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Real Estate Leads on Craigslist: Announcing the AIDA Formula

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Why 38 Extra Transactions Over the Last Year was Frustrating

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How One Simple Shift Can Instantly Triple Your Real Estate Lead Conversion Rates!

It’s ironic, frustrating and sad at the very same time…

…agents wasting thousands upon thousands of dollars

…endlessly chasing poor quality leads (people who are actually avoiding you)

…all to convert a measly 1-2% of those leads!

The worst part is 1-2% conversion is actually pretty good, considering all the garbage that agents are calling “leads” these days.

How would you like to convert 5-10% of your leads, in some cases even more?

Well it all starts with the right mindset and focus.

Do you agree with this statement?

Real estate is all about building relationships…client relationships…networking relationships…COI relationships…that all lead to a growing real estate practice and more closed business year after year.

Seems pretty straightforward and on the money, right?

Then why do so many agents miss the single most important part of the lead generation/lead conversion process and screw up the development of real relationships with social media and various other technologies?

It’s because agents lean so heavily on technology to do their “relationship building” for them. It’s as though agents think they can “automate” the development of quality relationships.

Is that even possible?

Maybe if we were robots…

(Here’s a thoughtful article on this subject that will definitely make you think. It’s by David Byrne titled, “Eliminating the Human”)

…but humans are a little bit different than robots, aren’t they?

Can you really develop a quality relationship with an email drip campaign?

Can you build a relationship with auto-posted tweets to your Twitter account?

Can you “outsource” your social media and expect to be seen as “authentic?”

Don’t get me wrong. I love all these things.

I love quality marketing that drives people to call or text for info, or opt-in to your email drip campaign. I love it when our clients generate 100-150 leads a month with our MVR technology. I think technology is amazing!

Then there’s “social media.” I love the social media movement. I think it’s the next great frontier of potential “relationship building.”

The issue I have is agents are chasing all these things, while leaving out the most crucial elements…the basic fundamentals of success in real estate.

What’s that foundation?

Again, it’s all about relationships. And relationships are with those people (human beings) who KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST YOU!

All the tools, all this technology, all these amazing social media outlets…they all do one thing and one thing only. They speed your ability to communicate.

Quality marketing makes your phone ring…giving you the ability to what?

Communicate.

Forms that get people to opt-in to your email drip campaigns do what?

They give you the ability to communicate.

Your Facebook page with 5,000 “friends” does what?

(5,000 friends…whatever! No one has 5,000 friends. BUT…where else would you go to exchange messages with people you didn’t like in high school?)

So what do Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
and all the various other platforms do?

They all speed your ability to communicate.

MVR lead generation that brings in 100-150 warm inbound lead calls every month…what does it do?

I think you get the idea. It speeds your ability to connect and communicate.

The point I’m making is that the key is not the technology. Yes. They’re great. In fact they’re amazing and powerful tools. But that’s all they are…tools.

YOU…are the message.

I like the way Scott Stratten (social media guru and viral marketing genius) puts it, he says, “You are your company’s CRO (Chief Relationship Officer). You are the one who has to take all this ‘technology’ and all these amazing platforms and take it to the next level.”

If you’ve got 5,000 friends on Facebook…how many times have you connected with someone of influence and invited them out for coffee?

If you’re a Twitter fanatic…how many times have you reached out to someone you knew could influence greater reach for you in your community?

If you’re on LinkedIn with 500+ “connections”…how many of those relationships are you nurturing, building and developing?

Worse yet, if you’re using MVR and generating 100-150 warm real estate leads a month, how many of those people (human beings) have you engaged, initiated a warm easy-going dialog, and began building a relationship?

Real estate is all about relationships
…and it all starts with YOU!

With the various social media platforms…be authentic, be real and take it to the next level. Relationships are not digital. They’re one or more real live human beings having a conversation or meeting for coffee. Take it there.

