Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of having coffee with one of my readers. We talked about this and that... and that and this... and then he casually mentioned that he had created a "mock" business card that he "wished he could use in real life." When he showed it to me, I was floored - I think it's GREAT and that he should definitely use it in "real life!" He has the personality to pull it off and it definitely stands out from the crowd...

He's not convinced, so I said I'd ask my friends at Active Rain... What say y'all?

You wanna know the top search term that brings new surfers to my website? Okay, there are two. The first is "New agent announcement letter." The second is "Sample listing presentation."

I offer a free sample listing presentation on my website if you join my VIP Lounge (that's free, too). Seems to be a popular item. I'm rather proud of my listing presentation - there's nothing boiler-plate or corporate about it - it's direct and to-the-point, conversational and informative. I've used it, or a similar version for years.

But over the last year or so I've been rethinking the idea of a formal listing presentation (Are listing presentations really necessary... or effective?). I've been experimenting with not doing it and have walked away from my listing appointments much more pleased with myself. But I wasn't sure... for sure.

Well, this last week, I met with a real estate agent in Dothan, Alabama to talk about selling one of my properties (the one where the squatter renter was FINALLY evicted!). She came to the house and asked me to show her around. She asked questions and actually listened to my (sometimes long-winded) answers. She took notes. As we toured, she casually mentioned other homes she'd seen or sold recently that were comparable to mine. Because she knew I was also in the biz, she respectfully asked for my thoughts on a marketing strategy. And listened.

After I was done showing her the house and grounds, she said she wanted to go back to the office and do her homework, now that she'd seen the property. She'd be ready to present her findings the next day if that was okay with me. It was and she did and I hired her.

No presentation. No fancy graphs or charts. No bio, resume or testimonials. Just a subtly demonstrated knowledge of the marketplace, a sincere interest in my situation and a respectful acknowledgment of my intelligence and experience. Had she shown up with a 90-minute formal presentation of how wonderful she was, how awesome her company is and how dangerous it is to OVERPRICE, I'd have tuned her out within 5 minutes.

Do I know her marketing plan? Oops, no, not really. I suppose I could ask and maybe I should. But her non-salespitchy "presentation" made me trust her.

Now, truth be told, this sort of quiet confidence takes awhile to develop. I certainly didn't have it my first year or even my second; maybe even my third. Well, heck, here I am in my 12^th year just realizing that I don't need a fancy presentation!

I do believe that the process of creating a formal presentation is good for the soul - it helps you to figure out what you offer and why you're special, and for the times when a seller seems to want something in writing, you have it ready to go. I have much of my presentation available on my website, so sellers can check me out ahead of time or after they've met me.

But during that hour you're meeting with a seller for the first time, it's far more effective to just BE there with them... asking questions, listening to the answers and demonstrating your competence.

So... I have my answer. No More Listing Presentations for me!

I remember interviewing for my second listing back in 1997. The seller asked me this question: "Jennifer, I assume our house will sell quickly because it's so cute (it was), but if it doesn't sell right away, what will you do?"

Hmmmmmmmm. Hell, I dunno. I was a green bean agent; I'd only had one other listing in my career and didn't have a clue. I came up with something, that probably sounded like this: " I'll do a broker open house, I'll do mid-week open houses, I'll distribute color brochures throughout the neighborhood and post an ad on the nearby college's bulletin board."

Lucky for me, the house did sell quickly, so I didn't have to implement my admittedly weak Plan B.

But it's now 12 years later and I still don't have a good answer to the question: "What will you do in 30 days if my house hasn't sold?"

However, with 12 years of experience under my belt, I KNOW that there ISN'T a great answer to the question! Especially if the seller is expecting me to reach into some magic bag of tricks and pull out a secret marketing strategy that I reserve only for my non-selling listings!

Here's the thing. Even if I HAD a magic bag of secret marketing tricks, why would I hold out using them until after the listing is stale? Wouldn't it make more sense to hit the market with all guns blazing?

