As I have mentioned in previous posts, this is my fourth market.  Throughout the various stages of my wifes education we have moved from city to city and each time I must start building my business from scratch.  As I have only sold in each city for a few years my focus has always been on the immediate sale.  I did not put any effort into maintaining a relationship with my client.  While working with them I know I worked hard and did my best for them, but our relationship ended when the transaction closed.  I have never had repeat business.

Three and a half years ago I met the family of a young woman moving to London, ON.  She was beginning her university education at the University of Western Ontario and they were considering the possibility of purchasing her a condo.  I assisted them in the purchase of a $130,000 condo, explained the convenience of public transit from this location to the school etc. etc.  I have never thought of them since the day that condo closed.  In fact, I had completely forgotten about them.

Move forward three and a half years.  I now live in Oshawa, ON, 250 km from London.  I am with Re/Max when I was with Century 21 in London.  I have a new website, email, phone number, city, everything.  Yesterday I received a page from my new office with a name and number.  I immediately call the number and a vaguely familiar voice explains that Samantha will be finishing her education next month and that they want to sell the condo.  I said, "That's great, but how did you find me here?"

They explained that they were very happy with the service they received almost four years ago.  They remembered my sons name and what my wife was studying.  They remembered me.  This family that I had forgotten, had formed a relationship with me.  A relationship so strong that when told I don't work at that office anymore they asked which office I was with.  When told that I no longer sell in London they asked then in which city does he sell?  They were told that I am no longer with C21 and no one could tell them where I was...so they found me.  

That is the best testimonial I have ever received and it has taught me a powerful lesson in maintaining relationships.  

To the family that is the subject of this post, I am sorry for forgetting you.  I am humbled by your loyalty to me and I promise to learn from the lesson you have taught me about the power of relationships.  Thank you for remembering me, trusting me and mostly, for allowing me to refer you to another great agent in London.

10) We will work harder to protect you. We care about YOU as a friend, not just as a client.

9) We will go the extra mile for you. Christine, I will see you in London next weekend.

8) We will fight harder for you. Helping you buy a house is fun. Helping you save thousands in tough negotiations is rewarding and fun.

7) We know secrets about you already. What are a few more skeletons in the closet amongst friends.

6) We will give more to you. I will do whatever I can to help close some tough deals for friends. Burlington anyone??

5) We will be there for you long after the deal is done, because we want to, not because you are on a mailing list.

4) We trust one another already. Why enter a new relationship with a complete stranger? (And if you only remember me from highschool, I am much more mature now :)

3) We will always do what is best for you unless you suggest otherwise. Then we will take your overpriced listing, cross our fingers and enjoy the extra time we will get to spend together.

2) Because I want you to pay ME commission. I want to feed my kids and keep a roof over their heads. I want to send them to nice schools and wear new clothes. I want my wife to have everything she wants in life. I want to be able to pay all my bills on time and have some left over for charity. I want to say thank you for choosing me, when you could have chosen anyone.

1) We will work harder overall. We need you to tell our friends that they should use us too. We know that you are trusting us with the biggest purchase or sale you will ever make and we don't want to let poor decisions or lazy behaviour affect our relationship. Friends ALWAYS work harder than strangers, or they aren't good friends to begin with.

Friends...CHOOSE STU!!! To those that have...Thanks. To those that didn't...I meant it when I said I understood. I really do. To those that may or may not...read this list. It could cost you thousands of dollars to choose someone else. There is nothing you can tell me, nothing so personal, that you can not trust me to keep secret. After all, we are friends and that is what friends do for each other.

We all know the expression "think outside the box" but how many of us ever do?  We advertise in the same publications and fight for the bus stop bench space when it becomes available but with so many people doing the same things, how do you standout?  

We use creative "unique" slogans or catchphrases that all sound alike.  We buy domain names for template websites that all look and sound alike (www.insertlocationhomesforsale,com).  We are a dime a dozen.  For most of you referral business and name recognition are the lifeblood of the industry, but for those of us still building our business, how do we set ourselves apart.  What do we do to make our name recognizable.

This is my fourth market.  My fourth time building my business from scratch.  We have been moving from university town to university town.  Finally, now that my wife has finished her university education and I can focus on a long-term relationship with clients, I can use what I have learned over the years to build a sustainable business.  But what have I done to succeed (she is a PhD with no student debt) in 3 previous markets where I didn't know a soul when I started.  I manipulated the media.

Every media outlet needs stories and if you can provide them, they will print or air them.  I have never been in a market where the content and advertising fill the paper perfectly.  I see it as my challenge to find and create content that they can use to fill that space.

Let me be clear.  I do not spend any money on print advertising.  I do not buy bus bench ads.  I have not sent mailers, calendars, pens or any other promotional material.  This may change as I am more focused on repeat and referral business.

