Nov
24
When You Should Depend on a Team–and When You Shouldn’t
Filed Under Real Estate Sales Tips | 1 Comment
So, you’ve been thinking about starting a team, have you?
In spite of a dismal economy, your market seems to be rockin’…you’re doing pretty well…and, well, you want to grow.
The natural thing to do is build a team, right? Yes.
A team will help you work more efficiently. It will help you grow…
But before you go a step further, though, you need to examine your reasons for wanting to build a team. Let me show you what I mean with a little story from Realty Times columnist David Flethcer:
“I love teams, but only if I am making a contribution. The most exciting team I have been on was as a member of a 23-man crew on a B-36 bomber in the United States Air Force. I was the tail gunner. Not because I said so, but because I was trained to be one. I made a contribution to the team.
“Watching a squadron of B-36 Bombers flying in formation on a beautiful day at 42,000 feet in peacetime is heady stuff for a 19-year-old. It’s great to be on a team at times like that.
“Then one day our crew was sent to “survival” school in Reno, Nevada, where we were taught and practiced survival skills in case we were shot down behind enemy lines.
“That’s when I learned that there will be times in life when the team cannot help me. Only my skills can. When I was alone in the mountains for five days with three days supply of food it was up to me to set the traps, catch the fish, read my compass, and operate my radio.
“My team couldn’t help me. Only my skills could.”
The same is true for your sales skills…
Only your skills can seamlessly draw 12 hours of hostile talks into an objective, feel-good contract for both parties.
Only your skills can save your commission from dying on the vine in the face of a relentless barrage of arguments from a feisty seller.
Only your skills can nail 25 good leads in one night of networking. Or a day of cold calling.
Only your skills can steal the best property out from under your competitors nose with an irresistible listing presentation.
That means you need to develop your skills. You need to make a list of the three sales skills you want to develop–say negotiating, cold calling and networking–and then practice them until you master them.
Because the truth of the matter is…if you are looking to build a team so you can hand off the negotiating to someone else…or the listing presentation…or the finer points of client relationships…then you need to re-examine your motives.
You don’t want to get stuck in a situation where you fail because you depend upon someone else to handle those circumstances.
You want to be prepared to not only survive…but thrive. And thrive well. See you soon.
And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing blog by email or news feed.
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Nov
20
How to Concede Smart–and Avoid These 3 Mistakes
Filed Under Real Estate Negotiation | Leave a Comment
When it comes to making concessions in negotiations, here’s a good rule of thumb: If you are going to concede in the opening rounds of a negotiation, concede small.
In other words, avoid these three mistakes:
Mistake No. 1 - Equal-sized Concessions
If you have a negotiating room of $10,000, don’t give it away in increments of $2,500.
For example, imagine you are selling your house and your asking price is $270,000. You receive an offer of $250,000.
If you counter with $267,500 in the first round, $265,000 in the second, $262,500 in the third, imagine what the other person is thinking: “Hmm. Every time I push, I get $2,500. Why stop pushing?”
Mistake No. 2 - Huge, Final Concession
Let’s say you made a concession of $6,000, then one of $4,000.
You say to the other party, “That’s our absolutely lowest offer. I can’t give you a dollar more.” The problem is the other party has a hard time believing you won’t relent a dollar more when you gave up such huge concessions already.
He’s going to try for more, and when you dig your heels in, he thinks, “Why is he being so difficult? You just made a $4,000 concession and you won’t give me another $1000?”
Making this mistake has the potential for creating hostility.
Mistake No. 3 - Give It All Away Up Front
“Who would do a stupid thing like that?” you ask.
Problem is, people do it all the time. Someone calls and says, “My client doesn’t like to negotiate. So just give me your lowest price and I’ll give you a yes or no.”
Or an agent who looked at your client’s house last week calls and says, “We’ve just located two other homes my client liked equally well. Now we’re just down to the price. We thought the fairest thing to do would be to let all three of you give us your lowest price, then we’ll decide.”
Unless you recognize this ploy, you’ll panic and plead with your sellers to cut the price to the bone, even though the doors to a second round of bidding haven’t completely closed.
