Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

Several months ago (egads, in September) I wrote a blog with a teaser promise at the end to "stay tuned" for more... and that "more" never came. I sure hope too many of my readers didn't lose sleep wondering when I'd ever get back on topic. Here's the post... At the end of the post, I promised to discuss the difference between "touching" and "impressing."

To recap, in our business, we often talk about the need to "touch" as many people as possible with our message, whether those touch-ees are people we know (our Sphere of Influence) or strangers. We get all revved up about volume touching campaigns, to ensure that we get that message out into the world as efficiently as possible. After all, Real Estate is a Numbers Game (blech), so the more people who get touched by us, the more often, the better, right?

Eh. I dunno. First, I'll debate to the ends of the earth whether or not our business IS a numbers game; after all, we get some pretty juicy paychecks and it doesn't take too many of those paychecks to add up to some serious nickels and dimes. We don't need to sell 40,000 houses this year; for some of us, 10 or 20 might pay the bills just fine, maybe 30 or 40. In either case, that means only a few dozen people in our whole city need to think enough of us to entrust us with their precious real estate business.

With me so far?

Many Sphere of Influence (SOI) prospecting programs mention "touching" as many of your SOI as you can, as often as you can. However, I want to make a distinction between "touching" and "impressing." I can touch 100 people in a day with a mass email or a postal mailing, pretty easily. And that's fine - it has its place. But what if I also make an effort to impress the people I run into during my day-to-day travels, whether it's business or personal? If you combine the two concepts - a volume "touching" campaign with a concerted effort to make a good impression on people when you have the opportunity, your prospecting results will improve exponentially.

What if you were to impress just one person per day? That's 365 impressed people in a year. Two a week? Even one a week? It sounds pretty obvious, but we get so caught up mass-prospecting that we forget the Power of One - that is - if every person you know refers just one person to you in a year, you'll have a banner year. And the chances of that happening are a whole lot better if everyone you know thinks you're pretty darn cool... instead of simply sort of knowing who you are.

Maybe I should explain what I mean by "impress." You can probably guess that I don't mean "brag about" or "blow away with a fantastic elevator speech." No, by impress, I mean that the person you just interacted with walks away from the interaction feeling just a little bit (or a whole lot) better than he did before. Obviously, he's not saying to himself "Thank GOD I got away - I thought she'd never shut up." Or "That's the last time I answer the phone when HE calls" or "What a flake."

The cool thing about impressing someone is that the positive impression you make on them will stick around a lot longer than the impression you make with a farming postcard, drip email or quarterly newsletter. If someone goes out of their way for me today, I'll still feel good about him for months, maybe even years!

So, take an hour out of your day to impress someone whenever you get the chance. It might be a far better use of that hour than whatever prospecting you'd be doing otherwise...

www.sellwithsoul.com

The Savvy Prospector: Eight Weeks to a Full Pipeline for Life 

If this blog goes where I think it's going, it might make me slightly less popular among the AR crowd...

A few months ago, I was interviewed by someone at RIS Media about my views on the current state of the real estate industry. Blah Blah Blah, we covered all the generic, pithy topics and then moved onto some juicier ones. Yeah!

He asked me "What do you think it will take to turn the public's perception from thinking of us on the same level as used car salesmen and politicians, to thinking of us as trusted advisors?

Great question. I'd never been asked that before, so I took a moment to think. And the answer hit me like a load of used cars.

If we want to shift the public perception away from thinking of us as people who just want to sell someone something, with as little effort as possible, we need to attract a different kind of practitioner.

A career selling real estate is much like a career as a financial planner, an insurance salesperson or a mortgage broker. Most people enter these fields, not because they have a passion for property, mutual funds, long-term care insurance or good faith estimates, but because they are drawn to the idea of working on commission, hopefully significant commission. They are, basically, natural salespeople in search of a product to sell.

Nothing wrong with that. Selling for a living can be an honorable profession if it's done ethically.

But the perception of the real estate agent as a salesperson will forever lump us in with other people who sell, and will always be held in general suspicion. No way around that - when you're paid on commission, our clients and customers are always going to wonder if we have their best interests at heart.

Especially if they aren't nearly as blown away by our service as they were by our sales pitch.

So, if we want to change the public's perception of us, we need to change our approach, which possibly means a change in our compensation structure. Are we ready for this? I don't know, frankly. I like being paid on commission as much as the rest of you do, and I love the idea that working harder and smarter brings more money in the door. But is there a compromise? A way to satisfy our entrepreneurial needs for performance-based pay without sacrificing the perception that our integrity might be for sale?

Do we care? Or, are we okay with remaining in that bottom five of the infamous list of America's most UNtrusted professions?

RELATED BLOGS:

• "Curing" the Reluctant Salesperson
• An Unsoulful Tidbit from Broker/Agent News
• Doctors, Lawyers & Real Estate Agents?

www.SellwithSoul.com

There's a conversation going on at another forum about whether or not to work with an Internet buyer who wants to buy a home in June. The general consensus is that the agent shouldn't waste his time on a buyer who is not ready, willing and able to buy today.

