MarketingMonday.com May 21st, 2007

This Week:

How To Tell If You Are Working With 5-Star Sellers...and What To Do If You're NOT

Dear Friend,

I just got back from a main event and it seems like the last few main events, one of the things that people are constantly asking about is in this changing market, they have listings that are piling up and not selling.

The competition is building. There are more options for buyers, and there are more homes that you have to stand out against.

So when I really think about it, what I always like to do is to make the distinction when I’m asking people about their situation, is to really ask yourself, are you working with sellers or are your working with listings? Because there’s quite a distinction there between having sellers and having listings.

To me just like when we are looking for 5 star prospects and we are talking about buyers, we are also looking for 5 star sellers, and it’s important to realise that listings don’t make you money. Sellers make you money.

You don’t get paid for having listings. They are actually a liability. You are going to spend money. You are going to spent time. You are going to get invested psychologically in this relationship.

It’s going to take up a lot of your time thinking about it, and thinking about what can you do to get this property sold, and what I want to make sure is that if you have got 5 or 6 or 7 listings that you really evaluate that and determine how many of those people are really sellers? Five star sellers? Here’s what we are looking for. If you have got listing that just won’t sell, you should probably take a look at them and see if they meet these 5 requirements. These are the requirements for a 5 star seller.

Number 1: They are motivated to sell the house.

The very best seller is someone who has a firm deadline or a firm plan for what they are going to do and that they are going to do it no matter what. If you have got somebody who is transferred to Cleveland and they have to be there on June 30th, that is a firm deadline.

So they are up against the fact that they have got to move. They are going to be the most realistic with what the market is, because people who have firm plans are going to do whatever it takes. But if you have sellers that may not be as motivated, you have got to kind of look at that and see are they the kind of people that you want to work with? If a seller says, we are not in a hurry, or we are not going to give it away, or if it sells it sells, you are probably not dealing with a 5 star seller.

Those kind of clues in their language will jump out at you in your conversations with them, and you really have to take an honest look at your sellers, at your listings and see whether they really are sellers.

Number 2: They are willing to price it at market value.

Today’s market is today’s market. You have to deal with what you are given, and your sellers have to realise that their personal situation doesn’t make their house worth any more or less than market value. The market doesn’t care how much they owe, or how much they paid or how much they need to get out of it. The market just cares what is market value.

Your sellers can’t be attached to all of that stuff either. Your situation is trying to convey to your sellers, or determine on your own, is if you were selling a $100 bill, let’s say that your listing was a $100 bill. How much are you trying to sell that $100 bill for right now? Are you trying to sell if for $105? Because the seller needs $105 for it? Or are you trying to sell it for $98 to get rid of the competition? To be the one that will jump out? If you have got a listing, if you look at it almost like the currency market.

You know $100 bill goes up and down in what it’s really worth, but it’s always worth $100. Houses are just like that. A house is a house and it’s only worth what it’s worth relative to today’s market. Not what it used to be.

Not what it’s going to be. Not what your sellers need it to be, but what it is and the more realistic you can get about that price, the more realistic you can get your sellers to be about that price, the better off you are going to be. So you have got to ask yourself, are they willing to price it at market value? If they are, then they have reached our second qualification.

Number 3: Their willing to stage the house to show it’s very best.

Sometimes the condition of a house is what keeps it from selling and you know exactly what I am talking about. If there’s clutter, if there’s dirt, little signs of disrepair, squeaky doors, a door off its hinges, all those kinds of things work against you when you are trying to sell a home for top dollar.

If there are little things that need to be done. If the carpet is really kind of worn in a bedroom, or it’s worn in a high traffic area, you are far better off to have your sellers replace it at what it really costs to do, because your buyers are going to magnify what the cost of that is in their minds. So if a seller is motivated to sell, they will be willing to clean up the clutter.

They will be willing to pack up some of the boxes. It’s kind of interesting because a seller who has a deadline, a seller who is motivated is going to be more than happy to start packing stuff up and start getting ready for the move because things are happening. But somebody who is not invested emotionally in moving, if they are kind of sitting waiting to see what’s going to happen. Well if it sells, it sells, if we get our price we will sell, they are not going to be as motivated to change their environment because it’s just the way that they want it right now. They are not going to be as motivated to start packing boxes, because what if we don’t move? They are questioning that and so I always find that motivation is going to determine how much they are willing to do to make the house show its very best.

And any kind of situation where you are competing against even one other listing, you have got to have a house that will show its very best. It’s going to be a big competitive advantage for you.

