Apr
30
Get Attention: 10 Unorthodox Ideas That Really Work
Filed Under Persuasion, Real Estate Prospecting Ideas | Leave a Comment
P. T. Barnum once said, “Without promotion something terrible happens. Nothing.”
Barnum was probably called an “attention junkie” repeatedly throughout his life for his outrageous stunts and hoaxes for promotional purposes. But you know what? He probably wore that label like a badge of honor.
Of course he had to be an attention junkie. He was trying to make some money.
But he was also insanely focused on delivering exceptional value to his customers. He even crusaded against schemers and charlatans that swindled people out of money.
So self-promotion isn’t evil. Just another way to generate business. And it can be fun. Especially if you take an unorthodox slant, as you’ll see from the following list.
1. View blog comments as a network tool.
Maki at Dosh Dosh had this to say: “See blog comments as a way to network with the author, so that you’ll be able to obtain a particular benefit in the future. Think long-term: not just incoming traffic today but exposure down the road. Don’t just focus on getting an immediate return (visitors via your link drop) but use comments to develop relationships of ongoing value.”
2. Ask and answer questions on LinkedIn.
Using the Answers feature at LinkedIn brings your name and profile around to people you’re not exposed to directly. This means more opportunities for someone to recognize your authority in some field, and to reach out and contact you for something further. It means sharing the fruits of your networking with others, and potentially connecting 3rd parties to each other for something bigger. This comes in handy when it becomes obvious that you’re also a good connector. [hat tip]
3. Advertise on MateOne.
I got this one from marketing black sheep Ben Mack. He listed his business profile in this saucy dating community, emailed his house list the link and hauled in a load of attention as the thing spread around the country. Now, whether he got any business from it or not is another question. Just depends on how good he’s at closing.
4. Create or sponsor a community event.
It doesn’t make sense for you to sponsor a rowing event…unless of course you are a rower. Same goes for a young adult’s chess tournament, a scuba clinic or a simple Mother’s Day breakfast.
5. Teach a class outside of real estate.
When you jump out side of your comfort box and rub shoulders with other people–and do it passionately–you are bound to make some good, lasting friends. One easy way to do that is to share your knowledge on a topic that does not deal with real estate. It could be a class on gardening or dealing with grief. Maybe it’s self-defense or guitar lessons. This is also a great way to take a break from the rigors of hard work and enjoy one of your hobbies while nurturing possible business contacts.
6. Write a book.
Sound too hard? Scott Berkun says, “There is no license required. No test to take. Writing, as opposed to publishing, requires almost no financial or physical resources. A pen, a paper and effort are all that has been required for hundreds of years.” He goes on to say If Voltaire and Marquis de Sade could write in prison, then you can do it in suburbia, at lunch at work, or after your kids go to sleep. Here’s some practical advice to get off the ground.
7. Do mission work.
It’s says something exceptional about you when you volunteer your time to help someone less fortunate than you. It’s easy to get picked up by the news. And it’s bound to dim the accusation that real estate agents–at least you–are no better than lawyers and used-car salespeople.
8. Approach strangers.
I struggle with this. You might not. But most people I know think people who do approach strangers and talk to them like they’ve known them for years a little crazy. Of course, these are the people who don’t know a stranger. Who, every where you go, knows just about everybody. And probably have no problem finding leads, business and clients.
9. Volunteer for a political campaign.
Whether local, state or national, volunteering your time for a political campaign will get you inside circles otherwise closed to you. It could be as easy as sticking a sign in your yard or stuffing envelopes. I’d suggest you volunteer to walk the streets and knock on doors and introduce yourself as a real estate agent who is helping to nominate a political candidate. Very low key way to start conversations because you’ll probably have a checklist of issues to talk about or a script.
10. Join a book club.
Sure, no one looks down on a trashy novel at the beach, but when your in a book club it’s time to dust off that thinking cap and tackle some seriously awesome reads. And make some really good, like-minded friends while your at it. From globe-trotting fiction to gray graphic novels to political nonfiction and British mysteries, scour your city for the best book clubs around and get reading.
Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.
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Apr
23
21 Low-Budget Ways to Keep the Revenue Flowing During a Recession
Filed Under Real Estate Listing Tips, Real Estate Prospecting Ideas | 1 Comment
Think 2007 was bad? For some burnt-out and near-broke real estate agents, it’s hard to imagine things getting any worse. But who knows what’s in store for the rest of 2008.
And, even if the economy hasn’t hit rock bottom in your part of the country, it has slowed down significantly in many states.
Worse, it doesn’t take a recession or even a soft economy to create problems for your business.
Every business has ups and downs. Even if things are going great for you right now, you need to develop revenue-generating strategies that succeed when times are tough.
See, recessions are the economy’s little reminder that your marketing needs to be more efficient. You and lots of your friends are being asked to produce more sales with less resources.