The Smart Way to Concede
Although negotiating this way takes time, conceding in small, irregular increments makes it more likely that you will end up with your objective price and both sides of the negotiations will feel happy about the outcome.
Did you find this article useful? If so, leave a comment. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.
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Nov
18
Six Guidelines to Make Your Website Writing Even Better
Filed Under Real Estate Copywriting | 2 Comments
Last week we talked about gimpy websites and what to do to make them better…
Bottom line: Make it easy. Make it simple.
This includes your message–your core message you want to communicate to people when they land on your website…
Do you want them to subscribe to an email list? Do you want them to ask for a listing presentation? Do you want them to register for a workshop or conference?
It starts, of course, with you: What are you trying to do with your website?
Is it all about lead generation? Nurturing clients? Or simply sharing information?
So, once you do the leg work of figuring out your strategy for your website or blog, your next step is to turn that strategy into a message.
A lean, mean persuasion machine. Here’s how to do that.
1. Give people only what they need.
Steve Krug said it best: Kill happy talk.
What’s happy talk? It’s that fluff on the top of web pages that says things like “Welcome to my site…I hope you find….”
If they’re looking for secrets on how to stage a home…give it to them in as few words as possible [I'll explain what I mean in a minute.]
If they’re looking for a list of foreclosures…give it to them immediately. You’ve only got four seconds to show people you can help them. Don’t waste those four seconds on a verbose introduction. Get to the point. And get to the point fast.
2. Cut. Cut. Cut. And cut again.
If you can trim a 500-word article down to 250 words…do it, please. And if you can cut that down to 100 words…do it, please.
And if you can trim that down into 50 words…do it.
And yes, if you can say it in 25 words…you must. Not only you must, but you want to: Tight, compressed messages pop off the page.
Remember, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was only 250 words. The speech before his was 2 hours long. Nobody remembers the 2 hour speech. Coincidence? I think not.
Trim relentlessly.
3. Break up walls of words.
You’ve probably seen it before: A large chunk of copy that looks like a brick wall on your screen. At all costs, break it up.
Keep this in mind when writing for the web: Short paragraphs. Short sentences. Short words. Follow those three simple rules and you’ll never have a wall of words that stops readers cold in their tracks.
4. Give useful, urgent, unique or ultra-specific information.
Online readers are ruthless. They don’t have much time, so they’re not going to read everything on your website. That’s why you need to make your information clear, concise and compelling.
One great way to do this is to use the 4 U’s approach.
When you give readers useful, urgent, unique and ultra-specific information, you are giving them something they need or want. Do that and you can’t go wrong.
5. Write using inverted pyramid style.
Journalism historian Mitchell Stephens: “The inverted pyramid organizes stories not around ideas or chronologies but around facts. It weighs and shuffles the various pieces of information, focusing with remarkable single-mindedness on their relative news value.”
When you write in this style, you put the most newsworthy information at the top. After that comes the information in order of importance, with the least important at the bottom.
6. Layer your copy.
In a nutshell, create leads [short bursts of compelling copy] to draw a user through pages, pop-up windows and information windows.
If you’re sending an email, remember, you’re first task is to get them to open the email. So you must write a compelling subject line.
Second, you must compel them to click the link inside the email that drives them to the supporting web page.
Third, you want them to perform some final action–subscribe or call or join or email. That’s the terminal point in your communication. And because you don’t want to accomplish all those tasks in one place…you layer copy throughout to draw the user in. the point behind the email is to simply get them to click through to you website.
If you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.
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Nov
13
Okay. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you’re a real estate agent, you probably have a website.
No surprise there.
But let me go even further out on that limb and say you’re probably not sure if it’s a good website or not…
First of all, you’re not sure if people are actually making it to your site. Second, you’re not sure if the people who are finding your website or blog are actually finding what they need.
Am I right?
To make matters worse, it costs money to host your website or blog. [Not a lot. But if you're not making money, even a little money is hard to lose, right?]
You’ve got two options, really. Ditch the hobbling website/blog or make it kick butt.
If you answered “make it kick butt,” then you’ve come to the right place.
1. Make It Big, Simple and Short
People come to a website for one reason and one reason only: To get information. They’ve got a burning question or need–”how do I stage my home?” or “I need to sell…now!”–and you’ve got to answer that question or satisfy that need.
