Archive for Marketing
Help New Agents Take Their Whole ‘Lives’ With Them into Real Estate
Posted by: | CommentsDo you feel that your new agents are more tenuous than they need to be? Are they holding back from making lead generating contacts because they’re not confident enough? Here’s how to help them.
Most new real estate agents, think they don’t know a thing. (And even very seasoned agents don’t take advantage of the strategy I’m sharing with you here). After you read this blog, you’ll see that’s not true that agents are really ‘new’–or that agents can’t use your skills, qualities and talents as a seasoned agent.
I just did a series of complimentary coaching calls for those people in the Up and Running in 30 Days coaching program. First, let me congratulate one of the agents in the program, Carlena, for attaining 108 lead generating contacts in a week! I wanted to have a little fun and competition in the call, so I set up a friendly contest: Which caller on the line made the most lead generating contacts in a week? Callers could pick any week of their Up and Running program.
Note: Look on this blog for interviews with Carlena and Emily, both doing a great job in generating many, many leads with the start-up plan as their guide.
Agents Need Confidence to Succeed in Sales
To help the agents on the call get much more confidence, I did an exercise with them I call Bringing your Skills and Talents to Real Estate Clients. I’m sharing this with you so you can use it in your office with both new and seasoned agents.
Why is this important? When we’re new agents, we think we know nothing. We’re constantly humiliated with our lack of knowledge, and inability to handle objections. We get so tired of ‘nos’ that sometimes we forget that we are capable, honest, caring, responsible humans. We actually come into real estate with a whole adult experience of widely developed skills, qualities, and natural talents. These are much more useful to us than we give ourselves credit for.
How is Music Helpful to Real Estate?
Let me give you an example. As many of you know, I was (and am) a musician since age four. But, when I went into real estate, I felt like I knew nothing! And, it is true I didn’t know anything about selling real estate. But, I carried with me many great skills into the business that in turn carried me to success fast. Can you guess what some of those skills were—and are?
Had to practice piano 2-4 hours Tenacity
Put off mastery for years Persistence
Followed direction of a coach Coach ability
Application
How could I show one of these, tenacity? I actually presented an offer and got 10 counteroffers! I just never gave up, because I felt it was in the best interest of both parties to buy and sell from each other. I could show that marked-up purchase and sale agreement. Where could I share that quality? I could show testimonials from my clients in social medial, and in my Professional Portfolio.
Bringing your Skills and Talents to Real Estate Clients Exercise
Have your agents draw three columns. Name the first ‘skills and talents’. Name the second ‘benefits to clients’. Name the third ‘how/where to show clients’.
Now, list at least three skills and talents from your former business life. What about these skills/talents are benefits to clients? How would you show this? Where would you show this?
Enlist a Partner
If your agents are having some ‘mind blocks’ on how and where to show these benefits to clients, have them enlist a partner to brain storm
the possibilities with each agent. Once agentsstart crafting these, they’ll get much more excited about their ability to help people—along with that confidence to expand their leads and help more people.
Managers: Use this exercise to relate to potential recruits. What skills and qualities did you ‘attach’ as benefits to recruits? How did that raise your confidence?
How to Write an Article and Get it Published
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re like most managers, you’re not exactly rolling in cash. Yet, you need to promote yourself and your company. You need to reach out to more potential recruits. Writing articles is a great way to expanding your marketing reach–without putting out any dough! Here’s how to do it.
How to Decide What to Write and Who to Write For
Pick up your favorite real estate magazine or newsletter. See the kind of articles that the publisher likes. Note the length. Ask yourself: Why would my articles be a benefit to that publication? Then, contact the publisher for article specifications and submission policies. You’re on your way to standing out as an exceptional manager!
How to Construct your Article
Writing an article follows the same process composers use in writing a popular tune: It starts with the theme (A), continues with the middle, where you expand on the idea and example (B), and ends again with the theme. When I’m teaching my “Train the Trainer” course, we practice this simple structure when we create training programs.
Steps to Create and Publish your Article
Here are the simple steps I’ve used over the years to create articles that have gotten published hundreds of times in major real estate magazines and newsletters:
1. Decide on who your audience is, so you realize for whom you’re writing
2. Decide on the challenge (s) they have that you want to address
3. Jot down all the ideas you have about the challenges and solutions
4. Narrow the topic so you can zero in specifically on what you want to write about. The biggest mistake writers and teachers make is to choose too broad a topic for the time or word framework. For example, it’s difficult to write 500 words on how to create a team. You CAN write 500 words about why to create a team; or three strategic tips in creating a team.
