How to Write Text Messages That Persuade Buyers

Simple. Concrete. Urgent.

SCU.

This is the easy formula you can use when sending text messages to prospects who are 3 months or more from buying a home. If used properly, you could lower that time frame, even unearth a hotbed of transactions.

Type, “Forgive me, but if you are interested in moving, there is a well priced home in Wildwood, off 109. Rare find.”

Or, “I’m stepping out on a limb here, but an exclusive home on E Adams Avenue in Kirkwood is on the market. Call me if you want to see it.”

You’ll get better the more you send. More concrete. Simple.

“Out on a limb here. Exclusive home up for sale at E Adams Ave Kirkwood. Call me to see it.”

This message is missing the urgent. The U. “Exclusive” sounds elite, not urgent. Did you get better results, though? As in anything that you try, make sure you are testing.

“Forgive me: house on Elmwood 4 sale. Would you like to see it? Call me. Might not last, though.”

To make things easier, make sure you have a template ready. Whether stored on your phone as a draft or preserved in your brain (in other words, memorized).

Text messages fly under the radar, are non-intrusive and, more importantly, eliminate call reluctance.

However, make sure these are people you are working with. Someone who has asked you to help them find a new home.

It won’t be funny if you send a text message to someone you met just the other night at a Chamber of Commerce dinner. If they’re not expecting it, don’t send it.

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Do You Have to Be Aggressive to Make Sales?

Not too long ago I recall Ari Galper sharing with me an interesting incident he had with a company he was doing some sales training for.

It especially reminded me of the slumping market we are in and the tendency for real estate agents to become desperate in tight times by trying to aggressively pin down real estate buyers.

The story goes that after one coaching session, one member of the sales team came up to Ari and said, “Ari, your approach makes complete sense–but I’m afraid I’ll lose sales if I stop being aggressive and start being passive!”

Eliminate These Behaviors and Languages

Now, whenever I hear a comment like that, I want to scream, because it means that the person just doesn’t yet understand that removing pressure from the sales process doesn’t mean being passive.

The point behind using a sales approach like the one that Ari teaches is that it’s an active attempt to create pressure-free conversations with buyers.

However, to do that it’s essential that you eliminate behaviors and language that buyers can perceive as “aggressive.”

We all know what these are — continual e-mail and voicemail “followups” in which agents try to pin down the status of a potential real estate buyer– is one common example. [And of course it’s becoming more and more difficult to nail down a potential buyer in this market.]

The problem is that prospects react to aggressive–or perhaps we should say “overaggressive”–sales behaviors by withdrawing and evading us.

In fact, what you have to do instead of being passive or aggressive is this: you have to take the “middle ground” by being authentically unassuming, yet effective–and that this is the most stress-free and effective way to sell.

What do I mean by “authentically unassuming, yet effective”?

How to Discover a Whole New Effectiveness

For starters you have to shift away from assuming that every buyer is a fit for your any of your listings.

It’s sort of like the legal concept of “being innocent until proven guilty.”

You can’t afford to make any assumptions about “fit” until your conversation with the buyer indicates that you two mutually arrived at that conclusion.

The aggressiveness that turns off buyer sets in when you assume, every time you pick up the phone, that you have a solution for them.

Your tone of voice and language gives them that message long before they’ve even had a chance to agree that you have the home that they want.

But if you can manage to find that middle ground of not assuming anything while also communicating in a low-key, unassuming manner, you’ll discover a whole new effectiveness you could never have imagined.

Flawed Logic

Can prospects sense when you’re assuming too much?

Sure they can–because most of us have been conditioned to present or talk about our solution as a way to engage prospects so they’ll reveal their problems to us.

But that logic is completely flawed.

When you launch into your speal to someone who doesn’t trust you yet, all you do is allow them to pigeonhole you as a stereotyped “salesperson.”

How to Become Unassuming but Effective

First, learn to start conversations by focusing 100 percent on generating discussions around your prospects’ problems, rather than pitching your listing inventory the second you hear an opening.

Second, learn to begin those conversations by converting the benefits of your homes into problems that your homes will actually solve.

Third, after you and your prospects have identified a desires or needs, you can then engage in a discussion about whether meeting those needs is a priority.

It’s only at that point that prospects have finally given you implicit permission to share your inventory with them.

Jumping in with solutions prematurely will only land you back in the trap of being perceived as “aggressive.”

What Do You Think?

Have you found yourself having to get aggressive? Do you approach this market differently since buyers have tightened the purse strings? Or are you in one of these bubble-proof markets? Finally, are you familiar with Ari’s method? If so, have you been effective with it?

Let me know what you think.

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How to Overcome a Stand-Off with a Buyer

Most Realtors haven’t been in the business long enough to see anything but a boom market, and the current slump is new to all but a handful of veterans.