With your lead generation, polish and perfect your scripts. Internalize them and make them a part of you…so they’re natural. When you engage an inbound MVR lead call you’ve got to know what to say and how to say it.

Then, you need to bring more value to the table for that person. Be a value creator. Be a servant. No. Be a Super-Servant with a genuine servant’s heart.

Bottom line?

Again, it’s all about building relationships. And relationships start with real live conversations. Start having them. Perfect your skills and read books on communication. These are core fundamentals.

Lastly, I’d like to recommend a book that was first published back in 1937. It’s a book that is even more applicable today. It’s a book that can and will change your life. It’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie.

Get it. Read it. No…read it 2-3 times and then apply it to all that you’re doing as an agent…marketing, prospecting, lead generating, your social media platforms. Then, once you’ve seen its impact, shoot me an email telling me how much it’s meant to you.

It’s time to get back to the basics. And you can’t get more basic than people do business with those they KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST. That’s a relationship!

My word (or words) for the day!

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9 Things That Make Emails Seriously Effective

Despite the endless talk about social media–Twitter or Facebook, for example–-emails are still the workhorse of online prospecting.

Why? Clickthrough decay. Twitter time passes 10 times faster than email time.

Jakob Nielson says:

One of the big downsides of stream-based communication compared to email newsletters is the highly ephemeral nature of the postings: Once they scroll off the first screen, they’re essentially 6 feet under.

A look at clickthrough statistics for links posted to Twitter vs. those circulated in email newsletters shows a drastically steeper decay function: lots of clicks the first few minutes, and then almost none. In contrast, email continues to generate clicks for days as people work their way through their inboxes.

So, since more and more and more people are checking their e-mail on cell phones or smart phones and archiving, it’s wise to keep grooming your emails so their readable, relevant and powerful.

1. Reason Why. First, what’s your most compelling reason to send the email? If there’s no good reason for it, consider taking the day off.

2. “From” Line. The “From” line and subject line work in tandem. And an effective “From” line starts with name recognition. If you’re not famous in your market, then maybe your company is. Use the most famous.

3. Subject Line. Something that stands out in their inbox. Use this tool to test your subject lines AND “From” lines.

4. First vertical inch or two. Many people won’t see images—your header, wrapper, or photos—because their e-mail software turns them off. Or they may be getting your message on their mobile phone. Consider what’s in this precious real estate. And make it count.

5. Scannable. Since very few people read it all the way through, is it easy to scan your email? Can they get the point at a glance?

6. Headline. You do have a headline, don’t you? Okay then, if you don’t, then the first sentence is your headline. Does it make the point and provide a link for action? Is the call to action simple and clear, making a single point and with no more than a sentence or two at the most?

7. Precision. Omit needless words. All of them. Here’s a rule of thumb to follow: Once you reduce the email to half it’s length…try to reduce it again.

8. Call to Action. Will the person feel like he’s losing big if he decides to sit this one out? That’s the kind of feeling you want to give people.

9. Tone. Conversational. What do I mean by that? Does it feel like one person writing to another? As impersonal as e-mail can be, you still want it to feel like one person’s message to another.

So what about you: are you still using email to prospect? Have you given it up for Twitter or Facebook? If so, how effective have you become? Or has spam and the crowd noise chased you out? Is email dead and anybody who uses it wasting their time and money?

Share your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing from you.

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The Curious Secret to Getting People to Believe You

Ever wonder how you could get more people to believe you?

It’s easy, actually. And quite odd the way it works.

What’s the secret? Never tell a man more than he’ll believe.

Sounds like a moron statement, right?

Let me explain why it’s not.

The Law of Diminishing Credibility

There’s a law of diminishing returns directly tied to the law of diminishing credibility.

Even if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a home will triple in price in the next 5 years, if you have any concern that the buyer might find what you say hard to believe, it’s best to leave that information out.

See, the moment your claim passes the point of believability, credibility drops off like a rock.

In the 60’s some brilliant ad men took advantage of this.

