CLOSE
Thursday, May 9, 2024

business growth

    “I think I’ll send my new patient a $50 Macy’s gift certificate to thank her for allowing me to perform her annual physical,” said no doctor, ever. Come to think of it, my hairdresser, accountant, and lawyer have never gifted me either.

    Yet real estate agents, somewhere along the line, came up with this notion that they absolutely must provide a closing gift to their clients. 

    Obviously, the agent who first gifted a client must’ve found the practice successful because it was quickly copied and has now become standard practice.

    Does giving a gift to a client make you memorable? If that were the case, more service industries would take up the practice, don’t you think? I don’t know about you, but I return to my hair stylist every month because I love the way she cuts my hair.

    My accountant saves me money on my taxes. So, is it the gift that makes them remember you, or was it your performance?

    Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of giving closing gifts, to real estate clients.

    Pros

    I’m not a tax expert or an accountant, but the IRS says agents can deduct up to $25 for each person they gift during the year. No, that’s not a whole lot of money and if you make the big bucks, you’ll need to buy a whole lot of gifts throughout the year to even put a dent in your tax bill.

    If you feel you must give a gift, consider handing your clients the keys to their new home on a quality (meaning, not plastic) keychain. With your branding on it, you’ll be able to deduct it as a marketing expense and possibly get a larger deduction. Talk to your tax professional.

    A swanky annual client appreciation event, on the other hand, will give you a bigger tax deduction as well as put you right back there at the top of their mind.

    The Content Card Series is shown above. To learn more, Click Here.

    Cons

    Since referrals are the lifeblood of a successful real estate practice, and keeping them coming in requires remaining top-of-mind with former clients, it would have to be a major gift to make you memorable throughout the years.

    What will make you memorable is frequent contact throughout the year — the birthday cards, the client appreciation events, and the ongoing direct mail campaigns.

    Here’s something else to consider: you are a buyer’s agent. You have been at your client’s beck and call, spending weeks or even months driving your clients to house after house before they finally found one they wanted. 

    You submitted the offer, you coordinated your client’s end of the transaction, and you smoothly paved the way to a successful close. All parties are satisfied with the outcome. In return, you are paid a percentage of the sales price of the home.

    You did your job and you got paid. Shake hands, as business people do, thank them for their business, and move on to your next client. 

    The subject of closing gifts, as you know, is a point of contention among agents. How about you?  Do you gift?

    PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

    1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

    Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

    2. The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

    The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

    3. The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review

    The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review allows you to enter your business goals for the remainder of the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your goals.   – Click Here

    4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

    Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

      Learning on the job isn’t a bad way to become a successful agent: it’s safe to say pretty much every agent follows that path. After all, real estate school teaches nothing about how to run a real estate business.

      That path, however, diverges at some point, separating the highly ambitious from the more complacent.

      While those on either path can benefit from a business or life coach’s services at some point in their careers, it’s typically the former who seek them.

      “Struggle + Coach = Achievement”

      This is claimed by the amazing author Sean Everett at medium.com. “If you remove the struggle, there’s no need for a coach because it means you’re not working towards anything great.” 

      If you are working toward greatness and have hit a wall, a coach may be just what you need to break through it. But there are other benefits a coach can offer as well.

      The Holiday scheduled campaign is shown above. To learn more, Click Here.

      How to know if you need a coach

      If you haven’t a clue about last year’s production (hey, you’re not the only one!), let alone the past three years, if you don’t have a business plan or a marketing budget, if you have no idea how to raise your production, you need a coach.

      Some top coaches on Forbes Coaches Council suggest additional symptoms of someone needing a coach:

      • Feeling overwhelmed – that you don’t have control over your real estate business, or “feeling like there is too much to do and too little hours in the day.”
      • You need someone to talk to about your business, to bounce ideas off.
      • You’re frustrated because you know what to do yet don’t do it.
      • You aren’t getting the results you want in your business.
      • You feel paralyzed.
      What you may get out of working with a coach 

      The late and legendary NFL coach Tom Landry summed up coaching in one sentence: “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”

      All agents, even newbies, can get something out of working with a coach. 

      Don’t agree? 

      An Inman survey from a few years back shows that “the vast majority of agents working with coaches see a return on investment.” In fact, 90 percent of them said that in their first year of working with a coach, their production increased 10 percent or more.

      Thirty-five percent said their business increased up to 26 percent more and nearly 10 percent saw an increase from 100 to almost 200 percent. 

      Convinced yet?

      Think of a coach as being a fresh set of eyes. Someone who can look at you and your business in a way that you can’t. 

      It’s lacking that “big picture” thing that causes many of us to hit the wall. Then, paralysis sets in and we’ve no idea how to lift our legs and, if we can, which direction to tell them to carry us.

      Come back soon for part 2, where you’ll learn how to choose the perfect real estate coach for your business.

      PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

      1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

      Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

      2. The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

      The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

      3. The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review

      The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review allows you to enter your business goals for the remainder of the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.   – Click Here

      4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

      This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

      Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

        Imagine a trip to a doctor’s office. You approach the front counter, and there she is, ready to check you in for your appointment. Then, she is, again, prepared to accompany you from the waiting room to the exam room. She performs your exam and is at the desk out front to take your check for your insurance co-pay and schedule your next appointment.