This means buyers and sellers are negotiating this rapidly changing market with the advice and guidance from agents who may not be terribly familiar with the current landscape.

Just for sake of clarity, here’s a snapshot of the current market: home-buying activity has slowed, consumer debt is rising and some houses are sitting on the market longer.

What about you: is this bear market new to you?

Your Greatest Challenge

One thing is for certain: it is a buyer’s world. In fact, buyers are able to make requests that would have been laughable two years ago. Requests like picking up dog poo, removing goldfishes from aquariums, even babysitting rats. [Have you had any absurd requests from buyers or sellers?]

Of course, the biggest demand buyers are making deals with price. And sometimes in a negotiation over a home, the price appears to deadlock progress on buying a home.

This is your biggest challenge. Here’s how to deal with it.

Overcome the Stand-Off

Pretend your buyer categorically says, “I’ll be willing to buy this home but I absolutely will not pay more than $304,000 for it.”

Now, the house is listed for $369,000 and you know from comps that the home is already priced low. You know that your buyer could easily afford a $400,000 home. He’s just playing hard to get. You also know that the seller will not budge either.

An inexperienced agent may look at this situation and see it as deadlocked, the negotiation stalled, the deal maybe even dead.

The veteran knows better.

The veteran says, “I understand how you feel about price, but let’s just set aside that issue for now and talk about some other issues that are important to you.”

Here you go into the particulars of the home that you know the buyer values: school district, short drive to work and cul-de-sac, for instance.

The idea is to try to establish common ground and gain momentum on the little issues. Great negotiators know that big issues become more flexible when you find some common ground on the little issues.

Once you establish those little issues and get your buyer excited about agreeing with them, your buyer is then in a better state of mind for negotiating that price he said earlier he would not budge on.

Where Agents Fail in Stand-Offs

The inexperienced agent thinks he has to deal with the major issues first. He thinks, “If we can’t agree on the big issues, how do you think we are going to agree on the little issues?”

This is like tackling a giant’s chest instead of going for his ankles or knees. You’re just going to make him mad instead of appealing to areas you just might have a fighting chance.

And it goes back to my earlier point: people are more likely to yield on the big issue if you’ve established some momentum and common ground.

That momentum is key to breaking that standstill.

6 Unorthodox Ways to Become a Market Shaker

Just when you thought you could put your wallet or purse away…

Last Wednesday the wireless carrier Verizon released three new phones, including a high-end set that is expected to compete with the iPhone this Christmas. Verizon’s high end phone is called the Voyager.

Among the perks the Voyager offers:

Verizon Wireless hopes the new phone will attract customers put off by the iPhone’s lack of a traditional keypad — the Voyager hinges open to reveal a small computer keypad and a second screen.

There’s a case for those who currently subscribe to Verizon to give the Voyager a close look. The bigger question I think is whether it will actually be the iPhone killer Verizon thinks the Voyager is.

I doubt it.

Verizon is only making an improvement on the iPhone. So the Voyager is not a disruptive technology that will challenge the status quo or overturn the market or even sway iPhone users.

However, I think Verizon had to do it in order to stay competitive and hold onto it’s current client base.

How Disruptive Technology Applies to You

Here’s something to think about: what can you, as a real estate agent, do that would challenge the status quo, overturn your market or even persuade a competitor’s client to work with you?

We can’t deny it: we are in a cooling market. And some of you are starting to feel the pain. The thing about pain is it’s designed to be a warning signal, a wake up call. A time for you to start evaluating what you are doing.

Up to this point your ways of working may have been successful. But think about this: out of the 43 businesses that were showcased in the book In Search of Excellence 14 were out of business in two years. BusinessWeek then studied these 14 failed companies…and do you know what they found out?

“Failure to change” was the main theme for going out of business with these companies.

What does that say to you?

Are you in a position to change? To challenge the status quo? To shake up your market and be a trend setter instead of a passive causality?

6 Unorthodox Ways to Become a Market Shaker

Forget widely accepted principles such as blind optimism and arrogant self-promotion. Instead, break out of the box by asking yourself these unconventional questions that will lead you down a different, unused, but highly prosperous, path to success.

• What worse case scenario could happen, that seems impossible, but if it did happen, what would I do?

• What alternatives to marketing, technology, industry, prospecting, organization are out there…alternatives people are not thinking about?

• What pain are my client’s and prospects GOING to experience in the near future? And how can I provide a solution to that pain?

• What am I personally doing in my business or life that if I don’t change now could provide significant pain in the near future?

• What did other companies do during a recession or sagging growth to survive? How did they change? How did they adapt?

• Finally, what rules can I break? What rules can I rewrite?

The best performers in any industry are the agitators, the pioneers, the rule breakers and the game-changers.

