Mar
20
How to Make Emotion Your Most Potent Advertising Weapon
Filed Under Real Estate Prospecting Ideas | 2 Comments
Why is emotion so important to your advertising? In the end, every decision–to list, to sell, to buy, to call–boils down to how a decision makes a person feel. Let me explain.
Take the calculated, number-driven investor. She won’t invest in a condo unless the numbers make sense. If the numbers do make sense, she’ll invest. However she wouldn’t be investing in the first place if she wasn’t driven by competition, power, pride or financial security for her family–all emotions.
So, here’s a short, shrewd list to help you put powerful emotion into your advertising.
Focus on Them, Not You
“I Am the Greatest Agent” creates a ho-hum reaction at best. Instead, tell the reader what’s in it for her, not for you.
Stir up that desire to own a bigger home if the family is out growing the current one. Stoke that sense of power that goes with driving into a prestigious neighborhood. Fan the flames of romance behind a nice cottage on the foothills of the Alleghenies.
Focus on Benefits
Why should someone list with you? “Quality and service” is not an answer. “To sell your home for the most money, in the fastest time and with the least hassle” is.
But this is not enough.
Focus on Details
Explain to them exactly how you will accomplish your goals. “I use proven techniques to bring more buyers to your door.”
Then define those techniques. Being very specific–down to the tools and tactics–engenders confidence in your prospect. Yet, continue to be specific after they’ve become a client. Your job of building confidence never ends. Be detailed the whole time.
Focus on Active Voice
The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive. “I will sell your home for more money” is much better than “Your home will be sold for more money by me.”
Focus on Curiosity
“I will sell your home for more money by creating a bidding war between buyers based on a marketing strategy that blends psychological triggers and unique technology.”
Who wouldn’t say, “Oh yeah. How exactly are you going to do that?” Curiosity is a universal attention getter.
Conclusion
Craft your ads and presentations and even your casual encounters with people using these five tips and I’m certain they will have the type of emotional appeal that will add a powerful punch to your marketing.
You’re bound to generate lots of interest.
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Mar
17
Five Proven Tips to Help You Negotiate in a Buyer’s Market
Filed Under Real Estate Negotiation | Leave a Comment
Before the dismal collapse of the housing market, negotiation skills weren’t quite as important as they are now. In many cases, all you had to do was put the house on the market with a reasonable price and get out of the way.
Things have changed. And aren’t supposed to get any better soon.
What you’re looking at now is a more traditional market where buyers have their share of homes to choose from. That means the negotiation game among you buyers has reached a new level of importance.
Here are four tips to help you negotiate in a buyer’s market.
1. Be Informed
I can tell you without exception who always wins in a negotiation—the one who has the most information and uses it wisely. It’s the one tool that’s imperative in any negotiation. Information leads to the right price for a property. It puts details in perspective. It lessens tensions. And it keeps emotions in check.
Take away: Burn the midnight oil and do your homework.
2. Don’t Lower Your Commissions
This is a key point…because in a buyer’s market, many, many REALTORS® automatically put their commissions on the auctioning block.
But if you lower your commission to get a seller’s business…what does that really say to the seller? That you’re easily willing to come down on price—not what a seller wants to hear!
3. Handle Offers with Care
Never flat out reject an offer. Sure, you’ll get offers that you simply can not accept…and that you might even find insulting…but be careful and tactful with how you respond to those offers.
You’ve done your homework to arrive at the asking price, so explain that to those who make offers instead of a flat rejection.
4. Keep a Positive “This-Will-Work” Attitude
Imagine how comfortable you’d be on the operating table with a surgeon who’s sending out vibes that things might not pan out. You’re confidence in that surgeon sinks. And you want to get the heck out of there!
So, in all situations, focus on solutions and persist without exception. No matter how bad things get, think creatively. There really is a solution to every problem. And if you persist and emerge with a solution to a seemingly impossible situation…you’ll look like a super hero.
This is hard. Cause it will take time. You may look like a fool but keep begging for more time.
5. Ask for Help
At any sign of trouble, go for help. Ask an expert, mentor or coach what you should do in a sticky negotiation situation. Better yet, hook up with someone that will support you and ask them to commit to being available for help.
Best yet, hook up with two people: someone from real estate and someone from a different field. The person outside of your industry will be able to give you fresh insight never heard of before.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, leave a comment or subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.
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Mar
11
Resurrect Your Real Estate Blog: The Best Idea You’ll Ever Hear
Filed Under Real Estate Blogs, Real Estate Prospecting Ideas | 2 Comments
Let me ask you a question: Got a blog yet?
Maybe you do. But it’s languishing. No hits. No comments. No subscribers. That’s a good indicator you’ve got a lackluster yawn-fest.
So, without even looking at your blog, I can guess what’s wrong with it. It’s one of three–if not all–of these factors:
1. You don’t care.
2. You’re not very good.
3. No one is listening.
And if you’ve been at real estate blogging for any time, you probably have said this to yourself more than once in the last 24 hours: “Why am I working so hard on this thing? What’s the deal?”
Again, without looking at your blog, I could probably tell you what’s wrong with it: It’s all about you.
If that’s the case, then you can kiss prospects, subscribers–and even clients–good bye. Bottom line: you build an audience, attract prospects and generate comments from consumer-focused content.
With that thought in mind, here’s one of the most brilliant ways to do that: Write short, meaningful posts about people in your community.
In essence, become a local journalist.
That means, every time you are in the car, on the phone or in a meeting with someone…find out something interesting about them. And then ask them if you can blog about them. Keep a notepad and build up a pool of stories.
Once you start posting these stories, email the person to let them know. Then naturally they tell all their friends and family. Pretty soon you’ll have a large swath of people eyeing your blog to see if they made it on there yet.
In fact, you do this good enough, and strangers will go out of their way to meet you, hoping you “interview” them.
Why is this effective? Because people like to see themselves in print. Let me explain.
I got this idea from the book Made to Stick, where Dan and Chris Heath tell the story of a city newspaper that had a readership rate over 100%.
Over 100%? That means people outside of the papers base read it. That’s incredible.
What’s the secret to their success? The editor summed it up in three words: names, names, names. He and his reporters focused on the people of the town–their dreams, ambitions, families, jobs, fears, desires, hopes and lives–not the events.
That means you should do the same. So…what are you waiting for? Get to work.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, leave a comment or subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.
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