There is no shortage of distractions for how to get new business today.
Many agents are focusing on short sales, REO’s, Social Networking… looking everywhere for clients except right under their nose!
Linda Simmons, a Top Agent from Alabama, explains how the lion’s share of her business comes from referral and repeat clients. In this short video Linda shares how she does it and how you can use the same strategy to get a steady stream of clients in any market.
Plus, if you want to learn more about how the top agents in the world harvest an endless supply of referrals from their database…
I’m going to get right down to business and give you a hotline script that converts 9 out of 10 callers to pre-sold clients…
If you’ve been wondering how to create a great voice mail message – one that will motivate callers to leave their name, address, etc. for you – then this strategy will help you immensely because how you structure your voice message is the little-known secret for making big money using a real estate hotline.
If you do not have a hotline, get one. You can still use the script below for your regular office line, but there are literally hundreds of ways you could use a hotline in your practice to multiply your production… including promoting your listings with multiple extensions to track leads. If you’re looking for a hotline system that’s got additional pre-written scripts and templates to use with your marketing system, you can take a look at Proquest Technologies (www.SixFigureHotlines.com).
BACK to my main point…
The sole purpose for your message is to get callers to leave their basic contact information. Anything else is wasted time and money (including jumping in to why they should work with you).
Here’s how you create a great script to motivate prospects to take another step closer to you…
The Little-Known, Step-By-Step Formula For Creating
A Money-Making Voice Hotline Message!…
Special Note: This script offers a Free Report. I strongly suggest you use this type of “lead magnet” to get interested prospects calling you for information. If you’re using your hotline for listings, create a similar message for callers to get information about the property and a free report at the same time. You can write a report and give it a benefit-rich title, like the example above, or I have 8 pre-written special reports that are part of the Service For Life!® personal marketing system.
One last thing… if you want more strategies for using hotlines in your business to generate quality buyer calls, check out this past real estate marketing article.
A great way to generate quick commissions (and sell your listings faster) with a great buyer marketing strategy,
How to create a “Power List” that brings you consistent clients year after year, and…
How to understand your Return on Investment with your marketing.
So let’s get started…
PROFIT MULTIPLIER #1: New Agent? Just Relocated? Need to Generate Commissions FAST?
First, find an agent with several active listings. Tell them you have a number of “buyer” marketing strategies that will sell their listings in a fraction of the average market time. Offer to implement the 4 “buyer magnet” systems I taught you from this real estate marketing article for EACH of their listings. You manage everything for the agent so they’re out $0 and no time.
Second, implement the strategies, agree to take the buyer calls and qualify the leads, and sell them a home. Work out a commission split, and you’ve now got a marketing system working to bring you buyers, and even a few great listings.
Plus, you’ll look like a marketing wizard in your office and agent community (not to mention you’ll automatically be building your own “Power List” for increased referrals, word of mouth and repeat business).
If the listing agent refuses your offer (some people will step over dollars to pick up dimes!), move on to another agent who’s got some business sense.
Remember, the strategies from this real estate marketing article will also help sell your own listings faster by acting as active “buyer magnets”.
PROFIT MULTIPLIER #2:Create a “Power List” and Make Them Your Primary Market
You already know that the NAR research says 74% of all real estate transactions occur from a relationship – they know the agent or are referred from a trusted source.
Here’s something you don’t know: If you built a “Power List” (database of personal contacts) with 300 people (homeowners), and the average home ownership period is, for example 7 years (nationally it’s 5.5 years), then 42 of those people will buy or sell every year – good market or lousy market.
Holy cow! Is this getting your attention?
600 people on your database and it’s 84 transactions every year from that list. 900 people and it’s 128 deals a year – and so on. And don’t forget, that doesn’t include referrals they could send you – it’s just the number of direct transactions that come from that group.
Now hold on. Before you start thinking you just hit “easy street”, there’s something you need to understand. These are not just “random” people. I’m talking about people who know you or know OF you.
The higher the “quality” of contact on your list (i.e. the better they know you), the more responsive they’ll be to your regular contact. This means the more inclined they’ll be to think of YOU FIRST when they think real estate.
I call this your Personal Market Share™…
So the “operative” question is: WHO will get all those deals?
ANSWER: The agent with the highest Personal Market Share™.
The one who’s stayed in contact (at least once a month, every month), deepened the relationship, provided on-going value to their list, and demonstrated they’re a true professional committed to the relationship for the long haul and worthy of the client’s business over any other agent.