In essence, it’s about staying fresh. So ask your self theses questions. Forecast the future. The ability to peer around corners will pay off big for you.

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Link Happy, SEO Real Estate Style

Over the last several months I’ve been putting together some links to build upon a previous real estate SEO post.

If you’ve got a website and want to drive traffic to it using search engine optimization, then read on.

According to Brian: what you need to know about real estate search engine marketing, part 1. And part 2.

Real Estate SEO on a Budget, via Jim Kimmons.

10 part introduction to search engine optimization.

A little more techy: 5 reasons to be big and popular, not small and niche.

Interested in Google AdWords? Download and listen to one of the best introductions to this advertising medium. Jonathan Mizel interviews legendary AdWords man, Perry Marshall. 56 minutes.

Interview with Andrew Goodman, the guy who wrote the best-selling report on Pay-Per-Click advertising. Top tips to write effective Google text ads.

What you need to know about polite and naughty SEO tricks.

And finally, let me ask you this: do you do search engine optimization? Do you do it yourself? Or do you pay some one else? Has it been helpful? And for fun, do you have any ranking nightmares about competition that just won’t budge? If you do, share! I’d love to hear it.

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Problems Questions Can Create

Tom Freize knows questions. Ari Galper knows. Our boy Socrates knows.

There’s no doubt that questions are a powerful way to persuade.

Through questions the party you are negotiating with can be led toward the conclusion you desire. However, the use of questions can also raise several problems that can easily kill any deal.

First, one may touch an emotional chord with a poorly worded question.

When filling out an application, the proper way to ask a woman her age is not, “When were you born?,” but “On this form, they require your age. Some people prefer ‘twenty-one’ plus. Do you have a preference?”

Second, avoid confrontational questions like, “Why would you make a demand like that?” Instead, ask “Why is that important to you?” This permits full and continuing discussion.

Third, questions can cause problems by the way of their form or substance. That means don’t ask questions that carry any vague implications or that can be turned against you.

The following illustration proves my point.

A clergyman asked his superior, “May I smoke while I pray?” Permission was emphatically denied. Another clergyman asked the same superior, “May I pray while smoking?” Permission was happily granted.

One more thought: use questions for clarification, not to score points against your adversary.

Finally, well-conceived questions can be a powerful tool for recognizing the needs of the other party…and knowing their needs puts you in a position of power and moves you closer to wrapping up the sale.

So tell, me any other problems I missed? Any horror stories you want to share from asking the wrong question?

What about this: ever asked a question and realized as soon as you asked it you wanted it back? Did that same question turn a good situation into a sour one?

Let me know what you think. Looking forward to hearing from you!

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3 Classic Reports on Real Estate Marketing

Last Friday THE LATEST NIELSEN COMPANY REPORT confirms what other research companies have revealed–advertising spending is in a weakened state.

On the losing end were some long-suffering print categories: Local newspapers were down 8%; national newspapers fell 5.9%; business-to-business magazines were off 5.7%; local magazines tumbled 5.2%; and local Sunday supplements gave away 4.7%.

I know a lot of you still have plans on spending advertising dollars on traditional media. Some even plan to spend more. With that in mind, I thought I’d share 3 classic articles I wrote on the fundamentals of advertising and marketing.

Exploit Your Cutting Edge “Secret Weapon

Make Direct Mail Profitable

Make Your Newspaper Ads 750% More Profitable

These date back almost ten years. But still relevant. Or are they? You tell me.

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Mastering Technology: How to Be More Effective in Real Estate

The real estate industry is historically behind when it comes to technology. Why is that?

In an intriguing post called “You Can Lead an Agent to Technology, but You Can’t Make Them Type,” Elizabeth Weintraub argues that an agent shoots herself in the foot if she ignores the web and what it offers.

Perhaps this has something to do with the demographics. NAR says average agent is a 57 year old female.

Then you have posts by Kelly Roark over at Future of Real Estate Marketing. She writes about Agent 2.0. She quotes her colleague Pierre Calzadilla, who’s trained agents for years on how to integrate technology into daily business, recently profiled what Agent 2.0 looks like:

• Not “tech savvy,” but “technologically empowered”
• Highly proficient in marketing, workflow and time management
• Aware of and open to new innovations, and how they can fit into one’s business
• In tune with consumer trends and changes in buyer/seller behavior (e.g., Gen X/Y)
• Appreciation for “old school” techniques but with an understanding of the value in adapting these techniques to new mediums

Further on in her posts she does an excellent job pointing out the key to successfully using technology: adapt the best offline techniques to use online.

That’s good advice. So exploit these traditional techniques.

And the thing to remember is this: if a piece of technology–whether a blog, Facebook or Twitter– doesn’t some how save you time, save you money or make you money, get rid of it.

Furthermore, always make sure you are in control. You are the master and technology is the slave. You make the plan, then you work it.