Note: You can write a longer article (1000-3000 words ) and then break it down into 400-600 word sections for a blog series.
5. Choose one to three ideas to discuss.
6. Arrange the topics in the order you want to discuss them
7. To expand on the ideas, present the idea clearly and then give an example. One commonality I’ve found among editors is that they want examples with the idea. Otherwise, the reader doesn’t really get the picture.
8. Close the article with the reiteration of your challenge and solution, and give your audience positive motivation to take action.
Biggest Lessons
From writing all those articles, here are the lessons I’ve learned:
- A smaller topic is better
- Less ideas are better
- More examples are better
So, in about 400-500 words, you’ll only have time for one to three ideas and examples. Make the examples ‘real life’. Also, be sure your article is as perfect as you can get it before submitting. These editors don’t have time to work with any of us in extensive editing. The person who submits articles “ready to go” gets published much more often!
Recruiting: What Do Candidates Want?
Posted by: | CommentsWe talked about the recruiting magnets that are the strongest. In order of weakest to strongest magnets, they are:
Company magnets
Office magnets
YOU
In the last blog, we investigated how to make your magnets, and how to reveal them to the candidate during the interview. The steps were:
Develop your ‘theme’
Who are you?
Relevant history (to those you are interviewing)
What you learned as a result of your life experiences
Why is that relevant?
Relate this to your candidate
The Other Side of the Coin
Now, we know the strongest category of magnets. We know how to develop our own magnets. But, we must also match those magnets to what candidates want. Even more than that, we must match them to what the candidates want that YOU want to hire!
First: Who are You Looking For? and Why?
Every situation is different. Before you finalize your magnets, you need to do a strong, critical description of the kind of agents you need for your specific situation.
Example: My Situation when I Took Over a Failing Office
Here was the situation in that failing office. Can you guess the kind of agents I needed to turn it around?
Here’s my description of the kind of agents I needed.
Make a list here of the traits, qualities, and skills you’re looking for in an agent.
What Gen X and Y are Looking For
This is a recent study of generation x and y candidates, and what they said they wanted:
How are you delivering to these needs? Do you have an agent leadership council? Do you have an open, participative leadership style? Have you ‘flattened the hierarchy?
In a future blog, we’ll discuss much more of the new environment we must create to attract our next best agent.
Note: My leadership subscription series, 365 Leadership, addresses these issues, plus many more. The next full series starts in September. Find out more at www.365leadership.net. I’ll help you put into the action the latest leadership strategies to propel your office into the future with much more profitability. Great for those with 2 agents and those with 200 agents!
Recruiting: Are Your Magnets Strong Enough?
Posted by: | CommentsDuring my 365 Leadership series, one of my members said she was having trouble creating reasons why people should join her company. Those reasons are your ‘magnets’. Think of a magnet as a powerful attractor to the agents you want. The more strength the magnet has, the easier it is to recruit.
Key: The Magnet Should Attract Those You Want
Now, that sounds obvious, but, too often, we use magnets that are easy for us, like,
“You’ll love it here. We’re a big family.”
Now, who does that appeal to? The agent who doesn’t intend to do much business, and wants to be in a secure environment! (Not always, but most of the time).
What magnets are you using now? Are they the magnets you need to attract the kind of people you want? In a later blog, we’ll create descriptions of the kind of agents you want. Then, it’s easy to draw conclusions about what will attract this type of agent.
The Weakest Magnets Are not What You Think
Historically, recruiters relied on company magnets to recruit. Today, those magnets have moved way past what the company offers, or even what your office offers. In fact, the weaker the recruiter, the more he/she relies on the company magnets to attract an agent. Example:
“Join us. We are larger than any other company. You have to be with us to succeed.”
The Strongest Magnet is YOU
I have been associated with two very large successful regional companies, and one very large international company. I’ve observed, from these experiences, that some of the offices in each of these situations had great agents, and some had not-so-good agents. What was the difference? Let’s take one company. There were 19 offices. Five of those offices were stand-outs, with strong agents and great recruiting. The others drifted down from so-so to pretty desperate. Yet, they were all the same company. If it were true that the company provided the strongest magnets, you would think that all the offices would be equal. What was the difference? The specific manager. In a later blog, we’ll investigate how to build your own magnets, based on your strengths, and create your story.
