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Strategies & Scripts to Get More Listings

Jul 18, 2016

Staying Ahead of Your Competition

By Julie Escobar

The weather and the market are both HOT and agents are asking us for strategies and how to’s for dominating in a geographic farm. To answer that – we turned to Todd Robertson for some tips and ideas that are working for Market Dominator Members across the nation.

Q: Hey Todd, a lot of our readers don’t want to wait for the fall market to work on their competitive edge – do you have some ideas for them?

A: Sure – the year is already more than half over and a lot of agents are looking at the calendar and thinking, “No way am I going to hit my goals.” That’s a little intimidating, right? For some, it’s enough to make them already start to shut down. Don’t. Instead, realize it’s time to dig in. To put a source of accountability into your career – your weekly routine and create a game plan. You know, we’re really glad that we can be a source for agents. The Master Marketing Schedule^TM that you’ve created is a powerful tool to help agents stay on track and put some consistency into their marketing. It takes the “what do I do?” out, which is a big stress for a lot of agents. First step I would say, is to start there, and develop a game plan that will allow you to connect CONSISTENTLY, with your Sphere of Influence, a Geographic Farm, and a niche market. If you can work a campaign for each of those marketing segments without fail, month after month, your results will grow exponentially.

Q: I agree! We share a lot of strategies about staying consistent. How often should agents connect with their sphere, farm, and niche?

A: At least monthly. Those ‘touch’ points are so important in terms of staying top of mind and creating brand awareness. Send something every month to all three, and not necessarily the same thing. For your sphere, many agents choose a postcard campaign such as a holiday series (not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas!), recipe cards, content cards, inspirational postcards, or a newsletter each month. For their geo farms they send our Market Dominator, or Listing Inventory, or the Free Offer/Neighborhood Specialist cards – all are popular. For a niche, they are specific to that group – for example: Expireds, FSBOs, First Time Home Buyers, Investors, etc. Top agents are also diligent about sending out Just Listed/Just Sold postcards with every listing and sale they have. Without exception. Why? They spotlight you as the agent that can generate RESULTS – and they showcase the properties you are marketing. That’s a powerful combo. Then they do that thing that agents desperately steer clear of but shouldn’t if they want to fire up their career on all levels – they FOLLOW UP.

Q: There’s the sticking point, right? The old getting on the phone or walking the farm and knocking on doors part that stops agents in their tracks. Any suggestions?

A: Yes, the first step we just talked about – putting a campaign in place that touches your customers and prospects every month. That makes it way less intimidating when you call them. Why? Because you have a reason to touch base with them. It doesn’t have to be a “SALES call”, it is a follow up call – or visit if you are walking a farm. “Hey there, Todd Robertson here, from Success Realty, just wanted to touch base. We’ve got a LOT of changes in the market, and I just wanted to see if you had any questions.” (Yes or no, doesn’t matter really, you’re just touching base, asking questions.) Or you can do a combination of touching base and letting them know that you have a big goal to hit. “Hey there, Todd Robertson, Success Realty, how are you? You may have seen me in the neighborhood and I hope you’re receiving my mailings. I just wanted to touch base, see if you had any questions about our market or what homes are selling for right now? By the way, I am committed to helping as many clients as I can take advantage of this market. Who do you know who might be interested in buying or selling in the next 90 days? Maybe someone from work? Or your kids’ sport team? Or church? If you think of someone, I sure hope you’ll remember my name and pass it along. Thanks so much.”

This month we shared a great listing strategy one of our Dominator members uses — and that’s to take the extra 20 Market Dominators that he gets each month and bring them with him when he is walking his farm or going on listing appointments. He lets people know that he is the only one in that market that is willing to consistently show up in a big way (12×15!) each month and that when they list with him – he will dedicate an entire 1/3rd panel of his Dominator to market that listing until it sells. That’s helped him close for the signature again and again. You may want to give that a try as well!

Here’s a quick video I did for our members on the topic:

Q: Awesome — lastly, what about those agents who need the extra push or accountability?

A: For a lot of agents coaching is a good investment, but it can be out of the budget for many. Instead, perhaps consider starting or joining a Mastermind group in your area. Think and Grow Rich has an entire chapter on this topic that is still incredibly relevant and powerful today. Participating in a group like this costs you zero – but your return will be extraordinary. You’re involved with like-minded people, all with the goal of lifting each other up, cheering each other on, and holding each other accountable. That’s the missing link for many agents. If there’s not one in your area that you want to join – start one. Your career, customers, and bank balance will all be the better for it!

We’re hosting a new webinar next week, Wednesday, Jul 27, 2016 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT How to Own More Market Share & End the Year WIth 5 Extra Closings — we hope you’ll join us!

Click here to register.