(And if you’re reading this post, that might sound familiar to you.)
Many real estate agents fear a flat market. The reason? If the economy is poor, clients will stop spending, and buy only from discount agents.
All of this is true. But only to a degree.
Of course, an economic slowdown can be a problem for your business. Or, it can be an opportunity to gain new clients and boost your sales…if you know and have mastered the marketing and sales methods that work best in times of downturn.
1. Make your ads pay. Starting today, eliminate your old “image” campaign and replace it with one that’s designed to produce bottom-line results. Every ad must communicate benefits and make a strong call to action that produces a measurable response.
2. Track the results of your marketing efforts. Place response codes in all your ads and lead-generation tools.
3. Take advantage of focus groups and surveys.
4. Stay abreast of the latest research and published articles to discover your target market’s current needs, desires and buying preferences. Put customer feedback forms on your Web site and take steps to make your online presence more interactive.
4. Increase your visibility. Associate with a charitable cause or community-based group for a special event. Take a high–profile position-rather than melting into the crowd. But be careful to avoid the appearance of giving for the purpose of self-aggrandizement.
5. Beef up your networking activities. Designate several days a month to get out and attend different groups. Assign goals for follow-up and regularly add contacts to your database.
6. Communicate frequently to your entire prospect database. I recommend about once every six weeks by direct mail, e-mail, fax, phone or in person. Do this and you’ll come out of this downturn with a strong and loyal customer base.
7. Intensify your media relations efforts. Targeting several media outlets with story ideas tailored specifically for your prospects. Identify specific journalists or editors to receive your information and find out if they prefer releases via fax, e-mail or standard mail. After sending your initial information, follow up with phone calls and a polished press kit.
8. Know your scripts. When change hits real estate, consumers look to the experts for guidance. That’s you, so do you homework.
9. Explain in layman’s terms what a buyer’s market is. How it differs from the seller’s market, why the market has shifted to a buyer’s market and what to expect in such a market. And don’t sugar coat this—tell your sellers exactly like it is and that they can expect picky buyers. They’ll thank you later and you’ll keep your reputation intact.
10. Know your numbers. What are the listing prices versus the selling prices in your market area? What’s the average selling price? Is that up or down from the same period last year? What are the days on the market? What is the current supply of homes on the market? This will lead to a price that fits the current market.
11. Categorize your leads. “A” leads are ready to buy or sell now. “B” leads plan to buy or sell in the next month or two. And “C” leads might buy or sell in the next three to six months. It’s easy to salivate over the “A” leads, especially in a slower market. But stay in touch with the “B”s and “C”s—they’re your future business.
12. Share selling tips. Share real estate best practices with buyers. Consider providing a home staging guide or offer to list the home.
13. Offer a higher commission. Give 4 percent commission instead of the standard 3 percent to the buying agent. Lure them in. This really works.
14. Promote your successes. Because the high number of foreclosures has made prospective buyers nervous, let everyone know if any of your communities have zero or very few foreclosures.
15. Offer credit advice. Consider partnering with a credit improvement service that can help customers correct false information and resolve credit problems that are preventing them from getting the best loan.
16. Maximize referral marketing. Your delighted customers are your best sales tool. Sponsor weekly events and activities that bring prospects and loyal customers together so that potential buyers can hear first-hand what a great builder you are.
17. Take a leap into social media. Sell the story of a house through blogs. Create a community with Twitter. The means are endless. These are two great places to start.
18. Stage your listing properly. Recommend home improvement projects carefully to your sellers because returns on these improvements are relative. They’re less likely to recoup top dollar on a new master suite or third full bathroom if they’re the only one on their block doing it. They should improve the home relative to other homes nearby. And also consider using a free product like Showing Feedback to help you get easy price reductions and much needed improvements.
19. Combat the media. There are a lot of good reasons to buy a home today: interest rates are still low, housing prices are falling, home builders are offering sizable cash credits and incentives, and a surplus of new homes means that there are a lot of choices for buyers. Share this information.
20. Revamp your lending. Consider working with brokers who are better equipped to shop around for the best deals. Opt for a variety of partners who are willing to hustle for your home buyers’ best interests.
21. Achieve customer loyalty. The businesses that are holding their own during these tough times have a pipeline of happy customers making referrals. By maximizing referrals, some builders have been able to keep sales steady instead of declining. If you don’t have many sales coming from referrals, you have much lower chances of survival.
Main point: keep your feet moving. Don’t stop.
Yes, change can be tough. But if you stay focused, concentrate on the basics and stay informed on the market, you can weather the shift and continue to make money.
Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.
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Apr
16
How to Create, Build and Protect a Fearsome Negotiating Reputation
Filed Under Persuasion, Real Estate Negotiation | Leave a Comment
Thomas Edison, considered the inventor who harnessed electricity, originally believed that the best way to harness electricity was to use a direct current (DC).
