Prospect to Urgent Consumers

The key to prospect identification is URGENCY:

• TIME is the key criteria for determining who is a prospect
  
• Categorize your prospects by WHEN they want to move
  
• Question for motivation using time based questions:

1. How soon do you plan on moving?
2. How much longer will your home meet your needs?
3. At what point would you consider seeking the services of a sales person?
   

Bring information to customers who you know want to move. Focus on using active propsecting methods attracting those with an urgency in the buying or selling desires.

FSBOS

Expired Listings

Open House attendees

Referrals

Good News Bads News

Cold calling this group can be more difficult because they don't know who you are. - Bad News

Cold calling this group can be lucrative because they are ready to make a move. - Good News

Key Concept - If you need business right now then you’ll need to take the initiative to actively prospect the groups that are urgent now and develop relationships by making cold calls and make them warm.
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How you succeed depends on what you're willing to learn

Jim Rohn called Self Development "Working harder on yourself than you do on your job."

Mr. Rohn shared a story told to him by Earl Schoaff: "To be successful you must have an appetite for learning. Pursue learning in a manner in which it will help you to grow and change. Become a real searcher for knowledge. What you think about is like the sail on the sailboat. No matter how the wind blows, if you’ve got a place you want to go, you can’t arrive there by cursing the contrary wind. You arrive there by adjusting your sail. That’s your thinking, your ideas, and information. If you are short on that, it will cause you difficulty in the future."

When setting goals, more often than not, you'll have to overcome a obstacle in order to achieve your goal. Usually that requires meeting new people or learning new information. Embrace this challenge enthusiastically by listing the hurdles you'll need to overcome to be successful in reaching your desired outcome. These smaller successes will lead you toward your ultimate goal.

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8 Quick Tips How to Successfully Tell 20

CONTACTING PERSON TO PERSON TIPS:
When doing Tell 20, or asking homeowners if you can put signs on their property for open
houses, or walking your farm area:

• Wear your name tag at all times
• Dress professionally.
  
• State your name clearly and clearly state COLDWELL BANKER UNITED, REALTORS.
  
• Give a specific purpose to your visit.
  
• Be confident, positive and enthusiastic.
  
• Always graciously thank people for their time even if they turn you down.
  
• DON’T walk across lawns.
  
• Stand back a little way from the front door, you’ll seem less threatening.
  
• Have something to give people, even if you are just asking to place a sign. Hand them an open house flier, business card, brochure, newsletter.
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Five Pre Open House Activities to Increase Attendance

Open houses are a sure way to to find both buyers and sellers in your marketplace. Many buyers test the market by visiting open houses long before they are ready to buy. Visiting an open house enables buyers to understand what they can afford in specific areas of town and subdivisions. Hosting open houses puts real estate agents face to face with these interested buyers.

Sellers also visit open houses. Often they compare their home to houses that are already on the market. Visiting open houses give the seller a baseline for their home and helps them understand what they may get when they sell their home. Some sellers attend open houses looking for a good neighborhood specialist, interviewing agents and quietly observing their skills.

Preparing for an open house properly allows agents to maximize their time at the house by filling their funnel with as many prospects as possible. Here is a list of activities to prepare for an open house.

Direct mail invitations to houses around the open house. Using either a direct mail postcard company or other mailer, choose 50 homes near the home. Plan ahead because this may take up to ten day or so to reach mailboxes.

Create a phone list to Tell Twenty. Focus on the ten neighbors across the street and the five on either side. Some agents will use phone lists to invite the nieighbors to the open house while others will use door hangers or go the old fashioned route of knocking on their doors. Whatever works to get them to the open house!

Focus on Online Marketing Most MLS systems, including www.Realtor.com, now have the capability of posting open houses. Use your company site and personal site to attract potential customers as well. Don't forget to use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to post information about your open house. Be specific when using Facebook, inviting your local lists of friends.

Email blasts are a helpful in generating interest too. Create a single use website or a link to the open house announcement on your mls or something like that. Send the link to your local sphere of influence announcing the open house. don't stop there. Expand your efforts by asking the seller to send the link to heir friends as well. Often people today are involved in groups that have e-bulletin boards for announcements. Think this through thoroughly... there's literally thousands you can touch this way!

Open House Signs If your area alows yard signs, place an "Open Sunday" sign rider on the yard sign. consider placing ample directional signs the day of the open house as well. Covering an are well can take anywhere from 6 to 10 signs. Folow local ordinances on sign placement and gain permission from neighbors by knocking on doors. Don't forget to give thei neighbors your business card.

This list of activities gets people TO the house. What happens next depends so much on you!