But the truth is, I don't have a magic bag of tricks (and neither do you). NO AMOUNT OF MARKETING CAN SELL AN UNSELLABLE HOME. You can do broker opens every day of the week, distribute enough color brochures to kill a small forest and refresh your Craigslist ad every 21 days for the next five years and your listing will not sell if it's not properly priced, properly prepared and properly presented! NO AMOUNT OF MARKETING CAN SELL AN UNSELLABLE HOME!

Our job as professional real estate agents is to know what it's gonna take to get a house sold. We need to know how to price the home TO SELL; how to prepare our sellers for the reality of Being on the Market and how to help them prepare the home to evoke the most positive emotional reaction from the greatest number of potential buyers (and their agents). It needs to look good, smell good and photograph well. It needs to be easy to show without the distraction of barking dogs or a work-at-home owner. If there's an obstacle to sale, we need to recognize it and have the balls to be frank with our seller about it (and help ‘em fix it).

That's how you sell your listing. By working with your seller to create a marketable product, not to throw time and money at advertising after the sign goes in the yard. Frankly, the MLS system is an incredibly efficient system to sell houses and there's nothing we can do individually to out-market that MLS.

WARNING - infomercial to follow...

I wrote a little book last year called "For Sale Signs Don't Pay the Bills" which is a very detailed list of 74 things you as a listing agent can do to get your listings sold. It's a damn good book, if I do say so myself and it's only $14.95 right now at my bookstore. If you have listings that aren't selling, or don't WANT listings that don't sell in the future, check it out. I also do live presentations on the material, if your Association is looking for a speaker in 2009.

Okay, Infomercial Over.

Let's go sell our listings!

www.SellwithSoul.com

Every day, every hour, someone posts a blog on AR or a question on a forum asking "how to" do something.  How to... approach a FSBO? How to... better market a listing? How to... target first time buyers? How to... persuade a seller to reduce his price? Etc. etc. etc.

Good questions, all. Deserving of answers.

However, I believe that in most cases, the answers are within ourselves. Not that I mind being asked (I love sharing my - ahem - brilliance), but a big part of my SWS philosophy is to learn to Trust Your Gut. To know that you CAN (and should) listen to your own instincts and intuitions!

So, that said...

If you were a FSBO, how would you like to be approached by a real estate agent? What would catch your attention? What would turn you on (or more importantly, off)? What would inspire you to want to work with one particular agent over another?

If you were a FTHB, how would you go looking for an agent? Where would you be likely to stumble upon one? What sort of marketing would catch your eye?

If you're wondering how to sell your difficult listing.... Ask yourself... If I were a buyer, or a buyer's agent, what would inspire ME to give this listing a chance? Conversely, why might I be avoiding this particular listing? Of all the listings available to show my buyer, what could the listing agent do to convince me I should show THIS one (because remember, as a buyer agent, I only get paid when my buyer buys, so I only wanna show the BEST)?

If you were an upside-down seller, what might your agent do to convince you of the need for a price reduction? How would you like him or her to approach you? What sort of information might be helpful and what attitude would be effective?

When faced with a dilemma that involves another warm body, put yourself in the other fella's shoes. And act accordingly....

www.SellwithSoul.com

Am I the only idiot on the planet who can turn a simple Christmas Card mailing project into a full-time job? My plan... send out Christmas cards to my local Denver SOI (sphere of influence) and toss in my hot-off-the-press Referral Directory magnet as an extra-special holiday gift for my friends (hey, I sprung for the xtra large magnet at over $1 each!).

Simple enough...

Well, it's been anything but. One thing after another created delays in my sending-out-cards process - first, the cards I bought (and addressed & stamped) weren't big enough for the magnet (remember, I bought the xtra large one!), so I had to re-do all the envelopes. Then I realized that I needed extra postage for each envelope (that xtra large thing again), so I had to stand in line at the pre-Christmas shipping extravaganza at my local P.O. I finally got all the cards written, stuffed, addressed & stamped, so it was time to seal 'em up. I used cute little holiday-themed sticker-sealers I bought at Wal-Mart so I wouldn't have to lick all those nasty envelopes.

Got the cards in the mail, marked that particular project off my list.

