3

7 Proven, No-Nonsense Ways to Get Way More Referrals–and Save Your Real Estate Career

For the overworked, overcommitted and all-around overwhelmed real estate agent I have one piece of no-nonsense advice for you–that really works.

Learn to make people talk about you.

Last week I wrote about the two most productive lead generation activities in real estate marketing that several Baylor University researchers discovered–referrals and IVR technology.

To piggyback on that discovery, I’m going to zero in on referrals this week and IVR technology next week.

You’ll Make More Money. Simple Enough?

Referrals are by far the most effective leads you can find. They don’t cost anything and they come with a substantial recommendation from a past client, friend or family member.

Referral leads are ready-made leads. They are leads that require nothing more than for you to bump them into the basket.

But it’s not really that simple.

It does require diligent work with clients, providing divine customer service–the kind of service that people only dream about. But when they do experience that kind of care, they can’t believe it, and they can’t stop talking about it.

Sound like a far-fetched dream?

It doesn’t need to be. Just follow these 7 practical steps to creating a great referral business and in less than six months you’ll unlock a majestic mountain of fresh, ready-to-buy or sell leads.

1. Provide Astonishing, Jaw-Dropping Service

The first step is to provide a high level of service in the first place. If the service is not exceptional, no one will send any referrals. This goes back to the idea of divine customer service.

But in my experience what most clients want from you is consistent feedback. (Has that been your experience?)

When your clients feel you have communicated with them clearly and regularly and beyond their expectations, their level of satisfaction goes up. Clients can overlook other errors at times, but lack of communication is rarely forgiven.

Achieve a satisfying level of communication with your clients and you’ve found the first key to generating more refarrals.

2. Ask Past Clients for Referrals

A second, but simple step toward obtaining referrals is to ask for them.

There is no substitute for actually prospecting for referrals. Picking up the phone and communicating with your past clients is crucial.

3. Ask Current Clients for Referrals

Third, do not forget to ask your current clients. (Tips two and three can be summed up this way: ask every client.) The people you are currently working with can be your best referral sources.

The ides is to strike while the iron is hot.

They’re telling everyone they meet that they are either buying or selling. They are in a fit of anxiety, eager to talk to people about buying or selling a home. Their whole conversations revolve around their current activity in real estate.

So, you want to hit these people early on when their excitement is high.

4. Create an Automatic System to Cultivate Past Clients

Understand you must consistently contact your past clients in order to achieve success in referrals. Creating a program that helps keep you in constant contact with your past clients will yield the best results.

You will receive a good 80 percent of your referrals from 20 percent of your past clients.

5. Track, Monitor and Measure Referrals

Make sure to effectively track who is sending you the business. You need to know which people to spend the most time, energy, effort, and dollars on.

You might be surprised who is your leading salesperson in the field. By tracking, you can accurately reward the ‘top producer’ of referrals. And people love recognition from others.

A simple spreadsheet or more complex customer relationship management software can help you do this.

6. Build Something Past Clients Are Proud to Share

Put out the welcome mat. Invite your current and past clients to visit your website to enjoy articles, tips or quizzes.

Also, make it easy for your current clients to navigate your website or blog. Do something on the web that establishes your authority.

 

 

7. Identify and Provide What People Want

Finally, the surest way to success is finding out what people want–and then giving it to them. This can even be about finding needs or wants people don’t know they have…and meeting them. Think Apple iPod.

Nobody thought they needed the iPod. But Apple mined their customer base and the world at large and discovered some keen insights that helped them develop the iPod. All Apple had to do was get out of the way after that.

Conclusion

My best advice to you is become something incredible. Become something people can’t stop talking about. Become a purple cow.

Be diligent in identifying and providing what your customers want or need. Pay close attention to what people on the street are saying. Never stop asking, listening, learning and giving.

Once you do this, all you’ll need to do then is get out of the way.

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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Take Advantage of This Psychological Buyer Quirk to Sell Any Home Now

Once upon a time a seller could price her home with the promise that she would get the full price.

She would review each offer as it came in. She would work with her agent to make a careful and calculated decision about which offer she should take. Then, she would select her buyer–normally above or at full price.