Fast.
See, people won’t look long or hard. More than likely they’ll skim and scan web pages. That’s why you need to make everything you write clear and concise. And the most important details must stand out.
If you want them to call you for a free consultation…spell it out loud and clear on your home page. In fact, every page should include a call to action.
2. Know Thy Audience
Who are you writing for? You should know your audience. And know them well. Only then will you be able to convey a message that will reach prospects personally. Find out what your audience wants to know…and then write to them specifically.
3. Empty Your Home Page
This may surprise you, but your home page should NOT contain the bulk of your information. Your home page is more for branding and encouraging people to find what they are looking for deeper in the site.
The links and short descriptions on your homepage should be clear enough that the reader doesn’t have to guess where they’ll end up. Bottom line: Simplify your home page.
One more thing: It is always helpful to have a search box. It makes the reader feel more comfortable on your site.
4. Think Pathway Pages
Your pathway pages [pages channeling off your home page] contain the answer to your reader’s question–they exist as a path to your reader’s ultimate destination.
Clarity is key here as you drive them deeper, with more specific information. And keep in mind, it doesn’t really matter how many click-thrus you have until your destination, as long as the path is extremely clear along the way.
Also, don’t forget that call to action on every page.
5. Prevent Reader Overload
When thinking about how long to make a web page, think about what the reader is looking for: Are they going to print this page out? Is this too much information?
If it’s too much information on one page, consider breaking your pages down into topics and sub-topics.
By the way: Use PDFs sparingly. PDFs are miserable to read online. They should only be used when a reader needs all the information on the document.
And if you must use a PDF, warn the reader.
Conclusion
Okay, you’re making your website or blog drop-dead easy to find and use. But is it compelling?
If you need help deciding exactly what you should say on your blog or website then join us next week where we’ll look at six guidelines to help you focus your essential message so it’s clear, concise and compelling.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, leave a comment or subscribe to thereal estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.
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Nov
10
In football, when you want to give your opponent the feeling that you are moving in one direction but planning on going in another direction, you give them a head fake.
That is, you lean your head in one direction…
And once your opponent commits to that direction, you go the other direction.
The same is true in negotiations.
See, there may come a time in your negotiations where you hit a wall and need to break a stalemate.
Or you just want to see if you can get the seller’s to go lower to come in range with your buyers.
Or things have gone south and you’ve lost control of the transaction.
If that’s the case, then you want to give the impression that you are withdrawing the offer without actually doing so, roll out the “Withdraw the Offer” head fake.
Here’s How It Works
Imagine you are negotiating to buy a beautiful home for roughly $300,000. You’ve gone through several days of negotiating on many deal points.
Your client loves the house but the seller’s last concession was still $4,000 above what your client wanted to pay.
So you call the seller’s broker–with your client’s permission–and say that your client is going to have to withdraw from buying the house because he could not make the numbers work to his satisfaction.
You, however, are confident that neither the seller nor the broker would let a $300,000 deal go over a difference of $4,000.
Here’s the deal though: That may be the direction it does indeed go. There’s no guarantees.
But the worse that can happen is the other real estate agent says, “Sorry to hear that. Can’t go any lower,” at which point, because your client is willing to pay the difference, you can return, “Let me talk to my client first and make sure he understands what it means to walk away from this deal.”
Nov
6
Quick Tip: 5 Reasons Why Sellers Should Work with You on Both Sides of the Deal
Filed Under Real Estate Sales Tips | Leave a Comment
Did you know that one of the simplest strategies to closing more transactions is simply helping your seller’s buy their new home?
If sellers ARE staying in the area, ask if you can help find their next house. It benefits both you and the seller.
Here are five reasons why:
1. They don’t have to interview more real estate salespeople.
2. You already understand their needs, know their decorating style, have an inside look on how they live.
3. If they trust your market knowledge enough to sell their home, they should trust you to find them a new house.
4. You can help coordinate both sides of the deal so they don’t find themselves homeless for a few days between closings.
5. You can make negotiations go more smoothly and quickly. You have dates on both closings and don’t have to wait for return calls from fellow practitioners.
And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing blog by email or news feed.
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