Couple of days later... empty cards started coming back. Apparently the cute little holiday-themed sticker-sealers weren't strong enough for the enclosed magnet (y'know, the xtra large one) and the magnets broke thru the seals and fell out.

SHEESH!!!!!

Anyway, where's the lemonade in this? Well, I sent out an email to my entire SOI telling them the story and asking them to let me know if their magnet didn't arrive. So far, I've gotten tons of responses back, wishing me well and letting me know their magnets made it (most of 'em anyway). In fact, this may turn out to be the best responded-to SOI email I've sent out in a long time! 

If you'd like to see the email I sent, just shoot me your email address and I'll forward you a copy.  

Happy Holidays, my friends!

www.SellwithSoul.com

Okay, bear with me as I proudly share one of the best reviews I've read of my book. The reviewer, Tamara Dorris really captured the essence of what the book is about... and the message I intended to convey. THANKS Tamara!

Oh, and she's interviewing me today at 11:00 Pacific/2:00 Eastern. Join us? That'd be cool!

Do You Sell With Soul? Book Review and Upcoming Author Interview

"Each and every day, you'll have to choose between Right and Wrong. Fair or unfair. Respectful or Disrespectful. Every time you meet with or talk to a client...a prospect...a buyer...a seller...every time you make a judgement call or "executive decision" on a matter with no clear-cut answer...you'll need to choose on which side to hang your hat. The side with Soul...or No Soul."

This is how Jennifer Allan begins her book entitled, Sell With Soul, Creating an Extraordinary Career in Real Estate without Losing your Friends, your Principles or your Self-Respect. Clear from the get go is the fact that Allan walks the walk. In fact, one of the things that make this goldmine of a book such a good read is the way Allan endears herself to her audience by awknowledging her own awkwardness in social settings. An admitted analytical type, Allan's own success in selling real estate demonstrates that you don't have to be a people person in order to carve out an excellent income. Due to the fact that many agents are indeed people-people, virtually anyone that reads this book and adopts the proper mind-set and skills can indeed rise to the top in any given market.

While the primary premise of the book emphasizes the fact that agents will find more success when they Sell with Soul, Allan is clearly a stickler for a job well done. She is steadfast in her belief that in order to be successful you don't necessarily need amazing social skills, but indeed, you better know how to solve a problem and write a contract. She alludes quite clearly to the fact that being a successful agent means being a competent agent. At a time in our industry when agents are dropping like flies, it has never been so apparent, in this reviewer's eyes, that the agent who survive are the ones who know what they're doing and how to do. Let's face it folks, we're no longer order takers!

So how do you sell with soul?

Here's what Allan promises to deliver: "Throughout this book, you will see many specific examples of Selling with Soul. You will see how a soulful real estate agent wields tremendous power over his or her business by simply being competent and following the Golden Rule. And that power is intoxicating."

And Allan keeps her promise. The book is jam-packed with strategies and techniques that can take or make any agent looking to increase productivity to the next level. I am particularly fond of the fact that Allan dislikes cold calls as much as I do and only advocates them if that's what floats your boat.

Since there's just too much to cover here, why not join me as I pick Jennifer Allan's brain (about her book) on my show tomorrow.Visit www.blogtalkradio.com/realestatetherapist. We go live at 11:00 AM California time (PST) but the show will recorded and archievd for later listing. If you listen in live, feel free to call in and chat with Jennifer yourself.

Thanks!
Tamara

www.SellwithSoul.com

I'm addicted to my Outlook Express. Been using it for, oh, probably ten years now. It was a real surprise to me to discover that other people DON'T use good old OE! To me Email = Outlook Express.

Well, about a month ago, I started having problems sending messages. If you were communicating with me during that time, you might remember getting ten identical emails from me at a time, one right after the other. Apparently, my SENT messages were going to my Outbox, but weren't able to move to the SENT folder; thus they were being sent over and over again. Because I was in the process of moving my Internet server, I figured it was related to the switch, and didn't worry too much about it (oops).

