M. Nack’s Blog

Whether or not you realize it, as a licensed real estate agent, YOU are an entrepreneur. An excellent resource for entrepreneurs is Inc. Magazine. My latest copy just arrived in my mailbox.

 

The cover article is an interview of Jim Collins – author of Good To Great and Built To Last. What’s fascinating is that he is passionate about entrepreneurs and views those two books as being about entrepreneurship – even though the subject matter is huge, publicly traded companies.

 

The interview outlines some key evolutions through which entrepreneurship has progressed since 1979 – the year of Inc. Magazine’s first issue:

 

Entrepreneurship can learned:

Once perceived as a trait that one is born with, now it is understood that entrepreneurs can be taught, groomed and cultivated. Courses in business schools as well as an abundance of other resources – books, magazines, videos, mentor programs – attest to the truth that entrepreneurs are made, not born.

 

Entrepreneurship isn’t just for mavericks anymore:

The attitude in 1979 was that entrepreneurship was for mavericks. Entrepreneurs were crazy, creative people that weren’t quite normal. Today, not only are entrepreneurs socially acceptable, they are practically viewed as heroic!

 

Building a business used to be about building a better mousetrap:

Nowadays, entrepreneurship is about developing a better process. There are lots of better mousetraps and companies with a great process no longer focus on just one mousetrap – but keep adding more and more mousetraps as they come along. It is much more important today to create a better process that will produce MANY mousetraps over time.

 

Web 2.0 has created the phenomena of companies becoming movements:

According to Jim Collins, there are 3 stages to every business:

1.      Have a great idea.

2.      Build a business to implement that idea.

3.      Build a great company that can implement MANY great ideas.

However, some companies become something even bigger than themselves – they become a movement.

 

We all know it when we see it – customers that are raving product fans and tell all their friends about it. That is when a company becomes a movement.

 

So how do you go about creating “raving fans” for YOUR business?

 

1.      Your business is much bigger than you – and it is more than about “just making money”. You must think from your customer’s viewpoint – how can you best serve them? What do they need? How can you be of help?

2.      Determine who benefits most from what you are offering and identify a niche.

3.      You want to talk to your ideal prospect in THEIR language by creating an organic Unique Selling Proposition from the bottom up.

4.      Provide your ideal prospect with the valuable information they are looking for. This can be done quickly and for free if you utilize social media.

5.      Using social media tools such as Facebook or perhaps a blog, create a community. Create “excuses” for the members of your community to contact you directly.

6.      Once they “raise their hand” by communicating with you, move them to your private database. Continue strengthening your relationship with them by communicating to them as an “Insider”. Once your ideal prospect feels confident that you or the service you provide are “for real”, they will begin “spreading the word” for you and become your sales force!

 

Real estate has always been about the relationships. With focus and intention, today’s technological tools allows for faster community building. Be true to your vision to serve to the best of your professional ability; communicate that vision often. As sure as day follows night, you will find yourself at the center of a robust, business generating community of raving fans. 

For 3 quick tips on how to make YOUR business go viral, go to www.NewMarketLeaders.com and watch a free video now.

 

One of the first things we learn as a REALTOR is how to use the MLS, no? And I’m sure you will agree it is a huge resource for us. The challenge is that, even though it gives us all sorts of great information about sellers and their properties, it doesn’t give us a lot of direct information about buyers. And in today’s market, we need to know about buyers more than ever!

So what is a “super ninja” tool we can use to reserach what buyers are doing and what buyers want? Previously, when the market was hot, attracting buyers was as easy as putting a sign in the yard or an ad in the paper. But what can we do to attract them to us in this environment?

Just as we have the MLS to give us information about sellers and their properties, there is another tool that we can use to tell us about buyers. You won’t believe it, but it is a billion dollar research tool - and it’s available to us absolutely free! Not only that - but it has been sitting right under our noses for the past 8 years. But until the market shifted, we didn’t need the help we do now.

You will be surprised when I tell you what it is because it’s a tool that you probably use almost every day - just like the MLS. You just didn’t know everything it is capable of doing.

It’s called Google.

And not just Google - but specifically Google Adwords. Some crazy number like 95% of all buyers start their search for real estate on the Internet, right? Well, Google Adwords lets us figure out exactly what words they are using to start that search!

But wait - it gets even better! Unlike our MLS, you can learn to use Google Adwords in minutes. All you do is enter the key phrases you are interested in researching and Google will tell you how many people are searching using that word or phrase every single month. And Google is very smart - because it will also give you suggestions of other words and phrases that may be better to use.

So, let’s look at an example: Let’s say you sell resort homes in Door County Wisconsin. You enter “reseort homes” and “Door County” in the keyword tool. It will then tell us how many people are searching every month for resort homes in Door County.

