How To Win Every Client Over... Increase Your Conversion Rate FAST

Garrett created a 99% conversion rate with buyers and a 95% conversion rate with sellers. Here's how. Listen as Garrett Marroon, host of The Faithful Agent Podcast, unpacks the exact strategy he used to build a 100% referral-based business that generated $300,000 in annual profit—all while staying aligned with his faith and protecting his time with family. 

Garrett shares his proven 36-Touch System, including practical tools like video texts, handwritten notes, and simple client events that cost less but create deeper relationships. He also highlights how faith-driven agents can use these methods to stand out in an industry that's increasingly trying to replace the personal touch with tech.

Whether you're brand new to real estate or looking to shift from hustle to health, this episode will give you a roadmap to sustainable success built on relationships, not algorithms.

✅ Key Takeaways

• Garrett built a referral-only business that generated $300K/year—without buying leads.
• The real estate industry is investing billions to remove agents—referrals are how you protect your future.
• A personal touch still works: video texts, handwritten notes, and small gifts stand out.
• Hosting simple, thoughtful client events creates powerful engagement (and referrals).
• The 36-Touch System is predictable, repeatable, and scalable.
• Your business should serve your life, not the other way around.
• Faith isn’t a liability in business—it’s a differentiator.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction
 02:30 – The Trap of Cold Leads and Why They Don't Work
 04:10 – How Garrett Built a 100% Referral-Based Business
 06:35 – Why the Industry Wants to Replace Agents
 09:00 – The 36-Touch System Explained
 13:25 – Video Texts, Handwritten Notes & Personalization
 17:40 – Hosting Impactful (and Affordable) Client Events
 22:15 – Faith and Business: The Real Calling
 26:00 – Why Referrals Create Long-Term Stability
 28:45 – Final Encouragement for Agents: You Can Do This Without Burnout

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Resources & Opportunities:

📞 Want to be in Business with Garrett and Christian agents around the globe? Schedule a call with Garrett to learn about the 2:10 Collective on the eXp Realty platform
🔗 https://calendly.com/garrettmaroon/210collective

📖 Download The Faithful Agent E-Book: ➡️ Grab it HERE

📩 Join the Movement:
➡️ Pre-order Garrett's Book - The Balanced Breakthrough - HERE

Want to Sell More Homes While Honoring God?
Download my free guide REDEFINE THE WIN to learn how to implement my PDA Formula so you can build a more predictable and profitable business that actually aligns with who you are - get the guide here - https://www.210collective.com/redefine

📩 Send Garrett your Hampton Roads & Richmond, VA buyer/seller referrals:
🔗 7572662876

