Archive for March, 2007

5 Successful Marketing Techniques For Your Real Estate Marketing - The Real Estate Coach

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Here are 5 successful marketing techniques you can use to increase your sales. All of them are simple to use. And they’re effective for building any businesses.

1. KEEP ADDING SOMETHING NEW
Every time you add something new to your business you create an opportunity to get more sales. For example, something as simple as adding new information on your web site creates another selling opportunity when prospects and customers visit your site to see the new information.

Adding a new service to the list of those you already offer usually produces a big increase in sales. The added service or program increases your sales in 3 different ways:

It attracts new customers who were not interested in your current programs and services.

It generates repeat sales from existing customers who also want to have your new service.

It enables you to get bigger sales by combining 2 or more items into special package offers.

2. BECOME A VALUABLE RESOURCE
Look for ways you can be a resource for your customers. Supply them with free information. Help them do things faster, easier, less expensively. You get another opportunity to sell something every time they come back to you for help.

3. SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM YOUR COMPETITION
Find or create a reason for customers to do business with you instead of with someone else offering the same or similar programs and services. For example, do you provide faster results, easier procedures, personal attention or a better guarantee?

Determine the unique advantage you offer to customers that your competitors do not offer. Promote that advantage in all of your advertising. Give your prospects a reason to do business with you instead of with your competition and you’ll automatically get more sales.

4. PROMOTE THE END RESULT
Your customers don’t really want your real estate services. They want the benefit produced by using it.

For example, car buyers want convenient transportation with a certain image. Dental patients want healthy and good-looking teeth without suffering any pain. Your listing clients want their home sold for the most amount of money, in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort on their part.

Make sure your web pages, sales letters and other sales messages are promoting the end result your customers want.

5. ANTICIPATE CHANGE
Change is the biggest challenge to your business success. The days are gone when a business could constantly grow by simply repeating what it did successfully in the past …or even recently. Aggressive, innovative competitors and rapidly changing technology make it impossible.

Expect change and prepare for it. Don’t wait until your income declines to take action. Develop the habit of looking for early signs that something is changing. Then confront it before you start to lose business.

TIP: Insulate yourself against the impact of change by increasing the number of programs and services you offer and by using a variety of different marketing methods. Only a small portion of your total business will be affected if the sales or the response to one marketing method drops.

How many of these 5 proven marketing techniques have you overlooked or ignored? Start using them today and you’ll see an immediate increase in your sales.

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Why Offer Your Own Real Estate Ezine Newsletter - The Real Estate Coach

Sunday, March 18th, 2007
By Brian Rodgers
Ezine or online Newsletters are one of the fastest and most effective ways of delivering relevant information to your real estate prospects. A good ezine will have many benefits for you the real estate agent. It can target your prospects, learn their preferences, and provide prospects with the exact information they need and want. An ezine can be a free (or  even low cost in some cases) method of increasing your prospects and referrals, and help you reach the right customers for your real estate business. You can use your ezine to establish your credibility, and earn free publicity. Besides, you can also sell advertising space in your Ezine to mortgage brokers, insurance agents and many other vendors and earn additional profits. 
 
An Ezine offers what everyone real estate prospect needs – free useful information! You have the liberty of writing and publishing information in a way that sets you apart from your competition. You not only get others to listen to you, you also get them to click on the ads published within your Ezine for additional information from you.
 

There are innumerable benefits of starting your own real estate ezine. You can increase your real estate business to multifold proportions if you utilize your options effectively. One major advantage is that you communicate directly with your potential customers. This makes it easier for you to enhance your prospect base. 

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How to Make Newspapers Work without Breaking the Bank - The Real Estate Coach

Friday, March 16th, 2007

Written by: Brian Rodgers

Get them to print articles about you.
 
Whenever you add a new service or Guarantee (risk-reversal) or make a change in your business or do a charity function or have a Client Dinner, you should get an article in one of the local papers about it.
 
You won’t get a bunch of business from this. That’s o.k. It doesn’t cost anything. Any business you do get is gravy.
 
But it builds your credibility. You’ve been in the newspaper they must think you’re o.k.
 
Then when you send out any sales information to a prospect, you include reprints of these articles from the newspaper.
 
Remember people are skeptical these days. They don’t want to get ripped off by someone they don’t know. Anything that you can do to prove to them that you are trustworthy will definitely pay off.
 
How Do I Get Anything In The Newspaper?
Write “press releases.” but press releases rarely get in the newspaper. You can send them in but the newspaper gets tons and tons of press releases.
 
If you want to get something in the newspaper you need to do more than send a press release.
 
