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.

 

The South Africans Have Arrived!

Here’s a little background you may not know:

 

Robbie, Donnie and Reinhard

Our new Help-U-Sell website and the new Broker websites that are being unveiled a the upcoming Tech Summit, are being developed by a crackerjack team in South Africa.  The are led by our own Robert Stevens, an Afrikaner himself.   After working with Help-U-Sell for several years, Robbie took the franchise to his homeland and established it there.  If you look at what he accomplished in South Africa in two years, you cannot help but be more than impressed; you’ll be amazed.  He grew from nothing to 34 offices, terrifying the traditional business that was already there while delighting consumers as only Help-U-Sell can.

Robbie came back in 2008, and when Ron Westman and Infinium took over, one of their first official acts was to empower Robbie to do what he’d been advocating for a long time:  rebuild the Help-U-Sell web presence from the ground up.  You see, our website had been outrageously effective in the 2002-2005 time-frame.  It absolutely flooded leads into the system.  The reason was simple:  while the rest of the industry fought tooth and nail not to give consumers free access to information, we embraced the idea.  After all, Information Without Obligation was one of our core values.  So we employed IDX at a time when most of the other players in the industry kicked it aside and hoped it would go away.  Of course, the consumer was delighted and flocked to our website.  We quickly started to outrank Re/Max and Century  21 in the Alexa traffic stats and even topped Realtor.com a few times.

Unfortunately in 2005, things began to shift.  One of our large competitors saw what we were doing, declared they wanted that and wooed our vendor away, leaving us out in the cold.  We scrambled.  But truth is, the next few well-intentioned attempts to restore the Help-U-Sell website failed.  Robbie realized the biggest problem was that we were at the mercy of the vendors who created, hosted and maintained our site.  Not only were they in control, they also took many of the great ideas we used in our website and distributed them to their entire client base.  We needed our own site, we needed to build it, we needed to be responsible for it.

So in January, 2009 he began working with a team he’d met while bringing Help-U-Sell to South Africa.  No strangers to real estate, these guys had already established the South African version of Zillow/Trulia and were the cream of the crop of that nation’s real estate oriented web developers.  In six months they had the new corporate site up and running and nearly doubled traffic.  Helpusell.com is carefully constructed to be the Marilyn Monroe of real estate websites capturing the eye and the attention of search engines on a near constant basis.  What can I say?  Helpusell.com is flirty and captivating!

Now, the focus is on our broker websites, designed to synergize perfectly with the corporate site and to bring a level of easy customization to our brokers that’s never been seen on this kind of site before.  When they are introduced at the Tech Summit, the first week of March, the new sites will make it possible for a broker to quickly localize, customize and optimize his or her website, to maximize hits and page views, and minimize bounce rate.

Today, the first contingent of the South African team arrived at Help-U-Sell HQ in Sarasota.  They will be with us for the next several weeks to ensure that the introduction of the new broker sites goes without a hitch.  It is an important and exciting moment in our history.  You’ll be meeting them at the Tech Summit but for now, let us all say, ‘Welkom!’

 

And The Winner Is . . .

Matt Kellam, Help-U-Sell Keystone Realty, Chambersburg, PA (about 60 miles southwest of Harrisburg and 25 miles northeast of Hagerstown, MD) is the winner of the National Help-U-Sell Get A Listing Day War Story WebSite Make-Over Contest!

Matt had a great war story about a former client who came back to list again.  Here it is:

Last Friday, I received a call from a seller whose home I had listed in April, 2007! She said, “Hi, do you remember me?”

“Of course,” I said.

“Well, would you like to list my home again?”


Here’s how we came full circle. I had listed the home for $305,000 in April 2007. The owner was in the process of building another home and was trying to “time it.” The home is on over an acre and a half and has a four stall horse barn. She owns several horses which is why she was trying to time the sale and move to her new home.


So, in the six months I had the home listed I was only able to get her to lower her price once, by 10k. At the end of the listing agreement she fired me and hired a traditional agent and relisted at the same $295,000 price. It was with this agent from Nov. 2007 until March 2009 and by the end of the listing was priced at $269,000. She told me today that she had received an offer for $285,000 and turned it down!!!


Next, she tried an auction. She paid the auctioneer $200, paid for all the advertising, held open houses, and the day of the auction, the auctioneer told her there was not enough interest and cancelled the auction.

So, it was back to a traditional realtor in Aug. 2009, now at $244,900. The price remained there until the end of the listing and the phone call to me asking if I wanted the listing again.


She came into my office this morning and re-listed at $240,000. It has been a humbling learning experience for her and a great story for me to share with other sellers.

You can see the listing here.  It looks like a pretty cool piece of property!

Matt wins a one-on-one website consultation with Robert Stevens.  They will work together to optimize and localize Matt’s new Help-U-Sell broker website.  The goal will be to make it irresistible to search engines.

Congratulations, Matt!

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