Category: Listings

Lead Generation I: Analog and Digital Marketing

If you are a Help-U-Sell broker, you want to generate leads.  Mostly you want to generate seller leads, but buyer leads are ok too.  You read and you hear about online marketing and lead generation and it sounds wonderful!  You want onboard!  And you wonder how!

I’ve been working on this for awhile and I have seen some great successes.  I’ve also seen some failures.  I think we get into trouble with online marketing for two reasons:  lack of budget and not doing the groundwork first.  You see, that marketing that we did before the Internet matured into a viable marketing vehicle – the mailers and postcards and CIs and Arounds and signs signs signs – didn’t go away.  They are still vital.  Online marketing, though essential today, is in addition to those other things we all used to do before the downturn.  As people leap to online marketing, I see them abandoning that real, tangible, local marketing – what I call Analog marketing – and that’s a mistake.

Analog marketing has to do with being physically visible in the target market.  A well located office with great signage is essential Analog marketing.  A billboard is Analog marketing, An EDDM delivered to 5,000 households is Analog marketing. A car wrap is Analog marketing.  Regular and planned contact with your CIs is Analog marketing. Sending postcards to 100 neighbors around a new Coldwell Banker listing is Analog marketing. Having lots of For Sale and Directional signs out is Analog marketing.

And Analog marketing is the first step.  It should be in place before taking on an online, or Digital marketing program.

Listen:  I love my digital life.  I love the fact that I can hold a device in my hand that makes a Star Trek communicator look old fashioned, that beams a signal into space and beams it back so that I can be instantly connected with anyone on the planet.  I love that, without even pushing buttons, by simply speaking to Google, I can access the sum total of human knowledge, to learn new things, figure stuff out and get answers on the fly.  I love that we have an inexpensive electronic marketing mega-tool that enables us to be in front of consumers in our local marketplaces and across the country.

But unless you have done the Analog steps of becoming visible in the local market, your attempts at Digital marketing will be less effective.

So, part one of lead generation is . . . back to basics.

It is doing a comprehensive Market Analysis – really doing it – looking at today’s real turnover rates around the area and choosing your target market(s) from those neighborhoods with highest turnover.

It is setting up systems that happen automatically every day in the office:  the EDDM that goes out every month or six weeks, Brag Cards and Arounds, regular contact with CIs, budgeting for a car wrap and maybe a billboard.

It is creating a budget for all of this Analog marketing that is treated like your office rent:  you’ll plan to have the expense no matter what’s going on in your business (because marketing is what drives your business).

Once that blanket of Analog visibility is laid down and functioning in the marketplace, it will be time to add in the Digital.

By the way, here are some metrics to guide you in setting up the Analog portion of your marketing program:

  • You want a Target Market of between 12,000 and 20,000 households.  The size will be determined by turnover rates (lower = more households) and your budget.
  • You should look for neighborhoods where Turnover rates are 4% per year or higher.  Anything under 3% per year can be a problem.
  • Your total marketing budget (Analog and Digital) should be between 7% and 10% of your anticipated annual Gross Commission Income.  If you plan to Gross $250,000, you should be spending between $1,500 and $2,000 per month.
  • Roughly ⅔ of your marketing budget should be Analog, devoted to being physically visible in your target market(s).  ⅓ should be devoted to Digital marketing.  It costs less, so you spend less.

Next up:  What is Digital marketing? And how to go about making it work for you.

Flipping on Platinum Edge

Yesterday I went to a Help-U-Sell broker meeting.  It was attended by half a dozen really strong members – good guys who know their business and represent the brand well.  At one point the discussion turned to the difficulties of listing properties at the top of the range.  As one broker put it, ‘The higher the price, the greater the resistance.’  It seems that in high price ranges, sellers who really do want to save, who love the Help-U-Sell program, don’t want their friends and neighbors to see the Help-U-Sell sign in their yards.  They don’t want to be identified as seeking out perceived ‘discount’ services.

I tried so hard to resist this notion.  I kept thinking about what Betina Grein said to me when I marveled at her ability to list properties at the upper reaches of her Stafford, Virginia price range:  ‘That’s where they save the most money!’  I tried to cling to the notion that the problem wasn’t in the consumer’s mind but in the way our brokers present the program.

But then I looked around the room.  These are very sharp people.  They work in this business with this brand every day.  They’re saying this is a problem.  I have to believe them.