Selling the Ugliest Car in the World

Remember the old Volkswagen sedan with the rag top that hadn’t changed in 20 years, the round top one?

One of the ugliest cars ever made.

In addition, it didn’t have any extra features that any ad man could talk about. Only later years did it have a gas gauge.

You could get so many miles on a tank of gas that you simply drove it until you ran out of gas and then switched to a small reserve tank that held more than enough fuel to get you to the closest gas station.

When the Doyle, Dane + Bernbach agency was given this account, they must have groaned.

What could you say about the car?

It only had two features: it was cheap to run and it was reliable. But everyone already knew that.

What more could they say about it?

Then they hit on a brilliant flash of inspiration: they decided to tell the truth.

I can imagine every ad man in America coming off their chairs and saying, “You are going to do what?”

Doyle, Dane + Bernbach ran a whole series of ads that said, “This car is ugly. It looks like a bug. A beetle.”

“This car is slow. You’ll be lucky if you ever get a ticket.”

The results of the campaign?

Phenomenal. People loved the campaign and sales shot up.

The truth. Simple, pristine truth is an astounding force. And these ad men had touched on a very important key of persuasion: if you point out the disadvantages, it makes everything else you say more believable.

How This Works in Real Estate

In real estate this might mean being frank with others about a house with some real issues, like its small, only has two bedrooms or one bathroom. The roof hasn’t been shingled in 25 years. It’s so old there isn’t central air and heating.

But once you have the disadvantages out of the way, then you can share the advantages.

“Quaint cottage with a historical background. Nice for one, maybe one-and-a-half, with ambition and muscle and a tad bit of cash.”

Isn’t that curious how that works?

By positioning the disadvantages first, you view the advantages in a whole different light. And it is a whole lot easier to swallow.

Besides, when we see an ad for a home that says “great home, lots of potential” don’t we immediately think, “Money pit.”

This rule of persuasion says this: never tell a person more than you think they’ll believe.

In fact, tell them the truth, share with them the disadvantages first, then move onto the advantages and you’ll have a captive audience.

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How “Lead Generation” Could Be Costing You Repeat and Referral Business

Most good agents have at least 50% of their business coming from repeats and referrals.

If you’re in this category, I’m going to suggest an idea that may very well shake up your sense of security when it comes to your sphere.

See the “lead generation” tools you may be using could be unknowingly undermining your efforts. You’re capturing data and plugging people into automated systems.

Here’s a little secret…prospects get it. They already understand it. And what’s worse is, so does your sphere.

The challenge you run into with your sphere is when they visit your web site and “opt in” to your drip campaign…they become “data.” And the automated systems you plug them into lack warmth and feel impersonal.

So what’s that feeling going to do to the value of your relationship?

Sure, everybody does it.

But from the eyes of someone in your sphere, they expect to be treated differently. Even though everyone else does it, they know you and expect more from you.

An automated email to your sphere doesn’t deepen the relationship. It feels cold and lifeless. And from their eyes your relationship with them should mean more than that.

Those relationships closer to you require a much higher level of touch and on occasion a real live meaningful conversation.

For example, let’s talk about someone in your sphere who’s a distant contact. Contrast your email drip campaign with, that same person, calling into a “recorded message.”

They listen and, at the end the recording, it asks them if they would like current pricing. They say, “Yes” and a couple seconds later you’re on the phone having a real live conversation with them.

No they weren’t expecting it, but it comes as a pleasant surprise. After a few minutes of discussion you discover their daughter just gave birth to their first grandchild. You congratulate them and a couple days later you send them a nice handwritten card.

Now how’s that for relationship building?

Again, contrast that against your automated email campaign that does nothing to deepen the relationship.

Please understand that person knows 2-3 other real estate agents. Is the cold impersonal feeling of being “data” in your email drip campaign going to keep them committed to you?

Sure, some of those people will still do business with you and refer others. But over time, step back and really think about the effects of this cold, impersonal “technology-insulated” world we’re building around ourselves.

