You may be a long-time agent whose been through a variety of different markets. Or you may be newer to the industry and never experienced a shift before. No matter where your experience lies, you’re not alone if you recently received a jarring reminder of how important the basics of our businesses can be.

Stacey Sauls of Charlotte, North Carolina and I covered this topic in our recent conversation. After leaving the life of a paralegal behind in 2011, Stacey has grown from being a single agent to a top team in her region. On track to close 300 transactions this year, Stacey’s business is successful not because she uses shiny objects, but because of her focus on making things simple.

At the core of Stacey’s business success is her commitment to getting a return on investment for any lead generation technique she uses.  That’s why she focuses on making contacts and her database each and every day.  It’s a cost-effective way of acquiring leads and building her business. As she explains, “If you just make the contacts every single day, which is free, you get the business.”

What she does is simple. She makes 20 contacts a day and requires each member of her team to do the same. These contacts can come from a variety of places, including students of one team member’s dance classes or another team member’s alumni group. She teaches her team to reach out in a variety of ways, including phone calls, text messages, Facebook messages, and even voice memos. The point of each of these reach outs is to focus on the needs of her clients. By checking in on her connections, she can see how she can be of service to them.

Doing so has helped her to organically grow her business. After all, the personal connections made and nurtured in this way tend to create a loyal database of people who will not only do business with her directly but also give referrals year after year.

Even if you dread the idea of making phone calls, you can still successfully build your business by focusing on reaching out to your contacts. Stacey has a simple conversation in her back packet to let others know she is thinking of them and is available to serve their real estate needs.

Stacey: “Hey [person]. I only have two minutes as I’m running into an appointment but you were on my mind. I wanted to check on you and make sure you were doing well. Is there anything that you need from me?”

This opener serves several purposes. Not only does it let people know she cares and is there to help them, but it also sets the tone for a short conversation.

At the end of the day, Stacey leaves us with a great reminder for any market: it’s important to build the foundation of your business before you add anything new to it. Your database is where your business lives – don’t leave business on the table by not using your database to your full potential.