Unfortunately, in most markets today, this doesn’t–or can’t–happen.

The Death of the Typical Bidding War

Hot markets meant buyers made absurd, exuberent offers for just about every home that was priced. That doesn’t happen anymore.

In a slow market, a typical bidding war begins–if it begins at all–with the marketing of a slightly undervalued home. That means selecting a price that is at the low end of the expected selling price range.

This may not please your seller one bit–but it may result in multiple offers. And naturally, multiple offers tend–no promise, though–to drive the selling price up.

However, if you choose a low-pricing strategy, make sure that the property is adequately exposed to the market before you entertain offers. (And make sure you use the seven natural laws of prospecting I wrote about in August.) That’s the key to taking advantage of the psychological buyer quirk I’m going to share with you in a minute.

The New, Slow-Market Approach to Pricing a Home

Typically, sellers using this approach wait 10 days to two weeks before they entertain offers. During this time there is a broker open house and one or two public open houses.

Without this exposure, your home could sell at the low end of the range because only a limited number of buyers will have seen the property.

But if all the pieces come together, you’ll have an environment for a multiple offer situation–which can be very lucrative.

How to Correct Pricing Misconceptions of a Home Seller

In addition to stressing the benefits of setting a lower price to your sellers during the pre-listing stage, this time also affords you the opportunity to correct sellers’ misconceptions on pricing.

Some sellers might be tempted to choose another salesperson who quotes them a higher asking price.

This shoud make you ask: “Does the salesperson want your success or a listing?” A salesperson who gives an unrealistically high price is making an empty promise.

Why Overpricing Doesn’t Work

Other sellers believe that overpricing will work to their advantage because it will give them ‘bargaining room.’

If you run into sellers who want to overprice their home, tell them that althouhg overpricing in a rising market may be appropriate, no one has ever had a successful client overprice in a falling market.

Leaving bargaining room isn’t as valuable a negotiating tool as bringing in a greater number of highly motivated buyers.

The Secret to Creating Irresistable Demand for a Home

How do you lure in the greatest number of motivated buyers? By setting a competitive price. Seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t know this.

Explain to your client that an attractively priced home pulls in buyers. This sometimes means a home below market value.

Tough sell. But remind them, more buyers equals more competition. And more competition means that the home will actually sell–which, in reality, is the most important thing to keep in mind.

Tap Into This Psychological Quirk of Buyers

Did you know that a home usually gets the most attention from buyers just after it’s put on the market? That’s right. Immediately after a home is listed, its flooded by buyers.

These are the buyer’s who are highly motivated. They have agents. They have instant notification via email and text when homes go on sale. They scour neighborhoods weekly. They’re primed.

And they flock to new homes on the market–ready to make a bid on the drop of a hat if necessary.

If you could view the number of times a home is seen during the first four weeks, what you’d see is a spike in activity in the first two weeks–then a sudden drop.

That’s why it’s necessary to encourage sellers to take full advantage of this phenomenon by showing their home in the best condition and…setting it at the best price during the first four weeks of the marketing efforts.

You want this home to be something buyer’s won’t forget–even if they’re not ready to buy just yet.

Here’s why.

Let’s say you did this for two weeks…but no takers. After your careful research, you and the sellers decided it’s still priced too high because you got plenty of activity…but zero offers.

If you use a tool like Showing Feedback, all you have to do is log into your Email Center on your account and send an email blast to all of the agents who have viewed the home. This includes every single person who was in the first wave of buyers.

If the home is priced accordingly, then there’s a good chance that you have laid the foundation for multiple offers.

What to Do Next

Now, if you find that you still don’t get the activity that you expected–lower the price even further.

You’ll eventually get to a point where the house is priced at an acceptable rate for the market. Send out another email blast…and kick back…and wait for the calls to come in.

Because they will. It never fails

Remember: There are enough people in this world who are interested in your client’s home. As long as you have chosen your clients carefully.

You just have to make sure the price gets to a point that they crave. Then they’ll come out of the woodwork.

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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Four Ways of Looking at Real Estate Marketing

Marketing. What is it?

It’s not about tactics. Promotions. Or advertising.These things are useless without a sound foundation of research and analysis.

Marketing is about consumers.

