Marqeteer

10/28/09

Let’s get this out of the way first…you don’t get instant respect with the title of “Realtor” anymore.

Sad, but true.

Your prospects don’t care how many houses you’ve sold.   In their world, that doesn’t matter.    They only care about how you can help them, so as you begin preparing your business plan for 2010 make sure you take time to assess your contact methods and your results.

Are you focusing on your credentials when you’re trying to gain rapport…or are you focusing on your prospects’ needs?   I cite car dealership commercials for an example of impersonal marketing that makes less and less sense in an economy like this.   You know those “Sales Event” car commercials?  The ones that say things like “We’re trying to set a sales record” or “Help make us the #1 dealership in (enter your state here).”

I’ve always had a big steaming plate of “Who Cares?” for those commercials.  They offer nothing for me as a consumer.  They’re asking me to go into debt so they can break some sales record…?!

We have been programmed for many, many years to focus on credentials…the impersonal part of our professional lives…when we market ourselves.   At some point, your true intent and the extent to which you really care for people dictates your long-term success.

I recently had a call with an agent who gave me a perfect example…

She told me about two 4-year full time agents in the same market who are in two totally different places career-wise after 4 years.   One works mostly off referrals while the other still has to add 15 prospects a day to her database.  One still has to hustle like a brand new agent, while the other…well, you can figure that out.

Which one do you think is taking better care of his/her people?

How are you taking care of your people?  Do you have a manageable database that allows you to maintain monthly email contact to augment your normal day-to-day and other marketing you do?

It is more imperitive than ever that you keep your name in front of your database on a monthly basis.  As the winter approaches, make plans to scrutinize your database and your methods in your preparation for 2010.

Well written monthly email drip campaigns can do wonders for your long-term business in tandem with a strong day-to-day work ethic.

10/20/09

Some people get it and some people don’t.

And there’s just not enough good education available to help navigate those choppy waters known as today’s consumer.

With that in mind, I present to you the educational video below to put things in perspective. It comes from the 1987 comedy film “Amazon Women on the Moon” (some of you already know my sense of humor) and is a great example of how consumers now view salespeople in all realms…including real estate.

Think of Steve Guttenberg as the realtor/salesperson and Roseanna Arquette as today’s skeptical consumer…

Always remember that today’s consumer wants more information when they first meet you. Maybe your track record with your clients is good…even stellar. Just don’t lose sight of the fact that a new prospect meeting you for the first time is going to have questions…simply because they don’t know you.

It’s not about memorizing the right lines or finding a dialogue “formula”…it’s about sincerely caring enough about people to try to help them:)

10/8/09

Here recently I’ve found myself in more and more conversations with agents complaining about changes in their local MLS…most frequently I hear complaints about Prime Access.

Now I’ve never used Prime Access, so I can offer no educated opinion one way or the other…however, what I’m finding is a whole lot of unnecessary change in some areas of the real estate business.   Some changes make sense while others don’t.   To quote my good friend (and one of my favorite RE people) Grace Morioka, “The easiest people to sell to are salespeople.”

She’s right.

Again, sometimes change makes sense, but just as often these changes seem to happen more because someone in charge got sold.   I’m not just talking about your local MLS…I’m talking about all aspects of business that affect you.  I’m talking about your decision making…heck, I’m talking about my own decision making!

Every day I encounter people in all realms of business who make decisions to switch to a different CRM, different real estate company or some other tool because the one they’ve already invested in requires some effort.   These people are constantly jumping from one system to another, never fully committing to a system long enough to even know if it works.

When you are considering making changes in any aspect of your business, ask yourself this simple question:  Why?

Are you looking for an easy way out…or have you really found a better way of doing things?  What personal experience are you basing your decision on?  It’s not always the tools…it’s the way you use or don’t use the tools that can be the issue.

Take a look at these pictures:

They were all done by Don Marco, an Army Air Corp retiree…with Crayola crayons.

Yep.

Remember…your tools don’t necessarily have to be fancy.  You just have to use them.

And thanks to my mom, Josephine Boyd, for sharing these pictures with me so I can in turn share them with you.

Cheers!

10/8/09

There was a wonderful article from RISMedia in my inbox today called Online Marketing – 3 Rules to Help Make Every Lead Count by Mike Parker.

A very disturbing statement opens the article:  “50% of agents call leads back within 54 hours; 50% of agents never call them back.”

In my marketing work with real estate professionals over the past few years, I cannot argue that point.  Incidentally, that statistic comes from NAR.

How are you with your callbacks?  Are you timely?  Do you ignore them?

It’s easy to talk yourself out of calling someone back when “they don’t appear to be serious,” but the truth is you’ll never know for sure until you make the effort.

Today’s buyers and sellers are skeptical and for the most part don’t believe anyone really cares.  Every call you ignore supports this belief, and the truth of the matter is that no quality or amount of marketing can overcome poor habits with people.   If you spend a lot of money on marketing, but you don’t handle your contact with people well, then the result of your marketing is going to be that more people will know that you’re non-responsive.

Prove the negative consumer wrong.  Show them that you care.  After all, you’re helping them with what will probably be the largest sale or purchase of their life.   Click on the link below to read the whole RISMedia article yourself…it’s well worth your time:)

Cheers!

10/8/09

Special thanks to my friend Eric Lanspa for sharing this quote that has quickly become one of my very favorites ever:

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them. – Malcolm Forbes

I’m reminded of this quote every time I hear a real estate pro use the line “I’m NOT a bank!” when referring to how they handle people coming to them to advice when they’re considering refinancing.

