There are two aspects of real estate and marketing that are paramount to your success as a real estate professional; the acquisition of new customers and the retention of old ones.

As is the case in other industries the cost of acquiring new customers is escalating. So, it becomes more prudent to continue marketing to past customers. It's less expensive and can be equally profitable.

However, many real estate agents, to their financial detriment, often fail to maintain relationships with clients they have "closed" deals on.

Take you for example. If you're like the majority of agents you probably spend a lot of time, money and effort acquiring new customers; and heaven knows it's anything but easy. But how effective are you at retaining past ones?

You probably feel, real or imagined, pressure to make the next "close", but in doing so you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Actually, it's more like you're putting money into a competitor's pocket.

Marketing to past clients can be especially rewarding. You probably shared a genuine care for each other, and if they were satisfied with you and your services in the past, there is a greater chance than not that they will come back to you for future transactions. Also, they are likely to refer friends, family and colleagues in the interim.

Savvy real estate and marketing pros immediately shift their strategy to building long term relationships once they "close" buyers." You should, too! Rather than simply abandoning a client after a sale continue nurturing the relationship, but in a different way.

Savvy real estate and marketing pros also, maintain continuous, routine and ongoing contact and relations with past clients. This helps to you protect your customers/business from competitive encroachments.

For example; put them on an every other month "post sale marketing campaign", whether it's via post cards, letters or flyers.

Something is better than nothing, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of time or money. The alternative is to do nothing and let a competitive agent convert them to their client! If you snooze you'll lose!

An old friend once said. "Sometimes it's better to keep what you got than to replace it with something new." Avoid the pain of seeing a recent past client transact a real estate deal with another agent. Don't let them get away - you spent too much time and energy converting them into a customer.