Marqeteer

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