Thanks Todd. Great stuff. If you’d like to learn more about the kind of tools that we have to help keep YOU on track and ready for the fall market and beyond, head over to our Master Marketing Schedule^TM or main site today. If you’re interested in dominating a geographic farm and would like to speak with Todd about that directly, click here to learn more. Our team is here to help you with all your marketing needs, call us today at 866-405-3638!

Have It Your Way!

Jul 11, 2016

Expanding Your Marketing Options and Opportunity

By Julie Escobar

it’s good to have options–right? Especially when you are building a brand, and growing your business. That’s what our customers tell us every week — and it’s why we continuously work to deliver exceptional options to agents all across North America. One of the features of our site that our customers tell us they love having is the Upload Your Own option. Why? It gives those of you who’ve already had branded materials created and just need print resource and those of you who are pretty handy, creative and tech-savvy to create the exact pieces you want for your marketing and STILL have a means to get them printed, shipped and sent to your book of business or to yourself quickly, easily and best of all – AFFORDABLY.

Let’s face it. Printing up all your materials yourself and getting them the way you want them on your home printer isn’t always a walk in the park. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit crunch time only to find my printer is (NATURALLY) out of INK. And for agents who like to have their marketing materials on-hand and professionally printed and looking sharp – this really is the best of both worlds.

What are agents printing using the UPLOAD YOUR OWN option on our new site?

Pre-listing packages: (This is a great one because all that collated and matching everything up is a pain for most agents! And now we have really cool, branded presentation folders as well that they can just tuck each one into!)
Feature Property or Open House flyers: This is especially handy if you’re using an InfoBox and need to print a lot of them at a low cost so you can keep replenishing your supply.
Pre-designed and branded marketing pieces: Many of you have spent considerable time, effort and energy to create branded personal brochures, notecards and stationery – but just need a reasonable source to get them printed that you can rely on for short-run ability, good pricing and reliability.
Large files: No burning up your ink jet with large files that need printing – we’ve got it! (For Less!)
Brochures: Having the right brochures on hand for open houses, presentations, leave-behinds at local businesses and more is vital to your business.
Invitations: Invites to community events, fundraisers, client appreciation parties or real estate workshops are easy and fast to reproduce.
Posters, Postcards and Print Outs – Oh my! Anything you need printing – we can find a way to
Spaccommodate. From the postcards or printouts that you design yourself to the event pieces you might need for your sphere, farm or community.
Magnets: Many agents like to print out sports event calendars, regular calendars, recipes, top marketing tips with a magnetic back (way to STICK around for your sphere.) By the way – our Football Schedule Series is a super popular marketing tool. See them here. It’s easy!

There are so many options you can now choose and we’re thrilled to bring them to you. Whether you would like ready-made marketing tools such as our free reports, postcards, stationery, niche kits, presentation folders or if you prefer to create your own and just choose to print it offsite – we hope you’ll discover how simple, affordable and service-focused we are to work with.

Make sure your artwork is sized to fit our printing requirements by visiting our Artwork Specifications Link here.

And if you are NOT a do-it-yourself kind of guy or gal — head over to our Specials Page and see what agents across the nation are sending this month!

Got questions? Call us today at 866.405.3638 to get the help you need printing the marketing pieces you want to help you grow your business and get those phones ringing!

Four Tips and Tools For Building Your Listing Inventory

Jun 27, 2016

Positioning Yourself to Be the Go-To Agent

By Julie Escobar

It’s certainly a whole new ball game out there isn’t it? The buyers are out in force and agents are now fast and furiously competing to both find and market new listing inventory. If EVER there’s been a time where listings are the name of the game? It’s right now. We recently did a poll to see what people were most interested in this month in terms of their marketing — the number one choice? HOW TO GET MORE LISTINGS. Enter this week’s topic!

Let’s look at four tips and tools you can use to position yourself as the go-to agent for listings in your market.

Systematically work For Sale By Owners and Expired listings. Make this on the top of your to-do list each week. Send them something. Get voice-to-voice. Go see them. Since they’re already motivated sellers-make sure they know how motivated you are to help them achieve the results you want!
Include a PDF. Another strategy came from one of our top agent customers who, before every listing appointment, creates a pdf version of a Just Listed postcard with a picture of the potential seller’s house and all listing details and includes it in every listing presentation as an example of the marketing that she will get started immediately upon getting their signature! (Very clever!) Click here to see a selection of Just Listed Postcards you can download.
Host an Open House to generate listing leads. In areas where homes are just starting to turn over, you’ll more than likely shake out the 3-4 (or more) other homeowners in the neighborhood who have been thinking about selling. Be sure to do your homework – canvas the neighborhood well in advance of your open house. Advertise it well. Send open house cards, use door hangers or flyers to your existing sphere of influence or farm areas as well. Some agents create an open house field day – where they’ll advertise 3-6 open houses all on the same day, one right after the other. While it makes for a long day, it does showcase you as an agent who has a lot going on and knows how to get things done. I always recommend having powerful collateral pieces at your open houses as well. Like 6 Pitfalls to Overpricing Your Home, Saving for a Down Payment and the Cash Buyer Checklist. When you have more creative collateral than just the home listing flyer you present yourself at a higher level of service and resource.
Saturate Your Target Neighborhood. Working an area or areas where you know turnover is starting to happen? Blanket those areas with a powerful inventory-needed campaign that speaks to the mindset of potential sellers and spotlights you as the agent to call when they are thinking of selling now or in the near future. Our Listing Inventory Series is great for getting attention. Or, if you really want to turn up the heat, learn more about our Market Dominator System which takes saturation mailing and direct response marketing to a whole new level! Then be sure to follow up on that saturation mailing and make the most of your marketing efforts.

