Just Do It Already!

Nine times out of ten during my initial consultation with a potential client that has marketing needs, I am asked “what is the best way to market in real estate?”.

Honestly, if I had that kind of magic information, chances are you couldn’t afford me.

My answer is always something akin to “whatever you want it to be”.

It really doesn’t matter which route you take, just that you take one and you take it often.

People tell me that Direct Mail is dead.  Nobody will look at a postcard from a Realtor® these days.  I hear that you HAVE to tweet.  Don’t cold-call (it works but I don’t recommend it – too annoying).  You need a website, a blog, a facebook fan page and 5,000 contacts on LinkedIn.

I’m stopping there because I’m beginning to sound like all of the other blogs that I read everyday.

So here’s the big secret:  pick a type of marketing that you’re comfortable with and exploit the h*ll out of it.  There are 1.3 million Realtors® in the U.S. alone and the majority don’t have a solid marketing plan and they aren’t consistent.  Most of them subscribe to the “build it and they will come” theory.

Build it and they may check you out is more like it, but in order for them to stay and recommend others to stay as well, you must consistently remind them just how wonderful you are.

Here is my “magic formula”

• Keep your database updated
• Send out Just Listed and Just Sold postcards as if your sales depended on it (it does)
• Send out a monthly e-newsletter
• Build friendships with clients and colleagues via facebook
• Send out birthday cards and Home Anniversary cards
• Walk flyers around your neighborhood monthly
• Attend networking events monthly

These are the basics, and when done consistently, are well worth the effort put into it.

See, I Told Ya!

I’m gloating.  And I’ll admit freely that I like to be right.

My previous post (from way back on the 20th) was about my client who just got his first listing, and how easy it was going to be for him to sell his first property.  Well, he did it!  I’m very happy for him, and I’d like to think that part of the ease of it all came from our well-laid plans (we don’t really need to mention that he IS a very likeable guy).

Congrats, and here’s to many more!

If you are a real estate agent and would like a FREE copy of my Agent Listing Plan that you can pass on to your Virtual Assistant, leave a comment and I’ll send one out to you right away.

Have a prosperous day!

Put Good, Solid Plans in Place. First.

I have a client that I’ve been working with since July of this year.  He’s a licensed Realtor(r), but like many these days, he also has a day job.  He hasn’t had the chance to fully dive into the real estate world, nor has he had the chance to feel the powerful high that comes from selling your first listing.

But that’s all going to change.  The first listing agreement is signed, and plans are in place to begin the process, and I know for a FACT that even though this is his first transaction, it’s going to be (mostly) smooth sailing until the end.  Why?

Because we have a plan.  I put together, just for him a step-by-step Listing Action Plan that lists every single step of the way, who takes care of it and when.  It’s like Mapquest, but the destination is that beautiful Sold sign on the property instead of Aunt Judy’s house.  And if something unexpected happens along the way (what, in real estate?), we have a plan for that too.  Our plan has a plan.  How cool is that?

How Are You Asking for Referrals?

Referrals.  You love them, you need them, but are you asking for them?

How are you asking?  Is it with the little keychain that states the obvious:  We Love Referrals!

Ad stamp?  Business card?  On some obscure area of your website?

How’s that working out for you?

Okay, okay, enough with the questions.

Our clients, whether we are Real Estate Agents or Virtual Assistants or whatever we are, are in it for themselves.  Clients and customers are selfish in nature, and will refer on their own, but only if the perceived value of your service is much higher than they expected.

You’ve got to play the game.  The “Refer Me Now!” game.  This means give your clients a real, tangible reason to refer you and to refer you often.  It’s a little like bribery, but the good kind of bribery that makes everyone feel good, and keeps the referral wheels spinning.  Please, don’t roll your eyes.  this is better than purchasing a really nice closing gift and hoping that your client loves it, appreciates it, and feels like talking about you.

Stop hoping and start doing something about it!

While listening to a Client Attraction Inner Circle call with Fabienne Frederickson a while back, she started talking about putting together a referral system.  It was genius!  Since then,  I put it into practice in one of my client’s real estate business and it has worked out really well.