It’s about understanding how they think, behave and talk. It’s about proper communication, segmenting and powerful distinctions.

Most importantly, its about understanding what works–and why. Without this last piece, everything else you do is simply blowing in the wind.

To help you understand this concept of marketing in real estate, lets look at four of the most popular and proven ways marketing shows up in real estate.

Social Media

It’s hard to argue with what is hot. Right now, social media is hot. But is there a payoff?

Becky Boomsma thinks so. She says “If you are interested in defining your expertise in specific geographic areas or on specific real estate topics, social media participation is extremely effective in developing and differentiating your expertise and brand.”

On the other hand, Redfin’s Glenn Kelman wonders if this is the best way to talk to his clients.

Glenn quotes a New York Times article by Clive Thomson called Brave New World of Digital Intimacy that suggests social media like Twitter or Facebook is at best creating an awareness of your actions–that’s best suited for people under 30.

For a business, it seems rather absurd.

That’s why I like to go back to stalwart advice from online experts Brian Clark and Jakob Nielson.

Jakob Nielson said in his article Web 2.0 Can Be Dangerous, “AJAX, rich Internet UIs, mashups, communities, and user-generated content often add more complexity than they’re worth. They also divert design resources and prove (once again) that what’s hyped is rarely what’s most profitable.”

And in his article Blogging Is Dead, Brian Clark said, “Blogs that provide true value by teaching, informing and offering unique perspective are thriving….Value will always be key.”

Mass Marketing

Is mass marketing dead? Good question.

Mass-marketing used to mean making one pair of black Nike shoes and getting the whole world to wear them–even if someone wanted a pink pair and another wanted a red pair.

Today, we’ve moved into the world of target marketing. Nike makes shoes in every color for every sport. Anyone is bound to find a shoe that’s perfect for them.

But target markets are very large. So, target marketing is nothing but camouflaged mass marketing.

How does this work in real estate marketing?

Segmenting your audience into specific needs. Seniors who want to buy an upscale second home. Young urbans who want to buy their first home condo downtown.

For you, this means finding a niche–and owning that niche.

While you may market mass amounts of email, postcards or phone calls to this niche, I think it still means that mass marketing is dead. You cannot make money throwing large amounts of mud at the wall. The same holds true for the next real estate marketing medium.

Branding

Will anyone recognize your brand? This is the question Steven Van Yoder asked in his article on real estate branding.

That’s an important question.

Why? Establishing a brand is equal to defining who you are. Establishing your brand requires determining who you are, what makes you different than everyone else and why anyone should trust you.

Establishing your brand helps you focus on your business. It helps you identify what you can offer consumers that no one else can offer. And it will help you grow.

But you can’t focus on branding alone. Branding is very difficult to monitor and measure. That’s why you need a predictable and proven marketing strategy like direct response.

Direct Response Marketing

What can direct-response marketing do that social, mass and brand marketing can’t do?

It can tell you what works and what doesn’t. Quickly.

Direct-response marketing is the bread and butter for marketers who want to not only survive, but thrive–in any economy.

Think Bill Jayme. QVC. Billy Mays.

Obnoxious, you say? Think twice, as the Direct Creative Blog argues:

I think few would say they “like” to watch a Billy Mays commercial. He’s considered obnoxious by many. But that’s irrelevant. Just as people say they dislike catalogs while continuing to place orders, they say they don’t like Mays’ in-your-face style while emptying the store shelves of the products he pitches.

The one thing you should learn about direct-response marketing is this: learn from what works–not from what you like.

Here’s What You Must Learn

Your best bet? Train yourself to think like a direct marketer–then test new marketing mediums like social media. Or experiment with target marketing.

That way you can avoid the over-hyped. You can avoid flushing money down the toilet. You can avoid trying to keep up with an overwhelming amount of stuff.

When you test everything, you are making decision based on facts. And, I think you’ll agree, that’s the best way to do business.

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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What Every Real Estate Agent Should Know about Writing Headlines

Whether you are writing a sales letter, postcard or blog–you need to know how to make it stand out. This is critical to real estate marketing.

No bones about it: Writing is important. Everyone must do it.