Number 4: There are not marketing obstacles.

If your seller says, things like we don’t want a sign, or we don’t want our neighbours to know, or we have to be here when the house is shown, or we need 24 hours notice for showings, or we are not willing to put our dog somewhere else, or interrupt our life in anyway.

They are hurting your ability to sell the home quickly and for top dollar because things move fast is there are all these obstacles in the way, if you can’t let the neighbours know, if you can’t use a sign, if you can’t put a lockbox on the property, all those things are handicapping your ability to actually sell the home for top dollar, especially quickly.

So you have got to ask yourself, make sure that you are not getting into a bad situation right from the beginning. And I say this right in the beginning because it’s often easier to identify these things before you take the listing, than it is to kind of retroactively go back and fix them, but the truth is you can never go down the wrong road too shortly. You can never, it’s never too, you have never gone down that road too far to stop and turn around because if you are heading down the wrong road, it’s the wrong road anyway. So why not turn around and rectify the situation. If you have got 6 listings and you know that some of them are just not 5 star sellers, is it worth it for you to continue on? It’s better to know it now and cut your losses and focus all of your attention on your sellers.

Number 5: They would like you to sell it for them.

If they pass the first 4 tests and this is really when we were talking about getting new listings, then it really comes down to whether they would like you to sell the house for them. In my experience most of the time a listing doesn’t sell it’s because you not dealing with a 5 star seller.

Usually that happens because you spend so much effort and attention on trying to get the listing without really paying attention to see if they are sellers. It’s interesting because we value listings so highly in our real estate world that we hear all these things that listers last and if you don’t have any listings you are out of business, and there’s an ego gratification that comes from putting that new listings up on the board in your office or having your signs out in the community because listings beget other listings and buyers and activity and it gives you a feeling in your self-esteem that you are feeling good about yourself because you have got listings.

It’s evidence to other realtors that you are successful. It’s evident to other people that you are successful, but you cannot cash a listing. You can’t take a listing to the bank. What makes you money is getting listings sold. You are running a business. You are in business to help people sell their homes, not to list homes. The more that you are discriminating at the very beginning, or discerning is a better word, the more discerning you are at the very beginning the better off you are going to be. You are going to avoid taking listings that you know are going to expire as soon as you walk out the door.

You know when you leave and you say to the seller, well we will test it at this price, or let’s give it a try, or we will do our best.

Let’s see what the market tells us. All these kinds of things where you kind of let things slide. You know that you are not doing your sellers a real service, so take a look at all the listings you have right now and ask yourself are they motivated to sell the house? When do they have to move? What are their real plans? Are they committed to those plans? Are they willing to price it at market value? Will they realise that today’s market it today’s market and they have to be priced accordingly, especially faced with more competition and more listings? Are they willing to stage the house to show its very best?

There’s little things that could make a big difference, depersonalising the house a little bit, making it look like a model home. Maybe getting a new paint job. Maybe getting some of the repairs that need to be done. Are there any marketing obstacles in your way? Are they helping, making you sell the house with one hand tied behind your back? You want to make sure that all of those marketing obstacles are addressed. And number 5, would they like you to sell it for them? That’s really all we are really looking for before you get to number 5, would they like you to sell it for them and would you like to sell it for them? You want to make sure that they meet all of the other four requirements first. Rather than getting into to getting the listing.

Ok, that is going to be a big, big help if you have got a listing inventory right now. Have the courage to go through that list. Have the courage to address those obstacles or any of the ones that are deficient in with your sellers and if it comes down to it, sometimes you are better off letting them go. You will both be happier. So make sure that you are working with sellers and not listings.

That’s it for this week. Have a great week and we will be back next time with even more ways to get listings, find buyers and convert leads.

MarketingMonday.com

NOTE: This is the first in a series of over 40 real estate marketing podcasts available at MarketingMonday.com,
and on iTunes.com .

You can get your free 92-page ebook at NewInformationletter.com

This Week:
10 Killer Real Estate Marketing Ideas

Dear Friend,

This week, I'm going to share 10 Killer Real Estate Marketing Ideas with you, to lay the foundation for MarketingMonday.com

I just recorded these 10 ideas as a brand new PodCast available on iTunes.

If you're aware of what PodCasting is...you can subscribe to this newsletter as a podcast now by going to iTunes and searching "real estate marketing" under PodCasts.

Then each new episode will be automatically delivered to your iTunes library.