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Transcript

Garrett Maroon: 0:19

So, we're gonna talk today about why, or… how we can win every single appointment. I was having a recent conversation with someone and talking about his, decision. He's getting into real estate and talking about his decision on why they chose their last agent that they chose. And he was sharing some ideas with me and thoughts, and I thought, hey, that's good, but I think there's something deeper. And I wanted to share with you all, and I shared with him, how in my career, in 11 years of over 650 homes sold, I've literally had a 99% conversion rate with buyers, and a 95% conversion rate with sellers, so how am I getting all of my clients to say yes to me? Now, a lot of them I didn't even compete on, right? Let's just be honest about that. Building your business by referral, where the lead comes from matters, but there's a ton of those that I competed on. And so I wanted to share with you all, how do you win every single client over? Because when we do the work to get to that appointment. It's so disappointing to show up, think we maybe have a win, and then we lose out. Right? I think the conversion rate is under 50%, if I'm understanding the data correctly, and how many opportunities we have when we finally get to that kitchen table, and then we lose out. So how do we win more of those? Now, I'm gonna say that it's average, or it's pretty standard. for the industry to teach us like this, right? When you show up, you got a 1 o'clock listing appointment, you show up, you're in a suit and tie, or if you're a lady, you're wearing a… I don't know what ladies wear, you're wearing something else, and you're showing up, and you drive up your nice BMW, you knock on the door, and hey, where's the kitchen table? You sit down, you've got your listing packet all ready to go, and you've got all these amazing points, you've got 500 marketing points, and one of them is putting a lockbox on the door, which, that's not marketing, but… You've got 500-point marketing plan, you've got why you're the number one agent in the area, or why you're the best agent to choose, and all of those things. You sit down, you share that with them, and at the end of that, all you're competing over is why you're the best. And then you lose some appointments. You don't understand. You think, maybe I need to talk more about my marketing plan. Maybe I need to revamp my marketing plan. Maybe I need to… show up with more data about how many homes I've sold. And that's the typical way that agents show up and try to compete, right? Whether that's with buyers or with sellers, it's, look how prepared I am, that's why you should pick me. Now, I'm not advocating to be unprepared, you absolutely should be, especially as a believer. Your question is, am I stewarding well? And if you're stewarding well, it means you come prepared, but here's what we need to understand. There's something much deeper going on. Not just who's the best agent out there, right? That's not how consumers are making decisions. There's something so much deeper… happening. I realized this in 2014. I was going on my second listing appointment ever. with this woman named Kelly Jo. It was a… it was a soft referral. The person that I got refer… or the person that referred me to her didn't know her super well, and so, you know, I was going… but I knew I was competing with 3 other agents. 3 other agents just in my office alone, who were much better agents. I was 27 years old. I'd only sold one listing in my entire career, right? 2014. Well, what did I do? I showed up in my suit and tie, I drove up in my Honda Civic, super impressive, four doors, though, that's pretty impressive. I drove up in my Honda Civic, I had my listing packet ready to go. In my head, I practiced the script and what I was gonna say. Well, I go to the door. I ring the doorbell, Kelly Jo answers the door, and Kelly Jo, the first thing she says, she doesn't say, hi, nice to meet you, she doesn't say, come on in. Kelly Jo says, how old are you? And I laughed, and I said, I am the youngest documented real estate agent in history, and she laughed, and I never told her how old I was, right? We walk in, I say, hey, show me around the house, show me around the house. But when we get back to the kitchen table. Honestly, I froze up. You know, she had thrown me off by asking me how old I was, thinking, well, great, she's not even gonna hire me. I sat there at the kitchen table, and I thought, man, I don't even know what to say anymore. Now, what am I supposed to do? Go into my marketing packet and my presentation, and talk about how I'm gonna get her more money, when I know the other agents coming in are much better agents than I am at this point? So I did the only thing I could think of. I just started asking her questions. I knew that I could ask questions, I was at least naturally curious. And so I just started asking her questions. Question after question after question. And you all, audience, know that I can, talk a lot, right? My wife, especially, pray for her. Rachel is her name. I can talk a lot. But in this scenario, I listened a lot. I was there for 2 hours with Kelly Jo. I remember this very clearly. 