Yet, you are competing in a ruthless and combative environment. You need every trick of the trade you can find so that you are not lost in the storm surge of advertisement.

That’s why it’s so important to test everything you do in real estate marketing. You need to experiment. Be bold. Rock your readers. Jilt them out of their slumber. Make them sit up and pay attention to you.

How do you do that? I thought you’d never ask. Here are a few headline writing techniques you may find helpful:

1. Ask a Question

Better yet, make sure it’s a question to which the reader wants to know the answer.

Before: “Do You Know What My Realty Company Accomplished Last Year?”

After: “What Do Successful Real Estate Agents Have That Failing Real Estate Agents Sometimes Lack?”

2. Use the Word “Why”

Adding  the word “why” in front of a factual statement increases the reader’s curiosity.

Before: “95% of For Sale By Owners Fail.”

After: “Why 95% of For Sale By Owners Fail.”

3. Employ the Rule of 3

I’m not sure why this works, but it just does. Seems to do with our attraction to things that are bundled in 3. Father, mother and child. Judicial, legislative and executive branches of government. Body, soul and spirit.

How do you use it in a headline? Simply list three benefits.

Before: “Learn How to Work with More Clients and Make More Money.”

After: “Learn How to Work with More Clients, Sell More Homes and Make More Money.”

4. Write “Ignore It at Your Peril”

This works well when dealing with fear. Write “Ignore It at Your Peril” in a headline to emphasize its important.

Before: “The One Thing You Must Do to Avoid Foreclosure.

After: “The One Thing You Must Do to Avoid Foreclosure. Ignore It at Your Peril.”

5. Add a Question Mark to Your Headline

Making a statement that’s hard to believe? All you have to do to make it easier to swallow is question the claim yourself by adding a question mark to the end of the headline.

Before: 500% Profits from Selling Your Home

After:  500% Profits from Selling Your Home?

6. Mention Current Events and News

A news angle is especially effective when writing about the real estate market.

Why? Topics discussed on a daily basis typically affect the larger population. And people tend to be more in tune to these current events. So they’re receptive.

For example, say you’re searching for pre-foreclosures: “Stay One Step Ahead of Foreclosure Just Like Ed McMahon – But Without the Humiliation.”

7. Use the Words “New,” “Introducing,” or “Announcing”

Why does this work so well? It works because people are interested in what is new.

Example: “Introducing a Painless Way to Sell Your Home in a Weak Economy.”

8. Tell the Reader to Do Something

Example: “Call This Number to See How I Could Sell Your Home Fast.”

This is one of the ways we recommend clients use the 800 response hotline number.

When the reader follows the instructions in the headline–and called the number–they heard an audio tour of their very home.

Result? An instant on-the-spot demonstration proving the product works.

9. Promise the Reader Useful Information

Prospects are more likely to read your ad if they feel they can learn something useful by doing so.

Dale Carnegie sold more books when he said he could teach people “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

Eugene Schwartz sold more course when he promised parents “How to Turn Your Child into a Classroom Wizard.”

10. Ask a “Who Else Wants…?” Question

This is a classic social proof strategy. It implies that a lot of people out there are already on board.

• Who Else Wants a Bigger, Safer Home?”
• Who Else Wants More Fun and Less Stress in a Home?

11. Suggest a Fast and Easy Solution

People love quick and easy when it comes to solving a nagging problem.

• Here’s a Quick Way to Get Out of Debt
• Here’s a Fast and Easy Way to Avoid Foreclosure

12. Challenge the Reader Through Curiosity

Big curiosity draw with this type of headline, and it acts almost as a challenge to the reader to go ahead and see if they are missing something.

• What Everybody Ought to Know About Adjustable Rate Mortgages
• What Everybody Ought to Know About the Housing Market

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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How to Win (Almost) Every Listing Presentation

Long ago I believed that winning listing presentations meant having a mental toolbox full of witty comebacks, sly counter objections and a persuasive delivery that would allow me to deflect arguments, shut down concerns and steamroll the prospect into signing with me.

But then I kept coming across successful agents who weren’t particularly well spoken and failing agents who rocked the crowds at the local Toastmasters. Obviously, something else was at work here.

