Business Planning - Thinking Outside the Box!
This is a post that can help all of us who are polishing up our 2017 business plans. Debe Maxwell can certainly be counted upon to give great advice about this stuff!
Business Planning - Thinking Outside the Box!
We have had to re-think our sales strategy quarterly in order to keep pace with changes in our business. Now, we've done this before--each quarter as a matter-of-fact - but, thinking outside the box has become a MUST for Realtors® these days!
From listing homes on every single online real estate site known to mankind to creating elaborate flyers and brochures with the help of a graphic artist--a REAL one, not MY creative design (or lack thereof!) any longer--we are constantly tweaking our business marketing plan. H
Here are the highlights from our business planning sessions this month for Q4 2016:
Social networking is a way that we promote ourselves and Q3 2016, we derived a good number of clients from our social media efforts. We will continue to utilize Facebook and Instagram as this is a fast-growing area for our business.Our plan for Q4 in these two arenas is to engage more of our clients (DAILY). Our team does a good job of reminding each other when special dates are for our clients but, for Q4, we are implementing those dates in our CRM page that all of us view. This way, we will not have to remind each other when these special dates are for our clients.
ActiveRain is one of the best networking sites available to real estate professionals--and we certainly need to use it to our advantage! Agents are working longer hours with a focus on advertising, marketing--and should also do so with blogging. I have garnered so many referrals from agents here and from consumers reading my posts. Q4 2016 plan is to improve my reach here. I implemented a 'mandate' in Q3 to get back on the proverbial AR horse and have improved there but, I still have much improvement to go! My goal/plan is to increase my number of blog posts to 40 per month. Since no one helps me with that, I have now blocked that time on my calendar (which I live by!) in order to achieve that goal.
'Sticktoitiveness,' flexibility and continuous fine-tuning are my best recommendations for a healthy business planning session! In Q4 2016 we will continue to stick to our referral program and have planned to also implement our housewarming parties. Q3 brought great responses from our Q1 2015 implementation of client parties and we have continued that with some phoenominal results! That will not change in Q4 but, we do plan to put them on the calendar now, 6 months in advance so that everyone knows what is happening and when it is happening. We have found that our clients like to work us into their calendars and we appreciate that so much!
Tenacity and creativity are necessary in order to keep up with the everchanging market! Business models and plans must be reassessed--and QUARTERLY! If you don't need to change anything, at LEAST review your business plan and SET YOUR GOALS.
Here is a sample of our business plan outline that we will be working on for 2017 throughout the month of November. Q4 is always the best time to complete this, although we do being working this at the end of Q3 each year.
Early planning (goal-setting), based on previous quarter sales, is also something that we are focusing on during the 4th quarter. Q3 was quite productive and we plan to wrap up the good year, meeting our goals that we set (same time this quarter last year).
This quarter also involves a lot of planning for next year...what do we continue, what do we add, what funds are allocated for marketing? Those are all questions that we are addressing for the entire year and this is the best quarter in which to evaluate the results from each of our ventures.
Goals per quarter are added for each agent. We then tabulate the totals for the year and set goals for next year. Working on our database and how to improve what we provide to our past clients/sphere are critical this time of year. The planning for the upcoming year has to be done early so that we can implement each level of each process at the appropriate time. Thankfully, the entire team is involved so, the left hand always knows what the right hand is doing!
Thanks to Bob Crane for inspiring this by hosting the "2016 4th Qtr Review/Winning Plan & Productive Blogging Challenge!
© Debe Maxwell | The Maxwell House Group | CharlotteBroker@icloud.com | Business Planning - Thinking Outside the Box!
(THE best Charlotte home search available - no kidding!)
Charlotte NC Real Estate Agents
Debe Maxwell, Realtor®/Broker/CRS
CharlotteBroker@icloud.com
Direct: (704) 491-3310
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