I create news and I am always the headline.  And sometimes the news is barely news, but it gets in the paper.  This Halloween, for example, I carved pumpkins for an Open House.  If I hadn't sent photos to the media my six hours of time and $15 worth of pumpkins would have been viewed by less than 20 people.  Instead, my photos were published in 2 local papers with a readership of over 50,000 each.  These were my pumpkins and the photo that appeared.

.This year I decided to gift-wrap the home that I sold closest to Christmas.  It has so far been seen in print in the Toronto Star, Canada's most read daily newspaper, Metro News, with over 1 million daily readers, Oshawa This Week and SNAP Oshawa.  Tonight it was seen on CTV national news by colleagues I worked with over 400 kms away and by thousands here in my city.  Video content was also posted at http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/144414  My total cost...$25.

So think outside the box.  Be creative and build name recognition quickly, with very little money.  My exposure this year is valued at well over $50,000 and I have spent less than $100 to achieve that.

Please reply and share your ideas and feel free to steal mine.  I would love to know how they work for you.

Why use one Realtor when you can CHOOSE STU!!!

I wish you all good luck in 2010.

Stuart.

I recently read a post about animoto.com and decided to give it a try.  I was impressed by how easy it was to make a good video which I have since posted everywhere I can think of, but it got me thinking, what other free web-based technology am I missing?

Today I did a search and found another website that was only slightly more difficult to use, but gave me so many other options that animoto did not provide.  http://www.onetruemedia.com 

This link is to my animoto.com video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6m4nGZXoHI and this link is to my One True Media video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmG9MYc91_0  Both far exceeded my expectations when I watched the finsihed product.  

So my question is, what other free web-based technology can anyone recommend?  

The Month of December.

This time, every year, millions of Canadians cram the malls looking for the perfect gift for the ones they love. They dip into their savings and spend more than they had intended to. Stockings are lovingly filled with useless trinkets. The tree is lifted off the ground by the sheer volume of carefully wrapped presents. The dinner table displays a massive turkey with all the fixin’s. It is the greatest holiday of the year. Families come together. Children squeal with delight. Presents, which took hours of patient care to wrap, are opened in the blink of an eye. Paper is strewn around the room, impossibly difficult packaging is finally forced open and batteries are inserted into toys and games. Giant flat screen tv’s are mounted on the wall and new jewellery is tried on. This is the exact moment that the new Christmas puppy has his first accident on the floor.

The Month of March

Winters grip on our lives is finally breaking. Spring has sprung and we can’t wait to get out of the house. Ironically, we also can’t wait to get into a house at this time of year as well. The real estate newspapers are snatched off the shelves as families begin the annual hunt for the perfect home. But that perfect home is always $20,000 more expensive than the mortgage we are able to attain. Weekends are consumed by going to open houses and preparing our homes for sale.

Then IT appears. The perfect house on the perfect street. Best of all, we can afford it. We call the number on the For Sale sign and ask for an immediate showing. We arrive and have to wait in the car for 5 minutes as a young couple is touring the home and will be done soon. When we finally get into the home we see the small collection of business cards on the counter. “Didn’t this house just get listed yesterday?” we think to ourselves. What a home. There is no question that we will be making an offer, but for how much? We contact our sales representative and are informed that there are already two other offers on the property. In the end, we lose the house and have to start again.

The Greatest Gift

What if, instead of blowing all of your savings on Christmas presents, you decided to invest in a home and make that the present you give to your family? How would the previous scenario change?

1) By saving $1,000 on Christmas gifts you are increasing the amount you can afford to spend on a home by $20,000 if you get a 5% down CMHC guaranteed loan.

2) The number of people competing against you for the perfect home is greatly decreased as is the risk of losing a bidding war.

3) As demand is low at Christmas it is typically a buyers market and you can aggressively negotiate for a better price.

4) Associated businesses such as movers will compete for your business at this time of year for the same reasons.

Sure, the bottom of the Christmas tree may be bare, but the tree is now 6 feet taller thanks to your new cathedral ceilings.

It is not too late to return the presents you have already purchased. In fact, if you buy a home before Christmas with me, I will personally gift-wrap your home. Think about it, and then give me a call.

Stuart Smith

(905) 728-1600

stuart@stuartsmith.ca

Just as I was preparing for lift-off it appears that I may have encountered an issue that will, at the very least, delay the launch of my campaign to raise $100,000 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in 2009.

My equivalent of NASA (lets just call them Corporate HQ), has grounded this initiative until further notice. It was my impression that as a participant of the Sold On A Cure campaign that I had access to graphics, logos, text and all related materials that would enable me to promote myself and my intention to make regular donations to one of our corporate charities, namely the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Unlike most, if not all of my colleagues, I was so excited about this program and the good that it could do that I designed my entire strategy around the concept. Every sales rep promotes themselves in a similar fashion, the only differences are the amount of money they will spend on their campaign or the medium used. Some are more creative than others, but most follow the same path used by thousands of sales reps before them.