Well, yesterday, I went into my Sent folder, looking for a message I'd written the day before, and BAM! NO messages. "There are no items in this view." I exited, came back in, held my breath... and BAM! Still "There are no items in this view." Oh, sh*t.

My entire business history is in my Outlook Express folders. This was starting to look mildly catastrophic.

I called Microsoft Technical Support and I tell ya' - say what you will about Microsoft but they were great. For the low, low price of $59 (yeah, that annoyed me, but whatever), I was immediately connected to Benny in the Outlook Express department. He spent two hours with me and installed a special Outlook Express Repair program on my computer which he hoped would recover my 12,313 lost emails. And, it took 15 hours of run-time, but it worked!

The punch line? Your Sent folder can fill up. Mine was at 1.99 GB (whatever that means), and when it hit that threshold, it simply deleted all the messages. So, today, I have to go through all 12,313 recovered messages and delete the ones I don't need. And, of course, keep an eye on my Sent folder forever and ever.

Thank you Benny!

Feel free to check in with me today to see how the clean-up process is coming along...

www.SellwithSoul.com

In my last blog, I mentioned that I refuse to work with agents (on a consulting basis) if their only explanation for their struggles is to blame the Other Guy. If someone isn't willing to first look in the mirror to find the solutions to their dilemma, I know I'll be of no use to them!

But let's talk about blame for a moment... rational blame versus irrational blame.

I think it's pointless to "blame" our clients for our troubles. Oh, we real estate agents are experts in doing this - after all - the phrase "Buyers are Liars" is deeply ingrained in our industry, as obnoxious as it is (don't get me started). We ridicule our sellers for wanting Top Dollar for their home in Less-than-Top condition, or for "needing" a certain sales price to be able to sell. Well, guess what? The ability to resolve these transaction-specific issues IS our job and the reason we're paid the way we are. If we can't empathize, thus effectively communicate with our clients, then that's our fault, not theirs.

That's a topic for a different day.

Today I want to talk about the other thing we blame for our struggles - The Market. And y'know what? I'll buy that. I do think it's perfectly reasonable to blame the market and/or the economy for a failing (or frustrated) real estate career. Hey, if buyers aren't buying, there's NOTHING we can do about that - we certainly can't manufacture buyers if none exist!

So, what if YOUR market sucks? And some certainly do. I've been contacted by agents in most of the infamously sucky markets, including Las Vegas, Florida, Michigan and Phoenix, wanting to know if I can help them. Well, frankly, I'm not sure I can, at least not in the time-frame they need in order to survive.

Here's what I ask these struggling agents:

JA asks: "In your market...

...is there business to be had, if you could figure out how to get it?" (One agent I spoke with said that the very top producers are selling no more than a dozen homes per year. If this is true, I'd say that no, there is NOT much business to be had at this time).

....are there buyers?" (Of course, this is related to the first question, but a bit more specific. In some markets or specific market areas, there simply may not be a buyer on the planet right now. Again, there's nothing that can be done about that.)

... are houses selling?" (Many agents ask me for help getting listings, but when I ask this question and the answer is "no, not really," I have to wonder why one would want listings!)

If you work in an unviable market, then you need to make some tough decisions; decisions that may conflict mightily with your gut. Here are your options as I see them:

1.       Focus on the future - stop fretting about the NOW and strive to increase the number of raving fans in your Sphere of Influence. When good times return (and they will), you'll be one of the few still standing. Of course, this requires that you have an alternative source of income or that you drastically curtail your lifestyle.

2.       Back off... slow down... take a deep breath. ARE you doing what you know needs to be done to generate business or are you so scared and frustrated that you're spending most of your time bon-bonning on the couch (or behind the keyboard)? Don't declare the market dead if you haven't given it a good effort. Even if your good efforts fail, at least you'll know you tried. Re-evaluate your business plan and review (or create a list of) your activity goals. Are you holding up your end of the bargain? If you can honestly say that you aren't, give it a few more uber-focused months and see if things turn around.

3.       Quit. Yeah, quit. There's no shame in throwing in the towel and moving onto something else that pays the bills and allows you to sleep peacefully at night. I know lots of agents, great ones even, who have chosen this path and they're actually proud of themselves for making this very tough decision.