Good luck getting those listings, and remember if you need help – call our marketing team at 866.405.3638! Be sure to check out our Specials Page this month as well if you haven’t already and see what’s new and get your budget-saving promo codes!

Real Estate Farming Webinar on Demand

May 31, 2016

The word Webinar handwritten with white chalk on a blackboard

We had a great showing on our timely webinar last week — How to Pick the PERFECT Geographic Farm for Your Market. It was filled with terrific tools and step-by-step strategies for choosing the best geographic farm based on turnover ratios, home price points, and homeowner to renter ratios.

We then shared some of the tools and strategies top producers across the country are using to effectively, and consistently market to their geographic farms to gain market share — and a steady stream of referrals and commissions.

We’ve got it for you on demand now! Watch below!

Interested in finding out of if the ReboGateway tool for choosing farm areas is right for you? Call their support team today at 866-887-0206 or email them today to set up a one on one demonstration at sales@benutech.com.

Interested in finding out whether the Market Dominator System is available in your preferred carrier routes for exclusivity? Call Todd Robertson at 702 683-1867.

As always – if you have questions about any www.prospectsplus.com products or services – please contact us at 866-405-3638.

Using High Tech Data to Master Geo-Farming

May 23, 2016

Houses — Row of new residential houses in suburban neighborhood

It Happened on My Street

A Guest Blog by Brian Fox, Benutech, Inc.

It happened on my street… and I would not be surprised if you have seen it occur on yours. A for sale sign goes in the ground… and presto – soon after, more for sale signs start popping up. It’s an interesting phenomenon, but it seems to hold true in markets from coast to coast. For those reasons, you hear top real estate coaches in the industry advise their students to, “Find areas where homes are selling and market into those areas!” It works. It’s a big informational edge that increases agents marketing success rates.

So let’s take a moment and look at this turnover rate idea a bit closer. Here’s what happened on my street: no properties had been listed on my street for more than a year. Then a property went on the MLS market in June of 2015. By October, two more homes on my street went on to MLS priced similarly. All of them closed by January 2016, so in back to back months (March and April of 2016) two more homeowners on my street decided to list their properties for sale. Coincidence?

Maybe… But that’s five homes for sale on my street in the past year, when there were none listed the previous 12 months. Not only that, but within my subdivision, there is not another street that has had more than two homes listed or sold within the same time period of time. Heck, I have even entertained the thought of selling my home at the prices homes are selling at on my street! The sign posts have even got me thinking.

So in my opinion, along with the opinions of those high profile real estate coaches, it’s true… when folks see sign posts in the ground it gets them thinking… “If I could get that much for my home, I would sell”. Or, “If that home can sell for that price, and it’s smaller than mine, then mine could sell for much more…” So the bottom line: Home sales in a community seem to get the selling ball rolling! For a real estate agent, that’s a very good thing.

The only problem with turnover rate though is tracking it. There has not been an easy way to locate high rates of turnover in communities. Even if your title company or an assistant that you employ was willing to help you crunch the numbers to find the higher turnover rate areas… it’s time consuming.

That’s the reason we added the Tract Utility tool to Benutech, Inc.’s ReboGateway product.This tool instantly groups homes together by FIVE different property groupings, and displays the groups from highest turnover or sales rate to lowest rate in seconds. That’s SECONDS, not days! Not only is Tract Utility providing quick, targeted results, but it’s also grouping homes in groups small enough for agents to easily identify and utilize. Tract Utility breaks geographic areas down from Census Tracts to all the way to the housing tracts that homes are built into. What’s the most popular grouping? It’s been the “Postal Carrier Route” grouping, which is the same group of homes that the US Postal Service uses when delivering ‘Every Door Direct Mailings’ (EDDM). EDDM is the least expensive way to deliver mail, which cuts the price of mailing down to 1/3 the price of a postage stamp per door.