You’ve taken it to a deeper, more personal level.

A conversation, like the one I described, with a handwritten note will bank you a listing, because they’re downsizing, a buyer side transaction to help them move, and a few years down the road another listing because they’ve decided to move into an assisted living community.

Isn’t that amazing?

It’s the power of having meaningful, perfectly-timed conversations combined with solid repeat and referral systems…vs. data capture…

Honestly confront the reality of today’s consumer and the fact that they can see through all the automation tools and there is no real connection unless you have a meaningful conversation.

It’s a harsh reality, but it’s the truth.

I’m not one of those “touchy-feely” kind of guys, but facts are facts. Real estate is all about relationships and you need to fight hard to initiate, build and deepen your relationship base…or the network you thought was solid may soon be at risk.

Always remember…leads are NOT conversations!

As real estate professionals we’ve got to get back to basics. Real estate is fundamentally always going to be a relationship driven business and relationships start by talking to people…having perfectly-timed conversations and bonding with people.

Now here’s my challenge to you, over the next couple days find an hour or two to deeply contemplate the effects of lead generation vs. having perfectly-timed conversations.

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Why “Lead Generation” May Be Damaging Your Reputation

Have you been to a government building lately? Where you had to grab a number, wait in line, and have your number called?

Your number gets called, you walk up, and the employee behind the counter is nearly expressionless. They look at you as if you’re not really there and ask, “May I help you?”

It’s a lifeless interaction that makes you feel kind of like the number on that little slip of paper you just handed over.

Well, I’m going to suggest that your lead generation efforts could be having the same effect on people you would like to do business with.

Agents are implementing highly-sophisticated lead generation strategies that capture tons and tons of “data.” Agents are generating names, email addresses and phone numbers right and left. One agent bragged to me recently that she was “generating over 300 leads a month.”

My response was, “Really? So how much business are you closing from those leads?”

It’s funny, ironic and sad.

I thought we had gotten disconnected. The phone went stone cold dead. I almost hung up to call her back when she quietly said, “I’ve only closed 3 buyers in the last four months from these leads.”

WHAT?

Three buyers?!?

Those three buyers cost her over $12,000 to generate and by the time she was done with broker splits, she had almost nothing to show for it.

See the massive problem our agent didn’t seem to grasp is that she wasn’t having real live conversations with her leads. She turned lead generation into nothing more than “data capture.” She captured a lead, plugged them into an email drip campaign, and somehow expected that system to do the work for her.

It’s kind of like having a drive-through restaurant and not going to the window and saying, “May I help you please?” Customers are in need of help, no one is attempting to engage them in a meaningful dialog, and they drive off frustrated.

Imagine if that were you. If you drove through, saw people inside, yet no one came to the window to see if they could be of service.

Would you ever go back?

Well, consider what’s happening when your leads begin to feel like data, and you’re not engaging them in a meaningful conversation. In fact, the ill effects of that model could be reaching far deeper than you may realize.

In my next post I’m going to shed some light on how this impersonal trend in real estate lead generation could even be costing you repeat and referral business too.

So keep your eye out and we’ll talk soon.

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Deadly Lead Generation Trends

Over the last 5-10 years there’s been a conventional wisdom develop that “real estate is all about lead generation!” After all, if you don’t have leads you’ve got no business, right?

Well, the fact is you could have hundreds of “leads” and still have no business.

How?

Simple.

If you have 100 leads and you call them all…how often do you get voice-mail?

See according a study done by Pew Research Center and the American Association of Public Opinion Research, in 2012 the total number of people answering their phones had dropped by more than 76% over the last decade.

What’s worse is that same study concluded that less than 9% of all calling attempts ending in an actual conversation…more than 91% of all calls were not answered or ended in less than 30 seconds.

So what does all this mean?

Prospects have Caller ID, voice-mail, free email accounts, social media and every other imaginable technology to make us more… Social?