After two decades of analyzing why some agents grow while others die–and why–I realized that surplus or scarcity thinking had more to do with how well agents do in listing presentations or negotiations than any training ever did.

Now, let me ask you a question: Are you a surplus or scarcity thinker? If you don’t know, make sure you know before you’re next listing presentation.

The Psychology Behind Success at Listing Presentations

We have 50,000 thoughts a day. That’s about 2 thoughts a second.

Most of them don’t matter, though. They’re of the this breed: “Message light blinking on phone,” “Air conditioner just started” and “Breeze is cool this morning.”

And because of the randomness of some of our thoughts, some of us don’t focus on any of our thoughts. And that’s a problem.

If we ignore all thoughts, we could miss out on great ideas when we have them. Like taking that much-needed vacation or placing an ad in that new homes magazine.

Worse, however, is when many of us do focus on our thoughts, but only on the negative ones. This can literally cripple us at the negotiating table.

My question for you, when approaching a selling situation is this: where are your thoughts pointing?

Are you thinking scarcity, such as…

• “I don’t deserve this listing when I’m going up against that agent.”

• “I bombed my last presentation, I’ll probably bomb this one.”

• “If I don’t get this seller, I’m sure to foreclose on my own house.”

Or are you thinking surplus…

• “I deserve this listing.”

• “I can’t wait to deliver a killer presentation!”

• “I love real estate and the thousands of opportunities to make thousands of dollars!”

As a rule, never believe your negative thinking…especially if it limits what you think is possible.

If you tend to be a scarcity thinker, stop right now and admit that your habit of thinking needs to be changed.

You’ll need to do this because just being aware of limiting beliefs and thoughts is a major step in the right direction. And awareness alone can be curative.

Then begin to work on affirmations like the ones above in the surplus category.

Also simply doing something different that counters limiting thoughts can work wonders. For instance, if you typically avoid or neglect selling situations, hunt them down. And throw yourself at them.

You’ll be amazed at the level of confidence you gain from simply doing something you’ve always dreaded. Even if your initial results are less than you expected. Practice makes perfect.

Only when we weed the limiting beliefs from our subconsciousness is it possible to plant the seeds of new beliefs.

And new beliefs are the pathway to prosperity. Abundance. Surplus.

To help you on your new journey, I recommend you pick up two classics:”Awaken the Giant Within” by Anthony Robbins and “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill.

Both can be read in a weekend. And both will have you climbing the walls, hungry to make big 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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The 3 Best Social Media Ideas for Improving Your Sales You’ll Ever Read

Leads are like molecules. They’re a billion of them, but all so small and insignificant you don’t even pay attention to them.

Leads are like molecules in another way, too. Without molecules, you wouldn’t exist. Same is true for leads.

But maybe you don’t have a billion leads coming in. Would you like a billion leads over a years time? If so, one way to get there is by doing lots of microprospecting.

What’s microprospecting? Just another way of saying “prospect small, and often.”

Microprospecting is sending a personal email to a satisfied client. Crossing the street to meet a stranger. Microprospecting works in the digital world to, like social media.

You can fill your macro funnel with leads by laying hundreds of small social media prospecting lines. And the cool part? Is doesn’t take a lot of time.

In the case of social media, here are the 3 best–and fastest–things you can do everyday that are guaranteed to grow your pipeline.

The Best Blogging Idea You’ll Ever Read

The most obvious choice here is to start a blog. If you haven’t a blog yet, it’s imperative you get one now.

What can you do daily on a blog that will improve your sales? Write short, meaningful posts on the state of your local market.

But I have a much better idea.

Write short, meaningful posts about people in your community. Become a local journalist.

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 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.

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%.

What was the secret to the newspaper’s success? The editor summed it up in three words: names, names, names. He and his reporters focused on the people of the town–not the events.

You should do the same.

The Best Recommendation Idea You’ll Ever Read

The next best social media idea is to give people recommendations. But not just any old recommendation.

How can you do that? Join LinkedIn if you haven’t already and search out people you’ve worked with in some capacity. Then, recommend them.

But say something positive and unique about that person. Unique is key. Zero in on something about that person that makes them stand out. Give the recommendation teeth.