So as a real estate agent, where should you start? Right here: Successful farming is created by repetitive actions in the farm area. You can’t plant a seed (Mailer #1) and expect to reap large results in farming. It’s not enough care, not enough action to create a successful farm. Successful farms are created with regular, repetitive contact at properties in your farm. In crop farming the repetitive actions would be water and nutrients. In real estate, its repetitive actions of mailers, door knocks, phone calls and the delivery of valuable useful information to homeowners that creates large crops of buyers and sellers. That’s why we love working with and partnering up with our friends from ProspectsPLUS.com. We provide the data and they provide the branding tools such as the impressive Market Dominator. It’s the perfect way to brand yourself in a farm area, and make yourself a known entity and celebrity to the homeowners, by showing you care about them and the community.

But now let’s talk about technology and farming. Farms can be created in any geographic area… but farming in all geographic areas are NOT the same. Not even close. You could choose to farm in the dry, rocky soil of the desert… and if you use tons of water, shade, and constant care, you may be able to create a successful farm. But if you are smart, and chose an area of soft, fertile soil, a mild climate, in an area with lots of available water… wouldn’t you have a much better chance of creating a highly successful farm? Of course! The place you choose to begin your farming is a very important decision. The correctly chosen area will result in more successful farms that are much easier to create. So select the area that is right for you and your farming.

So don’t just choose an area to farm that is closest to where you live or work – it may be dry, rocky soil in the desert… (and so 1990’s style of real estate farming). Instead, you’ll want to crunch the numbers to find the community that has a perfect combination of…

Lack of solid presence of any one agent
high turnover rate
Solid sales prices
High homeowner saturation (as opposed to a large renter population)

This way, when you are ready to start investing in your geo farm, you know that you’ve got a market segment that has the highest potential for success. You can do this on your own with the help of your title company and spreadsheets or acquire access to www.rebogateway.com and use the Tract Utility to find fertile farming areas in your neighborhood. Use that valuable information to identify the top postal carrier routes, or top housing tracts with the highest turnover rates nearest you. Then begin your farming in these hand-picked farm areas using direct response tools such as the Market Dominator, Listing Inventory Series, or Neighborhood Update postcards from ProspectsPLUS.com, and a smart strategy of follow up via canvassing, door hangers, and phone calls, and you’ll be on track to build a successful farm that will continue to reward you with listings and referrals for years to come.

Join us for this week’s webinar “How to Pick the Perfect Geo Farm”, Thursday at 1pm Eastern. Register here.

Interested in finding out of if the Tract Utility tools and ReboGateway is right for you? Call the ReboGateway support team today at 866-887-0206 or email them today to set up a one on one demonstration at sales@benutech.com.

Interested in learning more about the ProspectsPLUS.com tools such as the Market Dominator to earn a 20% market share in the geo farm of your choice? Contact our team today at 866-405-3638 or visit us online at www.prospectsplus.com.

Three Strategies to Put Yourself at the Top of Your Market

May 16, 2016

paper houses or homes showing a concept for real estate

Think and ACT Like a Top Producer

By Todd Robertson

There’s something I say at the end of every speech I give when presenting to sales professionals – “If the game is scheduled and you’ve decided to play, you might as well win.”

What I mean by that is that if you’re going to do the work, be in the game, and put in the time – you might as well give yourself the absolute best chance to knock it out of the park. That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about in this week’s quick post. There are three powerful ingredients to putting yourself at the top of the game in your market. They are…

Make it easy for people to find you. If you’re playing to win in today’s market you have to have an internet presence. That said, what you DON’T want to do is to put ALL of your eggs in that basket. Make sure you have a presence, are ranking, driving traffic, and showcasing not only your listings, but your credentials as the specialist in your area and can back that up. Opt-ins that keep your listing growing are a great add in as well. Make it easy for people to find you when they are searching and you’re one up on your competition.
Skills. There are SO many great trainers, speakers, courses, and connections these days, many even on demand so you can learn at your leisure. There’s no reason and frankly no excuse for an agent who is eager to succeed to not be playing at an extraordinary level. Tony Robbins calls it CANI – for Constant And Never Ending I What do your skill levels look like in terms of presentation, negotiation, pricing, prospecting – or all of the above? Never stop learning and fine tuning. You can have all the internet leads in the world or all the referrals in the world – if you don’t have the skills to close – then you are leaving money on the table.
Good ground game. What I mean by this is modern day farming. It’s easier than ever and so important. To pull it off though you have to deliver Ritz Carlton quality and service. That means picking the right area – then creating a dominating presence. To do that I suggest you…
1. Pick the absolute right area. Don’t just choose your carrier routes or neighborhood without doing your homework. In fact, we have a webinar coming up this month that shares exactly how to do that with the help of our friends over at Benutech. In it you’ll learn all about turnover rate, sales price, homeowner to renter ratios and how to use that data to find the right farm for you. Register to attend here.
2. Send out the largest legal size mailing possible (12×15). That sends a message to local homeowners that you are in the game to win. Show up BIG, and let them know you mean business.
3. Make it a campaign. In other words, if you’re going to be like 90+% of agents and drop one or two marketing strategies then call it a day, farming is not going to work. If you do however decide that you are going to commit for the duration and consistently show up month after month after month with a strong message and direct response offers – you’ll be positioning yourself to win.