I set up this blog http://soldonacure.blogspot.com, a facebook group called Sold On A Cure (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=31048929875&ref=mf) and purchased the domain name http://www.soldonacure.ca which is directed to my real website http://www.stuartsmith.ca/soldonacure.html and I have printed over a thousand pieces of marketing material with the domain name on it.

On Friday afternoon I received a phone call from the legal department at Corporate HQ to inform me that I am infringing on their trademark "Sold On A Cure" and that by purchasing the domain name soldonacure.ca I have claimed ownership of the program and that I must shut down the site immediately and have it redirected to the official Corporate website.

Now I don't want to cause trouble with Corporate (I am not sure how posting this will help that), but I am more than a little pissed about this turn of events.

These are the facts as I see them.
1) I chose to come to this company for the Sold On A Cure campaign
2) I have invested over 100 hours of work into this program
2) I am a legitimate contributor to the Sold On A Cure campaign
3) I am licensed to use the trademarked phrase in material, graphics etc.
4) I have created and printed over 1000 pieces of marketing material in colour
5) I paid for the domain soldonacure.ca because it was available as were all other extensions with the exception of .com which is not in use.
6) I have searched the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the Canadian Trade Marks Database and, to the best of my knowledge, SOLD ON A CURE IS NOT A REGISTERED TRADEMARK!!! I only said "to the best of my knowledge" to avoid legal issues later but nowhere is the term Sold On A Cure mentioned. This same company has registered Sold For A Cure but not Sold On A Cure.

So now you will tell me that it is an unregistered trademark. Maybe, but that is irrelevant. Like I said before, I don't want to cause trouble with Corporate HQ. If I am wrong, then so be it. I can pick myself up and start again, but I would expect to be compensated for redirecting MY domain name to their website and I would like to be compensated for my time and marketing material as well.

At the same time, I am no push-over. I will not hand over this domain until I know that I am wrong, and today I am not so sure of that.

If you have any advice or opinions, please share them with me here. That said, I will delete any very negative posts that refer to Corporate HQ directly. As I said before, I am happy to be where I am and I don't want to ruffle too many feathers. I just want to be treated fairly, and I owe that same courtesy to Corporate HQ.

Thanks

I want this program to take off today.

I can't wait to meet some of you who are looking to buy or sell a house in the GTA. I love introducing newcomers to their new neighbourhoods, schools, shopping areas etc. It is an incredibly stressful thing to move from one city to another and I like to help people make that transition as smoothly as possible.

It is very similar to working with first-time home buyers. Fear of the unknown can cripple your move, however, with patience and guidance it can be a most enjoyable experience.

I get the same satisfaction knowing that I have put people in touch with great Realtors around the world. Too often, people call a real estate office and speak to the agent on duty. This agent may specialize in condos or new homes. They may be from a completely different demographic, for example a different generation, and may not be familiar with the specific needs of an older client. These are the kind of criteria I look for when matching you to a sales representative in a different city, and it is this effort that makes your experience an enjoyable one.

I want this program to take off today!

Unfortunately I will have to delay my launch of Sold On A Cure until later in the week. The reason for the delay is a good one though. I have been speaking with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Re/Max head office about this campaign and they both seem excited to assist me in reaching my goals. In order to maximize my chances of success I must be prudent and patient. My official press release will carry much more weight if it includes a quote from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and is distributed through the team at Re/Max. I am grateful for their kind words, encouragement and support. We will get this off the ground soon enough. As a side note, France has now joined my Sold On A Cure facebook group. It is now almost on every continent so if you know anyone in Africa, Australia or (fingers crossed) Antarctica, please encourage them to join my group.

I just checked the facebook group for Sold On A Cure and noticed two new members. One is in Japan and the other is in Chile. The great thing about that is that this program can be done anywhere in the world. There are no geographical boundaries to what I am attempting. Wait, there is one big problem. I don't speak Japanese. I may need to post a message on Kijiji for a translator. Don't worry though. If I need to pay for translation, it will not come out of the money I am donating to fight Breast Cancer. I will eat that charge myself, and wash it down with sushi and sake. Sold On A Cure is going global.

I am amazed at how this idea is spreading. I created a facebook group that I was going to promote after I officially launched the program. Without any invitations or promotion people have joined the group. Now I hope they have invited all of their facebook friends.

NEWS - Yesterday I purchased the domain name www.soldonacure.ca and I will be somehow incorporating it into my website and all future marketing of the program.

Taken from my blog at http://soldonacure.blogspot.com