Agent Success Club

Proactive vs. Reactive Selling

Are you getting “no’s” bleed from buyers and sellers saying no too often?  Try asking questions that can’t be answered with a no.  Try proactive selling.

Reactive Selling

Much of the time, we adopt a reactive posture with our customers. We “lob” a statement or benefit over the fence and wait for the customer to respond to the statement or benefit. Then we react to their response. Reactive statements include:

• “I’m calling to see if there’s anything I can help you out with today.”  lob … wait … The response usually is “No, not today. Thank you.”  Our reaction is “Well, if something comes up….”

• “Last week I sent you several new listings and I’m following up to see if you’ve received it.” lob…wait…  The response usually is “Yep. But I am not sure about them…” or “I don’t remember.” Our reaction is, “Well, call me if you have any questions or want to see any of them…”

At the very best, many reactive sales calls end with the agent – not the customer – doing something.  Reactive sales calls result in the agent sending information or setting up another phone call.

With reactive sales calls, you give up control of the conversation and reduce the possibility of making something happen.

Proactive Selling

Bring the customer into the conversation with an open-ended but specific question:

 

• “What did you think about the back yard at 123 Main Street?”

 

• “Which houses would you like to look at this week?”

 

• “How familiar are you with this neighborhood?

This question should be targeted towards the customer needs but can be very effective for cold-calling as well.  You retain control over the conversation and build the opportunity to qualify the customer.

Also don’t forget to:

• Begin each call with a specific Initial Value Statement.

 

• Confirm that you’re addressing each of the decision makers needs.

• Ask if this is a good time to talk for a few minutes.

 

• If the buyer or seller was referred to you, be sure to mention the referral source.  This will solidify the relationship and help establish credibility.

And Finally…

Proactive selling won’t work for everyone and won’t work all the time.  But when you’re feeling like you’re getting “no’s” bleed, try proactive selling.

The Next Step in Real Estate Web Marketing

Web savvy Realtors are paying less attention to the latest trends in online real estate, and more attention to tools and marketing methods that are already well-established. That’s because developers and users are starting to agree that the most useful web 2.0 tools have already been developed – the challenge now is using tools to their fullest potential. Professionals with this approach have a better chance of increasing their web presence, and putting a solid strategy in place for the next true wave of Internet development.

The first step in this process is figuring out which of the new online real estate tools will prove the most useful over time. Many agents might choose to test all the products they know, but the most efficient method for this could also be to simply check what everybody else is using. The sheer volume of real estate sites out there, and the variety of different tools being used, makes it easy to surf and compare. Don’t be afraid to give new sites a try, though!

At this point, the best and most popular tools seem to be listings maps, blogs, search engine friendly design, and social networking sites. Many real estate marketing campaigns have these elements, but not many use them to their full potential. For example, it remains to be seen exactly how tools like blogs and listings will be combined, although the potential is definitely there. As real estate pros begin to identify and develop this list, they’ll emerge with a set of reliable and dynamic web tools.

Real estate professionals developing their own websites also need to know which real estate media and national listings websites are going to stand the test of time. Cooperation with these websites will be important for agents looking to gain national exposure, but these agents must be selective to avoid having listings and networking profiles in too many places, before the top sites emerge.

Knowing the elements of an effective real estate marketing campaign is important, but learning how to use these tools will prove more useful for Realtors in search of a long-term solution.

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Learn more about marketing for homes in Summit, New Jersey at www.housebeautifulnj.com. The website has everything you need to start your Summit, New Jersey real estate search or sale, including area information, a comprehensive local home search, and details on realty services for buyers and sellers.

Real Estate Content and Article Marketing

Article marketing is an inexpensive way of driving traffic to your real estate website. Most people who use the internet are looking for information. So if you provide information that is worth while, they will click on the link to your website to see if you have more information available.

What are the benefits of article marketing, especially for real estate agents? There are several benefits, such as:

• Articles can drive traffic to your website each time someone clicks on the link in the author’s box.
• Generating traffic can be completely free if you write your own articles. Even if you hire someone to write the articles for you or buy articles with private label rights, it is still inexpensive. Original articles can cost anywhere from $5 to $25 each, and prewritten PLR (Private Label Rights) articles can be just a few dollars each. Membership sites focused on prewritten PLR articles for real estate, like Agent Success Club, can make them even more affordable.
• You will get free incoming links to your website if you submit your articles to article directories. All of the directories allow you to put your website URL in the author’s box. If people like your article they may decide to visit your website to see what else you have to offer.
• Since internet marketing is all about building trust with your customer, writing articles will set you up as an expert in your area which, in turn, will increase your creditability with people who read your articles. The end result will be increased conversions of website visitors to clients.

