It takes a Village - The Story of Referral Soup
Many of you have heard the story of Stone Soup, a European folk story in which hungry strangers convince the wary people of a village to each share a small amount of food, which is then added to a pot of water with a stone, ultimately creating a delicious meal for everyone to enjoy. The story exists as a teachable moment regarding the value of sharing. In varying cultures, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and as such, the fable is also known as axe soup, button soup, nail soup, and wood soup. Now we can add another variation to the list, with the story of Referral Soup.
I started playing around with an idea back in 2016 while selling real estate for a small independent Brokerage I opened in rural Wasatch County Utah, at the time, approximately 20,000 residents. Of those, 1200 were licensed REALTORS®. Business was surprisingly good, but brutally competitive and unless you hung your license with one of the then dominant brands, there just wasn't much opportunity for collaboration with peers. In 2017, I made a move to a new, then unknown Brokerage who had started scaling their national presence. The shift in mindset, for most of us, was immediate, and refreshing. (although for me personally, still a little isolating). No longer did we see each other as direct competitors. Quite the opposite. We were one group, one company, all working towards a common goal, not a fragmented array of "Independently Owned and Operated" franchise brands with different management styles, all secretly competing against their own corporate storefronts. For me, the magic really started when the door opened to a whole new book of business, peer to peer referrals. All of a sudden the borders lifted from one small county in Utah, to referral opportunities spanning across the entire United States. With that however, came challenges. How to efficiently network, send, receive, track and update all this new found referral business. How did I keep agents accountable? How did I know when a deal actually closed? How did I know my Clients' were getting the service they deserved? When I couldn't find an obvious solution, and the Brokerage didn't provide one, I set about making my own system, and the idea of Referral Soup began to simmer. Fast forward to 2021...Referral Soup is now ready to serve a Village.
My goal in all this is quite simple. Provide a platform and opportunity for all REALTORS®, regardless of brand affiliation, to manage their own peer to peer referral business, using the most qualified and suitable Agent for the Clients' needs. And along the way, develop strong relationships, earn additional business referrals, share knowledge, tips and best practices, all while being kind and respectful to one another. Some say that's an unrealistic goal, I say it's simply ambitious.
But for this endeavor to be successful, I need your help! So in the spirit of Stone Soup, I invite your participation and contribution. Share your secret ingredients, so collectively, as professional REALTORS®, we can self sustain and self improve, all while providing unlimited servings of Referral Soup to the entire village.
This post celebrates a relaunch of Referral Soup, now welcoming all REALTORS®, from all Brokerages. "Soup's On". Who's hungry?
Referral Soup is FREE - forever! So what are you waiting for? Join the movement, spread the word and bon appetite.