2 hours with Kelly Jo. Guess what we never talked about? We never talked about my marketing plan. I didn't even open my listing packet! But what I found out was her husband had passed away 6 months before. She'd never sold a home or bought a home without him. She was terrified, terrified that she'd make a bad decision for her kids. They'd end up in a bad school district, she wouldn't have any money, she'd be house poor. Terrified of those things. So, the appointment literally ends with the doorbell ringing, because the next agent's here. And I said, Kelly Jo, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I really am honored that you shared that with me. I'm gonna leave this packet with you, for you to review. I said nothing, nothing about any of that. And I got in my car, my Honda Civic, I drove away, and I thought, I'm never gonna win. There's no way I'm gonna win that appointment. I get a call a couple days later, a week later, I can't remember, and it's Kelly Jo, and she says, Garrett, I want to hire you as my agent. And I thought, why? There's no way that you're going to hire me as your agent. And I said, you know, I'm honored, I'm humbled by that, Kelly Jo, can you tell me why? She said, Garrett. I honestly… this is what she said verbatim. I honestly don't know what any of you said. I don't remember any numbers any of you shared with me, but I do know you're the only one that cared enough That… to find out that my husband had just died. Will you come help me? And so, I remember honestly feeling super humbled by that. She didn't… she didn't care about my marketing plan. She didn't care about how many homes I had sold. Clearly, I had only sold one. She didn't care about that. She cared that I actually cared about her. To the point where none of the other agents, as great as they are as agents, none of the other agents even knew her husband had died 6 months ago? And so we went on market. It was actually tough, but we ended up selling. Well, that experience caused me to start studying and researching the psychology behind how do consumers actually make decisions? Because I came into the industry, and it was, you gotta be buttoned up, you gotta be all these things, you gotta show up in marketing plan, and best numbers, and blah blah blah, all the things that we're taught. I'm not saying that's not important, but I am saying that's missing the mark. That's not how consumers are actually making decisions. Clearly, Kelly Jo was not deciding who was the best agent, because I would not have had a shot if that were true. Clearly, Kelly Jo was not saying, I wonder who had the best marketing plan, because I don't know if it would have been me, I didn't even tell her about it. She was making a decision based off, this guy cared about me, enough to find out my husband died, so I need his help. So I went and I did the research, and I learned something that I want to share with you, because it's going to change the way you show up to your people. It's going to change the way that you interact. It's going to change your entire business, because you're going to win more of the appointments you're going to go on, more sellers are going to choose you, more buyers are going to choose you, and so instead of saying to your family, I'm going to sell 20 homes this year, so I'm going to be gone 40 nights sitting at a kitchen table. You can instead say, I'm gonna sell 20 homes, I'm gonna go to 25 kitchen tables, and I'm gonna get a lot more of that, right? I wanna buy back your time. I want to make a difference in your family, that's why I'm doing all this stuff. I want you to show up better for your family, more often for your family. And how do we do that? You gotta win the appointment more often. And so, how do we do that? Here's what I learned. Here's how buyers are actually making decisions. Here's how sellers are actually choosing whether they're gonna work with you or not. Three questions that every consumer is asking on whether or not they should buy you. Are you good at what you do? Do you care about me? And can I trust you? Okay, let me give it a different order. And this… all of this came from… Lou Holtz, an amazing college football coach at Notre Dame, he always said there are 3 questions every student athlete was asking when I was sitting in their home, and I just use it for real estate. But he said, can I trust you? Are you good at what you do? Do you care about me? Can I trust you? Are you good at what you do, and do you care about me? Understanding that's how they're going to make these decisions. Well, I took it a little bit deeper, and I started to do more research. I read a book, for example, called Persuasion by Robert Cowdini, a psychologist, a doctor in psychology. And here's what I started to understand. Can I trust you? Are you good at what you do? Do you care about me? Is, here's the truth. The average consumer can only understand our industry at a 2 out of 10 level. We can only understand other industries out of 2 out of 10 level. What does that mean? I don't know who the best one is. So, if you ask me, Dr. Artser is my dentist, if someone asks me, honestly. Garrett, is