Now if you’re ready to knock it out of the park, give me a call today at 702-683-1967. I know we’ve got the systems and tools to help you do just that.

Visit us online at www.prospectsplus.com or give us a call today at 866.405.3638.

The Best Kept Secret…

May 9, 2016

That’s Not REALLY a Secret

by Julie Escobar

I had a long conversation with an agent the other day who was interested in putting to good use all the tools and strategies we’ve been sharing on the blog, and those he’s been reading about in the Master Marketing Magazine.

He loved the idea of downloading free reports and pdf’s of the postcards that he uses to put into his pre-listing packages, as opt-in’s for his site, and as direct response tools for his postcard marketing and open houses. We got to speaking about all the pdf’s he wanted to download and the best way of going about that so I told him about our terrific membership tool, that is kind of the best kept secret around here — it’s called SupportPLUS!

As a Monthly SupportPLUS! Member Your Benefits Are:

Free PDFs each month of every piece on our site! Valued at $19.95 each, you can choose from hundreds of marketing pieces that are easily customized and saved to your personal files as a PDF for you to print or use whenever you like!
A Special VIP customer service line. Your satisfaction is our top priority. That’s why you’ll have access to our VIP service line to ensure that your questions get answered quickly and to help make your job so much easier!
Exclusive offers! NO ONE gets a better deal or deeper discounts on products, services or tools than ourSupportPLUS! Members. They are higher than ANY OTHER offer on our site month after month (think 17% off products rather than the standard 10%).
No limits – our new site offers far more than postcards and flyers – you have access to direct mail solutions, business cards, stationery, newsletters, market dominators, door hangers, brochures and so much more!
Personal Marketing Assistance. Our talented team of Inside Account Managers are skilled in helping real estate professionals find EXACTLY the right marketing tools for their business — and their budget and they’re happy to walk you through finding just what’s right for YOU.
List Assistance. One of the biggest challenges for today’s agents are getting the right LISTS to mail and market to. Our exclusive MapMyMail product is perfect for helping you find the right marketing list for your business. Our staff can help you manage your lists, purchase a specialty list or give you advice on how to build the perfect database foundation for growing your business.
Access to new pieces as soon as they come online! We add 4-8 new marketing tools EACH MONTH. You’ll have access to all of them and have the ability to download any at no cost with your membership!

We let him know that SupportPLUS! was available for just $99 per year and he said, “that’s a bargain all year around!” I agree, so I wanted to share it with you as well!

Click Here to join this club of top professionals – or call our team today at 866.405.3638! But hurry – the savings won’t last long!

Gracie, St. Jude’s April Patient of the Month

Apr 12, 2016

April 2016

Gracie, 5 years old

Diagnosis: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Gracie’s story:

When 5-year-old Gracie didn’t want her belly touched, her mom feared appendicitis. In fact, the diagnosis as worse: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood cancer that is also the most common form of cancer in children.

Referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital^®, Gracie began a treatment plan of two and a half years of chemotherapy, at no cost to her family.

Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. “Everything St. Jude is doing for us, and we won’t have to pay a bill? That’s amazing,” said Gracie’s mom. “Being able to focus on nothing but your child is a wonderful thing.”

Gracie adores her care team at St. Jude. From her Child Life Specialist to her doctor, she calls them by name and doles out hugs and love-notes.

Please help us help kids like Gracie and their families.

To Donate, please visit www.prospectsplus.com/StJude

About St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital:

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago.

St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent, and we won’t stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook (facebook.com/stjude) and following us on Twitter (@stjude).

Staying Top of Mind Year Around

Apr 11, 2016

8 Tips for Using Seasonal Marketing

by Julie Escobar

While a lot of sales pros send out holiday greetings for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we’re finding that lots of top agents stay in touch with seasonal messages for the sphere of influence all year around.

Great idea as staying in touch and top of mind never goes out of season. Before you buy a card, stick a stamp of figure out where your mailing list is — consider these eight tips for sending seasonal marketing.

