Category: Help-U-Sell

Equity in the Name

New Help-U-Sell brokers sometimes stew way too much about their DBA.  They want to come up with the perfect name, the one that expresses who they are;  the one that will kick their marketing effectiveness up another notch.  Is Help-U-Sell Superior Homes better than Help-U-Sell Apex Properties?

Truth is:  the consumer could not care less.

And that’s one of the fundamental strengths of the Help-U-Sell system.  Think about it:

An ordinary broker, running an ordinary agent-oriented office, is building . . . very little, really.  His business is driven by the personalities of his agents and the relationships they develop.  There is no unique consumer offering that draws people to the company.

In 2010, very few people call ABC Realty and say, ‘Hey, ABC, come list my house.’  No.  They call up Sally who happens to work at ABC and say, ‘Hey, Sally, come list my house.’  And you know what?  When Sally goes down the street to go to work for XYZ, they’ll call her there too.

So when that ordinary broker decides it’s time to cash in and move on, when he attempts to employ his Exit Strategy, he finds he has little to sell.  The value of his company is a gamble at best.  All a buyer gets is the chance to keep the agents who have done the business and the chance to keep the listings and clientele they have amassed.  And it’s a fair bet that at least some of those agents will not like the change and take the opportunity to move on down the line.

It’s so different at Help-U-Sell.   We have a business model and a consumer offering that people seek out.  They call Help-U-Sell every day and say, ‘Come list my house.’   When the Help-U-Sell broker decides it’s time to move on, he has a business to sell that can continue to function after he is gone.  The buyer is getting an established enterprise and the transition from one owner to the other will likely be invisible to the consumer.  The DBA becomes irrelevant:  it’s Help-U-Sell that matters.

But, ‘Oh!’ you say, ‘Real Estate has always been a business built on personal relationships!  People want to work with . . . people, not systems!’

That’s absolutely true.  But most people are also interested in saving money and they will often investigate their alternatives before even working with a pal.  That’s when they discover that we’re people too! Yup, underneath the neat system that gets results and saves money is a group of really good, competent, likable people.

That’s why so many of our established brokers enjoy great repeat and referral business.  Oh, the savings remains a driving factor, but it’s the personal relationship that turns satisfied customers into raving fans and keeps them coming back again and again.

I’m not seriously suggesting this, but I really don’t think it would make one whit of difference if you chose ‘Umm’ as your DBA:  Help-U-Sell Umm Realty.  Or maybe Help-U-Sell Acme, Ace or ABBA.  What matters is that first part, the part that consumers recognize as leading to savings.

 

It Still Happens

I just got off the phone with Ron McCoy.  He’s been in Reno and Lake Tahoe this week meeting with brokers.  Of course Paul McAlpine and Bob Domiteaux continue to inspire as they fight through the tough Reno market — that was good to hear — but the most interesting story came out of South Lake Tahoe.

Josh and Ginger Davis have Help-U-Sell Horizon Line Realty there on the main drag where the road to Heavenly takes off to the East.  They are in a beautiful new strip center with good signage.  It’s also one of the more expensive retail locations in the area.  Ron tells me though, that during the several hours he spent there on Wednesday there were about three walk-ins.  Ginger has her listing flyers in the windows and people do what they always do:  they look, they read, and they sometimes walk in.

As Ron was preparing to leave, he noticed a couple of women looking at the listings in the window.  After a few minutes, they came in the door.  Ginger greeted them and asked if she could help.

‘We’ve been coming here for years and renting a place,’ said one of the women.  ‘We’re surprised to see how much prices have fallen and we’re just thinking maybe this would be a good time to buy.’

Ginger has an appointment to work with them this afternoon.  They’ll be seeing homes in the $700,000 range.

There are a lot of location specific dynamics in this story.  It is a resort area.  It is Winter (their high season).  The Olympics has everyone yearning to be in the snow.  But the decision to go into a strong location, to bite the bullet and spend a little more on rent to get sign exposure and walk-in traffic, is working for Ginger and Josh.  She reports she gets about one walk-in every day.

I’m not suggesting that everyone rush out and rent hi-end retail space.  However, I am saying it’s time to start evaluating the space decisions you made during the downturn.  Many wisely retreated to less expensive but less visible space to weather the storm.  Now it’s clear the market has begun to turn.  It’s time to put your feelers out, to start casually looking for space that might pay for itself in walk-in traffic.  Maybe by Spring you’ll be at a place where you can, like the flowers, peek your head out and shine in a very visible way.

Random Thoughts from an Airplane in Flight

I went by the Homewood Suites in Sarasota today to check out the accommodations for the Tech Summit March 1 & 2.  It’s a very nice property!  Quite deluxe.  And there’s a McDonalds and a grocery store across the street and a nice she-she desert place next door.  I think our guys will be happy there.  They provide breakfast and dinner and have agreed to let us hang out in the dining area after dinner to chew the fat.

I really want some unstructured sharing and brainstorming time with the group.  It’s clear that the nature of the business today is having an impact on how we operate Help-U-Sell in local markets.  We can no longer feed thousands of dollars each month into direct mail like we used to.  We have to be smarter and we have to find ways to use new tools to generate leads more efficiently.  I want some brain pickin’ time to find out what our people in the field are seeing, what’s working for them, what they’d like to see from us.  Homewood Suites is kind enough to accommodate us so, Wa-Hoo!

