Coaching Success and Judging Horse Flesh

How do you know when you are backing a good horse? You see the guys that know horse flesh standing in line in front of you and betting the same horse.  How do you know when you are becoming a pretty good judge of horse flesh yourself?  When those same guys are betting on the same horse, but they are standing in line behind you.  I just read a post by Seth Godin in which he touches on a new online tool that allows you to become mayor of a zip code.  It is not often (in all honesty it has been never) that I have an idea before the likes of Seth Godin, but I think I see him standing in line behind me!

Seth refrences a new online page builder (an approximation of what they do from a decidedly non-techie; for more info click here) wherein you become the “mayor” of your zip code.  I wrote previously that the goal of blogging (and social media as a whole) should be exactly that.  The difference? I don’t know that being mayor of your zip code should be the end result.  After all, geographic farms are very RE.net1.0  In the coming age of 2.0 and 3.0 real estate, you can create any community that you like.  You can farm geographically, vertically, even industrially (especially industrially).  I have advocated for some time that loan originators do this: one whole community of CPAs for instance.  The most obvious industrial choice and one that applies to agents as well as originators: divorce attorneys.  Just about everything they touch turns into a sale or a refinance.

The community is not nearly so important as what you do with it once you have built it.  In my previously mentioned post I introduced the idea of a new marketing plan that embraces all that is right and beautiful about RE.net 2.0.  You are welcome to read it here, but the gist of the matter is this: Create your very own community of raving fans… then become Mayor of that community!  MAYORAL MARKETING.  Imagine the ramifications: you need to put together a group of raving fans (isn’t that the point of all long-term marketing?), you need to make sure that the people in your community know you, like you , see you as professional and see you as successful (the basis of people wanting to do business with you).  Most importantly, however, they need to see you as the expert (the secret to all referrals): the one and only person suitable to be their… Mayor. 

Once you become Mayor your job is to keep your job.  As with any long term success plan, this one requires that you never stop campaigning and you never stop kissing babies and you never stop adding value to your community.  I will end the way I started: a horse analogy.  When you find a good horse, ride it till it’s dead… 

Filed under: LENDERS, REALTORS , Mayoral Marketing, real estate agent marketing, Success

Dr. Strangeblog or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media Marketing

When it comes to success in real estate, the key has always been and will always be: leads.  The melody may change but the song remains the same.  If you want to make money in Real Estate you must generate leads.  If you want to become wealthy in Real Estate you must generate leads at a faster rate.  Everything after that is polish.  I know it is popular right now to frown on this type of characterization.  “Our clients are people, not leads” some will correct.  “I am in the relationship business and I do not view my relationships as simply numbers or leads” others will sneer.  Listen, you can put as much perfume on marketing as you like, we are still talking about a pig.  When you are in the business of selling (and trust me, if you are a real estate agent or a mortgage originator you are in the SALES business) your primary focus is generating leads.

Most all leads can be divided into a few basic categories: prospect, past client and referral.  Here is the good news.  All three types of leads are easy to generate.  You must simply be in front of people more often than your competitors.  There are a lot of ways to increase your conversion besides being in front of them: you can add value to their daily lives, you can keep them informed with trenchant analysis, you can offer discounts and free stuff; probably the most important way to increase your conversions (and the primary cause of referrals) is to convey and heighten your perceived level of expertise.  Having said all of that, go back now and look at how I started the sentence: “…besides being in front of them…”  The bottom line remains the same: you must first get in front of people before you can inform, entertain, show off or otherwise become memorable.

So why am I borrowing from Dr. Strangelove?  Because it is a movie of insane brilliance (or brilliant insanity) that stands out and makes a point in spite of itself.  Sounds a lot like blogging doesn’t it?  Social Media Marketing has made generating leads exponentially easier.  Not since the creation of the business card have we had a tool so easy to use and yet so effective in creating “top of mind status” (is everyone reading old enough to remember that concept in marketing?)  You can sit down in the morning before the day starts, or in the evening when the day is coming to a peaceful end, and type out a few thoughts or share something you learned that day.  You can report on a trend or idea that is important to your sphere.  You can generate some thoughtful discussion on what the events of the day mean to you and how they may affect your clients.  Hey, sometimes you can just put up a picture of your cat.  The beauty of it all is that, at virtually NO COST, you can get in front of people on a regular basis and remind them why they have, should or will do business with you.  Want even more reasons to embrace the land of Mayoral Marketing?  By the very act of expressing yourself you eliminate the prospects that will not like doing business with you and, more to the point, with whom you will not like doing business.  Not only can you get in front of more people for less money, but you can increase your conversion rate as well!

Willie Sutton was famously (if not apocryphally) asked: “Why do you rob banks?”  He replied: “That’s where all the money is.”  Look at the Internet and realize: that’s where all the leads are.

Filed under: LENDERS, REALTORS, WORLD OF 2.0 , blogging, MARKETING, Mayoral Marketing, Success

I Learned Everything I Needed to Know About Referral Marketing From a TV Show: Survivor

How can watching a TV program make you a more successful real estate agent?  There is one reality show on right now that exemplifies referral marketing like no other.  I am talking about Survivor.  This year the producers of Survivor decided to create two teams: one comprised of fans of the show (think of them as clients) and one comprised of favorites of past shows (think of them as agents).  In almost every interaction the two teams have, the fans defer to the favorites.  They look to the favorites with an almost rock star adulation.  Why is this?  Because the favorites’ perceived level of expertise is high in the fans eyes simply because the favorites have been on the show before.  That’s it really.  By virtue of their (limited) previous experience they are considered experts in this game.

