In 2006 I had the honor of attending a class called Microsoft Word for Real Estate Professionals given by Pat Zaby. If you don't know who Pat Zaby is, google him. Pat Zaby is a larger-than-life figure, but that's another story.
I picked up a lot of good things from his course, but one I've fully integrated is this: Weekly Marketing Reports for sellers. What these reports do is; highlight almost everything you do for your sellers, open another line of communication, set you head and shoulders above the competition, combat the listings agent's biggest hurdle "disappearing" in the mind of the seller. Guaranteed: if you do this, you'll be one of the few, if not the only agent in your market doing it.
Here's how they work. Take Word or other word processing program. Insert a table: the columns and rows will depend on what you do when you list a home. Break the table down into logical sections: Mine are:
ADVERTISING VENUES: TELEVISION, PRINT ADS, WEBSITE STATS
SHOWINGS /Calls, Inquiries
SIGNAGE/FLYERS
STATS
This report tracks ads: where they run and dates. Web hits: major sites the home appears on and hits or page views. Showings: how many from other agents, how many from you. Inquiries: how many calls, how many e-mails.
Think about it this way, often people will call about a property, you'll field questions, give info, and so on. Sometimes the prospect will not identify themselves and may not want you to show the home. Ditto for e-mail inquiries. They hit your website, remax.com, realtor.com, therealestatebook.com, wherever, and request info, but not become a showing prospect. Don't you want to track those? Don't you want to get credit for all that work you're doing? Don't you deserve not to have mis-perceptions that "you're not doing anything" dispelled in a very tangible way? YOU BET YOU DO! And the seller deserves to know what's going on.
Flyers: Flyers cost money. If you do them, you find that you need to refill the box every so often. Real often on a hot property. Shouldn't the seller know how many flyers you put out? Shouldn't you get credit for having placed 150 flyers? YOU BET YOU SHOULD! Isn't this also a tangible way to show your value?
Signs: Everyone puts out signs, and a lot of us put out directionals. Directionals cost money. Sometimes they disappear (there must be huge pile of them somewhere!) and we have to replace them. Don't you want the seller to know you have placed 10 of them out on the corner of Grand and Main? YOU BET YOU DO! And if you're doing this, and the seller is comparing your service to another agents (and you know they are, and they should!) wouldn't this again help to demonstrate your value?
Stats: I put days on market here, and also track changes in terms or price. It's easy to forget how long you've been on market and how many changes have taken place. If there's a flurry of changes and you've missed the 3rd price change in one marketing piece, you can readily show all the correct changes you have consistently made.
This is a win-win for agents and sellers. It helps to demonstrate the value you provide in a very concrete, consistent way. I realize it's difficult to keep track of all this, but you should be doing it. And if it's hard for you to keep up, imagine how hard it is for a seller who is not in the industry. I send my reports out every Saturday. You should turn them into a PDF first. Download this simple, free PDF creator "cutepdf" from http://www.cutepdf.com/. It works just like a printer, except instead of printing the document, you save it as a PDF. Learning about this alone was worth the minimal cost of the course for me.
IN CONCLUSION: Serve your sellers well and get credit for what you do, Report It!
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