Posted by BrendaTx on 9/17/06 4:00pm
Msg #146623
Networking...Territory and Contact Sharing
I keep hearing a question over and over again in my email.
~~How can you share contacts and keep someone from getting your clients?~~
Our Network Premise: We have territories, we share our contacts (1) by letting the others know who we have marketed to (2) By discussing them in a GoogleGroup.com Group (3) by gaining new contacts and sharing our list of those inside of our google group.
My group's network has no fear of sharing contacts because each member is stretched away from the other in minimul increments of 1.5 hour travel time. I have no fear whatsoever about sharing my contacts with my friends on the network when they are not near me.
Notice I said "travel time" and not mileage. One may be 30 min. on one side of a larger city. One may be located on the opposite side of the city.
Our system is relatively simple. Whoever lives in a county is primarily responsible for it. They mark off their territory around it. Some may overlap with another member, but not a great deal of it. When I get a call for Dallas, it goes to Katisha, if it is for the Weatherford area, it goes to Sid. When it is Corpus Christi (several hours from me) it goes to Juanita. Same for the Valley. Same for the Panhandle. Most of the time, the more established clients simply call the person on the list who matches their need the closest. For one very good client who is a title company, they always pick up the phone and call me if it is for Texas. I tell them who they need.
Also, it is a responsibility of each member to get to know, interact and learn to trust (or discover mistrust issues/report to leader) with the others. It takes time, getting to know others and work to involve yourself with others.
If one territory is overburdened, then the person primarily in that spot will need to figure out if they can bring another person into the network, or not. Since my fees are high enough to put off signing services, I don't get overburdened. Signing services are not going to be ready to pay those except in certain circumstances.
In states such as Florida and California, there will be good reason to perhaps put your members in smaller territories than we have here in Texas.
It took around two years to form a working group for Texas. There were mistakes along the way. But, in the final analysis, I feel it is working well.
It is NOT our purpose to clump up agents into areas so they will be competitors.
Hopefully, this will show you what I mean by sharing contacts and why it is not to be feared in our network model.
| Reply by PAW on 9/18/06 7:02am
Msg #146675
>>> In states such as Florida and California, there will be good reason to perhaps put your members in smaller territories than we have here in Texas. <<<
In order to keep up volume in a highly saturated area, the NSA needs to EXPAND their marketplace. This means that there will actually be more competition in the now expanded area. If the network is based on SMALLER areas, then the network members who are already competitors will have access to the prized resources of the NSA.
Brenda, can you please explain to me how smaller territories in highly competitive areas can be beneficial. (Please don't tell me that smaller areas means less competition. That may be true, but the amount of work that is available is also decreased considerably. If I limit my service area to just my neighboring zip codes, for example, I would be cutting out 80% or more of the potential home owners/buyers.)
| Reply by LkArrowhd/CA on 9/18/06 8:54am
Msg #146695
I think the networking is a good idea but intended more for the unsaturated areas, not being negative here just my 2 cents, and this would not work well in my area. CA is very different type of area and as long as notaries continue to be produced at the rate they are....... the trust issue alone would be a huge factor.....not to mention all the other issues involved. But I can see this being very successful in many areas.....
| Reply by BrendaTx on 9/18/06 12:45pm
Msg #146763
**Brenda, can you please explain to me how smaller territories in highly competitive areas can be beneficial. (Please don't tell me that smaller areas means less competition. That may be true, but the amount of work that is available is also decreased considerably. If I limit my service area to just my neighboring zip codes, for example, I would be cutting out 80% or more of the potential home owners/buyers.)**
No. I don't think I explain anything about the theory of networking we use other than I already have.
It goes without saying that you are satisfied with the current status, you shouldn't consider it. This is just something that works well for Texas. What I said was:
**In states such as Florida and California, there will be good reason to perhaps put your members in smaller territories than we have here in Texas. **
And what I meant was that there are more loans to handle in smaller areas in your neck of the woods. That's all I was implying.
Our goal was to get our fees up to title company level. It worked. I shared the benefits thereof with others.
| Reply by Gary_CA on 9/18/06 1:33pm
Msg #146780
Just like the convertible coupe
Two's company, three's a crowd, four's too many and five's not allowed...
I think we all know there's lots of competition. I wouldn't mind a direct-same territory competitor in a network as long as I trust I'm getting a fair shake. That doesn't mean half, it just means fair. There may be reasons why Ms. Comp gets more than I do. It'll be good for me if I can tell a client I'm absolutely positively sure we can always cover a job because there's two of us... but it wouldn't be so good if we're 20.
Okay Doc... sing along...
Referals are like a magic penny
Hold 'em tight and you don't get any
Lend 'em spend and give em away
and they'll roll all over the floor....
| Reply by Gary_CA on 9/18/06 1:37pm
Msg #146781
Oops... that third line
oughta be
"Lend 'em spend 'em and you'll have so many"
that they'll roll all over the floor...
Really folks... that's how they work, not being foolish building a competitor's business at your own expense... but generous. When you go to a chamber lunch or whatever you go with "Who can I help today" and "Who can I refer today". Sometimes the way you can help is by practicing your profession other times by reffering and pretty soon you got a whole community (geographic or otherwise) that loves you and feels they owe you one.
| Reply by BrendaTx on 9/18/06 6:53pm
Msg #146842
Gary - you are a dream!
The concept is so simple that I cannot get it why this sounds so threatening!
In our type of network you DON'T network with locals, but look for people whose NSA own territory touches yours.
This is the alternative to the LOCAL network. In a "leads" group, you network locally with people peripheral to your business. You refer them through your business to their NOT NSA business, but you do not hand off your business to a local NSA competitor.
In our type of network you place your members far enough away from each other so that they do not threaten each other. If I get a call for Lubbock, do I want to drive there? NO! I give them Karen Eustace's phone number. She does likewise for me, and so on.
We provide a LIST of people via brochure to any title company who needs a core group of excellent signers to do the job. If you ever really care to understand this, take a look at our brochure and see that we are NOT overlapping 75% of the time.
Good grief. That people are so negative about it explains why signing services are able to rip off the multitudes with paltry fees.
It's the old, "DIVIDE AND CONQUER!!!" Rule notaries with fear...never let them share, make them into mushrooms, keep them in the dark and feed them shix and no one will ever be able to get ahead.
Gary, thank you for not being so negative. I really appreciate it.
| Reply by LkArrowhd/CA on 9/18/06 7:27pm
Msg #146847
Re: Gary my competition is slim on the mountain with that
said I cover only the mountain-from Crestline to no further then Big Bear, my choice I understand........
Our notaries are few and far between here on the mountain and most of us know one another and do share, we feel no sense of threat from the other as I have often said one can only do so much business you can't take every call, meet every time frame. We did not need a network for me to send work to another notary on the mountain and vice versa....we just do that naturally because we are fair caring folks.......Do I trust my fellow mountain notary, absolutely....Would I trust others from down the mountain. probably not or ceratinly not as much.
If I lived down the mountain it would be of interest to me but up here , no thanks.
It's very interesting how a simple differing opinion is seen as a negative......seldom fails, even if one states this is not a negative just another viewpoint......it's shot down......
We can have different opinions.....right? Or did I miss something?
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