I just went to Google Adwords and entered those exact key phrases: “resort homes” and “door county”. This is what came up:
Door County resorts: 2400        Door County WI:  22,200
Door County resort:  2900         Door County Wisconsin: 22,200
Door County rentals: 3600        Door County lodging: 4,400

When I scroll further down, it will suggest other phrases:

Door County: 201,00 - Now we’re talking some volume!
Sister Bay: 33,100 - SURPRISE!
Vacation Homes: 301,000

What’s even cooler is that alongside each key word or phrase, Adwords will have a graph showing the trend of how many people are searching that phrase. As you would no doubt suspect in this market, all the words are trending downward just now. (Though Door County Weddings is not! Wonder what I can do with THAT information?)

Now that you are armed with this information, what do you do with it?

Well, you have several options:
    1) You can advertise on Google itself using “Pay Per Click” advertising.
    2) You can optimize your website using exactly these keywords. (In our example, you would type Door County Resort” vs. “Door County Resorts” because more people are search the singular vs. the plural version.)

OR - you can use free social media strategies and sprinkle these keywords liberally throughout your content so that hot prospects will find you, call you and take action! How awesome would THAT be to have a hot prospect looking exactly for your service calling YOU?

For more “hot tips” on how to find your prospects and restore your 6 figure income, go to http://NewMarketLeaders.com and download our FREE teleseminar now.

Put Social Media to work for you NOW. Ramona S., a Chicago REALTOR, noticed a significant buzz around the homebuyer tax credit. She decided to post a short comment on her Facebook wall about the tax credit inviting any questions be sent her way. She was shocked when, in less than 15 minutes she received 10 requests for more information and 3 leads. One was from someone she didn’t even know who was out-of-area and which resulted in a referral

“I can’t remember the last time I got 3 leads in one day - let alone 15 minutes!” Ramona said.

The number one rule in marketing today is to provide information that the consumer is seeking:
There is so much information and things are moving so quickly that homeowners are confused and need help navigating the rules. Who are they most likely to turn to for help? Someone who positions themself as knowledgable and with whom they have developed a relationship - regardless of how remote.

Social media is about social proof:
What you know is important - but how many people you know is even more important. The old adage “It’s not what you know - it’s WHO you know” no longer applies. Using tools like twitter and Facebook, you can exponentially grow the number of people that know about you and about what you do.

Internet 2.0 - i.e. social media - will NOT tolerate “selling”:
Social media is like a cocktail party. Your friends don’t want to be hustled, sold, pressured or pitched. They DO want to talk about what interests them and what’s important to them. Everyone wants to be well informed and on top of what’s going on.

The point of Ramona’s Facebook post was not to give tax advice. It was simply to let her Facebook friends know that she is paying attention to what is happening in the real estate market. She wanted to start a real estate conversation with people she was not otherwise engaged with professionally. It served to demonstrate her knowledge of the market place and her commitment to keeping her clients informed. It also served to remind her Facebook friends about what she does for a living.

Looking for similar results? Do what Ramona did - attend a New Market Leaders teleseminar. Go to http://NewMarketLeaders.com and download a *FREE* class now.

Despite his unimpressive stature, strength and speed, hockey hall of fame great Wayne Gretzky was unrivaled in his execution of the game. He was most famously known for consistently being able to anticipate where the puck was going.  As a result, he was able to execute the right move at the right time. 

Similarly, today’s top achievers do five things to “skate” to where the market is going. 

1)      Top Achievers adjust who their “ideal prospect” is:

Much of the traditional real estate market segment  - the move up or move down buyer - is not active in today’s market. The profile of today’s active consumer is

1. Pre-foreclosure homeowners
2. The banks
3. Investors
4. First-time homebuyers

In order to “skate” to where the deals are, Top Achievers learn the skills necessary to work with today’s active consumer - whether it’s learning how to do short sales, BPO’s, or analyzing NOI on investment property. 

2)      Top Achievers have a Unique Selling Proposition for Each Market Segment: 

Rather than limiting themselves to a generic “one size fits all” slogan, Top Achievers adjust and adopt their message specifically to each of the market segments they are marketing to. (See “Pull Clients To You Like Magic” for specific information on how to create a USP.) 

3)      Top Achievers are in front of market trends and use absorption rate pricing:  

Top Achievers intelligently analyze the market and counsel their clients to execute appropriately based on where the market is going. Top Achievers are professional consultants whose key responsibility is to give their clients the accurate data necessary to make the best decision in light of their personal situation.

4)      Top Achievers use Social Media to communicate instantly and for *FREE*:  

By familiarizing themselves with free Social Media tools, Top Achievers share information while it’s still news. Using direct mail is costly and time consuming. A phone campaign can be more immediate but is extremely time intensive. One post on Facebook or Twitter spreads the news while it’s still “hot”. (See “5 Things You Will Love About Social Media”) 

5)      Top Achievers Manage Their Attitude: 

By honing skills or learning new ones, listening to CD’s, reading self-improvement books, Top Achievers never stop learning and growing. They inoculate themselves against the sea of negativity swirling around them. 

