Marketing Moments of Truth

The Client Lifecycle depicts the flow of Leads into the office, their conversion to Prospects, then Clients and Sales.  Marketing  generates Leads  into the office and our effective handling of them results in our gaining contact information and permission to stay in touch.  This is when the Lead becomes a Prospect.  At some point early in the relationship, the Prospect becomes a Client when a loyalty commitment is made.  For sellers, it’s a Listing Agreement.  For buyers it might be a formal Buyer Broker Agreement or something less formal.  Our Clients become Closed Transactions and enter our Client Base.  If they are particularly happy with our service and savings (they often are), they may become advocates for us in the marketplace . . . and isn’t that nice?

It is important to understand that at each transition point in the Lifecycle, the Lead can be lost.  These junctures are decision points where the customer decides whether to continue working with us.  These are indicated in the diagram by the red diamonds.  The overall success of the office is determined by the effectiveness with which the Staff handle each decision point.  I call these ‘Moments of Truth,’ because careful analysis of Leads Management data can reveal where the office is strong and where weakness exists.  For example, if there a lots of Leads, but not many Propsects, an examination of how leads are handled should be undertaken.  If we’re marketing, but not getting many Leads, the first thing to check is how calls and emails into the office are handled.  Is each customer inquiry being logged?  Even if contact information is not obtained?   If so, an evaluation of the marketing is in order.

The Lifecycle can be a roadmap for improving your office but it is dependent on having and faithfully using a Leads Managment System that gives the Broker/Manager visibility at each Moment of Truth.  The first step in any of this is to begin using the Help–U-Sell Buyer and Seller Data Sheets every time the phone rings.

Something New

There is a new training experience available on the Help-U-Sell Download Library.  In ‘Take Ten Training,’ Maruine Grisso has created short — usually about 10 minute — training sessions on how to use some of the Help-U-Sell tools.  Currently there are three sessions:  The Easy Way, The Client Qualifier and The Seller Savings Comparison.  Each session comes with a video presentation of the slides with audio and a PDF handout.  Many more sessions are planned, so check back regularly.  The folder is in the Download Library under ‘Training Sessions.’  If you don’t know how to find that or have forgotten your login information, send an email to support@helpusell.com.

 

Do This . . .

Google “Sell Real Estate,”  With or without the quotes.  Look at the organic (unpaid) results.  Notice where Help-U-Sell shows up.  Notice where our competitors show up.  Notice where REALTOR.com shows up.  These things are constantly shifting but this morning, we were ahead of everybody.  Assist2Sell was the closest to us.  Then, way down at about 20 was Coldwell Banker.  A bit later was Keller-Williams.  Advance Realty didn’t even show, at least not on the several pages I scrolled through before I got bored.  When Robbie says ‘Search Engine Optimization works,’ believe him.

The Joy of John (and Maria)

I am in Tucson working with John Powell on a revision of the Help-U-Sell Operations Manual. While it’s not particularly out-of-date at its core, there have been many changes in the industry since the last rewrite. The down market has fostered innovation and brought a slew of new strategies to the model, and the explosion of Internet marketing has spawned new wrinkles that need to be explored. So, we are updating.

The project has given me an opportunity to spend time in John and Maria’s office and it’s been such an eye opener. You will recall that the Powells opened this office in mid-2008, in the worst real estate market in history, in one of the hardest hit areas in the country. From a dead start they turned the corner and were in the black in five months. Now, a little more than a year later, they just put their 18th sale for the month on the board. They have two support staff and four agents. I was blown away by the level of activity I saw. Everybody was busy all day long.

I tried to get a handle on why this office was humming along so well when so many others are struggling and I think I gained a little insight. First, there is acknowledgment and complete acceptance of reality. There is no whining about how bad the market is or how tough short sales are or how difficult lenders have become. That’s just reality. It’s the ballpark where we play, and it’s beyond our control.  Now, therefore, what are we going to do to make our business work here?

There’s a crystal clear focus on what we’re doing. Short Sales and REOs are a large part of the market, so guess what? . . . we go after short sales and REOs. We study, study, study the short sale process, we take classes, we get certified as short sale experts and then we deliver. We have a much higher success rate with Short Sales than our competitors and word spreads. We go after REOs the only way we can: we do BPO after BPO and register, register, register on all of those websites. But then we do something our competitors don’t do: we call the asset manager a day or two after we submit the BPO and ask, ‘How was our BPO? Did it meet your needs? What can we do better?’ Over time, this additional conversation becomes a relationship and THAT’S where that first REO listing comes from.

I can see, for John and Maria, the business is simple. There’s not a lot of confusion, clutter and doubt about what they’re doing. They generate leads, develop business, work it well and ask for more. This contrasts with so many offices I see where the business is hugely complicated, where confusion and doubt play a key role. There’s none of that here.

Jeff Gets Brawney

Jeff Braun, Help-U-Sell broker in Union Grove, Wisconsin, has been in coaching with Ron McCoy for more than a year.  The weekly sessions last an hour, max, and are intended to give Jeff an ear and an opportunity to think through the challenges he faces in his specific marketplace.  Those challenges include a smaller market, lower average sale prices, and fewer transactions than many Help-U-Sell brokers enjoy.

Last month, Jeff and Ron decided a price reduction campaign was in order.  Jeff had the listings — more than 30 — but they weren’t selling.  So he systematically went to each seller seeking a reduction . . . and was successful with nine.  Today, as a direct result, he has 10 pending transactions and is on cloud nine.  His plan is to now go back to the many who resisted the first time around and show them what happened with those who did reduce their price.

In this case:  Better Prices = More Sales = Better Market Visibility = More Listings = More Leads = More Sales.  It’s a great snowball effect.  Congratulations, Jeff!

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