WHAT??????

This attitude completely befuddles me. Are real estate agents in today's world so darn busy that they can't spare a few hours to build a relationship with someone who showed up at their door - -LIKELY AS A RESULT OF THE AGENT'S ADVERTISING??? Are they so arrogant that they must actually belittle the buyer for contacting the agent TOO SOON???

Or, are they so damn dumb that they can't see the value in having a nice full pipeline??

Hey, if someone is crazy busy and has a true need to triage his time; well, then sure! Refer to the buyer to a hungrier agent or, if he prefers, rudely blow him off. But somehow I don't think that's the case for most of us...

If you find yourself with a Denver buyer who isn't up to your standards of readiness, send 'em my way. I'll be delighted to work with them, build a relationship, and enjoy their business and referrals for years to come.

A Soulful Bootcamp for Green Bean Agents!

I read somewhere (I believe it may have been in the book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion") that human beings develop analytical short cuts in their brains in order to make judgments or decisions about new ideas or offerings that come their way. The example given was that of "You get what you pay for." Since we don't have the time or energy or even the desire to analyze every single product that is advertised to us, we make assumptions about the value or desirability of the product based on the price. Therefore, something that costs $9.99 (a too-good-to-be-true price) is not as good as a similar product that costs $99.95. While the $10 product may be every bit as effective as the $100 one, a vendor might actually sell more of his product if he increases the price, rather than put it on sale.

Interesting.

In 2009, we are overwhelmed by information and advertising. It comes at us from every direction and there's no way we can take it all in. Too many choices, too many options... to save our sanity we MUST develop an automatic evaluation method to avoid mental overload.

I'm reailzing that if something comes at me as a sales pitch, I Just Say No. I'm paranoid enough, suspicious enough and burned too many times by salespeople to give many the benefit of the doubt. I don't have time to check references or decipher trumped-up testimonials. If someone is trying to sell me something, my automatic evaluation system kicks in and I reject it.

I've found this to be true in my own world, with my own SWS "prospects." I get inquiries every day from people who want to interview me, who'd like a proposal for me to speak, who want to include my articles in their newsletter. They find me online or hear about me from others, and are intrigued. But I tell ya, the minute I approach someone and ask if they'd like to interview me, if they'd like a proposal for me to speak or would like me to submit articles for their newsletter, I almost ALWAYS get brushed off. Sometimes not even very politely! I approached a radio talk-show host once (he was just getting started, not some big shot) and he somewhat nastily accused me of just wanting to sell him something.

So, it appears that the way to sell something to someone is to let THEM find YOU. Create an attractive "product" and put it out there in the world for interested prospects to stumble onto.

I'm sure I didn't think this up all on my own, but I betcha' we'll see a massive paradigm shift AWAY from pursuit-oriented marketing TO attraction-based marketing. Might turn the sales-training world on its ear! (which is a very good thing).

www.SellwithSoul.com

There was a great discussion started by Janet Guilbault... (which she credited me with inspiring) about what Realtors want from their lenders - or better said - what it takes for a Realtor to give a new-to-them lender a shot. Janet was surprised by my assertion that lender marketing krap ain't gonna get ya no-wheres with me.

We don't want to be marketed to... we don't need to be schmoozed... we don't need to be fed. We do want our lenders to keep us in the loop. We want our lenders to make us look good in front of our buyers and sellers. WE WANT OUR DEALS TO CLOSE.

We want to be WOW'ed... Not Wooooo'ed. (Thanks, Rockin' Kim for that delightfully catchy phrase).

Seems rather obvious, doesn't it?

But guess what? That's all our clients wants from us, too. Competence. Expertise. Market Knowledge. Communication. Negotiating skill. They don't need our krap. They just need us to perform. Now more than ever...

Join me, Borino, Katerina & Broker Bryant for "Pricing it Right with a Persuasive CMA" workshop on February 7th!
Click Here for details.

www.SellwithSoul.com

For Sale signs are cute, but they don't pay the bills. Gone are the days where having a listing was pretty much a guarantee of an eventual paycheck; in fact, in today's market, a listing may very well be more of a liability than an asset... if it's not priced right.

The first challenge in pricing right is to figure out what the heck the right price is. But even if you're convinced you know what the house will sell for, that's only half the battle. The other half is convincingly communicating your findings to a seller; especially if that seller won't be delighted with your analysis!

Creating and presenting a persuasive CMA is an art that, frankly, takes time and practice to master. But we'd like to help you get there faster, or at least share some tips from our years of experience that might help you fine-tune your presentation.

We've put together a small powerhouse of heavy-hitter Active Rainers who will share their secrets for creating and presenting effective CMA's.  

