I’m thinking to successfully manage the transaction, a positive and professional relationship helps smooth the way. I crappy working relationship will get you fired and you certainly won’t earn any referrals. So, yes, a positive and professional relationship is important. But to be friend-friends, not so much.

Now if you’re asking are relationships important if you want to generate referral recommendations, then the answer is a big YES. Do you have to be buddy-buddy, friend-friends. No. Perhaps the word relationship could be replaced with reputation. When it comes to referral recommendations, a reputation for trustworthy expertise is keen. How do you develop a sterling reputation if people don’t know you. If they don’t know you, how can you build a positive reputation. I’m talking in circles here, but you get the point. I think you need a relationship to develop a reputation which creates Top Of Mind Awareness…which leads to leads.

My rambling blah, blah on the matter.

Cheers Brandie:-)

I do have dear friends that are past clients, and have past clients I don’t care to keep in touch with (few and far between). Never did I NOT understand I was hired to perform a job – the latent friendship was borne from like-interests discovered during or after the transaction – not from the act of selling itself.

We are providing a service – in that limited sense it is similar to the car salesman.

How you choose to cement that relationship post-sale is up to you. If they liked you (and you liked them), odds are you’ll get the referrals and future business by just keeping in touch – a very different proposition than being your bud.

Navy Chief, Navy Pride

I too am not an agent, but I have worked in several fields that require a lot of interaction with customers, including a stint at Starbucks years back. I still run into some of my old coffee customers and it’s fun to say hi and catch up on the superficial details, but I wouldn’t consider them my “friends” and no, there is not any deep relationship there.

I recently re-financed my house and my loan officer was great – kind, informative, and always there when I had a question. But we won’t be having a beer anytime soon, anymore than my dentist and I will share dinner. I went to them for a service, not to find a friend, a fact that I think BawldGuy hit on perfectly. When I sell my house, I’ll look for the same professionalism from an agent, but probably nothing more.

Great post; thanks for the thoughts!