Regardless if real estate is behind when it comes to technology…it is never to late to start. And it is not as intimidating as you might think. I promise.

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What Real Estate Agents Should Know about Twitter

While not for everyone, Twitter is a new communication tool that provides the real estate agent several opportunities to connect with online communities.

Maybe.

A tool embraced by the early adopter, the real estate agent using Twitter can benefit from thought leadership, connection to the influencers, additional message reach, access to mobile communicators, real-time communication. But more importantly, the opportunity to build relationships through conversations.

But here’s the deal: this tool is probably only good for those who may already have a blogging strategy or are high-communication individuals. Before you decide to use Twitter, make sure it fits in your marketing plan.

And consider this: although there is no formal data, it’s likely audience and user base consist of early-adopter social media folks and influencers, with an average age of 30-45. 

What is Twitter?

Twitter is really much like blogging, but on a miniature scale. The character limit is 140, which requires that users simplify their message.

Twitter has social network features, so users can add or remove friends, for example.

Think of Twitter as a new instant-messaging tool: users can blast messages to their community of clients or prospects, send private messages, or search.

Twitter, till now, has been for the highly engaged, early-adopter, pro-technology user. It’s highly likely that these users participate in other forms of online publishing and communication, like blogging, Facebook, and mobile activity.

What to Publish?

Having in mind the 140-character limit, users are publishing the following types of content:

What are you doing?: Users will tweet information related to them, from “Liddy baptized at 9am” to “taking Mali out for a walk,” or even questions like “what should I do in Vancouver?”

Responding to others: Members within a connected network (this means you are following them and you are following them, and this is easy as pie to do: search, find and click “follow”) can respond to each other using the reply symbol “@”—such as “@Vancouver is a great city. You need to visit….”

Links: Drop a link to an interesting article about your market or your most recent blog post.

And dig this: when your URLs are 130 characters are shorter, Twitter will automatically convert them to a TinyURL. However, TinyURL pushes people through a Preview Page first so you can “safely” see the full URL before proceeding to the target page.

In my opinion, this is annoying. This is annoying because all your friends aren’t probably going to push you to a pornographic or unsuitable page. Use Urltea instead when putting URLs in Tweeter from a PC.

Here’s What You Need to Know

Savvy Twitter users realize that effective communications isn’t about just pushing content to readers. They also start conversations with other people.

This is not just a broadcast tool, it’s also a conversation tool. That means you can reply to followers using the “@” symbol, and engage in dialogue.

In essence, use this tool as a global chat room: respond to others, build relationships, and listen in. Like blogging, the rule of anti-marketing marketing is required for success: engage your community.

Also, Twitter is “opt-in,” meaning that users choose to “follow” a twitter account. Abuse that good will and followers will unsubscribe.

Getting Started

Check out Rafe Needleman’s (CNET) “Newbie Guide to Twitter” or watch this video. For the rules of engagement read Brian Oberkirch’s “Advanced Twitter: Don’t Tweet Like A n00b.”

So, what’s the best way to learn? Experiment. Try creating a personal account before deploying a brand account. Also, creating a Twitter account might be a good idea if you don’t have a blog. It’s a super easy, simple first step.

But first, evaluate whether it’s right for your audience. My best guess is that 20-40 somethings in urban areas are your most likely candidates. If that doesn’t describe your market, you might be a lonely Twitter user.

Another thing: at the moment, Twitter is not an SEO strategy. That means there is no value to your website or search rankings when using Twitter.

Obsession: A Painful Lesson in Options

When it comes to personal freedom among the citizens of the world’s countries, Americans tend to stand apart.

Germans, for example, are willing to obey strict building codes to preserve the historic beauty of their cities.

Canadians are willing to accept stricter gun control laws for personal safety.

Americans, on the other hand, have an incredible desire for personal freedom, no matter how destructive it may be.

We have a tremendous desire to feel free; we don’t want to feel like we’ve been outmaneuvered and only have one choice
left open to us.

The Lesson

That’s why when you are in a closing situation you should always give the other side two options from which to choose.

The key to the Two-Options technique, however, is that both options must be acceptable to you.

You say, “Well, Jack and Jill, I don’t think that there is any question that you should buy this home…the question becomes, how do we work it out so that you can live comfortably with the investment?”

“Let’s take a look at these two different financing plans and tell me which would be best for you. One is a…”

The takeaway lesson here: never back anyone into a corner by saying, “Take it or leave it, they won’t reduce the price.”

Chances are they will probably leave it.

The Pain

Then again, I’ve been in positions myself where I got it into my head that I had to have something. And I wouldn’t budge. Later I regretted the decision.

Have you ever done that?

And have you ever been in a situation where you saw a client who was hooked and it was obvious no amount of reason could persuade them differently?

At that point, are they truly free?

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