So . . . there is this other Help-U-Sell brand, Platinum Edge.  By way of introduction I’ll reproduce what I wrote about it in 2009:

Platinum Edge and the Clarity of the Brand

We at Help-U-Sell have a second brand, reserved for upper end properties, Platinum Edge.  Platinum Edge has its own logo, and colors (purple and gold), and is occasionally used by a handful of Help-U-Sell brokers.  I was on my way out of Help-U-Sell when the sub-brand was devised and was only peripherally privy to the conversation that led to its birth.  Now, half a dozen years later, I’m looking at it and wondering, ‘What in the world were we thinking?’

We have Help-U-Sell:  an already well-established brand.  By well-established I mean that most consumers have heard of us and many have an inkling that we are somehow different than ordinary real estate practitioners. That is HUGE.  Really:  establishing brand recognition is a very tough task that usually takes years.  The good news is: once you have it, it tends to stay with you.  (For more about this, read ‘Marketing Warfare’ by Ries and Trout. )

To trade the power of that wonderfully distinct brand for something that is completely unknown by the consuming public seems misguided at best, even cavalier.

I know the history.  A group of our old Regional Directors got together and decided that the Help-U-Sell brand was a turn-off for high end homeowners.  It seemed to them that the reason we had little presence in the lofty price ranges was that those homeowners were, um, what’s the word?  Oh, yes:  embarrassed to have the Help-U-Sell sign in their yard!  They didn’t want the neighbors to know they wanted to save money, don’t you see?  And somehow, by simply changing the sign and the name they’d flock to us to save thousands on the sale of thier McMansions.

I guess that must have resonated in 2005.  A lot of stupid stuff did.  And hats off to Infinium for NOT re-inventing the Regional Director mess when they took control of Help-U-Sell at the end of 2008.  Today we function quite well without that extra barrier between the franchisor and the franchisee.

Last year I visited with Josh and Bettina Grein, Help-U-Sell Grein Group in Stafford, Virginia.  They have a good business, much of which takes place in the upper end of their marketplace, homes priced at $500,000 and up.  I asked how they were able to break into that market.  Bettina looked at me, puzzled, and finally said,  ‘Break in?  What do you mean?  . . .  That’s where people can save the most.’  Period.

I don’t think we needed Platinum Edge to sell high end properties.  I think we needed passion, pride and belief that what we have works – three things that were in rather short supply in 2005.  Consumers are psychic:  if you stand before them with doubt and trepidation, they sense it and respond accordingly . . . if you’re not proud and passionate about what you’re doing, you might as well stay home.

Today our group is like a hungry, happy pack of wolves.  They are so deeply into Help-U-Sell, into saving consumers money, into doing it differently and better that it’s almost part of their DNA.  It’s as if  a whole new species of  REALTOR is loose on the planet, a mutant strain that has evolved in response to changes in the (consumer) environment.  It’s stronger, faster, smarter, clearer and more effective.  While all the old dinosaurs in the forest are slowly turning into crude oil, this new breed is taking over.  It’s Survival of the Fittest and we’re certainly up to the challenge.  Platinum Edge?  That’s just a hat-tip to the old Tyrannosaurus we used to be, our clunky, addled, awkward, embarrassed former incarnation.  Today Help-U-Sell comes in just one color, and it’s the color of passion and love:  RED.  Let’s Hunt!

As strong and as passionate as my point-of-view in this post is, I have to question it when a handful of great Help-U-Sell brokers say something different.  And truth is, there are a few brokers who still use the brand and swear by it, Ed and Julie Wright in Mission Viejo, for example.  Is it time to dust off the Platinum Edge brand?  Time to freshen up the logo?  Maybe adjust the colors?  Would you use it?  If so, how?  Or do you hate the idea?  I really want to hear from you.

How to Price Your Home to Sell

Robbie has asked me to look at creating a consumer video about pricing.  It would be something Help-U-Sell brokers and agents could use to emphasize the importance of proper pricing and to describe the process.  I started reworking the script I used for the longer broker/agent training piece we did for Help-U-Sell Pro-Coach Univeristy and have shared what I have done so far below.  Please take a look and give me some pointers.  Bearing in mind that we want to be a brief as possible, what other things ought to be included in such a video?  Is the price trend information too complex for public consumption?  Your help is appreciated!

Pricing to Sell

I’ll let you in on a little secret:   pricing is the single most important thing you’ll do to ensure the salability of your home.  All the marketing in the world can’t cause an overpriced home to sell.  An army of top salespeople can’t cause an overpriced listing to sell.  Overpricing means your home sits and sits until either the market catches up to it or you reduce it back to where it should have been from the start.  Unfortunately, if you start out too high, you’ll miss the most important marketing period for your home.  Here’s why.