I’ve given several recommendations where people have returned with “wow…that really pops out of the page.”

You can learn how to write a good LinkedIn recommendation. It’s really easy and involves a 15 minute investment.

Give one recommendation a day for 30 days and you’ve made 30 people smile. Hopefully you’ll get 30 recommendations in return. That’s not always the case, but 20–even 10–is better than none.

The Best One Night Stand You’ll Ever Have–and the Only One You’ll Ever Have

This goes without saying, but to make the best use of social media, you have to be social. Like Dustin Wax at Stepcase Lifehack said:

Building relationships starts with a friend request or invite  — it doesn’t end there. Get to know the people you are connected with. Answer their questions, send them a link or piece of information now and again, and read their profiles.

But if you look at social media as a one-night stand–you’re doomed for failure.

You’ve got to love people. Everything about them. Like Leo at Zen Habits–who I swear doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. He is truly interested in everybody.

[Just follow him on Twitter to see what I mean.]

When you fall over yourself to get to know people–one person at a time–becoming popular is inevitable. And that means you have to spend more than one night with them.

The 90 Day Social Media Challenge

Social media is out there to help you. And it’s perfect for what you want to do–generate leads. Where else can you have access to millions of people in the matter of a few clicks?

So, my challenge to you is this: for the next 90 days try and do these three simple social media ideas everyday.

At the most it should take you an hour and a half.  But that hour and a half maybe your best time investment as your social network grows exponentially.

Disclaimer

By the end of that 90 days you won’t have a billion leads. Probably not a million. Or even a thousand. But a hundred isn’t far-fetched.

And if you have one hundred new leads, and got just one lead from each person, your leads just doubled without you having to do anything.

That’s the beauty of compound marketing.

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Sick of Failure? The Seven Natural Laws of Real Estate Prospecting

Tired of dealing with snobbish buyers? Getting walked all over? Losing? If so, what you need to do is create some competition using the same principles farmers use to grow crops. Let me explain.

Prospecting is essential to success in real estate. It’s a key ingredient that will help you earn and get paid the amounts of money you want to make each year.

Yet, so many agents disregard, forget, ignore or flat out neglect prospecting. That’s bad. Especially in this market.

What you need to do–instead of settling for whatever rolls in from the front desk–is create an arena of competition. That is, you must get buyers competing with each other for a home. That means, you must get a lot of buyers bidding for the same home.

How do you do that? Prospect, prospect, prospect. Even though that sounds easy, it won’t happen over night. You have to sow today, to reap tomorrow. Any farmer will tell you that. It’s the natural law of the harvest.

And part of the law of the harvest is to focus your efforts on prospecting. Just like a farmer plants, then waters, then fertilizes, then harvests…you also focus on the other three pillars of real estate–and prospect.

Follow these seven natural laws of prospecting to create competition and in no time you’ll harvest a bumper crop this year of leads, clients and commissions.

1. Prospect Enough

Prospecting is THE PATH to finding the leads that will become your successfully closed transactions in the weeks and months ahead. If you don’t search for and cultivate the best people to work with in your territory, your competitors WILL find these people…and successfully close transactions with them instead.

2. Prospect With a Good Attitude

People respond to you based upon what you are putting out to them. When you have a great, positive, fun-loving attitude people will like talking to you more.

3. Follow-Up With Prospects

Following-up on the leads you’ve uncovered and enrolling your prospects in follow-up systems is really what being a successful real estate agent is all about. Follow-up systems are essential.

4. Prospect the Right People

Are you prospecting the people you ideally want to be working with? Are you prospecting in the geographical area that has the properties you really want to list or sell? Make sure you’re prospecting the people who will be closing the exact kind of transactions you want to be working on.

5. Ask Your Prospects for Referrals

When you are prospecting you will maximize your results when you ask your prospects who they know that might be interested in buying or selling in the near future. When you ask the right questions you can also begin prospecting everyone else they know. Don’t be afraid. Just do it!

6. Mail to Your Circle of Influence Constantly

Mailing to your circle of influence keeps you “top of the mind.” You get their attention and remind them of who you are every single month. And the more you consistently mail the higher the probability that one of your circle of influence (or someone they know) will buy or sell right around the time that one of your mailers arrives on their doorstep.