Be clear about your message. Even when you’re sending holiday postcards, you can use the reverse side to send a great message to your customer base. If you are sending to both your sphere and farm, you may want to consider altering the message slightly for each. Make it personal and heart-felt, with a note of thanks for allowing you the opportunity to serve them as customers — or in the case of your farm – the community.
Serve two purposes. Are you having a holiday open house? Customer event? Charity drive? Looking for a good time to stop by with a small gift? You can include that information on the cards as well.
Don’t be salesy. Holiday greetings are not about the sale – they are about the connection. Keep it warm and personable.
Don’t wait for just Christmas. Many top agents send a holiday message once a month to their sphere. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Independence Day, Back to School, and Halloween are all favorites. There’s something to celebrate all year round, and it’s a fun way to stay connected and stand out as someone who is “there” more than just in the month of December.
Have some fun with it. Got a great team? Or just a great personality? Take some fun pictures and opt for a photocard rather than a more traditional card and don’t be afraid to get a little creative with your photos. Create a fun message and send out each quarter.
Don’t leave anyone out! You know all those mailing lists you’ve been collecting throughout the year? For Just Listed postcards, or the stack of business cards that have been sitting on the corner of your desk collecting dust?
Order early. We suggest sending your holiday cards out at LEAST two weeks in advance of the holiday every month — and sending first class as opposed to standard-class to ensure timely delivery.
Follow up. Sending cards is a great way to easily stay in touch. Pick a postcard, edit your message, add a list – and you’re done! In a matter of minutes you’ve created a connection. However to really get the full impact of ANY mailing (holiday and otherwise) — be sure to follow up – at least with the top 25% of your list. There is no substitution for this step. Imagine if you made it a point each year, every year, to speak with every single person in your sphere at least twice a year? Touch base, see if they have questions, thank them for being great customers, and say hello. Here’s what happens when you do: they remember you. They don’t list with another agent because your name wasn’t on the radar. They are grateful that you take the time to call. And one out of 12? Statistically will do business with you or refer business to you.

Here’s to staying in touch with your sphere and farm!

If you’re new to ProspectsPLUS!, watch this quick video to learn how fast and easy it is to register for your free membership, and place a postcard order in ten minutes or less!

Need help? We’re here for you! Call our team at 866.405.3638 today. We’ll help get your holidays started and save you money at the same time! Have a great one!

A Smarter Way to Use Every Door Direct Mail®

Apr 8, 2016

Neighborhood houses — Row of residential houses in suburban neighborhood

Insights From ReboGateway

By Julie Escobar

We just had an amazing and informative webinar with our friend Brian Fox from Benutech and ReboGateway that got a lot of agents buzzing about using a BETTER way to leverage EDDM®.

For those of you who are new to the concept, EDDM® is a system provided by USPS that allows you to literally get in EVERY door in a carrier route for a low postage cost of 18.3 cents per piece – and you have the ability to send out marketing pieces of all sizes, which is big plus when you choose a BIG size!

What we’ve found is that one of the toughest challenges is deciding where to start. Almost daily we are asked by customers, “What’s the best way to pick a carrier route?” Fortunately, our friends over at Benutech figured that part out for us!

In this webinar you’ll learn how they can help you pinpoint not only which carrier routes have the highest turnover rate, but also those with the highest dollar homes, and largest percentage of homeowner to deliverables. That’s huge for agents, because up to now, most agents have chosen carrier routes more based on location to their office, or the neighborhood they live in, or just randomly – without really knowing which would have a higher probability of yielding the best results. Now, they can be much more strategic in their approach to carrier routes.

The great thing about EDDM® is that you don’t need a list – it literally gets in every door. However, the savvy agent knows that marketing should be layered. So they can also pull the list from their ReboGateway system to add additional marketing touches such as Just Listed postcards, Just Sold postcards, Open House cards and more.

To learn what our customers top picks for Every Door Direct Mail®, we asked our Director of Business Development Ramona Williams who works with our customers every day. She shared, “I’d say, by far, the most popular piece hands-down is the Panoramic Postcard featuring a new listing. It’s sleek, beautiful, markets the new listing and is a great way to showcase the agent’s results as well. Secondly, we’re seeing a lot of agents who are using a little bigger piece to spotlight multiple listings on one mailer. It might be for a series of open houses or just to showcase that the agent is the turn-to person to call for listings in an area. And third, we’re seeing agents use panoramic postcards featuring direct response offers such as a Free CMA, List of Homes, Consultation, etc.”

Some links to get you started:

Use promo code EDDM10 to save 10% on your www.prospectsplus.com EDDM® order!

To save on ReboGateway use promo code PROSTUA (make sure it’s all capitalized).

This promo code will provide ReboGateway annual for $399.95 with the Tract Utility (turnover tool) provided for FREE (saving $120) via the Promo Code.

If you are thinking of using this powerful tool, consider choosing just one or two routes to start. With the average carrier route running anywhere from 300-500 homes, it just seems like a manageable area for most agents to not only connect with – but have the ability to follow up on.