It's amazing technology, and I'm sure I'm going to be talking about this as a marketing tool for YOU at some point in the near future.

So let's get started!

1. Pick one day each week to work ON your business and your marketing

If you're going to grow your business, and apply some new marketing strategies, you're going to need Time to do it.

Dedicated time, where you're doing nothing but working ON your business.

My recomendation is to set aside one day a week where you block off at least a few hours to work on improving, systemizing and implementing new strategies that can work without you.

Marketing Mondays are a great idea...and this may seem like a simple idea, but if you set aside this time, you'll be amazed at how much you'll be able to accomplish...and the improvements you'll be able to make.

2. Focus on one target market at a time

This is a big one. Most people who start thinking about expanding their business start by expanding their territory. Moving out to include the NEXT town over...thinking the grass is always greener ...and that if they have a bigger territory, they just need to get a small piece of a bigger pie.

It never works out that way...and it's a limiting mindset.

This is an almost counter intuitive idea, but if you can focus your attention on a Single target market, a couple of great things start to happen.

first of all, it's like you've got a pause button for your life suddenly.

Things become simpler...slower...crystal clear.

second, it focuses your thinking, and allows you to concentrate on developing marketing systems that will attract a very specific segment of the market.

If you focus on say Nashville Condos...and focus all your attention on developing and implementing marketing systems to find buyers and sellers of Nashville condos, you'll be amazed at how simple your business becomes.

Now I'm not saying you've got to limit yourself to a single target market forever. I'm all for world domination and taking it as big as you want to go...but what I'm suggesting is that you
choose a single target market at a time and then move on to Idea #3...which is.

3. Plan to dominate

Planning to DOMINATE is not the same as trying to just get a small piece of a lot of markets.

I want you to start thinking like Proctor and Gamble. You've heard of them...they're that little packaged goods company that makes probably half the products in your kitchen and bathroom.

In your free ebook at NewInformationLetter.com I write a lot more about this concept of dominating a market...but in a nutshell, what you're looking to do is build such a powerful marketing system for a target market that you DOMINATE the market... getting MOST of the business in that market.

Never go into a market just to get a small piece of it...go into that market with the intention of getting ALL of it.

It's a powerful intention. you can't even say the words or think the thought of DOMINATING a market without changing your phisiology.

It's that focus and attention that's going to allow you to accomplish big things.

4. Quit cold prospecting and focus on getting prospects to call you.

If you're going to really grow your business and reach your true potential, you've got to stop cold prospecting. I mean it... You've got to stop.

I'll show you exactly how to do this. It's important you start thinking in a more leveraged way.

Cold prospecting is an inneficient and limiting way to get business.

It's like being on a hamster wheel that only spins when you're on the wheel running. As soon as you step off the wheel...it stops spinning, and that's what leads to all the cycles in your income.

When you're not busy working with clients...you've got time to prospect, and when it works...you're busy working with clients and don't have time to prospect, so you end up living in those cycles, and it's frustrating.

I want you to start thinking about building FLYWHEELS that take just a little bit of effort to get started...but you can step away from them and they keep on spinning even when you're not there.

I'll show you lots of strategies to do this...including using Free Recorded Messages to get prospects calling YOU instead of you calling them.

Once you set up your FIRST system that works without you...you'll be amazed at the sense of freedom it gives you.

I used to make 100 cold calls a day...and it worked...but it was mind numbing, and I had to play all these mind games to get myself to do it consistently.

When I set up my first system that would work without me...it was a truly freeing experience.

You'll see. I'll walk you through it step by step in your ebook
at http://www.newinformationletter.com/

5. Stop settling for advertising that "pays for itself" and only do advertising that MULTIPLIES itself.

Have you ever heard someone say that if I just do one transaction it will more than pay for itself when they're talking about some fancy marketing scheme they're going to try?

Maybe you've said it yourself.

Stop thinking like that...and start focusing on learning how to create advertising that multiplies itself instead of paying for itself.

I'll show you how to get multiples of a minimum of 5x what you spend on advertising.

How much more money would you be willing to spend on advertising if you KNEW that you would get $5 back for every $1 you spend.

Not hope but confidence.

When you focus on implementing low cost lead generation strategies focused on a single target market, it's not uncommon to get returns of 30 or 50 to 1 on every dollar you spend on them.

I want you to take the mindset that you're in the Money Multiplication business, and it just so happens that the vehicle you've chosen to multiply money is your real estate business.

and that's a completely different mindset for a lot of people.