If only…

No… Whether by fate, accident, or grand design these tools are building massive barriers, like stone walls, between you and your prospects.

Now let’s take this challenging picture a step further. If you go to the time, effort, and expense to generate 100 leads and you call them all, based on the Pew Research stats, you’ll talk to less than 9 people.

Worse yet, when do you think you’ll connect with these folks?

While they’re sitting down to dinner with their families?

As they’re heading out the door to take the kids to the soccer game?

Or…

When they’re thinking…“Gee, I hope a real estate agent calls me right now?”

Now I’m being facetious to make a point.

The point is “lead generation” is a challenging uphill battle in today’s market. Prospects are fed up and have had all the interruptions they’re going to tolerate. And if they don’t answer their phones and talk with you…do you actually have anything?

Well actually…you do!

You’ve got a big fat expense of $1,000-$2,000 or more and generally little to nothing to show for it in the way of new business.

However, there is a better way. Focus all your efforts on attracting perfectly-timed conversations with interested prospects who actually want to talk with you.

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Real Estate Agents: Are You Making These 6 Email Mistakes?

Thank God for email. As a real estate agent you can get a ton of work done without having to pick up the phone. Furthermore, when you have an email of a conversation you also have documented proof.

But not everyone knows how to use email correctly. Here are the mistakes you need to avoid.

Continue reading

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Want to Be Insanely Productive Without Busting the Bank? Here Are 4 Tips

We all want to do more in less time. This is one of the reasons that we build teams. We start to delegate work. When a finite amount of labor is delegated to a staff more things get done.

But that’s an awfully expensive way to do it.

Wanting to be more productive is also another reason why we fall for the latest technology fashion. This tablet can save you more time while this email autoresponder can communicate with leads while you sleep.

These new technologies also come with a cost.

What you and I want is to be able to do more stuff without having to write a check or swipe a credit card. Is that even possible? It is. Let me show you.

Use Rewards

Making money is not enough. I mean, it is enough when it comes to paying bills and clothing your children. But when it comes to motivating you to perform at your highest performance level, money alone is not going to do the trick. You also need praise and recognition for your work.

Perhaps you prefer it to be quiet and in private. Or you might prefer it to be verbal and in public. Find out what your sweet spot is and work to get more of that particular self-esteem reward. Make sure it has impact.

For example, this could be kind words from satisfied clients. Make sure you are asking them along the process on how you are doing. Seeking validation is okay. You will work hard when you do a good job, but when you are recognized and praised for doing a good job you will work even harder.

When you are happy you will work harder.

Eliminate Busy Work

We all have them: things that we do that were once important but are no longer important. So why do we keep doing them? Good question.

Sometimes we keep doing something because other people expect us to keep doing them. This could be a report or a memo. Why not contact those people and ask them how you could improve that particular task? Ask them what sort of impact it would have if you stopped doing that particular activity.

Measure the cost and benefit of everything you do and eliminate those tasks with little benefit but high cost.  Next in line eliminate those tasks with little benefit but low cost. Then look at all activities that are high benefit and high cost. Finally, any activities with high benefit but low cost should be kept.

Remove Hurdles

Ask yourself “What one thing could you remove that would make your work easier?” It could be keeping track of paperwork or making follow up calls on your 800 hotline. Is there a way you can delegate these activities to an intern or low-paid high schooler?

The goal is to get you to focus on the the four most profitable tasks of real estate–and forget about everything else.

Streamline Goals

When it comes to being insanely productive it is helpful if you are insanely focused. This means you have to be harsh about what you accept. And you have to be a Nazi about what you don’t accept.

One thing that I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten more successful is that more and more people approach me about opportunities. I used to listen to all these opportunities until I realized it was a waste of time. There will always be opportunities–and rarely will they ever be as successful as the person suggests. This is why I will only accept opportunity ideas via email. I’ll review the idea and then let the person know if I want more.

In the end, your main focus should be on negotiating, prospecting, listing and selling. Those are the only activities that will make you 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.

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