Sotheby’s International Realty, attend many events to network with other real estate professionals and clients.

“When I’m at events, I don’t want to just talk about me and my business,” Samaja says. “I ask others questions and listen to what they say. I have a saying that goes, ‘One hand washes the other.’ Everyone refers everyone business.”

Samaja recommends arriving to the event early. She uses the time to find the people she wants to meet and introduces herself without being too aggressive: “I don’t want to appear like a used car salesman,” she says. She advises to not strictly talk about business at events. Start by talking about the place you’re at, the news and other things that are going on. Then when the conversation comes around, you can start talking about your business.

As a real estate agent, building solid relationships with your clients is one of the most important business strategies you can use. Talk to your clients, find out who they are and what they’re looking for.

“Real estate is a people business, not a property business,” Samaja says. “You need to have the empathy for the human being asking what their needs are. Know your market, acquire your expertise. They have to trust you–it’s a large amount of money that they’re investing.”

Ralph De Martino, president of Ocean International Realty and member of the Master Brokers Forum, agrees. He says that the key to success in real estate is wanting clients to be happy during the process and in the future.

“If you want to have a good outcome, you have to start at day one,” he said. “I deal with a lot of international clients (many of which speak English as a second language), and they refer a lot of people toward me because they trust me. It is important to earn that trust and always make the deal about them.”

Use Online Platforms

We live in a digital age, and it is important to take advantage of the online platforms to market ourselves and our businesses. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs are useful tools to reach large groups of people to keep them instantly updated on real estate news, trends and helpful tips.

“Through technology and generational shifts, we’re seeing a dramatic change in the industry,” Mike Pappas, president and CEO of The Keyes Company, said. “We are now able to have instant communication with clients at the time they want to engage through ways such as text messages and online chatting. The younger generation is moving the system upside-down.”

Another way of reaching out to people digitally is through email marketing. You can organize people into groups (such as past clients, new prospects and leads) and email them several times a month. Staying in touch with your clients this way is an easy way to get them to think about you, and make them more likely to refer other people to you.

De Martino specializes in waterfront condos, and since these are second and third homes to most of his clients, he doesn’t get to see them regularly. Email marketing easily helps him stay in touch with them, and keep them updated on the community.

“When I first started in the business, I thought, ‘Imagine if I had all the names and addresses of people I could mail something to on a regular basis,'” he said. “Back then, that was very difficult to get. Now, it takes me 10 minutes.”

While it is important to utilize online platforms, we must not solely rely on them. Clients still appreciate face-to-face feedback, so it is important that we incorporate both into our communication plan.

“Keep in touch with people personally,” Samaja said. “They want guidance. And they want to trust the person they’re dealing with.” She creates this personal connection by calling them on the phone, asking how their families are doing and even meeting them for lunch. She also stays on the lookout for anything they might be interested in, even if they’re not actively searching for a property, and will send them information if she believes it is a good buy (although she is very careful not to “swamp them with stuff”).

Pappas says the key to success is having a perfect balance between building solid relationships and being technologically savvy.

“Back then, it was very relationship and informational knowledge driven,” Pappas said. “Baby boomers communicated mostly through rotary, church, clubs and personal relationships. The new generation communicates through a technological, speed driven market. Now it has to be a multiple task structure of both relationship and technological driven communication.”

Business Strategies Agents Recommend

Pappas advises agents to constantly keep in touch with their clients, and post lots of listings. His company has a market report called “My Neighborhood Watch” that gives people instant access to listings by searching for their zip code.

“Information is power,” he said. “Instant information is more power. And as the market is heating up, more listings are coming up.”

De Martino’s advice to agents is to not count on a sale unless it closes. When he was new in the business, five people inquired about properties, and he started figuring out how much money he was going to make, only to be disappointed when he didn’t sell anything to anyone.

“Don’t count your commissions before they close,” he said. “You have to have a lot of irons in the fire – a lot of potential deals.”

Samaja tells agents to make sure your client is available before you help them. The first question you should ask them is, “Are you working with someone else?”

“You don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, or run around Miami and have someone else come in for the kill,” she said.

But when work gets tough, remember why you chose to go into real estate, and let that passion motivate you to work your hardest.

“I don’t call it work – this is what I love,” Samaja says. “I don’t want to retire anytime soon.”