Welcome back to another edition of Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, speaker and coach for the Mike Ferry organization, filling in for Mike Ferry this week remotely. It’s the week of November 18th. Okay, so let’s talk about a very important topic if you’re interested in increasing your production and your profit. And I’m assuming everybody here watching today is highly interested in increasing their production and their profit. All right. So, let’s talk about developing more income from your vendor list. Your vendor list. Now Mike has always shared with us the power of building and working a strong past client and Center of Influence database. In fact, he has said to us, listen, let’s build a group of people that includes all of our past clients, all of our center of influence, people that know us, that have influence, and then possibly a group of all of the real estate agents that we relate with, we’ve met through Mike Ferry or that we’ve worked with in the past, and let’s put those people together in a database and work it properly. Then let’s take it a step further, and let’s divide that database into our A clients and our B clients. And let’s look at our A clients and work them a little bit more aggressively, a little bit more intensely, a little stronger communication. And let’s communicate with our A clients a little more often. Well within that list of A clients we might have all of our vendors. Vendors are the people that we pay money to.

You know, obviously within the business, the title and lenders and escrow and termite and septic write those people, but it also includes our gardener, our housekeeper, our accountant, our money manager, the babysitter. Right. You know, there are all of these people that we pay money to on a regular basis, that we use as vendors in our day to day life. And if we learn to work this group of people well, successfully, there’s certainly a stream of income that we could capitalize on. And there’s a source of business that maybe we haven’t generated from in the past. So, let’s look today a little bit at how do we generate more revenue from our vendor list. The first thing I made a note to is these people we pay money to. So, if we pay money to, we have a relationship with them. By the nature of us already doing business. Have you put together the list? The first starting point is you put together the list. Do you have all of the people that you pay money to into your database? Do you have them all in there? Do you have all of their information? You got to put the list together if you’re going to work it. I made this note. The first thing you can do is start being very proactive in referring them to the people you know. You know, if you have a good auto mechanic, be very proactive in referring that mechanic to the other people in your database or the other people you know.

And then be sure and let them know that you referred them. Hey Bob, I just had one of my past customers that needed some work on their car, and I referred them to you, so hopefully they use your services. If you’ll continue to refer effectively your vendors and you let them know that you’re doing it, you’re strengthening the relationship between you and that vendor. It makes it a little easier for them to give you referrals back if you’re referring them. I made this note when you do good business, write a positive review. So, like this. You have a vendor that did an exceptional job for one of your clients. Did you write a positive review? The people within our industry. Have you written a positive review for your favorite lender that does good work? Have you written a positive review for your favorite termite and septic people? Let them know that you’ve written a powerful review. I’m hoping that they’ve all written strong reviews for you for the great work you do. Okay, but let’s start and take the first step forward on that and let them know you know, you also want to include them in all of the things in the correspondence you’re sending out to your database. Do all of your vendors get the emails you send out to your past clients? Do they get the communication that you send out, the postcards, the mail outs, the statistics that you send out? Are you including them all in the LinkedIn or the Facebook? The social media feeds that you do? Make sure that they’re all connected in the same way that you connect with your best past customers.

It’s going to strengthen the relationship between you. I believe that you should make a vendor list throughout your career that’s marketable. Can you create a vendor list that you could distribute? You know their name, their address, their email address, their website information, their logo? If you’ll put together all of the information for the vendors you work with, and you put it into a formal list that you could distribute to your past clients, maybe you even put it in a formal list that you post on your website for people to see. If you have a marketable list and your vendors know that you’re presenting that to all of your new customers, maybe you should send your vendor list out every year or so to your entire database, right? This is a great time of year to contact all of your vendors and update the information. Do you have all the accurate information that they would like to see in public? Okay, but boy, the bond gets stronger. If you are starting to develop this. They see their name. They know you’re working to refer them out. They feel obligated and they are indeed obligated to refer you business. So, make sure you create a comprehensive list for them. I made this note. You should meet them in person 2 or 3 times a year. Have you seen every one of your vendors? Have you? Have you sat down? Have you discussed referrals? Have you discussed the business you guys are trading? Sit down 2 or 3 times a year and be very active with them in the communication.