Capture and Analyze Your Magnets
Below is a worksheet for you to use to capture the magnets you’re using now. How many magnets can you name in each category—company, office, and YOU? Which do you count on the most? Who do your magnets attract? Are they attracting the kind of people you want, or repelling the people you want?
Tell me your best magnets. Let me know what you’ve changed in your recruiting strategy to deal with the challenges of the market today. Tell me the changes you’re making in your recruiting strategy as a result of analyzing your magnets.
Trainers and Presenters: How to Promote that Webinar
Posted by: | CommentsYou’re worked hard to present that webinar. Now, how can you optimize it? How can you give it staying power? There are 10 ways.
1. Record it. Many webinar platforms today allow you to record your webinar. Then, you can put it on your website, distribute it through email, or even post it to UTube! Why? Because it’s now a video. (By the way, be sure to check your recording format, to assure it is easily playable)
2. Post it on your website. To post it to my website, I use www.Cincopa.com. I can save it in Cincopa, and post any audios or videos to my website.
3. Post it to www.SlideShare.com or www.SlideRocket.com, and edit it, then distribute it to many or few.
4. Do a promotion using your webinar recording service (less than 1 minute) or SlideShare or SlideRocket. Now, you can promote your webinar with a very short webinar.
5. Make a PDF of your slides (I save them 2 to a page, in color), add links, and distribute, either on your website, blog, or via email.
6. Create handouts, and provide a form so your audience can request 
the handouts. I use www.gravityforms.com to capture all those who request a handout.
7. Promote your next webinar on your present webinar. Be sure, at the end of your webinar, to promote what comes next.
8. Create a slide at the beginning of your webinar that explains who you 
are and what you do, and where the attendee can go to get more information. ‘Play’ this slide while the audience is logging in to the webinar. I alternate between my ‘home page’ slide and my bio slide. Then, when it’s time to start my webinar, I just place the ‘home’ page there again and start.
9. Afterwards, contact each attendee to get feedback.
10. Have a great offer to attendees to buy a resource, get coaching—whatever you think that next step will be.
You’ll see me practice what I preach when I do a webinar with my friend Verl Workman, scheduled for the first week in June. Watch this blog for more information.
Webinars: How to Optimize your Impact
Posted by: | CommentsYou’ve written your webinar. You’ve practiced. You’ve involved others. Now, let’s talk about extending the effectiveness of your webinar by optimizing your impact. Here are three tips that will greatly increase the ‘memorability’ of your webinar.
- Make the slides available prior to the webinar
I’ve learned from doing webinars, that attendees love to have the PDF of the webinar prior to the event. To do this, you must have some type of PDF maker on your computer. You can get one at www.adobe.com. Or, google PDF and you’ll get several programs to make PDFs—and many of them are free.
How to make the PDF. After you’ve installed the program on your computer, have your PowerPoint presentation open. Now, go to file/print. (I know it’s weird, but, although you’re making a different form of your slides, you must tell your computer to ‘print’). Choose your PDF maker. Toward the bottom of your screen, choose Handouts. I make them in color, 2 to a page. That way, it’s easy for attendees to see what’s on that particular slide, and to make notes. Preview what you’re going to print, to assure it’s what you want to print and share.
How to make the slides available. If you can, link them on your website or blog, and make the link available. Or, you can use one of the Cloud storage services available today, like Air Set. DropBox, or Box.net.
You can either email your attendees prior to the event with the link to your slides, or you can tell them the link early in your presentation. Be sure to print the link on your slide.
2. Create handouts to distribute before or after the webinar.
I like to refer to detailed handouts during my webinar, and show an 
example, if it’s a document. As you can see, at the bottom of each page that refers to a handout, I put Handout. Then, at the end of the webinar, I refer again to the handouts I’ll make available, and how.
3. Provide an action plan at the end of your webinar.
Darlene Lyons, owner of Broker/Agent Speakers’ Bureau, gave me this tip when I started doing webinars. At the end of each webinar, I provide a 8-10 point action plan. I also make this action plan part of my handouts.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about how to promote your webinar—and you.
Is There a Webinar in your Future?
Posted by: | CommentsIs a webinar in your future? Everybody and their brother is doing webinars. I just finished doing a ‘live’ Instructor Development Workshop, and there was interest in webinars. So, I thought I’d write several blogs about them. Here goes. Enjoy!