Submitting your articles to an article directory means that other people can use your articles on their sites. If they do, you get free incoming links to your website. Some of the giant article directories are EzineArticles.com and ArticleCity.com.

The way it works is you write your article (or modify your prewritten PLR article), making sure you include your name and a link to your web site (even your photo if you want), and submit it to the e-zine of your choosing (or use a service like Article Marketer to submit your articles to lots of sites at the same time). Then publishers (web site owners) who are looking for free content to use in their newsletters, on their websites and blogs go to the e-zine article directories. If they choose your article, they will put it on their website giving you full credit by including your byline as a requirement for its use.

The advantage of having all of those one-way incoming links from all of the articles you’ve written is that your website will get a much higher ranking in the search engines. If you make certain that you include your local information in the web page meta tags, you may even get the number one spot for local searches. There are meta tags for “city”, “state” and “zip code”. You need to include this information on every page on your website. Why?

Let’s say you live in Nashville, Tennessee. An individual in Pennsylvania who is being transferred to Nashville goes to Google and types in “real estate agent +Nashville +tn”. If you included your local information and have been doing article marketing, your site could be listed on the first page of the search results. I’m sure you can see how this will be an advantage for you. It works for local customers as well as out-of-towners.

5 Primary Procedures To Generate Real Estate Seller Leads

The goal of every real estate agent is to sell properties, but to do that you need clients willing to list their homes with you. So, how do you find prospective sellers and turn them into clients? For tips and tricks on how you can generate real estate seller leads, keep reading.

Network with Contractors

Networking with contractors, mortgage brokers and other home improvement professionals is a great way to build your referral business. For example, a homeowner planning to sell their home in the next year may contact a contractor to help do some minor repairs or a painter to fix up the outside of the house.

In turn, that home renovation professional can then either refer the client to you or call you about a potential customer. In turn, you can refer them to clients in need of their services. It’s a win-win arrangement.

The Obituaries

It may seem morbid, but a death can often lead to the sale of a home. While you should never cold call a prospective client immediately following a death or announcement of the death, you can phone a few weeks or a month.

When utilizing this method of targeted cold-calling, never mention the death or that you’re calling because you saw the death announcement.

“For Sale By Owner”

If you’ve noticed a “For Sale By Owner” property has been sitting on the market for more than a month, or even a few weeks, start calling. Tell the prospective buyer that you noticed they’ve been trying to sell and offer a no ties, no sales pitch, free information session where they can ask you questions as a realtor and you’ll offer advice.

The worst thing that can happen is you’ll lose an hour of your time. The best thing that can happen is the lead will become a client and you’ll sell a home.

Put Your Card in Relevant Books

This is an old method, but one real estate agent saw four or five calls a month simply by going to the book store or library every other week and placing her business card at the front of popular real estate and home improvement books. It took about five to ten minutes per location and got her name and card into the hands of targeted people.

Introduce Yourself to the Neighbors

If you’re selling a home on a particular street, make a point of visiting the neighbors, introducing yourself and giving them your card.

CD Business Cards in Real Estate: A Solid Marketing Tool

I just ran across an article on Realty Times by Stephen Canale that, although a few years old, makes some great points about CD Business Cards for agents. His cautionary points are all answered by the CD Business Cards for Real Estate Professionals offered by AgentSuccessClub.com. They are:

1. “Be sure to carefully inquire as to whether or not any “special” software needs to be present”: Agent Success Club CD Business Cards for Real Estate agents and lenders run like a “web site on CD” and utilize the Internet Explorer built into all Windows operating systems. No special software required!

2. “Secondly, as you will typically need to purchase these CD’s in large quantities in order to have a reasonable price-per-unit, you’ll definitely want to carefully consider what information is appropriate for inclusion in the presentation”: Agent Success Club CD Business Cards for Real Estate agents and lenders can be ordered in quantities as low as 10 CDs, with NO setup fees. Prices drop significantly for larger orders, but if you just want a few for an open house, for example, you don’t have to buy a big minimum quantity.

3. “Lastly, and of most importance, you’ll want to make sure that your web site and email address are both prominently”: Every page of Agent Success Club CD Business Cards for Real Estate agents and lenders prominently features an active link to the user’s web site and email address!