Take a tip from Wayne Gretzky. To stay on top of YOUR game,

• Learn to analyze the market and where it’s going.
• Define your most likely prospect.
• Craft a unique message to attract that prospect.
• Use social media to communicate with them instantly and for free.
• Finally, do not succumb to the fear and panic all around. Immunize yourself against a ‘sea of misfortunes’ and skate to the top of your field! 

Download a *FREE* teleseminar on  “The Unwritten Rules of Social Media Marketing To Restore Six-Figure Incomes”. Go to http://NewMarketLeaders.com now.

Have you noticed? There is a huge buzz around social media these days. At a time when most REALTORS are struggling, social media is your fastest way to find a ready, willing and able customer - for FREE! Social media has “grown up” to become a very serious marketing tool for business.

However, there is a little known secret that you MUST know if you want to use social media most effectively - and it has absolutely nothing to do with technology! The secret? A compelling Unique Selling Proposition [USP]. So, before you get all “teched up” on Facebook, Twitter, My Space, etc., take a few moments and apply the very first fundamental to attracting clients to you - a great USP.

1) A Great USP Attracts Your Ideal Prospect To You:

In these tough economic times, prospects are few and far between. Provide them with the magic elixir they are looking for and they will be drawn to you like bees to honey. How? By speaking to them in their language - talking to them about what THEY want - and then linking that to your product or service.

2) A Great USP Talks Directly To Your Ideal Prospect About THEM:

It’s an old cliché: the only radio station a prospect listens to is WIIFM - “What’s In It For Me”.  A great USP talks to the prospect in THEIR language about THEIR concerns. This lets the prospect know that you “get” them; that you “speak their language” and that they can trust you.

3) A Great USP Solves A Problem They May Not Even Know They Have:

Many times, when a new technology or cutting edge product or service is introduced to the marketplace, it solves a problem the client didn’t even know they had! Just imagine when the telephone was introduced. Be innovative and solve a problem. And then give an ironclad guarantee letting them know you are willing to accept the risk. This builds trust while providing certainty.

“When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Overnight” is FedEx’s business winning USP. It allowed them to dominate their market even though they charged way more than their main competitor - The United States Postal Service.

“WIIFM”

How does FedEx enter the conversation that the prospect is already having? The customer asks, “How do I get this package where I need it to be tomorrow?” FedEx replies: “When it…has to be there overnight.”

Draw Clients To You By Offering A Guarantee:

FedEx’s USP contains a powerful guarantee within it. Their service is over-night delivery. They hammer home their guarantee with “absolutely positively has to be there”.  By delivering on their guarantee, FedEx has built a strong reputation and an ever-expanding client list.

When it comes to overnight delivery, FedEx is hardly the only service provider, but they most certainly dominate that position in the prospect’s mind. They have so successfully linked their service solution to their company name that “FedEx” equals overnight delivery. When you use an overnight service, you “FedEx” it - even if you use a different service provider! FedEx has successfully become a verb.

Create a compelling USP that talks directly to your ideal prospect and, like FedEx, you will find clients drawn to you like magic!

To craft the perfect USP for your business and put other social media strategies to work for you, download a *FREE* teleseminar now at  http://NewMarketLeaders.com.

Are your current marketing strategies not producing enough leads? Has income been sliding? Overhead exceeding income? Struggling just to make ends meet?

No one adopts new strategies if the old ones are working. A quote from Abe Lincoln seems particularly pertinent to our current environment:

   ”The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

What a great nickname: “Honest Abe” - especially coming from Illinois - home of impeached governors. Honest Abe, of course, was talking about the Civil War and preserving the Union. Thank goodness he realized he had to use new strategies - or we might be 2 separate countries right now instead of one United States!  

This is what I’ve discovered: the lead generating strategies of the real estate boom are inadequate to the stormy present. I have been working REALLY hard for 2 years to generate the income I need to sustain myself. I’ve never been a stranger to hard work. But I having been working harder than ever and STILL not generating adequate results. I finally realized that I had hit a brick wall.

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. If you’re in a hole, digging harder and faster will only get you in deeper.

Delving into social media strategies, I am beginning to realize that THIS is how people want to be communicated with these days!! They don’t WANT you “knocking on their door” (I did plenty of that in my youth!) or calling them on the phone. They want to go to the internet, (i.e. “FaceBook”, “My Space”, “Twitter”, etc…) get the information they want and THEN contact you if they feel like you’ve got what they’re looking for. If they CAN do it by themselves, they will. But most often that just isn’t practical. So, they do the next best thing: they talk to the person they think is the most likely to help them.

The way we did business in the “roaring 90’s” is inadequate for the stormy present. Just as “cold calling” was an awesome strategy for the 50’s and 60’s, relational strategies was amazing for the 90’s. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. Today, the way we market ourselves is using Social Media.

If you find that the old “tried and true” systems just aren’t working for you as well, find out what we’re doing on www.NewMarketLeaders.com. We’ll help you put the all the social media puzzle pieces together.

“All Things With Exuberance!”
mary!