Here is the interesting part: there is no real difference between these two groups of people.  The favorites have some experience but they are not professional Survivors.  They have never seen this local or these particular challenges, so their only real experience is in creating strategy (which, for most of them, was wrong at least once more than it was right!)  The reason the fans defer so readily to the favorites is a perfect example of how people react to those that they perceive as having expertise.  The goal of all referral marketing is to increase your perceived level of expertise in front of your clients.  If they are already fans of yours (whether from watching you on TV or reading you on a blog) your job just got that much easier.

Blogging is all about creating your community and running for mayor.  The goal is an endless stream of referrals.  I do not know who will ultimately win this season of Survivor.  But I already know who owns the high ground.  If this game were about referrals, it would be all over but the crying.  Your tribe is speaking…

Filed under: LIFE THAT POPs, MARKETING, REALTORS , blogging, Mayoral Marketing, Success

Marketing to be Mayor

I just finished reading another brilliant blog post by Brian Brady: the great and powerful Oz.  (He gave up his moniker as “America’s Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker” a while back and now he is just “America’s Mortgage Broker”.  I think he needs a new nickname and “the great and powerful Oz is more than a little appropriate).  Anyway, in his post Brian says: “I make my presence known. Tony Gallegos called me “ubiquitious“. Critics have called my strategy “puking all over the internet” (but placed my results in the top 20 of all real estate bloggers). “  Now this is true and I have heard him accused of “puking” all over the Internet more than once.  Here’s the thing: he is absolutely doing the right thing and we should all be copying him, except that it would be pointless.  Let me explain:

The concept behind social media marketing has been called many things, but viral marketing is probably the easiest to understand.  Simply put, you want to be a virus (and I mean that in the best possible way) that friends, family, clients and just about anybody else that comes in contact with you spreads to others.  This is the definition of generating referrals.  The question you should be asking yourself (the question we always ask ourselves when ever we start something new in business like “creating a virus”) is WHY?  Why do I want people to sneeze me around to everyone else.  The answer may seem obvious: to create more business; but that misses a huge part of why social media marketing – and especially blogging – is so powerful.

The Chamber of Commerce Meeting… EXPLODED
Let me ask you a question: would you rather close 25% of 100 leads or 70% of 50 leads?  Again, the answer appears obvious but the power of blogging is found here.  Your posts are a grand resumé for everyone to read.  Think of it as the most successful Chamber of Commerce Networking meeting you have ever attended.  Instead of painfully coming up with small talk and trying to ever so smoothly work real estate or mortgages into a conversation about the garbage strike, you get to sit quietly while everyone in the room has a chance to learn about you in intimate detail.  Instead of fishing through your pocket for a business card, paper plate of greasy wings in one hand and sweaty handshake in the other, your information is plastered all over the walls and hanging from the moose antlers.  In one fell swoop you have not only “introduced” yourself to one heck of a lot of people, but you have communicated to them who you really are.

People do business with people they think are like them.  I will repeat that: people do business with people they think are like them.  After everyone has gotten a chance to know you, how many in the room will call you?  Not as many as if you had kept your (literary) mouth shut.  But… the ones who do are a lot more likely to do business with you.  Now that is TRUE efficiency in marketing.

DON’T Be the Disease, Be the MAYOR
So here is another question: if you do not want to be a virus and the idea of puking all over people is a tad beyond your comfort level; if you understand the Chamber of Commerce example but have no idea where your local Chamber is located, what do you do?  Or, as I pointed out in the beginning of this post: WHY do you do it?  Because you want to be the Mayor.  If you were to talk to the great and powerful Oz, he would tell you to build a community.  Build a community of raving fans that will do business with you and refer you because they see you as an expert.  I say: take that one step further.  Your goal is to build this community and then be elected their mayor!  Think of it: a community of raving fans that looks to you for leadership.  Now you are going to want to put as many people as possible into your “community,” but at the same time it does you no good to add people that will never vote for you.  Those people are “dead weight” on your campaign and unless your community is Chicago, they can not vote.  You want people that have read your platform and agree with it.  You want people that know how you stand on the issues and agree with you.  You want people that believe in you because they see themselves in you.  Put your bumper sticker on every car and your poster on every light post IN YOUR COMMUNITY. 

Which bring us back to why copying Brian Brady would be pointless.  Your goal should be to get elected mayor of your community.  He is running for President… or great and powerful Oz, I get the two mixed up.

Remember: your job is helping people to buy and sell real estate, not writing blog posts (no matter how great the prose that drips from your fingers).  Get your platform out there, kiss a lot of babies and shake a lot of hands.  You are always campaigning and your are always working to earn your communities’ support.  The reward for all that hard work is being mayor for life, which equates to a lot of transactions. MAYORAL MARKETING!  Hit the campaign trail!!

Filed under: LIFE THAT POPs, MARKETING, REALTORS , blogging, Mayoral Marketing, real estate agent marketing, Success