When the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla appeared to have succeeded in creating a system based on alternating current (AC), Edison was furious.
Edison determined to ruin Tesla’s reputation. He determined to make the public believe that the AC system was inherently unsafe–and Tesla irresponsible for promoting it.
To this end Edison captured all kinds of household pets and electrocuted them to death using an AC current.
When this wasn’t enough, in 1890 he got New York State prison authorities to organize the world’s first execution by electrocution, using an AC current. But Edison’s electrocution experiments had all been with small creatures. The charge was too weak, and the man–only half killed.
In perhaps the country’s cruelest state-authorized execution, the procedure had to be repeated.
It was an awful spectacle.
This is not the kind of reputation you want to follow you into any sales or negotiation setting.
Although in the long run it is Edison’s name that has survived, at the time his campaign damaged his own reputation more than Tesla’s.
So he backed off.
The lesson is simple–never go too far in attacks like these in negotiations, for that will draw more attention to your own vengefulness than to the person you are slandering.
There are better ways to build a fearsome reputation.
How to Create Your Fearsome Negotiating Reputation
Your reputation is critical. There is no exception to this law. You must build it, layer by layer, maintain it and protect it. Then it will proceed you in any negotiation.So you have to start at the foundation.
Since we must live and work in society and must depend on the opinions of others, there is nothing you can gain by neglecting your reputation.
By not caring how you are perceived, you let others decide this for you.
Back in October, the New York reported on online reputation management:
“There is all type of damage by miscreants on the Web to a business,” said Marc S. Friedman, chairman of the intellectual property practice at Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross in Manhattan. “The number of methods depends only on the creativity of the wrongdoer.”
While you shouldn’t shoot for stifling constructive criticism, you should definitely be the the master of your fate. And also of your reputation.
In the social realm, appearances are the barometer of almost all of our judgments, as a Chinese University of Hong Kong discovered a few years ago.
And you must never be misled into believing other wise. This is the reason for the supreme importance of making and maintaining a reputation that is of your own creation.
Sustainable reputation optimization requires going back to the root cause of what influences people’s opinion of you and what creates the buzz–whether online or offline–about you.
Then you must figure out how to set the conversation in the right direction.
The solution here may have less to do with paid media [read: billboards, banners and ballyhoo] than with such foundations as customer service, education, Web infrastructure, and personal mission and philosophy
If you think you can build a fearsome reputation with gimmickry, manipulation, or next-day PageRank, you’d better think twice.
And your blog, while it might allow you the opportunity to dialogue about how you’d like people to think about you, will only go so far if there’s isn’t a compelling, credible message.
It better be a message that bloggers can’t pick apart by comparing (via hyper links) disconnects between what you say and what consumers actually experience.
How to Build Your Fearsome Negotiating Reputation
In the beginning, you must work to establish a reputation for one outstanding quality, whether generosity of honesty or cunning.
This quality sets you apart and gets other people to talk about you. You then make your reputation known to as many people as possible. Step back, and watch it spread like wildfire.
A solid reputation increases your presence and exaggerates your strengths without having to spend much energy.
As they say, your reputation inevitably precedes you, and it it inspires respect. A lot of your work is done for you before you arrive on the scene, or utter a single word.
How to Protect Your Fearsome Negotiating Reputation
Reputation is a treasure to be carefully collected and hoarded. Today, this afternoon or tonight: take the time to discover what you will be known for.
[It helps, if you haven't already, to get to know yourself through a profile test like Myers-Briggs. You can learn your Myers-Briggs profile free here or pay for it here.]
Make your reputation simple and base it on one sterling quality. This single quality–efficiency say, or leadership–becomes a kind of calling card that announces your presence and places others under a spell.
Then take the time to cultivate it. This happens slowly: steady but sure.
And remember, avoid Edison’s mistake: always take the high road when it some to reputation and never appear desperate or vengeful in your self-defense.
Never transgress this law. Learn to protect yourself from hurtful rumors. Confront people. Blog or post a response. Trademark your name.
And if all else fails, initiate legal action. But take action to protect the reputation you’ve so tenderly cultivated.
Like Jesus said, “When among the wolves, act like a sheep but play sly like a snake.” [Rough paraphrase. Forgive me.]
Ancient Observance of a Fearsome Reputation
Robert Green tells a fascinating story about a Chinese general who uses his reputation during China’s War of Three Kingdoms to avoid certain death.
General Chuko Liang of the forces of the Shu Kingdom dispatched his army to a distant camp while he rested in a small city. He kept with him only 100 soldiers.
In no time scouts returned shouting that an enemy army of over 150,000 troops was just over the hill.