You need to find out what your client is into:  Golf, cars, gardening, coffee, whatever.  When you open escrow, send them a small gift like a gift card along with a short letter that reminds your client that your business is run on referrals.  Let them know that you’d like to continue to thank them for their continued support with a gift of their choice when they send you successful referrals.

They choose a gift, it’s your pleasure to give it since they’ve set you up with a client, and the Client Referral Ju-Ju is spread all around.

The client’s company that I have used this on have reported gift requests for socks, a shovel, and an oil change along with the normal gift cards.

Devise a system, a process for your referrals so that it happens consistently and constantly.  I guarantee you’ll see your business grow!

Database! Database! Database!

What has your contact list done for you lately?

• How many times are you contacting the people on that list?
• Is your list current?
• How effective is your method of contact?
• Do they remember you?

With the holidays just around the corner, things are getting ready to slow down (if they haven’t already) and it’s a great time to start reconnecting with all of those people just sitting there in your contact management system.

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How can I help you and your business?

Balancing Act Business Solutions’ 7 Step Contact Marketing Plan:

1. Property Postcards (Just Sold, Just Listed)
2. Monthly Mailed Newsletter
3. Monthly Emailed Newsletter (Both include market info, absorption rates, number of listings, vendor articles, seasonal info)
4. Separate Newsletter to your farm area (includes above info PLUS specific market info and open houses in the area)
5. Branded Direct Marketing pieces recipients can “hold on to”
6. Holiday and birthday cards
7. A complete, automated and systemized Follow Up plan put into action for you

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If you don’t connect with your contacts, someone else will!

To learn more about how my business can help your business, please visit our website!

Why Most Marketing Plans Fail

Let’s face it: most marketing plans aren’t really marketing plans at all.  They are simply short advertising campaigns designed to generate new business.  Generating new business is the name of the game, but if you’re constantly advertising to get it, you’re  doing something wrong.

So, what is a true marketing plan?  To me, it’s a SYSTEM that is put into place and USED every day.  Every day!  Even when you are so swamped with business that you can’t possibly take on another client.  Why?  Because when the well runs dry, your system will still be working for you.

After listening to a great webinar put on by Chip Cummings with the Underground Marketing Network today, I really began thinking:

Why do so many people fail in their marketing? Although there were a lot of points made in this webinar that my company has been doing for our clients for a while, he also pointed out a lot of new ideas.

This is a mixture of his reasons and my own that I see quite often.

1. They are advertising only what they have at the moment
2. They live deal to deal, not looking far enough into the future
3. Business comes in on a one-on-one basis
4. People aren’t leveraging the contacts they already have
5. They use their company’s branding, not their own
6. When a deal is closed, they close their eyes and hope for a referral instead of asking
7. Not contacting their contacts enough (why else would they be called contacts?)
8. They don’t have a systemized follow up process in place

The bottom line is:

YOU MUST HAVE A PLAN FOR EVERY COMMUNICATION OR “TOUCH” WITH THE PEOPLE ON YOUR LIST

A Real Estate Virtual Assistant can help you by:

• Putting your list into your database of choice
• Choosing a CRM if you don’t already have one
• Setting up a system for each type of contact (SOI, past clients, prospects, hot leads etc.)
• Contacting those people at specific intervals that keep them thinking of you often
• Automating these processes like crazy!

Remember, you are BUSY (at least you should be!) and if you aren’t, get in touch with an EXPERIENCED Virtual Assistant to put the proper steps into motion that will MAKE YOU BUSY!

Setting Up Your Real Estate Goals

Real estate agents are an odd bunch. Yes, they are my clients, and no, I probably shouldn’t talk that way, but they are.

What I mean by this is, some agents think like employees and some think like entrepreneurs, and the way you think vastly changes the way your business is run.

Do you have a business plan?  No?  Did you skip that step because you work (or worked) for a large company?  Did you not see the importance because, as an agent there are just things that you do?

Usually when I begin working with a new agent that doesn’t know where to begin with a VA I ask them what their goals are.  “I want to sells lots of houses and make lots of money” is not a goal.  I take a step back, and then I ask:  “What are your goals for the next 90 days?”  That almost always elicits some thought and a more thought-out answer, but not always.