At any given time, there are a certain number of people looking for a home like yours in a neighborhood like the one in which your home is located.  Let’s  call them your ‘Best Buyers’ –  these are the ones who will recognize the value of what you have and will be willing and able to pay top dollar for it.  It might be a few people or dozens of them.  The moment your property hits the market you have the opportunity to be in front of the largest number of these ‘Best Buyers’ you will have during the course of the listing.  Yes, more will trickle in as time goes by, but the initial weeks of your time on the market present the greatest opportunity to reach that larger pool of buyers who are already looking.

Now think about those people out there looking for a house just like yours.  They’ve already looked at dozens, even hundreds of houses on paper and they are probably a little tired of the process. What they want to do when they look at new listings (like yours) is to quickly narrow the field, eliminate anything that does not meet their basic needs,  and then investigate the few that might work for them.  This narrowing and eliminating process usually involves three things:

  1. Location – is the house in an area they’d consider
  2. Beds and Baths – are there enough
  3. Price – is it within a range they would consider

If any one of these three items does not match the buyers criteria, the home is eliminated from the list of possibles.  Now you can’t do anything about the location and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms is pretty well set. The one thing you can control is price.  And you want to hit the market with a price that is within the range of market value so that you end up on the list of possibles for the largest number of ‘Best Buyers’ who are in the market at that moment.

There are three things to consider when setting a price:  the price of similar properties in the area that have recently sold, the trend in prices, and the current competition.  The data is readily available, however, you are wise to rely on the information provided by your Help-U-Sell broker.  What’s available to the general public is often confusing and sometimes inaccurate.  We use the most up-to-date and accurate database in existence.

Sometimes, there are enough sales of similar properties in the previous six months to give an indication of value.  At other times, we may have to look back a little further.  But it is always important to remember that you are looking back in time at prices.

For example, assume you have a comparable property that sold six weeks ago. That’s the date the sale closed.  The actual date the buyer and seller agreed on a price was probably earlier – at least a month and most often two months or more earlier.  So when you look at comparable sales, remember that you are looking back in time three to twelve months.  To arrive at a proper price for today you must anticipate and adjust for the trend in prices.

Are prices rising in your neighborhood?  How much?  How rapidly?  Or are they declining?  And how does this information factor into your decision about pricing?  If prices are rising rapidly and you base your price on recent sales, you could be underpriced from day one . . . or the opposite could be true!  These are the things your Help-U-Sell broker will help you weigh as you establish a range of value for your neighborhood and then a proper price for your home within that range.

So far we’ve been fairly scientific in our discussion of pricing; but there is another side to this process and it is not scientific at all; it’s emotional.  We love our homes.  We work hard to make them comfortable and welcoming.  We decorate and improve them to reflect who we are.  Even if we’ve outgrown them, even if they no longer meet our needs, the value we place on our homes can still get strangely tangled up with the value we place on ourselves.  While self-esteem is a marvelous thing . . . it really has nothing to do with the price and salability of your property.   It is very important that you understand the moment you put a for sale sign in your yard your house stops being a home that reflects who you are and starts being something very different:  a product.  A product that has to compete with similar products for the attention of buyers in the marketplace.  I know that sounds cold, but it is the right attitude for a home seller – as opposed to a home owner.

Please, don’t go fishing outside the range of value for just a few thousand dollars more thinking you can always come down.  You’ll miss that pool of buyers in the marketplace looking for a home like yours right now!  And please don’t cling to an unsupportable price because your house has been so special for you and your family.  It’s a product now. It has to compete on every level including price.

A Reminder for Help-U-Sell Brokers

Back to Basics:

Help-U-Sell is a marketing driven company.  Everything begins with marketing.  Marketing is how we gain market share, how we grow, how we increase profitability.  Contrast that with what the Ordinary Broker does;  he attempts to accomplish those things through recruiting.

We market to SELLERS.  Because our seller offer is so far superior to what Ordinary Brokers have, our biggest marketing challenge is to simply inform home owners that we are here and can save them money.

We love buyers – really, LOVE buyers – but we find them through our listings, not through our marketing.  Every new listing creates a dozen opportunities for buyers to connect with us and the more listings we have the more buyers we connect with.  (I know, ending a sentence with a preposition . . . but we are communicating here, not teaching grammar).

Which is not to say we don’t market our listings to buyers; of course we do.  But this is mostly a process of plugging our listings into established channels like the Internet, the MLS, our ongoing marketing and so on.  Our strategic marketing, our aggressive, proactive marketing is to SELLERS.