        Aside from seeing patients at various times during the day, this doctor will clean exam rooms after each patient leaves, call-in prescriptions to pharmacies, order and interpret diagnostic tests, work on bookkeeping, schedule appointments for other patients, follow up on telephone messages, meet with pharmaceutical company representatives and clean the office. 

        If this were your doctor, we’d bet you would think she’s either crazy or arrogant. After all, she’s most likely not a trained bookkeeper, administrative assistant, or skilled in sanitation practices in physicians’ offices.

        The Market Update Postcard is shown above. See more HERE

        When any professional works in a practice with many moving parts, it’s simply foolish to presume to wear all the hats. 

        Many agents across the country figured this out long ago. “We aren’t professional photographers or stagers. Nor are we phone specialists or transaction coordinators. And, we don’t want to be any of those,” says a friend and agent in Los Angeles, California.

        This is why this agent built a team, offering professional specialists to each client. In her estimation, this team’s approach to real estate has made her so successful.

        When you reach a specific volume, taking your business to the next level requires assistance. Most agents start with admin help.

        However, the next level is to build a real estate team.

        Structuring your team

        Before you jump into the hiring process, consider how you’ll structure your team. This helps you learn who you need to hire and which skills to be on the lookout for. Check out Chris Linsell’s brilliant but simple Real Estate Organizational Chart at theclose.com. 

        To give you an idea of how to staff your team, take a look at our California friends: 

        • 3 listing coordinators
        • 3 staging strategists
        • An architectural photographer
        • Marketing Coordinator
        • 6 phone specialists to attract and reach out to potential buyers
        • 17 buyers’ agents
        Photo Introduction postcard. See more, HERE.

        Naturally, you won’t need this many team members when you start but consider adding as your business increases.

        Each cog in the aforementioned well-oiled wheel works in tandem with the others. For instance, the phone team recently received a call from a homebuyer interested in one of the team’s listings. 

        “The call came in at 10:30 on a Saturday morning,” according to our friend. “Our phone specialist returned the call two minutes later, at 10:32, and alerted one of the showing agents on the team. This agent met with the buyers to show them the home at 1 p.m. An hour later, they wrote an offer. This team approach had our listing sold in four hours.”

        Impressive, right?

        Check back soon for more ideas on forming a real estate team.

        PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

        1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

        Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.

        Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here


        2. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

        The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

        3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

        The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks these boxes but is also a business-building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

        4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

        The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.  – Click Here

        5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

        This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

        Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

          If you’re like a lot of Americans, you avoid listening, reading, or watching the news as much as you once did.

          Hey, we don’t blame you. News stories seem to be more focused on shocking behavior than ever before.

          Yes, Americans are misbehaving more than ever, and this makes for stress and tension among everyone.

          This includes the real estate world as well.

          It’s evidenced by agents who don’t pay attention when clients are speaking to them, who drop the ball when it comes to returning calls, and that small minority who lack morals and ethics.

          We know that you aren’t in that group, but for those who think small gaps in stellar customer service don’t matter, let’s look at how playing nice with others can change your reputation and allow you to gain some positive word of mouth.

          1. Be considerate of the other agent’s client

          Yes, your fiduciary duties are to your buyer or seller. But you also have a duty to extend consideration to the other agent’s client.

          Take the multiple offer situation, for instance. Although there isn’t as much of that happening now, it was common over the past few years. Tons of buyers’ agents were gnashing their teeth over the lack of basic courtesy extended to their clients when their offer wasn’t accepted.

          The Get More Listings II Series is shown above. To see more, Click HERE.

          It takes 20 seconds to dash off a text or email to the buyer’s agent, letting her know that her client’s offer wasn’t accepted. “It’s a decided lack of professionalism,” one agent said about listing agents who fail to extend this basic courtesy. 

          “Think of the anxious buyer,” she added. 

          Send this text or email or make a phone call before you update the property’s status in the MLS. It’s not fair or courteous to other agents to have to learn the bad news from anything or anyone other than the listing agent.

          Then, the buyer’s agent makes an appointment to show a home and ghosts the seller.

          Many homeowners run around like crazy, tidying up their homes in anticipation of a showing. When you don’t show up or don’t call to reschedule or cancel the appointment, you become one of ‘those’ agents, the bad apples who make the rest look bad.

          2. Use your words

          One issue we heard about from several agents is that there is almost a complete lack of feedback on showings.

          Remember, the average agent is a woman in her fifties; she’s been in the biz for way more than a minute. She recalls the days when soliciting feedback from showing agents was so commonplace that listing agents wouldn’t think of not doing it and then passing it on to their clients.

          After all, isn’t communicating with the seller part of the listing agent’s job? Letting your client know how buyers feel about their home is critical.

          If buyers’ agents don’t offer feedback, which is courteous, it’s the listing agent’s job to solicit it. 

          “Politeness … can be used to signal respect and consideration for others,” according to Matteo Bonotti & Steven T. Zech. (Understanding Civility). 

          Politeness and communication. It’s what you need to win the exacta in the race to set yourself apart from other agents in town and truly have a chance at growing your business through word of mouth.

          PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

          1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

          Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.

          Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here


          2. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

          The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

          3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

          The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes but is also a business-building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

          4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

          The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.  – Click Here

          5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

          This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

          Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

          6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

          Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

          12Next Page 1 of 2
          © 2024 ProspectsPLUS! | Real Estate Marketing Blog