Dr. Artser the best dentist in town? My answer would be, I have no idea. Right? Because I have no idea. What does it take to be the best dentist? I don't know. I didn't go to dental school, I don't know what it's called. I didn't go to dental school. I have no idea what it takes to be a great dentist. But I can tell that he seems really trustworthy, and I… and I like him. He seems like he actually cares about my family. I can make those decisions. If I were to ask you right now, who is the number one best agent in your entire market? The answer is, you probably don't know either. I don't know. We do a lot of the same stuff. I have no idea who the best one is. Sure, I could say, well, they sell the most homes, or this and this. I'm talking about skill set. Which one is the best agent? I don't even know when I am an agent. So people understand our industry, we understand their industry, at a 2 out of 10 level. I don't know the difference between your marketing plan and this marketing plan and all those things. So here's what's crazy. When I looked at those questions, can I trust you? Are you good at what you do? Do you care about me? Here's what I realized. According to persuasion, according to all the other studies that I researched, I studied the psychology. We can't quickly answer, are you good at what you do? I don't know. But what I can answer quickly is, do you seem trustworthy? And does it seem like you care about me? And if you do, here's the crazy part. If I look and say, I feel like I can trust this person, I feel like this person cares about me, I'm going to assume that you're good at what you do. Now, Christian Agent, you should be good at what you do, right? We're working to honor the Lord, not for man. We should be good at what we do. If we aren't good at what we do, we're gonna get that client, but we're never gonna get another one from them, and they're not coming back. So we should be excellent at what we do. But here's the problem. Most agents show up at every appointment, and their entire focus is to try to prove why you're good at what you do, why you're better than what other agents offer, and why they should choose you, because I'm number one. And we show up saying, how do I prove that I'm good at what I do, when the reality is the consumer sitting across from you Can't even determine who's better! That's why there's even some people in my market that sell homes taking pictures with their iPhone. How is that possible? Well, it is. Why? Because the consumer doesn't know what makes you better than the other one. So why are we competing in a way they can't even choose? It doesn't make sense. Instead, if you want to answer the question, am I good at what I do? Here's how you do it. Show up and prove! I'm trustworthy, and I care. If you can show them that you're trustworthy, and that you care about them, they will assume you're good at what you do, and they will choose you. They just will, right? The age-old adage, is that how you say it? The age-old adage, nobody cares what you say until they know how much you care. It's true, right? At the end of the day, Kelly Jo didn't care what I said. I didn't even say that much. Kelly Jo didn't care what all these other top agents said. She cared. how I made her feel that I actually… cared about her, to hear about her husband passing, that she could trust me, because I was trustworthy by asking her questions. She was gonna share something so important with me, and trust that I would honor that information. She thought I was trustworthy, and then I cared. And I did. And I was. So she assumed I was good at what I did, and she hired me. Most agents, we totally misunderstand. I gotta show up and be the best agent, right? Well, there's only one of us, right? Only one of us is the best agent. I don't even know who that is, so that's not possible. I gotta show up, I gotta prove why I know more than the other agents. Well, that's not possible. I don't even know. So many times when I was competing on listings. And I would say, hey, who else are you talking to? And they would tell me, if I knew that agent, especially if it was someone who was good, I'd say, hey, they're an amazing agent! That's a great opportunity and option for you. I'm being honest. I'm not trying to put other people down. I'm not trying to do anything other than being realistic. They're a really good agent, too. Guess what? I still won that appointment. Why? Because I didn't talk about being number one. I made sure they knew I was trustworthy and I cared about them, and so they assumed I was really good at what I did. Versus the other person who I was competing with, because I know them, the other person I was competing with was going to show up with a fancy packet and all the other things, and try to show why their marketing plan was better than mine, why they'd get more money for their home than I would, all of those things, and guess what the seller didn't understand? They didn't understand who was better, but they did understand that I cared. That's how you win! That's how you win more, by going and answering the right questions. I'll give you an example. In 2019, my wife and I replaced all the windows in our