In addition, critical details such as your photo, logo, contact information, and biography are stored online, can be updated at any time, and automatically reflect in the content of the CD when a user inserts it into their computer.

Here is the link to the original article: Realty Times

Visit Agent Success Club for more information on our CD Business Cards for Real Estate Professionals.

InFront Tools Launches CD Business Cards to Help Real Estate Professionals Win More Business

InFront Tools has launched innovative, interactive, personalized CD Business Cards for Real Estate agents and lenders to help them stand out from the crowd, increase sales, and win more business.

Bakersfield, California-based InFront Tools has launched innovative CD Business Cards for Real Estate Professionals to help them stand out from the crowd and win more business.  These interactive Business Cards, supplied on mini CDs, respond to the growing problem that Real Estate Agents and Lenders (Real Estate Professionals) face when too many agents compete for the same business. These CDs will help them stand out while promoting themselves and property listings.

Matt Coy, Owner of InFront Tools, explains: “I have been providing similar CD marketing tools since 2003 under contract to an $8 Billion Title Insurance company, and at the termination of that contract, I decided to continue offering my services independently. My CD Business Cards have always been tremendously praised by the hundreds of real estate professionals who have used them across the state, reporting increased sales and customer satisfaction from their clients.”

You can order as few as 10 CDs for just $30 through the company’s Agent Success Club, which was developed to help real estate professionals increase their online and offline marketing presence.

Other membership benefits of Agent Success Club include additional tools such as monthly private label prewritten articles, personalized financial calculators for web sites and CDs, a PDF newsletter generator, and more. To help you get the most out of your Agent Success Club membership, Coy has written an e-book, free for all members, entitled “A Real Estate Agent’s Guide To Online Super Success: How To Survive And Thrive In Today’s Online Real Estate World.” This book will teach you everything you need to know to create and keep a powerful online presence, utilizing the tools available on the web site.

These new CD Business Cards for Real Estate Professionals mean that real estate professionals have a new, high-tech tool for their marketing arsenal, with features that are sure to impress current and potential clients. Business Card CDs will cause them to stand out from their peers in the massive competition for limited business. “Using our CDs will win our customers a larger share of business and increase sales,” says Matt Coy.

The customized CD Business Cards can include:

• The member’s photo, logo, and contact information (including links to their website and email) on the label and disk presentation
• The member’s biography or sales message to promote themselves to potential clients
• The member’s personalized suite of financial calculators
• A collection of real estate-related documents for their clients (i.e., a huge real estate glossary, a property-shopping comparison checklist, a moving checklist, and more)
• Alternatively, CDs can include details of properties the agent is promoting, including photo slideshows, property flyers, and web links to online virtual tours.

Coy believes that the clients of Real Estate Professionals will reuse the CDs again and again to get answers to their financial questions and are likely to pass them on to their family and friends, netting the agent even more referrals.

“Through Agent Success Club membership and its new CD Business Cards, Real Estate Professionals will no longer struggle for business along with other agents because they will now have marketing tools that will help them stand out, with features that are sure to impress current and potential customers. My clients tell me the CDs have helped them get more listings and increase sales dramatically,” says Coy.

To find out more, visit www.AgentSuccessClub.com and take advantage of the 7-Day Trial for $1.

Key Secrets of Successful Real Estate Web Sites: Create a Great Blog

Are you a real estate agent looking to increase your Web presence? If you have a Web site, it is important to maximize its effectiveness. You must get it in front of as many potential homebuyers as possible and make sure it convinces prospects that you are the ideal agent to suit their needs. One great way to maximize the potential of your Web presence is to create an online blog.

An online blog, either written entirely by you or supplemented with real estate PLR (Private Label Rights) pre-written articles from Agent Success Club, is a great way to supplement your online real estate marketing tools. A blog lets people get to know your thoughts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If a potential client is looking at real estate Web sites at 4 a.m., they can read your blog. They will learn what sets you apart from your competition, all while you are sleeping.

Before your clients ever pick up a phone and call your office, your blog will persuade sellers and buyers alike to choose you as their real estate agent. A blog allows you to establish common ground with people in a way that standard real estate Web sites simply can’t. Make establishing yourself as an expert a part of your overall agent marketing plan. In your own voice, you can show that you understand clients’ needs and are an expert in your field. Your blog will make it clear that you’re the best agent to choose in the area.