I'm hoping that you're interested in approaching your real estate business as a business and not just a job.

It's this Business-like mindset that will free you up to make real money.

When you commit to treating real estate as a BUSINESS...you can get your ego out of the way and concentrate on...

6. Decide to focus on getting RICH not famous.

I don't want you to get trapped in this mindset that prevails in real estate where you've got to get your name out there...and essentially get famous.

Getting rich isn't about getting YOUR name out there...it's about getting your prospects name in here.

it's a lot less expensive to get RICH than it is to get famous...so I'm here to help you focus on getting rich...and then if you still want to ...you can spend your money on getting famous.

One of the best long-term decisions you can make is to concentrate on building a business that can some day work without you.

In your ebook, you're going to read a comparison of two big Las Vegas businesses.

One is siegfried and Roy and the other is the Blue Man Group.

I wrote this comparison just a couple of months before Roy got mauled by a tiger, and we all know what happened next. One of the longest running, most successful shows in Vegas was forced to shut down...over a hundred people lost their jobs because the entire show was built around Siegfried and Roy...and without them, the show could not go on.

Meanwhile, the guys who invented the Blue Man Group have concentrated on building a business staffed with over 30 Blue Men who work in concurrent shows all over the country.

If You build your business around YOU...your Image...your personality...it's ultimately going to become a trap that you'll have a hard time stepping away from or expanding...because people will come to expect to work with YOU.

When you build your business around SYSTEMS that find buyers and sellers in one niche market at a time...you can easily slot other people...buyers agents, listing agents into that system while you're simply orchestrating the business behind the scenes.

I'll show you exactly how to design a business so it doesn't depend on you.

Ok Idea #7

7. Get on the Web with a Money Making Website

The internet is a marketing gold mine.

One of the things I can do to help you grow a business that doesn't depend on you is help you create a Money Making Website.

In fact that's the name of one of my companies
http://www.MoneyMakingWebsites.com

We have created a lead generating Money machine that you can plug in to YOUR market.

We have hundreds of people across the US and Canada that are using money making websites to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars a year getting multiples of 10x their investment on advertising.

The record is 11 days between getting a money making website, and doing a transaction...but our goal is to get you making money in your first 60 days, and we're totally committed to that.

8. Automate. Outsource. Delegate.

If you're going to grow a business, you've got to start letting go of the things that could be done by someone else.

Your role in this growing business is to set up systems that can be run by other people.

Start by automating all the things you can by skillfully using tools like Free recorded messages, websites and autoresponders to do most of the heavy lifting in your lead generation.

Once you free yourself from generating leads...you have complete control over the amount of business you can generate, and the one thing that can hold you back is not having the capacity to handle all the business you're generating.

a constant focus on creating a systematic way of handling your business and filling those roles with other people will literally give you unlimited potential in your business.

9. Get Your current Clients to lead you to your NEXT clients

Once you've figured out how to get as many clients as you want...the very best leverage opportunity you have in your business is the clients you're working with.

Your goal should be to get half the people you do business with to refer someone to you before the end of their transaction.

Most of the time, people wait until the transaction is over to ask for referrals, and by that time it's too late. They're not in the same mind space they were in while they were going
through the transaction.

While they're looking for a home, or selling their home... they're hyper aware of all the people around them who are going through, or considering the same thing, and if you Know how to
skillfully orchestrate ways for your clients to recognize this and you have the language skills to capitalize on it, they'll refer other people to you.

The very best person in the country at training real estate agents to build referral based businesses is Joe Stumpf and http://www.byreferralonly.com

Each month somewhere in the country, we conduct a 3 Day Training called The Main Event. I've spoken at every main event for more than 10 years now, and I highly recomend working your schedule out to attend a Main Event some time in the next year.

When you download your free ebook...I'll keep you posted on the schedule and I look forward to meeting you someday.

10. Focus on the lifetime value of your clients

One of the big mistakes most people make is to focus on building a transactional business where they focus on doing the NOW transactions, and don't pay any attention to the EQUITY they have an opportunity to build...which is repeat and referral business.

Your relationship portfolio is your most valuable, virtually competition proof asset that you can nurture for a never ending return.

Don't just focus on building a transactional business...focus on building a long term sustainable business built on loyal relationships.

I'll show you lots of ways to do this.

Ok...that's 10 ideas in 10 minutes, and those 10 ideas have the potential to make every dream, hope, desire and goal you have for your business come true.

Dean