home. Every single window in our home. We had one guy come out, and he was talking about his triple vinyl, super fancy, schmancy window, right, that they were gonna put in at our house. And he came at 6 o'clock at night. We had, two little kids at this point. He comes at 6 o'clock at night, right? It's dinner time. He stayed till 9 p.m, and it took forever. I kept just saying, just give me a quote, just give me a quote, just give me a quote. And he didn't want to. Well, I realized later, because it was exorbitantly expensive, I was like, it's gonna be $80,000 to replace all your windows. Here's what he did, though. Here's exactly what he did. He showed up, his entire pitch was why his windows were better, and why their company was better than everybody else. Here's what I realized, though. He didn't seem to care about us at all. Bro, why are you here? My kids are crying, they need to go to bed, and you're just sitting talking about your window. Bro, what are we doing here? And he told me when he left, he said, make sure you don't hire the company that just does vinyl windows. So what did I do? I called someone I know who does vinyl windows. He shows up. Right? Same thing. Two little kids, I'm at home, right? Two little kids, he walks in, says hi, I'd never met him before, walks in, says hi, and then he goes, hey, Garrett, I know that it's… it was like 1 o'clock. I know that it's 1 o'clock. It's close to rest time. Man, I've got little kids too, so would it help you if I just walked around the house, took some measurements, and I'll just email you a quote? I'm like, oh, bro, that'd be amazing. Who did I go with? I went with him! I went with him! He didn't… he didn't compete why he was the best one. Now, if his price was exorbitant, I would have questions. But he didn't compete on being the best one, he didn't talk about his product, he didn't talk about why he and his installers were the best crew. I feel like I could trust him, because he cared about me. He got what was going on. I was like, bro, that'd be such a blessing, thank you for that. What did I do? I chose Him! Think about how you make decisions in your everyday life. Why does it work? Why does TripAdvisor work? Why do Yelp reviews work? Someone who doesn't have your taste buds said that that restaurant was good, and so I go and I dine at that restaurant, right? Amazon reviews. Someone on Amazon posted, hey, I love this product, and it's got a thousand reviews, and a really similar product only has 10, I'm always choosing the thousand reviews. Why? Because I just want to trust somebody. I want to trust somebody's opinion. We all make decisions off of this, right? Can I trust the person that's sitting right in front of me? Can I trust the product, right? Can I trust this agent who I'm sitting here? Not which product is better? I have no idea. I don't know. I don't know which product is better, because I'm not going to buy both and compare them. I can't use both agents and compare them. I don't know. I can make a decision. Is this person trustworthy, and do they care about me? Agents, we have to stop misunderstanding how consumers are making decisions. You gotta show up. Prove that you're trustworthy, prove that you care. They will assume that you're good at what you do. Be good at what you do. But they'll assume that. So if you answer question one and three, trust and care, you're also gonna answer number two. You're gonna answer all three. If you try to answer number 2, you're gonna answer none of them. That's why it's not working the way that you thought it would. So, here's how you change that, right? Very briefly, here's how you change that. How do I prove that I'm trustworthy? How do I prove that I care? Very, very simply. I'll give you an example. Walking through a listing appointment, right? When I show up at a listing appointment. Knock on the door. Mr. and Mr. Seller, thanks so much for having me. Hey, where's the kitchen table? I want to put our stuff down, right? Great, awesome, put this stuff down. Hey, walk me around the home. A lot of you do this, right? I'm not saying this is crazy. Walk me around the home. And as they're walking me around the home, they're showing it around, right? I'm asking questions, I'm generally being curious. Oh, I love, you know, what you guys… now, I'm not lying. If the house is puke green, I'm not talking about how beautiful the colors are, right? But whatever it is, I might notice something and say, oh, I love, you know, I love this. Or, oh, I love your kid's room, right? Are they big into Elsa, too, like my daughter? Whatever it is. We're making connections. Oh, we love Elsa, we love whatever, right? I love what you guys did in the backyard. Is this something that you guys did when you bought that? Oh, yeah, oh, it's awesome, I love it. Or, hey, it was that way when we bought it. Oh, that's so cool. Is that, you know, is that something that attracted you guys when you got here? Excuse me, so I'm just asking questions. I'm learning about them. A rule of communication, you cannot influence someone until you have first been influenced by them. What does that mean? I can't influence you until you've influenced me, meaning I need