Are you willing to become that agent…the one who captures 74% of all transactions, holds such a high personal market share they generate huge income regardless of market conditions?
You are? OK, good because next I’ll show you…
How To Build Your “Power List”
Building a Power List is easy if you put your mind to it. Here’s the best way to go about it…
STEP 1: Start with all the people you know and create what I call the “Big List”.
STEP 2: Put every new and old client on the list.
STEP 3: Put leads you generate on your list. Many successful agents make it a point to add 2 people a day, and soon have 500 contacts their first year (and got 10 to 20 deals just by putting people on the list).
STEP 4: Also, the other parties to any transactions you complete go on the list (hint: their agent will forget about them, so they’ll easily be yours when they buy or sell again).
STEP 5: Create “strategic alliances” with professionals who have clients that could be yours and get a “host endorsement” of your services: accountants, insurance brokers, etc. Consider reciprocating by introducing them to your clients as well. The credibility of the existing relationship is transferred to the endorsed person.
Final note: purge your list every 6 months to remove lower quality people. Within 12 to 24 months you’ll have a small, highly motivated group of people sending you consistent business month-in and month-out – something I call building “Critical Mass™” in your business (see Step 3 of the 3-Steps system). That’s what I mean by “Personal Market Share”.
How Often Do You Contact Your “Power List” ?
Now that you’ve create a “Power List” you must plan on monthly contact to make any inroads. Commit to monthly or don’t even start.
The Direct Marketing Association reports that the optimum contact time is every 21 days. There have also been studies out there that say for every month you forget about your Power List, you lose 10% of them – another reason for monthly contact.
Finally, the NAR reports that the “average” contact program takes between 8 and 12 months to “start” working. (Side note: We’ve cut that time in half with Service For Life!®, but even if it takes 10 months to start the “market share engine” producing, that’s still a great deal, considering most agents never get it going).
PROFIT MULTIPLIER #3:Know Your Return on Investment
If you understand where you get the most return for your marketing dollar… you’ll know exactly what to invest in to increase your income. Sounds pretty simple, but most agents don’t know how to track their numbers.
Here’s how to understand how well your monthly marketing system is working for you… and I’ll use a simple example.
Let’s say you want to send 300 Service For Life!® issues out each month to your Power List. That’s going to cost you about $0.91 to $1.29 per issue (let’s call it $1.20 because that’s on the higher end and will make the math easier). So you’ll spend about $360 a month for the mailing, including having the newsletter written for you.
That means you’re investing about $4,320 every year to contact 300 people 12 times each, or 3,600 contacts. Now, I know that might sound like a lot of money, but let’s get some perspective here.
Let’s run some quick numbers…
Of those 300 people, you know statistically that about 42 transactions will come from them (300 divided by 7 years average home ownership period = 42 transactions EVERY year).
If the average home price is $200,000, that gives you a co-broker commission of $6,000. Subtract out home marketing expenses and a broker split, and you’ll probably net about $4,500 from that commission.
Does it make sense to mail to your Power List every month?
Well, look at it this way: If you get only ONE of those 42 transactions, you’ve broken-even ($4,500 commission against $4,320 to send for a year).
But after all that marketing, do you really think all you’ll get is a ONE measly commission out of 42 transactions?
Here’s what’s more likely to happen…
First, ask yourself: Who will generally get the lion’s share of those 42 transactions? The agent who’s cold prospecting over dinner time or pestering people in the grocery store line, OR the agent who’s demonstrated their competency, brought great value, created a family-like relationship, and “been there” when it was time to buy or sell?
Are you getting a hint?
I have agents with small databases of 300 “quality” people who “net” more than $300,000 per year using that very system (and it’s their only marketing).
That’s a whole lot more than just one transaction out of 42.
Problem is, most agents quit before they get any traction – “instant gratification” takes priority over sound strategy. It’s a shame, but that’s good news for agents who “get it”.
When you consider the ROI in your marketing, you now have a benchmark to know when it’s profitable and/or unprofitable for you.
To learn more about developing and harvesting endless commissions from your Power List, go here.
Submitted by Richard Maxfield, REALTOR® (with editorial from Craig Forte, Executive Editor)
Do you want a fun way to make an incredibly positive impression with your network? Think about holding one of the special events listed below once or twice a year and watch your referrals shoot through the roof.