But... if your market is okay (and many are), stop blaming the Other Guy for your troubles and let's get you back in the saddle!!!

JUST RELEASED!

While I don't advertise it, I do some one-on-one consulting for Very Special People. By VSP, I mean, people who buy into the Sell with Soul philosophy (yeah, I discriminate) and who are intelligent and self-aware enough to 1) be willing to play outside the box and forego traditional wisdom most of the time and 2) are willing, even eager to ask "How did I contribute to this problem" rather than simply whine about how everyone else on the planet sucks.

Anyway, wanna guess what the most common consultation I'm doing these days is? Seducing a Sphere of Influence? Nope. Writing a Non-Dorky Announcement or Reconnection letter? Nope. Getting a difficult listing sold? No again.

"I'm thinking of quitting. Can you help me decide?"

Sounds kind of grim, doesn't it? And yeah, most agents who contact me with this question are, frankly, out of time. Either something has to happen RIGHT NOW or they're in deep doo-doo. Or, rather, deeper doo-doo.

What I'm about to say here may not be popular but the answer many of these consultees have gotten from me is: "Yes, I suspect you need to quit, at least for now. Maybe not forever, but for now, it's probably the right thing."

Are you asking yourself this question, or some version of it? You don't have to answer me out loud, but if you're at this point in your career, please don't be afraid to explore your options. There is NO SHAME in redirecting your career if that career is putting you and your family at risk of financial ruin. THIS IS A TOUGH BUSINESS! Yeah, we all know that, but sometimes we forget the reality of that statement. When something is "tough" that means a whole lot of people aren't going to make a go of it - maybe even you or me!

I'm not saying that giving up is the only option; of course it isn't. But it IS an option. Don't let your pride, ego or fantasies get in the way of making the right decision for you.

I'll probably write some more on this topic - stay tuned.

CHECK OUT THE ALL NEW www.sellwithsoul.com. It's HOT!

Ahhhhhhhhhh... I remember when my average monthly income was $23,500... which meant some months were even higher. I remember two $50,000 months in a row. I remember the year I broke the $300,000 mark. I remember the year I burned out and half-heartedly worked only six months ... and brought in $179,000.

Sigh.

Trouble is, I got into the habit of spending those dollars, not frivolously, but spent them I did. If I wanted a new kitchen, I got it. A sweet little investment property that seemed like a good deal - I bought it. And yes, there was a bit of the princess in there - weekly massages, daily "maid" service and a cute little Caribbean blue Miata I just had to have.

Easy come... easy go.

And speaking of easy - it's an easy habit to fall into when you work on commission - treating those enormous commission checks like Monopoly money and assuming there are plenty more growing on that money tree in the back yard.

I haven't seen a $23,500 month in awhile! Neither has anyone I know.

We Old Fogie agents developed some poor spending habits during the days of prosperity; habits which are hard to break.  But break them we must. We need to practice using that dirty little word... NO.

I can proudly admit that I have curtailed my lifestyle, although it took awhile to admit to myself that I needed to do so. And then some more time to actually listen to myself when I told myself NO. I'm far from perfect and I still spend money I probably shouldn't, but I can promise you, when those $50,000 months return, I intend to maintain my frugal lifestyle (although I really miss those weekly massages)!    

Many of my Old Fogie agent friends are giving lip service to the idea of cutting back. But they aren't doing it. They're so used to the good life they don't see that many of what they consider "necessities" are actually ridiculously luxurious. New Years Eve in Aspen, a ski pass to Vail, season tickets to the Nuggets, gourmet coffee imported from Costa Rica, monthly facials and weekly visits to the acupuncturist.

Hey, I understand how hard it is to sacrifice in response to what we hope is a temporary downturn in the economy. And I hope with all my heart that my current state of frugality soon becomes a choice, rather than a necessity. But in the meantime, I can almost FEEL that character building!

Okay, okay - if you MUST spend a few dollars... 

The All New Sell with Soul Bookstore