7. Prospect Even After You’ve Generated Activity:

To be the best you can be in your real estate career you need to prospect constantly. If you get busy and stop, or substantially reduce your prospecting you will most definitely experience a gap in your incoming commissions in the weeks and months ahead. Don’t delude yourself about this. Know with certainty that whenever you slow down your prospecting you will substantially decrease your income for the year.

Final Thoughts

Carve each day you work into four quadrants and focus on one pillar in each quadrant. Especially prospecting. Don’t deviate. Always prospect and you’ll create competition and render those snobbish buyers humbled. Count on it.

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The Surprising Secret to Growing a Business Through Self-Control

Around 1970, psychologist Walter Mischel launched the ground-breaking “Marshmallow Experiment.”

Mischel left a group of preschoolers inside a room with a bell and one marshmallow on a plate. His instructions: Wait 20 minutes and you’ll get a second marshmallow. If the child couldn’t wait 20 minutes, ring the bell and he could eat the one marshmallow–but not get another one.

Videos of the preschoolers show children squirming in their seats, hiding their eyes and kicking their legs. Some children couldn’t wait one minute. Others bailed at 15 minutes. And some waited the 20 minutes and got a second marshmallow.

What Mischel Did Next

Then Mischel tracked these children as they grew up. What he found was astounding–and could have a big impact on your real estate business.

According to Mischel, those children who waited 20 minutes ended up getting higher SAT scores, entering better colleges, learning more, earning more money and having a better social life.

Those who couldn’t wait the 20 minutes ended up becoming bullies, failing parental and teacher evaluations and using drugs.

What does this tell us? It tells us that self-control is essential. And here’s how you can use self-control to grow your business.

The Curious Secret to Self-Control

Do you know what the most popular alternative medicine website is? It’s Mercola.

Several years ago Dr. Mercola started his website and did nothing but give away great, free content–on his website and in his e-newsletter.

Over a period of three years he built his subscriber base  to 1.2 million people. So, when he started offering books and other information products, his subscribers bought them in droves.

The same thing happened to David DeAngelo.

DeAngelo is the founder of DoubleYourDating. It’s a website that helps men learn how to pick up beautiful women and get as many dates as they want. DeAngelo started the website in his basement six years ago. And in less than six years, he makes $20 million dollars a year.

How did he do it? The same way as Dr. Mercola. He gave away free, useful, unique, urgent and specific information. Information people could use. The moment he started offering products, his subscribers bought like mad.

Why Does This Work So Well?

I’ll tell you why. Reciprocity.

What is reciprocity? Reciprocity is the principle–noted by Dr. Cialdini–of returning a favor. In a nutshell, if I give you something, you have a sense to give something back to me.

Reciprocity was one of the reasons the Hari Krishnas were so successful back in the 80s. They gave flowers to people who then felt obligated to hand over a dollar or two.

What Does Self-Control Have to Do with Growing a Business?

Here’s the self-control part: Stop bulldozing people with requests for work, leads or money. Stop harassing people at parties, on the street or in church.

Instead, learn how to give–and give enormously–before you ask for anything in return

For example, give of your time. Volunteer your time at a soup line, homeless shelter or city hall.

Or, if you like to write, create substantial newsletters or articles. Give away free, useful information. Or pay someone to do it. Think valuable stuff that people can actually use–like breaking news on the mortgage crisis, secrets to avoiding foreclosure or insider tips on short selling.

Or, give up two hours of your week to consult with clients on a variety of issues like financial planning, gardening, do-it-yourself home repair or elderly care.

Find out what people want and enjoy–and give it to them.

Why You’ll Never Have to Ask for Business Again

Here’s the point: Avoid demanding people for work, leads or money before you give anything away. Delay your immediate gratification.

Like Dr. Bernie Siegal said, “If you spend two hours a week giving your time to people who aren’t your family, you’ll never run out of family.”

The same goes for your business.

If you invest just a small amount of time, money or effort–without strings attached–in other people you won’t have to ask for business. You can simply make an offer and people will respond immediately.

So, what are you giving away? Let me know in the comments. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.