If you’re one of these agents, I ask you:  What CAN you do to help them?

Always be in that mode of thinking when people with no immediate need for you ask you for help.

It takes no effort at all to tell them “Sorry, I can’t help you.”   With just a little bit of effort, you can help point them in the direction of someone who can…and at the same time you’re giving them a reason to refer someone to you when the opportunity arises:)

10/7/09

The most common question I’m asked with regard to blogging is “What should I blog about?”

If you find yourself asking this question, remember this one simple thing to help keep you focused with your blog:

Your blog is how people will get to know you when you’re not around.

You want professional information up there, for sure.  Information about your local market, mortgage rates, helpful hints for sellers and buyers…all of that is good stuff.  However, you want to humanize yourself in your blog with a dose or two of personal anecdotes and relatables.

The following post is one I did on January 24, 2008.  It had nothing at all to do with real estate, yet it attracted my first 4 blog subscribers.

Why?

Because all of a sudden they saw me as a human being, just like them:

My sister and her husband, who is a Methodist minister, just returned from a visit to the Holy Land today.  They’ve been there for the last week and a half and I’m still cracking up from what she just told me:

While at the market there, a man offered my brother-in-law 6,000 camels, his business and his own home in return for my sister.

I just had to post this because it’s one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard.

I’m immediately skeptical, though…were they ONE hump or TWO hump camels?  This IS my sister we’re talking about. Don’t be cheap with the humps…my humps…my lovely camel humps.

I love my sister.  She’s worth more than all the camels in the world put together:)

I originally did this post on ActiveRain in January 2008 based on this online discussion: http://www.salespractice.com/forums/t-7921-2.html#post30207

The question posed in the discussion is this:  Here’s the situation: you are a new agent with no contacts or sphere of influence but you have identified 50 people that you want to talk with about the chance of doing business together. What prospecting or lead generation method would be the most effective or efficient?

The discussion includes a couple of blurbs about cold calling, including what I’m sure you’ve heard a million times:  Cold calling doesn’t work. If someone tells you cold calling doesn’t work, consider the source.

I find that cold-calling generally doesn’t work when the person doing the cold-calling isn’t committed to it. Your most successful long-term agents have used cold calling with success in their career.  As a real estate coach, I’ve also found that most agents who are indecisive about cold calling are afraid of it. Afraid of rejection, no matter how anonymous it may be.  Fear is the career killer.

By the same token, if you don’t like cold calling but have found an alternative that gives you the results you need, I can’t argue with results

An episode of Celebrity Apprentice from sometime back comes to mind.  The job was to raise money for charity selling hot dogs…with a $10,000 price tag.   While the other celebrities argued and waxed philosophic about the best way to do it, Gene Simmons of KISS started making phone calls and was honest with the people he called.  “I want you to buy a hot dog for $10,000.  Yes, it’s for charity.”   Nothing fancy and no “sexy” hook…just the truth.

While the others argued, he raised somewhere around $60,000 himself, which was more than the others combined.
There’s a great lesson to be learned here…don’t let fear guide your actions.   Fear wastes time, fear leads to poor decisions and fear loses you money.

The best way to prospect?  Whatever you do, just DO it. Cold call, knock on doors, shake hands and pass out cards.  For crying out loud…ask for referrals.   Just tell people what you do for a living and you’re trying to meet as many new people as possible.  It works.  Yes, you will experience some rejection.  Not everyone wants to meet you.  No problem.  There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people who are your potential client base.
If you spend too much time mulling things over and not enough time just getting it done, those people will become someone else’s clients.

In the above example, the fear is obvious.  50 potential clients have been identified, but the agent is afraid to approach them.  It happens every day.

Whatever method you choose, just do it.

In the age of computers, many business people are making the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket…as it dropping all/most other marketing in favor of emails and email drip campaigns.

Emails and email drip campaigns are very effective when they’re done right, but they’re not a replacement for all of your other marketing. What they do is make your other marketing more effective.

This video piece will show you some examples in my own life of direct mail marketing, why it works, why it’s ignored and why it’s important to be consistent.

If you’re experiencing burnout, take a look at this video piece.   First of all, it’s probably the last time you’ll see me with long hair. It’s just getting too thin on top anymore. More importantly, take time to assess where you are, where you want to be and your current plan to get there.

Are you following your own guidelines to your own goals, or are you following guidelines to goals someone else has set for you?

Burnout is a sign that your needs are not being met.

10/7/09

I’m admittedly not a fan of the term “downtime” in business, because too often when I hear the term it is used as an excuse for not putting forth more effort.  In fact, I work with agents every day who think that because it’s the beginning of the year “things are slow.” Another favorite of mine is “I’m waiting for the market to stabilize.”

This presents us with a paradox:  Things are slow because of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Things are slow because it’s early in the year (i.e. Jan, Feb and Mar).  I’m not a mathematician, but it does look like that accounts for 5 months out of the year…almost half a year. So that leaves 7 months to make a 12 month living.  I don’t know any successful full-time agents who regard their job as “seasonal.”

I originally wrote about this topic on my ActiveRain blog in January 2008, and with winter quickly approaching I think now is a good time to address this topic again:)

Now I do realize that this time of year can be less busy in some areas.  If this is the case for you, take advantage of the time you have to kickstart things for 2010 by diving in and having fun helping people.

Whether you’re happy doing 2 or 3 settlements a month or you want to do more, take a look at this article from RIS Media (my favorite REsource) for some really nice ideas:

http://www.rismedia.com/wp/2007-12-22/10-ways-to-utilize-winter-downtime-create-a-profitable-2008