You know, if you’re actively doing things with them and you see them face to face, the relationship is stronger, and they’ll refer you more business. You have to ask, right? Share with them the business techniques you’re learning. You know that three quarters of small businesses in North America do not have a business plan. And we’re asking you right now in the Mike Ferry organization to create your business plan. Have you learned some business techniques from Mike Ferry over the years? I’ll bet you have. Are you sharing those techniques with your vendors? Help them with this. If you share techniques, you’re learning of how to prospect for more business. Lead follow-up. your business plan techniques you’re using to grow your business. If you’ll share those with your vendors, strengthens the bond and you can ask for more referrals. Get them involved with it. You know business planning right now. A simple question to a vendor have you created your business plan? How much more business are you looking to do in 2025 over 2024? What’s the best technique that you’re looking to use to grow your landscaping business? Okay, if you get them involved in the business techniques you’re using, they’ll be involved in the growth of your company. You can ask for referrals. I made this note.

Get a strong commitment from them of how much business they will refer. I learned this from Ed Kaminski. Ed Kaminski is one of the best real estate agents, been with Mike Ferry for years and years, and he shared with me that one of his things this time of year would be to get a strong commitment from each of his vendors. How many referrals can I expect from you in the calendar year 2025? Right. It’s okay to confront them. I’ve noticed this last year that I didn’t get a single referral from you. May I ask why? Have we been doing something wrong? Right, I would. My business grows on the referrals I get from my great vendors like you. How many vendors? How many referrals can I expect from you this upcoming year? Make a note and let them know that you’re keeping track. Many vendors will provide you more business simply by knowing that you’re expecting it. Do your vendors expect to give you business or not? Okay, I made this note. Engage them in this business planning part. Get them involved. Maybe you share with them some of the components of your plan that they might help you with, right? Maybe they can help you with the growth of your database, of your vendor list. I have this belief. I believe we’re in this.

We’re in the service industry. And if you’re if you’re working with residential real estate, that I believe you have an obligation to build a group of vendors for all of your clients. Do you have someone that can repair the tile on the pool? Do you have someone that sweeps the chimney if needed? Do you have a great furnace repair man? Do you have somebody that paints those numbers on the curb? Do you have somebody that will repair the mailbox there? It goes on and on and on. But ultimately, shouldn’t we have a resource for everything that one of our clients might need? It’s great to ask them, right? Hey, listen, thank you for buying a home. We’re so happy that you bought a home and used our services for that. We have a list of vendors for virtually everything you may need in this house. If you have something that breaks in this house, would you give me a call? I’ve certainly got the referral for you. You’ve got leverage on the vendors you use. Do you have everybody you should have in your database? Keep growing it. Keep working on growing it. How about this note, use leverage when you pay them. You know, there’s many, many times throughout a year that you are the one that pays them, right.

You’re going to get your taxes done here in the next couple of months. You get your taxes done and you’re writing a check to your tax preparer. What a great time to use that leverage. Listen, I grow my business by referral. Who do you know that would like to buy or sell some real estate in the short term, right? When you’re paying somebody, you have some leverage. So, take all those opportunities to ask for referrals throughout the year. Right. So, if you really think about this, how effective is your vendor database now? How effectively have you been working your vendor database? Could you take some steps moving forward from here this time of year into 2025 and do a much better job? Imagine this. Imagine you had 30 vendors and each one of them gave you at least one referral every year. That’s like 30 transactions a year just from your vendor list. And I know that you know that they have those referrals. You just have to set up the environment that you get them. So, let’s all dig into our vendor list a little bit this time of year. Let’s work proactively in making it better. Thanks for your time as always, and I look forward to talking to you soon.