Your blog will drive traffic to your Web site. Write on relevant titles that contain valuable keywords, or modify real estate PLR pre-written articles to include your keywords. For instance, writing a blog entry entitled “How to Find Anaheim Pre-Foreclosure Homes” will certainly get some attention in today’s real estate market.

Not only will the keywords drive traffic to your blog, the blog itself will feature a backlink to your Web site. This backlink will let your blog readers go directly to your Web site if they like what you’ve got to say, further boosting your online real estate marketing presence.

Blogs are a great way to make a fantastic first impression on the Web-browsing masses. The average home buyer or seller does not know as much as you do about real estate.

With all the news about how abysmal things are, a positive voice with a fresh perspective is very comforting to someone looking to buy or sell a home. If you establish yourself on real estate Web sites as a friendly expert willing to share key advice, potential customers will perceive you as one of the “good guys.”

Once readers have decided they like you, they can even subscribe to your RSS blog. It’s a great way to build an online fan club. You can also offer your RSS feed as an e-mail, which will provide you with a great list of subscribers who are interested in hearing what you’ve got to say.

Blogs are a big part of a successful agent marketing plan, but it can often be difficult for a busy agent to keep up with the demands of creating content. If you need copy or content ideas, be sure to look into real estate PLR content from Agent Success Club, or hire a professional copywriter.

Blogs will let you position yourself head and shoulders above the rest of the Realtors in your region. Your competition is likely dabbling in this arena, but these secrets of online real estate marketing will give your blog the edge.

Why Do Real Estate Agents Need Their Own Personal Web Sites?

Every real estate agent needs a website in today’s online connected world. I guarantee your top competitors will have a website, and you will be left in the dust if you don’t. You can bet that the vast majority of your customers start their search for a new home on the Internet.

This is the age of the Internet, and information is the hottest commodity going. Any person, anywhere, with information to share can now market to that exact audience looking for the information faster than ever before. Now, anyone has the potential to be the hotshot owner of a rapidly growing Internet business, and yes, even to be the top-dog online real estate agent in any town in the world. The Internet can make anyone a Superstar, for more than Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes. But the Internet is only a tool.

Consider the following recent statistics:
· 84% of home buyers use the Internet in their home search.
· 60% of all real estate companies have a web site for business purposes.
· 50% of all real estate agents communicate by e-mail with their clients half of the time.
· 82% of home buyers who used the Internet to search for a home purchased it through a real estate agent
· 65% of those who did not use the Internet purchased directly from a builder or an owner they already knew.
· 61% walked through a home that they viewed online.
· 29% first learned about the house they bought online.
Those statistics make it pretty obvious that you NEED an online presence.

So, what kind of website should you use?
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Brandable Mortgage Calculators a Must Have on Real Estate Web Sites

If you are a real estate agent and have your own web site, you need to have mortgage calculators on your site. If you bought a pre-made website from one of the big providers, likely you have one or more calculators included. However, they are often poorly designed, visually unappealing, and sometimes don’t even offer printable results. There are better options to consider.

There are online real estate software packages you can purchase and have installed on your web site. The drawback, however, is that the programs can be expensive, and you will usually need to hire a programmer to install and test them.

There are also several online services that offer online financial calculators that you can link to from your web site, as long as you keep their advertisements intact. Again, most of these free calculators are not visually appealing, and often lack many of the sophisticated features (such as printable payment schedules) important to offer your website visitors. In addition, usually they cannot be customized to the look and feel of your existing website.

Our company, AgentSuccessClub.com, gives you the ability to use our suite of bilingual online mortgage calculators on your web site, either framed into your existing site or through a custom link, on an affordable monthly subscription basis and with no advertising.
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Online Real Estate Superstardom Is Within Reach

What good is having the most excellent real estate website, if nobody can find it?

I recently released my first book about online real estate marketing, and it’s called “A Real Estate Agent’s Guide To Online Super Success.”

The reason I wrote this book is that I have worked with real estate agents, in various capacities, for almost twenty years, and (forgive me) most just aren’t that savvy about technology.

Now, this won’t be news for many of you agents out there… I think many of you would freely admit that the modern technology your profession requires can be difficult to understand, let alone master. I know this from first-hand experience, by the way, as I was a Realtor for a short time (I’m still a licensed agent, but I decided to focus my efforts on the online world. Mostly because I wasn’t a very good agent But I’m great with technology… hey, you gotta know where your strengths are!).
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