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Prospecting is a Contact Sport

Reaching out to consumers comes in many forms. Some methods require agents to actually make active contact with people. These active prospecting methods have face to face contact, phone or email contact, or other contact methods that allow for conversation. Other prospecting methods are inactive. They place prospecting materials in front of consumers with the hope of the prospect then to reach out for the real estate agent. Real estate agents’ prospecting plans need to include a balance of active and inactive prospecting methods.

Belly to Belly, Nose to Nose, and Toes to Toes

If I can hand you a business card then I am involved in an active prospecting activity.

– Steve Barnes, Coldwell Banker United, Realtors®

Active Prospecting includes activities that allow engagement in conversation such as face to face meetings, phone callings, emailing, and some social media posting. Real estate agents who are handing out business cards in a networking meeting, talking to their friends in social settings,calling friends and family member or neighbors to discuss market conditions, homes on the market, open houses, and other real estate activities are conducting active prospecting activities.

Active Prospecting Methods
Phone calling
Handing out business cards
Networking at social settings
Emailing friends and family members

Passive Prospecting creates opportunities for consumers to see, hear, or read about you, your company, and your services. The marketing piece gives the consumer enough information to be able to reach out to the agent. Passive marketing pieces usually have a call to action and a valuestatement along with the contact information of the real estate agent.

Passive Prospecting Methods
Billboards
Direct Mail postcards, etc.
Print Ads
Internet Ads
Websites
Flier boxes
Door hangers
Television Ads
Agent Intro Videos
Calendars and other giveaways

To be successful in real este, agents must use a combination of both active and passive prospecting methods. What are you using to insure success in your business?

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Filling the Funnel

Real estate opportunities are in each relationship we have. Whether in a first encounter with a consumer or with a long time friend, all people need a place to live. Not only do all people need a place to live, many people invest in real estate. Some invest in residential rental properties, while others purchase residential properties to rehab and then sell for profit. Both of these residential transactions, in addition to the lease opportunity, may include at least one real estate agent. This limited approach in real estate does not include any commercial transactions or development though each is attractive income generation options.

The question that comes in mind when considering all the opportunities to generate an income helping people buy, sell, lease, or develop
real estate is, “How do I find people who have a need in real estate?”

The word used to find people to work with is called prospecting. It is how real estate agents come into contact with consumers who have an interest in buying, selling, or leasing real estate.
The goal in prospecting is to find as many consumers as possible who are interested in transacting real estate. Reaching out to friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and others is like filling a funnel. The more prospects that are placed in the funnel through prospecting, the more likely a steady stream of income flows out the bottom of the funnel. The income level is dependent upon the volume of the flow and usually the dollar amount of the transaction. Assuming though a constant dollar amount of the transactions, the only way to increase income then is by increasing the number of transaction which is dependent on the amount of prospects reached. Reaching more people to make more money sounds simple. Yet many real estate agents fail at an alarmingly high rate. To have success, real estate agents need to have a plan about how to make contact with consumers and then follow their plan.

There are many ways to reach consumers to fill an agent's prospecting funnel. When creating their plan, agents can choose their prospecting methods by determining which are their favorites and their own strengths.
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Prospecting through social media

Social Media is Relational NOT Transactional

In creating a set of business objectives, we tend to look at number of contacts needed to create one appointment or one revenue share. Though textbook planning, this doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the essence of social media: creating a network of people who share about themselves.

Looking then at the goal of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, I am enthused by the potential of online relationship building. Wow, social media creates the perfect platform for personal branding!

Often people question which social media platform yields the greatest results? The answer varies greatly depending on the preference of the media user. Though many people believe Twitter, for example, is more B2B focused, it provides ready opportunity to build hyper-local market interest. Facebook, on the other hand, is commonly considered a business to consumer media source. Neither social media platforms, however, will produce prospecting results unless they are worked consistently to deliver relevant market contact.

Easy steps in making money with social media:

Choose your favorite platform. If you like Twitter, use it. If Facebook is your favorite social media platform then become a Facebook professional. Learn your social media platform’s tools and posting methods.

Identify your content strategy by understand your target market. This could be a geographic group like in the old neighborhood farm days or it could be an interest group like model railroaders.

Research and “friend” or “follow” your target market.

Identify daily tasks. These are 4 to 5 daily posts of information that are of interest to your market group.

Manage the delivery of the information through a realtime drip marketing program. Just like neighborhood farming, you can’t send out a year’s worth of postcards in one day. Sites like www.hootsuite.com, www.tweetdeck.com, and http://www.socialoomph.com deliver scheduled posting opportunities. Most blogging platforms like Wordpress and Blogspot do as well.

Keep posting! Growing a group of faithful followers who know, like, trust you takes time. Success is dependent on consistent longevity.

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