Today we want to share with you an article by internationally recognized business coach, Dr. Maya Bailey. The article offers some great advice on how you can make the most of your real estate database and get it working for you. Remember, with a good real estate contact management software, you can group your sphere of influence (SOI) into A, B ,C, and D groups like Maya suggests. You can also easily keep track of your communication history with each contact and remind yourself who to call and when.

Your sphere of influence can be the greatest source of referrals. Here are five tips to help you dig in and get the "gold."

I find that many of my clients avoid marketing when it comes to their sphere of influence. Yet statistics show that your sphere of influence can be the greatest source of referrals. Let's look at how you can dig in and get the "gold."

Tip 1: Define and Rate your Sphere of Influence

When is the last time that you took a good look at your contact list? What is the total? What are the categories in that group? Do you have past clients, friends, acquaintances, people you hardly know? Before you do anything else, go into your database and group your sphere of influence in categories.

Do you know who in your sphere is likely to refer to you? Do you know who in your sphere already works with another agent? How many have moved away? Start deleting the inappropriate ones.