Should you become a webinar ‘maven’? If you’re a
- Trainer
- Coach
- Manager
- Team leader
- Salesperson
you may want to consider the ‘delivery method’ of a webinar. What can a webinar do for you? It can
- Inform
- Introduce
- Sell
- Increase your image
In this series, I’ll take you through the
- Basics of webinars
- The most common webinar mistakes
- Some technical aspects of webinars—software, etc.
- How to create your webinar
What can’t a webinar do? It can’t
Change people’s behavior (it’s not training. It’s education). Webinars are not the magic training bullet we’ve wished for. There are limited objectives you can accomplish by doing a webinar. (We’ll investigate this more later).
Of course, the upside of a webinar is that
- People don’t have to travel to get to the ‘event’
- It’s very cost-effective
- It puts you in front of new audiences
- You can make it ‘evergreen’ (record it and share it)
Some Basic Choices to Make Before You Start
- Your vehicle
Which company will you use to deliver your webinar? There are over 100 companies today offering some type of ‘screen sharing’. They range from free to $100+ a month. The free versions companies tout are for a limited number of viewers (usually 5-10). After that, figure on paying for the services. Among the most popular services are GoTo Meeting, WebEx, and BrightTalk. Whatever you choose, pick a service that will be easy for you! Getting caught in the technicalities while you are trying to be a sparkling presenter is death by webinar.
- What’s your message?
Decide on your topic. Is it something that would lend itself to a webinar? To find out, study webinars you’ve attended. Do some seem too wishy-washy to have been worth your time? Are some so full of facts and figures you snooze off?
Now, decide on your objectives. In other words, start with the end in mind. To write your objectives, start with this sentence,
As a result of this webinar, attendees will____________________________. Examples of objectives for a business planning webinar could be:
- Understand the ‘flow’ of the strategic business planning process
- Be able to differentiate between a vision and a mission statement
- Be able to pinpoint 3 areas of concern about their business from the previous year
After I’ve written my objectives, I know the basic structure of my webinar. I can prioritize those objectives and start arranging my webinar in the right presentation order.
Your Topic: Overview or Detailed?
Is your topic an overview, or is it more detailed? Decide on the scope of your topic, and your objectives, before going further.
Common webinar mistake: Either being so ‘global’ there is little information, or being so detailed you lose the audience in facts and figures.
After deciding on your desired delivery company, and drafting your topic and objectives, you’re ready for the next step. In the next blog, we’ll discuss best presentation methods–and common presentation mistakes.
A Resource for You 
To get more information on creating courses with objectives, see The Ultimate Real Estate Trainer’s Guide. Not only for real estate presenters, this guide provides a step-by-step process for putting together a presentation (not just webinars), and dozens of presentation tips.
Social Media: Fitting It Into your Agents’ Business Plan
Posted by: | CommentsHow have your agents integrated social media into their business plans? Where does it go? In the marketing part of their plans. That’s pretty easy. But, what should social media to do for agents? Sell houses? Get calls to them? Increase their (and your) image? Before we can answer that, we have to define types of marketing and how to measure its success.
Does Social Media Work?
One of the biggest questions agents ask is, “Does social media work?” Well, that depends on what you expect it to do for you. To make any of marketing effective, the marketer must first decide what the objectives are for that marketing. Then, marketers can set up appropriate measurement tools.
The Two Types and Objectives of Marketing
Merchandise: That means advertising a product or a service to ‘get the phone to ring’, or to get a specific, immediate response. An example of merchandise advertising would be placing a home ad in the newspaper—or placing a home ad on Facebook.
Institutional: That means advertising that increases your image, cements your uniqueness in the mind of the consumer, and/or establishes you as the agent of choice. These are not placements that make the phone ring, or get an immediate response. Instead, this kind of marketing is more subtle. It is also more difficult to measure, but, it can be measured. How? By establishing a baseline of consumer perceptions about the product or service, and then measuring the consumer perception after the campaign. (Best to hire a professional marketing service to do this, because it requires expertise).
What do Agents Expect from Social Media Efforts?
If agents are placing homes on Facebook, they probably expect to get inquiries on those homes. Are they getting them? Do they have a method to measure results? Or, if they’re not expecting an immediate response, why are they putting the home there? To show Facebook friends they are successful? The marketer must decide.
If agents (or you) are blogging, what to you expect to get from blogging? If you’re establishing yourself as a neighborhood expert or expert in certain types of homes, you should be able to see more acceptance and trust from the consumer after you consistently and frequently add to your blog.
Don’t Give Up!