When trying to determine your own goals think about these goal-setting steps from Marketing Tools For Real Estate:

1. MY FINANCIAL GOAL for this year (next 12 months) is to earn pre-tax income of $______________________.
2. MY LISTING GOAL for this year is to take ____________listings for the year, or _____________listings for each month, or one listing every ___________days.
3. To work an average of _________hours per week of which at least 65% is highly productive (“Hot Time”)
4. To work a maximum of ________days a week and take ________weekends off a month.
5. To take ____________vacations during the course of the year.
6. To Prospect a minimum of ___________hours a week of which a minimum of 65% is “HOT” and 35% is “WARM”.

Examples of “Hot” Time:

• Showing Properties
• Presenting an Offer
• Asking for a Price Reduction
• Canvassing Past Clients for Referrals
• Contacting FSBO’s
• Follow Up by phone on Mail Campaigns or Web Site Leads
• Doing a Listing Presentation
• Contacting Expired Listings
• Holding Open Houses
• Visiting Unlisted Builders on Site
• Cold Calling for Leads
• Door Knocking Prospecting for Leads

Find some time (no really, find some time; it’s important) to write down some actual goals that are achievable yet challenging, then find a way to put them into action.

10 Steps for Creating a FANtastic Facebook Fan Page

via Mari Smith

If you know me, you know that I LOVE step-by-step processes where there is clearly a beginning, and even more clearly an end.  If you can’t provide one to me, I’ll make my own before I start to work on a project (or clean my house, cook something or even go on vacation).

Mari has easily outlined the steps it takes to takes to create a great business presence of facebook, something that I have been putting off for months.

Be a Fan of Balancing Act!

How Real Estate Agents Should be Using Facebook

With social media being one of the easiest ways to touch clients and prospects these days, it really makes sense to have a system in place for handling that area of your marketing plan.

Yes, that’s right people.  As silly as it may sound, I just told you that you  need a plan for facebook.

In real estate, it’s all about building that all important “know, like & trust” factor.  Without it, you wouldn’t have very many clients and you certainly wouldn’t have any referral business.  What better platform is there right now than facebook?

I know, there have been a billion blog posts devoted to facebook, but hopefully this one will be a little bit different.  I’d like to show you some of the actual steps that I use for my clients that pull people in, make you more credible, and hopefully give you that coveted expert status.  The best part is, it shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes per day.

First on the list?  Don’t hide your profile.  Don’t post what you wouldn’t want your clients or your mother-in-law to know or see.  Why?  I don’t know about you, but these days if I’m hiring someone who will have virtually unlimited access to my life, you can bet I’m going to google them.  I want to learn as much about you as I possibly can.  If I come across your locked facebook page I think two things:

1. She’s hiding something.
2. She’s not utilizing a very powerful marketing tool.  She sucks is really missing out.  (See below).

You may not be hiding anything at all, you may just be a private person.  I don’t that really matters.  You’re not a plumber, I’m not asking you to fix my toilet and then leave.  I’m asking you to hold my hand through a lengthy and emotional process.  I want to know YOU.

The second thing that I’ll ask you to do is to keep your status updated throughout the day with a mixture of business and personal information.  One of the really wonderful things about being an agent is that you can talk about what you’re doing in your business without sounding too salesy.  “Veronica is getting ready to show a client some really beautiful homes in Newport Beach”. With this one simple statement, you’ve effectively reminded your network that you are a real estate agent who shows homes in Orange County without sounding like a salesperson.  Easy peasy.  Update it one or two more times with some business and some personal information and you are really using it to your advantage.

Pick out your pic.  You’ve got a few choices here.  You can either choose a fun and flattering profile picture that shows the real you, or you can use your professional picture so that people will connect you to your brand.  This is your choice, but try to add lots of different types of pictures in your albums to show how well-rounded you are.  Family pictures, vacation pictures, pictures of you and associates attending networking events.  You get the picture (haha, pun).

