1) Only three initial expenses are needed:
- Order business cards via your franchise/broker recommendation – keep them simple and inexpensive to start. Recommend OvernightPrints.com
- You’ll also need basic Thank You cards. I use Thank You Note Sheets (classier in my opinion) from AmericanStationery.com. Not costly at all.
- Order Top Producer for $30/month
2) Setup Top Producer ... You need this program for only two things to start:
- LEAD TRACKING. Every day at the end of the day, make sure you enter every lead into Top Producer how many leads you got from your three marketing systems you will create first: your personal database, open houses and sign calls.
a) Track how many you converted to appointment
b) How many you converted to long-term follow-up.
c) Track how many appointments you had today. Use a simple spreadsheet so you can add this up every week and every month. Every lead in Top Producer should have an A (for urgent need to buy/sell), B (Long-term need), or C (Weak lead or very long term).
- DATABASE TRACKING. Add every person you know by first name with their phone #, email address, mailing address, and a quick note about what's going on in their life. Use the FORD (Family Occupation Recreation Dreams) system from the beginning start keeping notes of your last contacts.
3) Establish a daily schedule for the first half of your day that you adhere to no matter what. Ideally…
- 8:00am-9:00am: Work on your dialogues and how to handle client consultations with other
agents] - 9-10am: Work on your marketing systems (i.e. personal database), reach out to your database
with phone calls/social networking. - [10-11am: Lead follow-up.. call LEAD in Top Producer goal is to move them to an A] .
- 12p - 3p: Your daily open house.
- [4p-4:30p: Make sure every lead for the day is in Top Producer]
SETUP YOUR FIST MARKETING SYSTEM: Personal Database
4) Call everyone in your new database and let them know you are in real estate and ask who they know that will be buying or selling in the near future. Put FORD info into their Top Producer profile and add a task for a follow-up call in the near future.
5) Your goal is to add 1 person a day to your personal database. Members of your database are not leads but people who would refer business to you. Use a "Client for Life" form to create a high quality database of people you know. Your day is not finished if you haven't added a new contact!
6) As you qualify your database, start ranking the people in it A, B, C. A are VIPs, people who will work hard to find you business there will only be a few of these if you're lucky in the beginning. B's are people who like you and would give your name out if asked. C's are people who just know you and you want to focus on moving up.
7) Every time you sell a home, let your database know of your success!! Make sure your latest client gets changed in Top Producer and you schedule a plan to follow up with them at least 30 times in the first year (via mail, email and phone). Your best shot at referrals is after they have just bought a house!
SETUP YOUR SECOND MARKETING SYSTEM: Open Houses
8) Schedule 3 hours a day for an open house... Find the most desirable areas and price point that attracts the most buyers and hold an open house for another agent with the listing. Most agents are happy to allow it. Take a sign-up sheet with you and require phone number and email address. Your goal is to generate leads that you can follow up on.
SETUP YOUR THIRD MARKETING SYSTEM: Sign Calls
9) Find an agent with signs in the yard with no buyer's agent or who has an overflow of leads. Offer to handle their sign calls and pay them back a 25% referral fee.
10) Let other agents in your office know every time you close a sign call transaction for another agent. This helps you recruit other agents who may not be getting results from their sign calls. Use your script time to work on your buyer sign call conversion script. Keep agents who signs your handling informed on your results from their calls. Few agents have any idea what their sign call results are – be a help and get more business from other agents’ systems!
You can complete these ten steps with virtually no costs. Every marketing system should generate 2 transactions a month. If they are not, spend more time evaluating your numbers. How many leads are your getting? If you are getting 10 leads, you should be converting at least 2 to an appointment. If you made 10 appointments last month you should have converted at least half of those to a sale. If you analyze the weak link in the LEADS > APPOINTMENTS > SALES link you can work on it during your first hour of the day to “sharpen the sword”.
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