Frequency and consistency are the by-words of marketers. Yet, advertising executives always complain that their clients expect results too quickly and change their campaigns way too soon. Just think. How many times did you have to hear that pop tune until you started recognizing it? How long until you could hum it? Probably anywhere from 8-20 times!
In my business planning system for real estate agents, I show agents how to create a marketing plan. Put your social media into that plan, be clear about your objectives, and set up consistent and frequent efforts to your best target markets. Now, you’re using social media as part of your overall marketing strategy.
Social Media: Your Agents’ ‘Magic Bullet’?
Posted by: | CommentsSocial Media: Are your agents counting on it as their ‘magic bullet’? First, before you read this, let me tell you that many of you will be angry or bereft at the opinions in this blog. Just hang in there, though, until you see the ‘why’ of it.
Social Media. There are more classes on it, more talk about it, and more agents are worrying about it than any topic in real estate. That may cause them to think that it’s the most important ingredient to an agent’s success. But, not so fast. Who is telling them that? Are they people who have been successful real estate agents? Or, are they technology gurus—or, worse yet, people who want to sell agents their services?
Industry Leaders Don’t Agree with Social Media Gurus
Whenever I write an article about where social media fits into an agent’s business life, I get emails from respected industry leaders who are very concerned that social media is prioritized wrongly as a critical ingredient for an agent’s success. Why would leaders think this? Because they see agents avoiding the big priorities the leadership thinks will make them successful. They also see them looking for the easier ‘magic bullet’.
What are those big priorities for success?
Business producing activities: proactive lead generation, working with buyers and sellers, listing properties, selling properties, and listings that sell.
But, mom, isn’t there another way? Isn’t there an answer that didn’t require me to put up with all that rejection? I wish there were. However, all the successful real estate agents I know spend lots of time in those business producing activities. They aren’t looking for the ‘magic bullet’. (Well, they already know what that magic bullet is: Meeting and working with people to form long-term professional relationships).
I Love Houses and Technology; I Just Hate People
Do you have those agents who spend a majority of time at their computers? Do they spend little time pro-actively lead generating? Are they always looking for a way to spend less time with potential clients and more time away from ‘contact’? Are they thinking maybe social media will allow you more ‘arms length’ from that scary consumer? Here’s what to be aware of:
Behavior that’s rewarded is repeated.
By being the ‘go to guy’ about technology and/or social media, those agents may be working themselves into different jobs. They actually may be in the wrong business. Successful real estate agents look for opportunities to meet and work with people. They don’t put technology a priority instead of people.
What’s Social Media For?
In my next blog, I’ll help prioritize social media in a business plan, and show you a neat way to think about marketing in context of social media.
Did I say social media wasn’t important to agents’ businesses? Not exactly. But, to make it pay off correctly, they must use it correctly. See that next blog to find out what I mean.
Managers: Be sure you are helping your agents prioritize their businesses correctly. If they need help in keeping those priorities right, get them Up and Running in 30 Days.
Biggest Lessons Learned from a Publicity Maven
Posted by: | CommentsIn an earlier blog, I gave you advice about how to create a steady stream of publicity as a recruiting and image-making tool. Now, I’d like to share a few more tips on writing articles.
From writing all those articles, here are the three most important lessons I’ve learned:
- A smaller topic is better
- Less ideas are better
- More examples are better
So, in about 400-500 words, you’ll only have time for one to three ideas and examples. Make the examples ‘real life’. Also, be sure your article is as perfect as you can get it before submitting. These editors don’t have time to work with any of us in extensive editing. The person who submits articles “ready to go” gets published much more often!
How to Find Appropriate Publications for Your Talents
Pick up your favorite real estate magazine or newsletter. See the kind of articles that the publisher likes. Note the length. Ask yourself: Why would my articles be a benefit to that publication? Then, contact the publisher for article specifications and submission policies. You’re on your way to standing out as an exceptional manager!
Make a list of hard copy and Internet-based magazines and newsletters. That becomes your ‘distribution list’. Each month, I submit at least one article to my list—all at once (your contact management program is invaluable to put your PR contacts in a field so you can communicate easily). I have a ‘template’ that I use, which points out the link to the article. I ask the editor to include my biography with ‘hot links’ so readers can get the free documents I usually provide with each article—and can go to my website.
Make Publicity Distribution Really Simple…..
A new resource I just discovered: Recently, I signed up for an article submission service, so I could widen my scope of influence. Check out Submit Your Article.
Now, you are on your way to free publicity, a heightened image, and much improved recruiting, and it didn’t cost you anything!