Mike Ferry's Thoughts on Communicating with People

Mike--I hear what you are saying.  For me there is a place for both.  The Internet gets the word out there, but I don't let it do all the work for me.  It will not develop a relationship with a client, but it will develop credibility if used appropriately. 

The majority of our recent clients have found us on the web, researched us on the web by our blogs, sites, and contacted us by email, then a phone call.  Our technology helps us to reach the people overseas much like the couple from Ireland who found our website and decided to list their land with us.  Or maybe the couple from Missouri that found our Facebook page and we're helping to find a new home in Arizona. A recent buyer from Boston said that by the time she met us, she felt like she already knew and trusted us. I just received a referal from an out of state agent off Facebook.  We post our properties on Craigslist and have sold many of our own properties from it and have had several buyers from them as well.  So, if you don't believe in technology and teach your followers that it's not worth it - Good!  I'll take them technology leads all day long!

Mike- I disagree. I have a great email list, I send out great video tutorials to lead up to a launch. I get great results from my list. I get great results from my blog here on Active Rain. 

We list most of our short sales without ever meeting the seller in person because they are mostly absentee owners. We can go from the web to signed listing agreement all over email and phone. So yes, we are talking to a person on the phone however they found us on our blog. Katerina

    Mike   I have not heard of you in years.  I am glad I ran across you on the internet. I am with you .  It is for finding prospects. Closing sales is still face to face. The more facetime, the better.

Mike, although your numbers maybe being challenged a bit . . I see and I hear your point loud and clear.

Never put all of your eggs into one basket.  Being successful in the business of real estate is executing on multiple means to "touch".  And in this age of technology while we are blessed with ease, it has also made us dependent and lazy.

Mike, since a large percentage of people who look for a home do so on the Internet, its a mistake not to utilize this media. Although face-to-face communication works, you have to pursue all options. In your case, I guess the good news is those are three attendees you wouldn't have had if you didn't send out the emails.

Internet technology should not replace human communication. It's just another tool. I have has to accelarate on the "super information highway" but I won't speed past humanity.

Mike....Interesting thoughts.  Your numbers indicate there is something wrong with the way you are reaching your clients.  Please watch this video as it has some stats that are useful.  

Mike,

Your right nothing replaces Face-to-Face marketing.

Hi Mike.  I have thought about this overnight...

I bet when the telephone was first invented, the salesman of the time said it was worthless...

"I gotta look in a man's eye if I want to sell him something.  Stop wasting time on the phone.  Get out there and knock on doors!" a salesman would probably have said back then...

My guess is you approve of the use of telephones for cold calling, no?

Technology comes along to help us.  You can either get involved, or get run over...

Ken

So are our kids, and what do we tell them to do? Get outside and live. Toyota is even making fun of social media and online. Take it a look yourself http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTUGmcb3mhLM%26feature%3Dshare&h=lAQBpVTCb     Hint Hint Social Media and online does not work. You getting out there in person does.

Mike - Frankly, I don't know where to start. This is one of the saddest attempted rants about the uselessness of the internet that I've yet witnessed. This was actually forwarded to me from a friend, who wanted to hear my opinion on what you said here. 

You make a lot of assumptions that are unfounded. You seem to assume that if someone is spending time online, they are doing so at the exclusion of face-to-face contact. I have used blogging and other online tools to enhance my face-to-face interaction, not to supplant it.

Why do you trash blogging in a blog post? Am I the only one who sees the irony here? It comes across as supremely hypocritical for you to leverage a social media tool to try to convince us of what a waste of time it is. It makes me think that you're waiting to be convinced, or you're trying to fool others.

Have you considered the fact that maybe you're just plain doing it wrong? I missed this post initially because you have a logo as your avatar picture, rather than a photo of yourself, so I skimmed past it. It comes across as less personal and less interesting to me when I see a logo. It feels like someone is trying to sell me something, and I am immediately defensive. If you ever care to make a bigger impact online (and I'm not convinced that you care about that), think about using a picture of your actual face, rather than a logo.

Here's an anecdote that I'd like to share with you: I'm in the middle of closing a $3.1 million residential sale with a client who found me....on the internet. They also bought a $3.4 million home from me five years ago, after calling from my website. I've had many, many other sales from my website and blog, some of which were also multi-million dollar clients (most were not), but those two sales alone made us nearly $200,000. Hard to convince me or anyone else who actually understands internet marketing that it's valueless.

Your anecdote about ticket sales is unconvincing at best, and sour grapes at its worst. You managed to sell a lot more tickets by talking to people because that's your main focus, not because the internet isn't effective. I will say that email marketing is a tough gig, and one that I've never bothered with myself. People have been tired of emails and spam messages since the 90's.

I've heard a lot of good things about you over the years, but this post makes you seem like a sad dinosaur. I know that you had similar fallout from the Coldwell Banker convention a few months back. Maybe the controversy is working for you, so you are continuing to stir things up?

I've found that people are usually most critical of things that they don't understand. That clearly applies here. 

Mike - I forgot to mention a couple of things:

1. Don't refer to yourself in third person (the title of your post, in this case). It comes across as pretentious and detached. Imagine speaking to a client and saying, "Mike Ferry wants to list your house." 

2. I do agree with you about talking to/with our kids. This is essential for them. As a father of four, I'm thankful and blessed to be able to spend a lot of time with my family. 

Sorry if my response was a bit visceral above, but it pains me to hear someone well-known speak of the uselessness of a tool that has made me a LOT of money since 1998 in real estate sales. For several years in a row, the internet was responsible for about 60% of our sales.

Yes, I see the same thing here-unless you're offering free iPads, you'd better be talking on the phone or in person.

You do have to watch the reliability of the statistics.  The numbers are only trackable based on how the receiver follows through and uses the links in the email.  When I want to visit a site listed in an email, I always type it into the webpage myself - just out of habit to avoid SPAM.  As soon as I bypass the link in the email, I'm not tracked in the statistics.

I'm sure there were at least 3 sign-ups due to the email but I imagine there were more than that.  The number will be somewhere between the 3 traceable ones and the total number of people who signed up online after it was sent.  And that doesn't include people who called in for sign-up because they received the email.

Mike, I had the same thought as Lenn - spam. I'll bet many of the emails ended up in spam folders, unless you broke them down and sent in batches.

Many of my clients prefer email and texting for many phases of the transaction. Of course there are times we need to talk, but for routine stuff, texting and email is great. It is less disruptive to the buyer/seller's schedule and makes me more efficient. And I don't think that my value is decreased - quite the contrary, I was hired by a relocating buyer BECAUSE I had a smartphone and was internet savvy.

We have had much success with our blogging/social media efforts. It has put money in our pockets and we find that the clients we attract already have a trust factor and are very like-minded and a pleasure to work with.

I personally think you have taken this stand because it is putting your name in the spotlight, because you surely can't really believe what you are saying. You are too smart for that.

Sharon