Another important aspect of facebook is commenting.  Join in the conversation, be SOCIAL!  How else are people going to get to know, like and trust you?  If someone posts a cute toddler picture hit the “thumbs up” and say “Hey, that’s a cute toddler picture”.  If somebody posts about their really bad day, you can commiserate with them or try to be uplifting.  It doesn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is that you care enough to post it.  Post a quick Happy Birthday on their wall, or Congratulations when it is in order.  The important thing is that you make a few comments everyday so that when you do decide to peppering your posts with some real marketing, your friends will be not be bothered or annoyed, but hopefully drawn in.

So now you have a listing that you’d like to share with your friends.  If you haven’t been following my advice so far, I don’t think now is the best time to jump in with pictures of your listing.  Most of your network won’t even remember that you’re in real estate.  But, if you’ve been following along and easing them in, now is the perfect time.  When I post for clients I use vflyer for a couple of reasons.  The look nice and professional.  They look like you actually took the time and effort to put something together.  I really like the fact that I don’t have to clutter up facebook albums with pictures, that they’re stored on vflyer instead.  And it’s a lot cleaner than “HEY, I’M SELLING THIS HOUSE.  LOOK AT THE PICTURES!!!”  Here is an example of what you get with vflyer:

Another good idea that I always try to implement is thanking friends when a new connection is made.  Example:  My client, Karen received a friend request from Michael, a guy she recently met at networking event.  After I approve the request for her, I jump on over to Michael’s wall and post:  Hey Michael, I’m so glad that we’ve connected on facebook.  See you soon!  and then I add a link to her website.  Now, some people don’t want to go this route because it can come off as a little pushy, but we limit it to those people that we are truly networking with, not necessarily your high school buddies.

If you can’t think of anything to post ask you friends a question.  Get them involved, get them speaking and most important, get them thinking about you.  If you don’t want to post a question, you can always find a cool and inspirational quote.  Most people like getting those, and at the very least you’ll get some “thumbs up”.

And the very last piece of information that I’m leaving you is this:  These are EXTREMELY quick and easy things to include in your daily schedule that will work if you commit to making them work.  If you don’t want to do them yourself, hire a Virtual Assistant.  I’m just going to throw in that if you can’t find the time to implement this tiny little system, then you probably need a VA anyway.  😉

Non-Ideal Clients, and Not Working With Them

Here is her original post titled The Seven Surefire Signs of Clients to Avoid.  If you haven’t already read it, I strongly suggest that you do.

At the end of her post she challenges us all to an assignment:

• Make a list of common denominators among your non-ideal clients (not every client has all of these, sometimes just one or two).
• Set standards in your business about whom you’ll work with and whom you’ll turn away.
• Then, follow those standards as if your business depends on it (it does).
• Even consider putting it down on your website, for all to see, as I do on mine.

Common Denominators Among Non-Ideal Clients: In my experience as a Virtual Assistant and working with my husband in either of his Mortgage or Real Estate businesses, I’ve been exposed to exactly what I feel is “un-ideal” and it all boils down to TRUST.  If there isn’t a mutual trust involved, the transaction will never be pleasant and you’re very unlikely to gain more business from it.  The homebuyers must trust that the agent has their best interests in mind, and that they are as competent as they say they are.  The listing agent must trust that the homeowner isn’t going to glean as much information from them, and when time allows, turn around and sell their property themselves.  If you are going to hire me as your VA, you’ll need to trust that I understand the real estate transaction process, that I can assist you intelligently, that I’m keeping your trade secrets, and I will always represent you to the very best of my ability.  I need to trust that you’ll let me do my job, that you’lltrust the process, and that you’ll pay your invoices on time.

My Standards:

REVA ISO REA for LTR.  You: open-minded, internet savvy, willing to try new things and patient.  Me: hard-working, experienced, available on weekends, and always willing to stand by your side but never as your scapegoat.  Let’s get fired up and build new business together!

Follow Those Standards: Okay Fabienne, you got it!

Consider Putting it on Your Website: I think I can definitely carve out a space on there at my next re-vamp session.

Thank you Fabienne for once again giving me step-by-step instructions on how to grow my practice and to also help Realtors(r) do the same.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System?, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your in.come, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.