Without wasting time Liang told his soldiers to fling the city gates open and to go hide. He put on a Taoist robe, grabbed a lute, lit some incense and sat on top of the highest wall, strumming and chanting away.
Minutes later he could see the massive army approaching, swarming the countryside. Pretending not to notice, Liang continued to strum.
Soon the army stood at the town gates. At its head was Sima Yi, who instantly recognized the man on the wall.
As his soldiers itched to enter the unguarded city, Sima hesitated, held his men back and eventually retreated.
Why?
Chuko Lian was commonly known as the “Sleeping Dragon.” His exploits were legendary. His reputation proceeded him. And Sima figured it was a trap.
Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.
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Apr
9
Real Estate Agents: You Don’t Work for Wal-Mart
Filed Under Real Estate Sales Tips | Leave a Comment
The numbers game will wear you out. It will leave you dissatisfied, frustrated, and rejected.
The whole idea of the numbers game is that if you spend enough time dialing, churning through prospects, you’re bound to make the occasional sale.
Burn and churn, baby.
Problem is, when you do make a sale, you believe even more that the number of prospects you burned through was the secret to success.
“I made 100 calls and got 2 deals.” So you make more calls. “If I make 1,000 calls I’ll get 20 deals.”
The thing is, real estate is not a game of small-scale volume. You don’t work for Wal-Mart.
Outside of the exhaustion and relentless rejection behind this approach, here’s the real tragedy: its not about how many sales you are making…but how many sales you are losing.
Count the Cost
Is it really worth mowing through 1,000 calls to get 20 deals? Some might say yes.
But what if I could show you a way were you could mosey through half as many calls and still make 20 deals?
Think about it.
When you’re operating out of the old numbers game paradigm, how many leads do you burn through with every call you make?
And how much time do you spend chasing and following up with prospects who will probably never work with you?
It’s really a bad deal to get into. It’s a treadmill.
And I’ll go on the record as saying that yes, some real estate agents love burning through a list and yes, they will actually make very good money doing it, but…
Just because they’re really good at it and it’s the way they found success, doesn’t mean that it IS the only way to success. If they believe this, then they suffer from the I’m-a-hammer-and-everything-else-is-a-nail-syndrome.
Don’t fall under this guy’s spell. He’ll wear you out. No, he’ll chew you up and spit you out. And when you fail, he’ll make you feel like its your fault.
But it’s not. The approach is just not for you.
Dr. Bernie Siegel said “It was impossible to fail with the parents I had. If I got an F in Music, they’d look at me and say, ‘I guess you’re not a musician’.”
How to Carve Out an Approach That Is Right for You
If something about the burn and churn approach doesn’t sit right with you, reconsider your options. In all probability, if it doesn’t sit right with you it’s because it’s an old school approach inappropriate for our current economic view.
I can’t think of any consumer who appreciates cold calling, hustling, rapid fire questions, impatience.
Besides, when you churn and burn you’ll soon find you’re trapped, making huge numbers of calls to reach that tiny percentage of prospects who will buy from you.
In a nutshell, here’s the ugliness of churn and burn:
- Burning through calls involves huge investments of time and energy to achieve a few successes.
- Numbers-game scripts talk at prospects and lead to rejection in all but a tiny percentage of calls.
- Prospects know that they’re just a phone number to you and that you’re not interested in engaging them on a human level.
- The only goal is to move the sale forward, or to get a quick “no” so you can move on to the next call.
The mystique of the old numbers game is that you’re bound to “hit” once in a while.
But people who sell the old way never ask themselves how many opportunities they’ve lost in a day because they haven’t gotten to the truth with their prospects.
Now, when you focus on quality rather than volume, when you focus on building a relationship instead of closing a deal, when you focus on every call is a chance to unearth a possible client.
That means your calls have to be more thoughtful and efficient.
And you have to walk into them with this mindset: I’m simply here to say hello to this person.
Now this doesn’t exclude you from the ABC rule: Always Be Closing. If you can bump the fruit into your basket in under five minutes to get a contract, by all means do so.
Here are a few tips to consider when making phone calls to prospects:
- Starting calls with a focused problem statement makes it easy to create two-way dialogue.
- Your attentiveness to your prospects’ concerns makes a real human connection possible.
- The goal is to learn the truth and explore there’s a fit between your solution and your prospect’s problem or concern.
- And when you’ve learned the truth, whether the answer is a yes or a no, rejection is impossible.
Conclusion
If you’re feeling guilty that you should be playing the old numbers game because your colleagues are making sales from it, consider this: All you’re seeing from them is how many sales they are making–not how many sales they’re losing.
And consider that by refocusing your attention on the quality of each call versus the volume of calls, you can experience new sales success you may never have thought possible.
For more information, see my short story about Tammy and Rick, southern Illinois agents making it happen in this recession. [About half way down the page.]
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Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.