And follow up is important, as is consistency. If budget is an issue, then you may wish to choose a smaller route and be consistent in sending to that route often. One-shot mailings – even ones that saturate a market area are not normally very effective. The agents that are seeing the best results from this system are sending every one to two months for at least six months.

Watch the video:

If you’re interested in learning more about the tracking data from Benutech and ReboGateway, call them today at 866-887-0206 for a free demonstration of the data that is available in YOUR area.

If you are a real estate pro and you’d like to learn more about what EDDM® tools we can help you with, give us a call at 1.866.405.3638 today.

One Powerful Way to Get More Referrals

Apr 4, 2016

Starts with a Little Appreciation

By Julie Escobar

People say a little appreciation goes a long way and they wouldn’t be wrong. We know from massive research where business really comes from, and it’s not from where most business people think. Statistics show that 66% of all the business generated by 95% of successful professionals today comes from only four sources:

Family
Friends
Close Acquaintances
Referrals generated by the first three groups

Statistics also show us that when you stay in consistent touch, top of mind, and deliver excellent service and show your appreciation, you can expect either a referral or a transaction from one in every twelve people in your sphere. So the questions to ask yourself is do you even know who is in your sphere, and how are you expertly staying in touch with them and delivering that top of mind service and appreciation?

If not, you’re leaving a lot of business on the table. One powerful way to tap into spring of referrals starts with two little words: thank you.

A long time ago I learned from Floyd Wickman that, “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” Show them you care.

Here are four easy strategies to help you do that:

Each month pull a list of every customer in your database who has an anniversary of either the sale or purchase of a home and send them a Customer Appreciation postcard with a personalized message on the back.
Each month choose 25-50 people from your sphere database and send them either a Thank You or a Thinking of You postcard from the Customer Appreciation series with a personalized message on the back.
Each month send a sphere-friendly postcard to the rest of your database to keep your name top of mind. Top customer picks would be the Listing Inventory Series, Content Cards, Holiday Cards, and Recipe Cards.
Pull an idea (or a few) from the fun connection suggestions on our Master Marketing Schedule each month. For example, this month, April 22nd, is National Jelly Bean Day. Get little packages of jelly beans to give to clients, the admin staff at your office, co-workers and friends. There’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Day in May for a chance to deliver some tasty treats to ten top clients. Or National Chocolate Day in July, where we suggest you grab ten of those little sampler boxes of chocolate and deliver to ten top clients with a note thanking them for being such a treat! Or Aviation Day in August where we suggest you order cardboard or paper airplanes from www.orientaltrading.com and pass them out to your farm area this day with a note attached saying, “Buying and selling real estate today takes an experienced pilot. I can help ensure you have a terrific landing! Call me today!” The schedule is filled with fun ideas that help you stand out from your competition. Try them!

Rising to the top of your game in your market means doing things differently than your competition. Where others show up once or twice – show up every month. Where others wait for the phone to ring – pick up the phone or see everyone in your sphere at least twice a year. Break the list into manageable numbers and call just to say hi, see if they have any questions, let them know you appreciate them and that you’re there when they need you. Where others sit on the sidelines, get in the mix every day. Be out and about in your community. Talk to your customers. Walk your farm areas. (The goal is to get the folks in your farm so connected with you that they become part of your sphere!)

Lastly, never, ever forget to say thank you, in big ways and small. To your customers, clients, colleagues, brokers, assistants, friends and family. It is a gesture that will never go out of style, and will garner you good will again and again. In a business built on relationships with people – good will goes a long way. On that note – a big THANK YOU to all of you who graciously allow us to be your marketing resource of choice!

Need help? Call our marketing team today at 866.405.3638 to put the best systems in place to build your business easily, and cost-effectively.

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Get Back to the Basics

Mar 28, 2016

Insights from the Front Line with Ramona Williams

By Julie Escobar

When it comes to knowing EXACTLY what real estate professionals, and specifically our ProspectsPLUS!
customers want and need to grow their businesses in today’s market, I knew that there was one person who would be perfect to interview. My closest friend and always one of the smartest people in the room, our Director of Business Development, Ramona Williams. With both an MBA and more thirty years of experience working with real estate agents and brokers, she’s the go-to resource for insights and ideas.

Here’s what we learned:

Q: You are on the phones with customers every day, where do you think agents are needing the most help in terms of marketing their businesses and their listings?

A: Consistency – hands down. That’s honestly where most agent’s marketing breaks down. One and done marketing doesn’t work, never has and never will. Secondly, what hurts agents is having no strategy at all. That’s not a new problem of course. That’s historically where agents fail to grow their businesses, and why so many don’t make it. Unfortunately, the majority of agents try lots of little things, including whatever the “shiny new idea” is in the office at the moment and never commit to anything consistently. The result is they end up all over the place in terms of the message they are sending out into their market, and they’ll actually spend considerably more money trying every new thing that comes along than they would if they just put a solid, strategic plan of tested direct marketing that works in place and stuck to it. Consistently sending branded, direct response marketing every 21-45 days to a sphere and farm is still the best means of driving results in our industry.