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2

10 Steps to Ruthlessly Accomplish All Your Goals in One Day

It’s no secret: real estate is a hectic job. Paper work. Showings. Buyer drives. Presentations. Your tasks in one day can pull you in many different directions–and make your to-do list seem endless.

Furthermore, like Tony said the other day,  “it’s really tough to focus sometimes.”

Is productivity one of your biggest challenges?

If so, let me introduce you to ten ideas that might help you tackle your to-do list in record time–and even leave time to spare so you can do the things you truly love.

1. Create a List

This is a no-brainer. But you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t do it. They either keep it in their head or simply don’t think they have time to sit down.

If that’s you, you need to know this: starting your day without a list is the main reason you are so busy. Stop now and empty your brain of everything you need to do. Then go to the next idea.

2. Make it short.

Write down no more than 20 items on your daily to-do list. If you really want to challenge yourself, make it less than 10.

Why? When you focus on less you are pouring your energy into the tasks that are most important to your life goals. This is what it means to be ruthless. You’re going to have to make some tough calls. So just do it.

3. Time block.

Roping off certain hours in the day to do a certain task is a popular and successful trick to ruthlessly getting things done.

Imagine from 9 to 11 A.M. you prospect. 12 to 1 visit possible clients. And 2 to 4 P.M. you fill out paperwork. The key is to hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign while you are getting these things done.

4. Eliminate happy talk.

Shun the water cooler. Visit the bathroom at odd hours. Keep your door closed (if you have one). Shut off your email. The point is to avoid falling into idle, unproductive conversation.

5. Lump like tasks.

This is brilliant–and my favorite idea. If you have 3 large tasks and 7 small ones, after you finish your first large task, spend the next hour knocking out two or three of the smaller tasks.

For instance, small tasks could be checking email, walking to the mail box and asking your manager a question. Check out Leo’s fav procrastination hack for help.

Ruthlessly knocking out these small tasks has a secondary reward: they serve as small victories that may encourage you to keep pouring it on.

6.  Get up early.

Not an early bird? I know how you feel. I felt the same way for a long time. What I’ve found is that I can regulate my sleeping patterns with a little work. Here’s how.

Let’s say you get out of bed at 8 A. M. But your goal is to be out of bed by 6 A.M. What you need to do is start slowly.

Each week set your alarm clock back 15 minutes. This allows your body to slowly adapt. And in just two months you’ll be an early riser.

And why even get up early you ask? Remember that old Army commercial: “We do more work before 8:30 A.M. than most people do all day.” Now that’s ruthless.

7. Rely less on technology.

Some of you claim that you can do more now than you could ever before because of technology. Agreed.

But let me ask you this? Are those things you are doing important? Do they add to the bottom line? Who maintains it? Upgrades it? Tinkers with it?

All I’m saying is this: simplify. If you can do something with paper and pen, go that route. Avoid feature creep.

8. Plan.

This bears repeating: Map out your days, weeks, months and years. Start from where you want to be in the next ten years. Then work backwards, describing the steps you need to get there.

9. Get your affairs in order.

No, don’t line up your mistresses. Simply schedule certain days or half days where you do nothing but maintenance.

Clean hard and soft files. Add gadgets to your software. Dust your office. Get your car’s oil changed. Anything that you’ve been putting off but needs to get done because it could break down the road.

10. Demand a stop time.

If you really want to be ruthless, you need to clearly define when you will stop.

Why? Imagine a football game that started at 8 A.M. and didn’t finish until midnight when the last player collapsed in exhaustion.

Football players on the gridiron are ruthless because they know this: the game is over in sixty minutes. That time restraint keeps them fiercely focused on their goals.

The same holds true for you. If you know you’ve got a fly fishing or shopping trip planned at 4 P.M., don’t you think you’d be ruthless? I do.

Conclusion

Here’s the deal: being ruthless is all about attitude. It’s a mindset. A determination to get things done.

But if you like flailing about your day, losing your hair, grinding your teeth, fighting ulcers, losing money and breaking up your family–then fine, ignore my advice.

My gut feeling is you’d rather not lose hair, money or family. So make the decision today to be ruthless. And then teach someone else to be ruthless. You’ll reap great rewards.

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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