We also have to find ways to use technology to accomplish our lead generating needs.  Of course, that’s what the Tech Summit is all about.

Listen:  The new broker websites are killer.  No doubt about it.  BUT, they will lay like cracked eggs, baking in the heat of the Internet highway, accomplishing little more than most other broker websites if they are not worked.    Robbie has made it easy for even the most non-technical of our members to do that, and the Tech Summit will be a Lab where we all learn how; but back in the office, the work will have to be done.

Of course, once the work is done, once doing the updates and revisions becomes part of the routine, once the websites begin to generate leads, there will be another challenge:  How do we incubate them?

Everyone tosses around the statistic that 90% of buyers begin their home search on the Internet.  What most leave out is the other part of that reality:  the internet buyer takes much longer between starting the home search and finally buying.  Very few Realtors have a solid incubation system that demonstrates value to the consumer while giving them access to the information they crave.  How will you develop a low-touch, high-value relationship with buyers who contact you early in their home search process?  How will you prove so valuable to them that they won’t be snared by another broker as they search around on their own?

Those of you who belong to MLSs with Listingbook have a leg up here.  I know of no better way to bind a buyer to you for a protracted period of time.  Best part is:  they really like it!  If your MLS does not offer Listingbook, what tools are available to you that enable home buyers to search on their own and how will you give them to them in a way that encourages them to continually interact with you?

The last thing you want is to have a web presence that generates leads . . . and then have no effective way to capture and convert those buyers into happy clients.

I know:  I’m painting this challenge as a great big deal — and it is.  But simple things will make a big difference.  For example:  are you and your team filling out a Buyer or Seller Data Sheet on every inquiry into the office?  Are you three hole punching them and clipping them into a binder?  Really:  effective leads management and incubation begins with capturing whatever data you can on every potential buyer or seller who contacts you.  Every single one.  We don’t trash those leads and pronounce them to be ‘no good,’ or ‘tire kickers,’ like the other guys do.  We go back to them again and again . . . and it’s remarkable how often the ones most agents disregard turn into closings for us.  So start there:  Data Sheets on every inquiry.  And then start thinking about how you can develop a strong but arms length relationship with that Internet buyer.  That’s our future.

. . . I Gotta Wear Shades!

Tonight, John Powell and I are holding the first Help-U-Sell Franchise Information webinar in the new company’s history. In the past we’d have called this a ‘Franchise Sales Presentation,’ but with a new attitude about the company and the franchise sales process, a new name seems appropriate.  We’re talking with people who submitted inquiries at helpusell.com over the past seven months.

We have fifteen reservations so far.  Fifteen people from across the country who are curious about what it means to be a Help-U-Sell broker, what it takes to be successful, and why that might be a good thing for them.  I think it’s a safe bet that before long, we’ll have a few new members.

The obvious question — the one that nobody would ask because the answer is so obvious — is: why are we doing this?  The  obvious answer is:   because we are a franchise and in the franchising world, franchise sales is just what you do.  However, that’s not why we’re doing this.  We’re doing this to sell more real estate in more communities across America.  Our goal is just like our members’ goal:   to list more houses, save more sellers money, work with more buyers and build more good will;  to sell more real estate.  Franchising and franchise sales is just a strategy we use to get into marketplaces where there is a demand for our services but where no office currently exists.

This event — that will be repeated each month going forward — begs a question:  Once we add a new member, how will we get them started?  The company is entirely different than it was the last time we added a new member.  Gone are 33  Regional Directors who (in theory) took new members under their wings and set them spinning the right way.  Gone is the idea that five days spent in a classroom listening to a lecture would prepare one to be successful as a Help-U-Sell broker.  The new realities have put us in position to do so much better than that.

John Powell’s clear directive is that we become a Coaching Organization, and we will bring that point of view to the new franchise start up process.  Each new member will have a Coach who will, over the first six months, guide them through Market Analysis, Business Plan, office selection and set up, handling inquiries, listing and buyer consultation, marketing, staffing and growth.  The coaching process will be punctuated by short weekly webinars where the concepts behind the actions will be presented.  The learning and the transformation from Average Joe to Help-U-Sell Bro will take place in the field, in the real world, while dealing with real challenges.

As one of the creators of the last edition of  Help-U-Sell University (the Morgan Run, five-days-in-a-classroom version), I am so excited by this change in attitude.  I knew in the old world that just as often as we were able to get a new franchise up, running and productive, we were as likely to have one that floundered or failed.   They didn’t get it in class or they forgot what we told them or the tutelage of the Regional Director back in the field was lacking.  The new structure makes learning how to be a Help-U-Sell broker a partnership between the franchise, the family and the new member.

A brilliant Educational Technologist and Performance Improvement guru I know, Harold Stolovich, said it best:  ‘Tellin’ Ain’t Trainin’.’  Training occurs by doing.  And that’s how our new members, with the help of a trusted and knowledegable Coach, will learn.  Let’s do this.

 

Accessibility Toolbar