Here’s what I recommend:
1. Call the paper, find out who’s in charge of press releases.
2. Call back and ask for that person.
3. Tell them you’re sending some exciting information.
4. Say who you are and what you do. (Your USP!)
5. Say his readers will benefit. (Here is a great way to offer some Free or Low Cost Service).
6. Send the information. Mention that you spoke on the phone and told him you were sending this.
7. Follow-up. Call back to see if it was received and ask when it might be put in.
8. Keep trying.
 
It takes a little time but keep trying I can virtually guarantee almost anyone can get in the newspaper. You can then use those reprints for years to come. Its well worth the trouble.

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The Most Successful Real Estate Top Producers are Great Communicators - The Real Estate Coach

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

Let me share a story with you…

 

Once upon a time, there was a king who never wore shoes. He was forever bruising and scraping his royal feet, finally one day, completely exasperated with this problem, he turned to his trusty minister and ordered: “I want you to carpet the entire kingdom by tomorrow morning, or it’s off with your head!”

 

The poor minister sat up half the night thinking about this impossible task, it seemed that he would surely lose his head next morning. Buy after a lot of thinking,  just as the sun began to rise, his fear turned to joy. He had an idea. Bouncing from his bed, he ran to the royal carpetorium.

 

When the king woke up the next morning he jumped quickly out of bed and went straight to the royal window to view his carpet covered kingdom. Seeing not one inch of carpet anywhere he began bellowing for the minister roaring wildly. “Minister, Where’s my minister? I’ll have his head!”

 

At that very moment, the minister appeared at the king’s door clutching a pair of very foreign objects in his hands. “Oh your highness, please be so kind as to try these first,” he begged. The king agreed, and in the wink of an eye the minister slipped a  pair of carpet slippers onto the king’s royal feet.

 

Instantly the king’s anger turned to delight. Shuffling around the room with the softness of the finest carpet in the kingdom beneath his feet, all he could do was smile with every step.

 

What that has to do with effective listening? Everything. You see, effective listening doesn’t mean just hearing what the other person is saying - effective listening is about understanding what the other person really would like  to say, looking for hidden messages, seeking for the core of their problem.  The minister in this story realized that the kings’ real problem was not the carpet but his feet.   – In real estate you find yourself in many situations where merely changing the point of view will present entirely different possibilities. But of course it all starts with listening…

 

The most successful top producers understand that active, empathetic listening is the key to good communication. They know that The Best Way To Get People To Pay Attention To You Is To Pay Attention To Them.  That means listening to others — not only hearing them…  Because just like in the story of the king who loved carpet, in real estate very often people are not even aware of what their true problem or dilemma is, let alone communicate that problem to you clearly….

 

So, how are you doing in the department of listening? You cannot listen to what someone is saying when you are preoccupied with your own appearance, or concentrating on impressing the other person,  or when you are debating whether what is  being said is true … or  even worse…. when you are trying to decide what you are going to say when the other person will stop talking….

 

Do you ever find yourself falling into one of these poor listening habits: - rushing someone in conversation,  getting ahead of the speaker and finishing his or her thoughts, listening only for facts, not taking notes, allowing emotionally charged words to block the message…  asking too many questions  ( I know, his might surprise you but asking too many questions tends to be very distracting and annoying)

 

If you have trouble listening, you are not alone. More and more business studies prove that listening is a top skill needed for success in business - especially in sales — but sadly,  most of us  don’t have a clue how to listen effectively. We’re taught how to read, how to write and how to speak, but rarely how to listen.  It is estimated that less than 2% of us had formal educational experience with listening. 

 

Formal education? Yes, formal education. Listening skills can - and should - be learned,  practiced and mastered.  There are special listening courses — years ago I took a three day seminar on effective listening and it literally changed my life.  The good news is that you don’t have to take a 3 day course to change your poor listening habits. In almost every community (at least in the United States)  you will find adult education centers with some decent  two hour class on effective listening. Take it.  I guarantee, it will be one of your best investments.

 

In one of my favorite stories,  The Jungle Book  – Mowgli  says   "The jungle speaks to me because I know how to listen."…

 

Please remember that success in real estate depends on your ability to understand your client needs and adapting your services to meet their needs.  Make sure that  you listen carefully …  It’s amazing what you can learn when you really really listen, and when you encourage your clients and potential clients to talk.  By listening effectively you will avoid misunderstandings and at the same time you will strengthen your relationships.  As a result some of the most difficult transactions will flow very smoothly instead of falling apart just before closing and your clients will become not only satisfied but .. happy. And that means less stress for everyone and more closed transactions for you in the future.

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