As 2009 gets close and 2008 comes to an endr, I am having to review my 2008 goals and achievements.  Luckily I do this each quarter, so its not as time consuming as it could be.  Not only do you need to review your goals, but also your marketing statistics.  What worked?  What didn't?

In order to prepare, I have been reading up on some marketing books which will help me fine tune my skills.  Even if I have read something a few times, it is still refreshing to hear it again.  Some of the key points I have been reading about, I'd like to share with you.  Perhaps this will pertain to you as well.

One of the most important things I had pointed out to me was that marketing was not always a top priority.  They called it 'Marketing Reluctance', which is a lack of marketing activity.  The concept of marketing reluctance describes a tendency we have to accomplish just about everything else first before we undertake our marketing activity.  For this, I suggest reading "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.  In this book, Stephen explains we must take first things first, which means we must make a priority of important activities.

Is marketing important?  Without marketing, our business becomes less consistent.  When the phone is ringing off the hook in very busy times, we tend to think that marketing activities are not as important.  Yet, when business slows down it is sometimes too late to gear up actions that are not as effective when not delivered consistently.  This is true even if most of your business comes from referrals.  For business to stay consistent, you must market those who deliver these referrals.

In our everyday life, we tend to take care of fires first.  It is our reasoning that we will never have more business unless we take care of the everyday details such as getting our pipelines to closing.  This is true, but bringing in more business is an important priority as well.

Here is one test regarding how high a priority you have given your marketing activities.  Look at your calendar.  You would expect to see scheduled medical appointments, sales meetings, closings, etc.  But do you have scheduled the time necessary for marketing activities such as calling your previous customers?  If not, it is less likely that these activities will be undertaken.

Not to sound like  certain credit card commercial but... 'what's in your calendar?'

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John Cannata    p# 214.545.5604  

www.TxMortgageConsultant.com

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