There are four messages we want to communicate to potential sellers in all of our marketing:

We are HERE

People use us

It works

They save money

We use three tools to communicate those four messages:

The Easy Way

(or the Smarter Way – though as a Help-U-Sell purist, I prefer the Easy Way)

Sold & Saveds

Testimonials

If you have marketing pieces out there (i.e. websites, Facebook pages, EDDMs, brag cards, newspaper ads (what’s a newspaper?), etc.) that do not use those three tools to communicate those four specific seller messages, you’re doing it wrong and missing the boat.

Help-U-Sell is a wonderful business model that produces outstanding results IF you do it right and do it with consistency.  It is so simple that it’s easy to second guess it and start making changes.  Most of the changes I see make the model look more like what Ordinary Brokers do . . . and that’s certainly madness.  I mean:  who in their right mind would want that? 

Get back to basics!  Start marketing . . . to SELLERS.

 

The Secret to Help-U-Sell Success

The secret to how Help-U-Sell works isn’t a secret at all.  We’ve never tried to hide it.  Though it is very simple, it is so different from the way ordinary real estate works that our competitors dismiss it and assume we’re not telling the whole truth; so we continue to hide in plain sight.  Here’s the easiest description of how Help-U-Sell works I can create – it’s just four steps:

  1. Help-U-Sell begins with a superior offer to home sellers.   We go into the market offering a service very similar to what ordinary brokers offer, but we charge a logical set fee (rather than a percentage commission), which can save the seller thousands.
  2. The superior offer enables the Help-U-Sell broker to take more than his or her share of listings in the target market.
  3. More listings means more signs and better marketing, and  ultimately, the large listing inventory generates a strong flow of Buyer (and Seller) inquiries into the office.
  4. We capture those inquiries and turn them over to Buyer Agents who are carefully groomed and trained (via Science to Sales) to convert them into sales.  As listings increase, as the flow of leads increases, as we add Buyer Agents to handle the flow, production snowballs.

That’s it.

The mechanics are easy.  What’s more difficult – especially when dealing with people who have grown up in the ordinary real estate universe – are the attitudes required to make it all work.  There are four critical areas that underpin successful implementation of the Help-U-Sell system.  These are essential areas of focus on which the whole program depends.  If these elements are faulty, Help-U-Sell will not perform to its potential.  They are:

  1. Broker Control.  The Broker is the business, and the business is the Broker’s.  The Broker is in the business of selling real estate.  This contrasts with ordinary brokers who, by and large, are in the recruiting business. The ordinary Broker recruits to expand his business; every agent added increases the Broker’s reach (well . . . in theory, anyway).  Help-U-Sell Brokers rely on their marketing and office systems to expand their business.  Agents come in to help the Broker handle the large amount of business the office is generating.
  2. Systematic Marketing.  Because the broker is in control, he or she creates and manages a marketing plan for the Help-U-Sell office and for all the office listings.  The marketing plan is constantly fine tuned and eventually becomes a relatively stable, almost fixed expense.  When we take a listing, we don’t create a whole unique marketing plan for that one listing — that’s what ordinary real estate agents do and the result is thousands of agents running around willy-nilly with almost no marketing coordination.  We take the new listing and simply plug it into our existing office marketing program which produces results for all of our listings.
  3. The Buyer Inquiry.  This is the single most important moment in a Help-U-Sell office.  It is the place where we take the power of our superior offer and our marketing and convert it into leads, prospects, clients and sales.  That’s why we work so hard to make sure our people are handling the inquiry – whether from phone or Internet – effectively.  Really:  if you want to improve your production and your bottom line, I know of no better way than to improve the way inquiries are handled in your office.
  4. Buyer Agent Job Description.  Help-U-Sell Buyer agents focus on one single but very important aspect of the business:  they convert Buyer leads generated by the office into closed transactions.  They don’t prospect for listings, don’t call FSBOS, don’t go on listing appointments or orchestrate marketing.  It’s an easily managed job description that enables the agent to do many more transactions than he or she could at an ordinary office.

As I read this I am struck by how much of it deals with Buyers and Buyer Agents and Brokers hiring Buyer Agents.  The Listing and the Seller side of the transaction are mentioned only a couple of times.  But we are Help-U-Sell. Doesn’t that indicate that this description is a little twisted?  Not at all.  At Help-U-Sell, the listing side of the business is pretty simple.  It’s easier to take listings when you have a superior offer and our systematic approach to marketing gets listings sold.  It’s the buyer side that requires the greatest shift in attitude by the largest group of people.

I am reminded of my first ever meeting with our founder,  Don Taylor.  He smiled as only Don Taylor can smile and said, ‘People forget, but Help-U-Sell was always about the buyer.’

Let’s try to remember that.

Accessibility Toolbar