Q: We’re seeing a huge rise in agents using EDDM^® as a means to strategically market for less – what is your take on that and what advice do you have for others eager to do the same?

A: I think Every Door Direct Mail^® is a terrific way for agents to cover a large geographic area because of the lower postage costs. It makes it really affordable for agents to get back to those basics like working a geographic farm. What I really like about seeing agents return to geo-farming is that it helps them focus their marketing efforts. For a long while we saw agents just chasing the next deal. They’d follow internet leads wherever they took them – sometimes driving hours to take a listing. EDDM helps them to find a geographic market area that makes sense for them and literally get in every door. When used consistently, it creates a much more predictive business and income model than constantly chasing new business. Here’s what else I can tell you – the great agents get that. They know that it’s not only OK to be in control of their marketing and business, it’s a must if you want to create a consistently growing business with commissions and referrals you can count on. I think so much of the time you see agents who look at the business of real estate as risky to start with or unpredictable because it’s commission based. So their mindset is that their business is supposed to be all over the place, or unpredictable as well. Savvy agents know that real estate is a business and can be a very lucrative one if they treat is like it is and work a plan.

Q: What product do you see the most demand for in today’s market?

A: I’d say in most areas of the country inventory is still historically low, so agents are looking for any vehicle that can help them get listings. So we’re seeing a lot of EDDM, Just Listed postcards and Just Sold postcards (which are great for pulling double duty – marketing the listing and the agent), our Market Dominator, Listing Inventory cards, FSBO and Expired tools, and our Neighborhood Update/Free Offer cards. The last take a little more work to input the listing data, but it’s what consumers want to see, and they make direct response offers, so they work. Again, it’s getting back to taking control of your marketing.

We are also seeing an uptick in agents struggling with pricing listings correctly and that’s where your eBook 21 Ways to Get Your Listing Priced Right the First Time (Despite the Seller’s Objections) is a terrific tool that’s really affordable and filled with the kind of objection handlers agents need today.

Q: You and I go way back in this business – we won’t say how far! How do you think the market has changed and what do you think agents can do to best get in front of those changes and be competitive?

A: You know, surprisingly, it really hasn’t changed all that much. Our business is and always be cyclical. What is different, of course, are the amount of technology options agents have and how many different organizations are selling to them. Many of which are amazing and game-changing solutions for agents, no doubt. It does, however, make it really easy for agents to take their eye off the ball and look for that “magic pill” that will skyrocket them to success. While that’s understandably tempting, the keys to being the top in your field is the stay focused, build inventory, price listing right, have a strategic plan, and find areas you really enjoy working and stay the course.

Q: Excellent advice! You work with top producers and high volume teams quite a bit as our Director of Business Development. What are some factors from a marketing perspective do you think they deploy that allow them to continuously rise to the top?

A: Much like we just talked about, top teams and top agents don’t roll the dice with their results. They build their businesses exponentially by putting systems in place so things don’t fall through the cracks and understand and implement the power of consistent marketing. In other words, they don’t wait and they don’t shy away from marketing at high levels. They prioritize immediate lead generation, but they also have systems that allow them to build their brand and their businesses long term. They are also typically service-minded professionals. They take excellent care of their customer base, and communicate effectively and often with their sphere and farm. That’s smart business.

Q: Awesome. Any last words of wisdom for the readers?

A: Well I guess I would say that this is truly a great industry where people can make an excellent, lucrative living that is relatively affordable to get into with a strong return on investment. I would tell them to be strategic, consistent and be mindful of who you model yourself after. You and I have both seen, countless times, agents who have been in this business 3, 4, 5 – even 10 years or more in this industry and have never put a sphere of influence database together. While some may do all right at that, it makes you really wonder where COULD their business be if they had put that basic but so important piece in place? That’s a lot of missed opportunity and money left on the table. I’d challenge agents to not do the same. Get back to the basics. Have a plan. Use strategic, consistent marketing (both in terms of timing and branding) to build your inventory, price them right, follow up, and take care of your book of business and your farm.

As always, you’re a tremendous source of advice for today’s professionals. What’s great for our customers to know is that you’ve done such an amazing job of both training and managing our support and marketing teams that they have incredible skills and insights as well and are wonderfully adept at helping agents and brokers figure out the best plans for them, and helping them strategically implement those plans every day. Kudos to you for that! Thanks for sharing!

If you’d like to connect with a member of Ramona’s team, you can call them at 866-405-3638 or email us at pmc@prospectsplus.com. They are eager to help make your job – and your life a whole lot easier!

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