to ask you questions, learn something from you, learn about you, hear about you before you'll ever stop to listen and let me influence you the way that I want to influence and encourage you. So I gotta ask questions, right? We sit down at the kitchen table, I have my notebook, and I push it away, and I say, hey, a visual example. Before we even start, Mr. and Mrs. Seller. What fears or concerns do you have going into this process? Right, that's my first question. Why? I want them to know that I care, and that they can trust me by telling me those things. And a lot of times, they'll say, I don't know, what do you mean? Say, well, you know, a lot of sellers might answer, I'm a little bit afraid of someone random walking through my house. All right, okay, thank you for sharing that. I'm just sitting there writing, hey, what else? Are there concerns, fears, maybe, that you have going into this process? And then I'll write it down, and I'll say, thank you so much for sharing. I really genuinely appreciate you all sharing that. I'm showing they can trust me with that information. And then the next question is, if I could wave a magic wand and give you the absolute best case scenario for your sale, what would that look like? Again, they'll say, man, I don't even know. Well, hey, let's say they're moving to a new home. I know you guys are moving to XYZ home, you're trying to find this neighborhood, whatever. Tell me, what does the neighborhood look like? Right? What does the new house smell like? How many kids are around to play with your kids, or whatever the scenario is? Just tell me that, right? They're trusting me with dreaming a little bit. Just sitting there writing it down. All of those things. I'm showing that I'm trustworthy, because they're giving me really important information, right? I'm showing that I care, because I'm writing it down, and I'm super curious about it, because I actually am. And then, THEN I say, thank you so much, I genuinely appreciate you all sharing those things. I think I have a plan that's gonna help us get where we want to go. Do you mind if I share that with you? Right? An honest question. And at this point, I'm asking, have I earned your trust to tell you what I'm gonna do? And they say, of course. So here's how I work. Great, thank you so much. Well, hey, we've already talked about price. I'll have to share with you all on another call, on another recording, on another podcast, how I go about doing that. But hey, I've already shared with you the price. Do you have any questions about that? Number four, here's how the market works, right? So, we're gonna get your home on the market as buyers and sellers come through, blah blah blah, I'm explaining to them, and then here's how I work. At the very end, it's, here's why I work by referral, and why that matters to you. So, I'm giving them the referral dialogue, which, again, I'll have to teach that at some point. I'm giving them the referral dialogue. I'm saying, this is why this matters for you, because my entire business is built on trust. If I don't do a great job for you, I'm not gonna have a business. Right? I want to keep my head down working hard for you, to the point where you just have to tell your friends and coworkers about how excellent we are. Right? That's my job, that's what I want to do for you. What am I doing? I'm building trust, I'm showing them that I care. I'm aligning our interests, right? It's not about me putting my face in your yard with a sign and saying, look, Garrett did it again, another listing. This is about you. Right? This is about being a guide, not a hero. We'll talk about that again. But here's the reality. I sit down. as a talker, right, in a 2-hour appointment, I might talk for 15 or 20 minutes. That's it, right? Because by that point, they know I care. They know they can trust me, so they're gonna assume I'm good at what they do. Guess what I don't talk about? Marketing plan. Guess what my packet doesn't talk about? A marketing plan. Guess what my packet does talk about? The three questions you should be asking. Can I trust you? Are you good at what you do? Do you care about me? And I answer those, right? If you answer the questions that the consumer is actually asking, whether they know it or not, that's what's going on in their head. If you can answer the right question, you will win more appointments. So I hope that helps. Pay attention. Go deeper than just what the industry says. Don't just show up and try to prove you're better than everybody else. I don't even know if I'm number one agent in my market. You certainly don't know if you are. So why compete there, like the industry tells us to do? Show up, show them you're trustworthy, show them that you care, ask a bunch of questions, be curious about who they are, and find that your business is gonna grow, you're gonna win more appointments, and everyone's gonna be better served. I hope that helps you. Learning how to ask the right questions so that you can win more appointments. Thanks, guys. I love you very much. I hope this is a service to you and your business. Reach out to me if you ever need anything at all. I'm here to support you. Thanks, everybody.