Keep your head up and your ears open. The next opportunity might be right in front of you this week.

The old cliche states, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Maybe we should create a corollary statement that says “when the salesperson is ready, the customer/client will appear.”

Are you prepared to see the signs when they appear? Can you secure the appointment? Will you convert that conversation with a customer into a client that will become a closed transaction?

You never know where your next client will come from. Here’s just a sampling of where some of my clients have come from;

  • A fellow employee at previous career
  • Phone duty random call
  • Open house visitor (who bought something that week)
  • Walk-in inquiry at the office
  • Open house visitor (that I followed up with for weeks)
  • Next-door neighbors
  • A family member
  • Another fellow co-worker from a different previous career
  • A neighbor of a family friend
  • Company referral
  • Corporate referrals
  • Industry peers
  • Out-of-area agent-to-agent referrals
  • Referrals from industry events and conventions
  • Alumni association connetions
  • Distant family members (cousins, in-laws)
  • Floor duty at the office
  • Investor
  • A different family member
  • Referral from family
  • Referral from a client
  • Kids of clients
  • Parents of clients
  • Repeat clients
  • Buying or selling your own house
  • Yard Sign
  • Realtor.com (or another other internet connection)
  • Talking to strangers…at places like the hardware store, the golf course, a local pub, the library, a golf outing, and even the labor and deliver unit. That’s right. Three transactions so far can be directly attributed to conversations with nurses I met while in the hospital for the birth of my first child.
  • Being a regular caller on a local sports talk-radio show, getting to know my younger brother’s fraternity members, keeping in touch with high school and college classmates, sorority sisters of my wife, OSU* football games, OSU* basketball games.
  • Connecting with people at kids sporting events, school functions, and other community gatherings
  • Probate attorneys
  • Just Listed/Just Sold/Just Closed cards

…All of these will work, but only if you’re listening, watching, and ready to say, “We should get together and discuss your situation” when the opportunity arises.

Of course, just being in the right place at the right time is always a good rule of thumb, too. The hard part is nobody really knows where that “right place” is and when the “right time” is, so if you want to give yourself the best chance, you gotta show up and show up often.

Get out there this week and build relationships, solve problems, and have some fun. You just might find your next client has been waiting for you to appear too.

*insert your local sports teams here