Join us on Saturday, February 7^th at 8:30 am (Pacific) / 11:30 am (Eastern) for a teleconference panel discussion with me, Broker Bryant Tutas, Borino & Katerina Gasset - four very different personalities, four very different approaches to the Art of the CMA. Each of will have 15-20 minutes to spill our beans, and then take questions from the audience. We expect the conference will last 90 minutes or so.

The cost? It's FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Actually, we'll be giving away some cool prizes, so you might actually come away from the show a little bit richer! And certainly wiser...

How does it work? You have to register, and once you do, you'll get the details on how to tune-in to the conference.  You can listen online or over the phone line.

Hope to see you there!!!

REGISTER FOR "PRICING IT RIGHT WITH A PERSUASIVE CMA!"

p.s. - it appears that my registration program site is up and down, so if you have trouble registering, please try again later!!!

Because I teach real estate agents how build a business based on their Sphere of Influence (SOI = the people they know and the people they meet) as opposed to marketing-to-strangers, I'm often approached by new or newer lenders asking how they can successfully persuade US (the REALTOR community) to give them a shot.

Frankly, I'm always stumped by the question. Traditional lender prospecting techniques simply don't work - at least in my experience. Offering daily rate sheets or open house brochures won't do it. Nor will weekly newsletters - printed or emailed. Sure, I appreciate (and will use) the information, but it's not going to get a lender on my preferred vendor list.

Even lender-modified SOI techniques probably won't work. Take me to lunch or coffee? Great! But I can't promise you a return on your investment. Pop-by my office to chat? Eh, please don't. Especially if your "chat" has anything to do with "earning" my business.

How about sending me buyers? Well, that sounds fabulous, but I've yet to have a lender do that, so I can't speak to the effectiveness of it.  Hmmmmm... well, stay tuned - I'll share my thoughts on that in a sec.

So, how do I find my favorite lenders? Ah, that's an easy question. There are two ways I've found my lenders-of-choice:

1. My buyer brought his lender to the deal and the lender impressed the heck out of me.
2. The lender on the other side of the deal (when I'm the listing agent) impressed the heck out of me.

So, I guess my not-so-helpful answer to lenders seeking REALTOR loyalty is to... well... impress the heck out of the REALTORS you have the opportunity to get in front of. Do your job, do it exceptionally well and then stay in touch with the agent without ever pestering her for business or referrals. Once you have an impressed REALTOR, then you're free to implement your other loyalty-inspiring activities - newsletters, lunch dates, rate sheets, etc., but without that first step - proving your competence - it's probably wasted effort.

Speaking of lender-to-REALTOR referrals... I don't expect my lender to send me referrals and I certainly don't make it a requirement of my loyalty. A great lender (who is what I want on my team) probably has dozens of REALTORS he works with and it's far more important to me that he take care of my business  than that he send me business. However, I will say that if a fledgling lender does send me a referral and then impresses the heck out of me with his handling of the deal, well, then, he has a good shot at making my preferred list!

SOMEWHAT RELATED BLOG: Dear SOI, Thanks, but I don't want your loyalty!

Why do we put such stock in the Average Days on Market (DOM) statistic in our MLS's? I suppose it might be meaningful if YOUR average DOM is much less than the overall DOM, but otherwise, I believe it's a totally meaningless number.

If I were to run a market analysis of all the 1920's Bungalows that have sold in my market (NW Denver) in the last three months... (okay, wait a sec, I'm going to do that right now... BRB).

Okay, I ran my analysis. Had to go back six months 'cause the last three have been kinda quiet around here.

The DOM of my subject search ranged from 2 days to 171 days. The average DOM was 53. However, out of 21 properties, seven sold in under a week (five of those in less than 3 days), eleven in less than three weeks, while five took over 100 days to sell. Only three of the 21 properties had a DOM of anywhere close to 53.

So, when a seller asks me what the average Days on Market is in Northwest Denver, I tell them "I don't know" and explain why. I then explain why my goal is to sell their home in 30 days or less (obviously it's perfectly do-able in my market), and how I'm going to do that.

But maybe that's just my market. Do you feel that the DOM statistic is meaningful in yours? If so, please explain!

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Houses aren't pet rocks!
I'm the best listing agent I know. Are you?
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For Sale Signs Don't Pay the Bills - 74 Ways to Sell Your Listings in Any Market
On Special $14.95!

"The Secret of Joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." - Pearl S. Buck

Holy Moly. I found this quote on the December 30^th page of my Franklin Planner and I'm blown away by its eloquence and simplicity. I've struggled for almost three years now to succinctly describe what "Sell with Soul" means to me.

Ms. Buck perfectly captured the essence of Selling with Soul.

I have nothing else to add.

www.SellwithSoul.com

Coming in February - My 15 Minutes of Fame!  

Here's a link to an article that (rumor has it) will be featured in next month's REALTOR Magazine (y'know, the one you actually get in your mailbox!). 

I think it came out very well!

(Okay, I'll stop patting myself on the back now and get back to worrying about stuff.)

www.SellwithSoul.com