Holding special events is just one powerful bonding strategy I teach in the 3-steps program. Here’s the description of how agent Richard Maxfield is using this system in his practice…and below I outline the key steps to implement this in your practice.
“The first Thursday in May of each year, our team Maxfield and Associates, holds a Client Appreciation Party. In fact, I’m preparing for this year’s event right now!
We rent the local theater and have a live performance put on for our clients, past clients, affiliates and their families. During the main break of the play we serve refreshments and after the play is over we have a drawing for the many door prizes we have accumulated through the year.
To announce the party, we send out invitations that we insert into our monthly newsletter. We send out 3 notices…the first one says ‘announcing…,’ the second one has ‘just a reminder,’ and the third one says ‘time’s almost up.’ Closer to the event, we send out tickets to those who have RSVP’d. And we also assign seats so we don’t run out of space.
Our clients have become our friends and look forward to attending the play every year. Not only do our clients come but they bring their friends who eventually turn into new clients.”
Here’s the step-by-step process to use a
SPECIAL EVENT to get more business:
Step 1: Decide on an event to host
Here are some examples to get you started:
A special wine or beer Tasting Party. Just locate one of your favorite distributors or retail stores, and they’ll set it all up for you.
Hold a Fashion Show with a local high-end boutique.
Create a Family Picnic once a year for your network.
Have an annual Comedy Club outing. Simply go to a local comedy club in your area, and book a night when great performers will be appearing. Often you can book a weekend and get discount rates.
Hold a Sports Clinic if you find many of your clients like a certain sport such as: walking, running, cycling, etc.
Hold an Art Show with a local gallery. This is very classy way to meet with many network members at once. Consider holding a Wine Tasting with your art show.
Rent out an Opera or Theater just like Rich does for all his clients. Or, gather a smaller group of your best clients and take them to a live performance.
Coordinate a New Automobile Preview with a local high-end or exotic auto dealership (BMW, Lexis, Mercedes, Infinity, Porsche, Ferrari, etc). They’ll be ecstatic you’re promoting their cars, and will gladly participate with your inner circle network.
Step 2: Make the arrangements
Contact local businesses in your area that would be thrilled to get a group of local residents in their restaurant, shop, or business. This way the event costs you little to no money. And many times they will share the promotion costs if you intend to send printed invitations to your network.
Step 3: Send out the invitations
There are three critical components when sending the invitation.
FIRST, notice how the event examples above target certain INTERESTS? This is very important. You want to invite the right people from your network. Many times you can invite your entire network, but if the event is limited in size, choose members who have told you what they like. This communicates that you’ve listened to them and bonds them to you. Also, you want to make sure you don’t offend someone by inviting them to something they have no interest in.
SECOND, tell them to invite their family and friends (again if you have room for everyone). This is how your network can really start to multiply.
THIRD, send out several reminders to maximize your attendance. Rich includes the invitation as an insert in his monthly newsletter to his clients. Here’s an example of his insert you can use to get an idea for your own invitation:
Richard does a great job of collecting contact information by offering ‘door prizes’ to all attendees. You can even use the prizes as another incentive to attend the event. You don’t have to spend a lot of money here. Raffle off something from the business that you’re holding the even with, or work with other sponsors to give prizes that don’t cost you anything out of pocket.
Step 5: Follow-up with people with regular contact
Most of the people who attend your special event will not be in the market for real estate services. After the event, add attendees to your regular mailings to continue to stay in touch and provide value until they’re ready to buy or sell.
If you use a relationship-building tool like Service For Life!, you can follow-up every month with valuable information that’s not all real estate related (so it gets read). Make sure you include offers for Free real estate reports in your monthly follow-up that identify when someone is getting ready to need your help.
Step 6: Put this as a regular SYSTEM in your practice
You can hold events annually, seasonally, or anytime you need a boost of business. Keep holding the same event every year. This way it’s not a “one hit wonder” and people will start to remember it, look forward to it coming each year, and tell more friends.
Keep in mind…this works because we have a culture of reciprocity. When you do something special for your clients, and remind them that your business comes from referrals, they’ll reciprocate by sending you referrals and spreading the good cheer about you and your real estate practice.
This is one powerful way top producers earn consistent and high-incomes each year. Give it a try, and remember, you do not have to spend a lot of money to make this work for your business. Get creative, and above all else…have fun with it!
