The Optimized Agent

Seize the Opportunity: The Hobbyists Are Leaving

Clearly, the real estate bubble has popped and we are in the down cycle.  No surprise here, really, because everything economic always cycles up and down.  The survivors figure out how to deal with it.

This post isn't about doom and gloom.  It's about how present circumstances are creating a huge opportunity for those who seize it.  Let me explain.

The last major real estate down cycle we saw was from 1991 through 1997.  I was curious about what happened to the real estate agent force during that period, so I went to the NAR Web site to see what information they had.  Turns out they provide detailed NAR membership statistics for more than the last 30 years. 

I downloaded both national and state-by-state membership statistics into a spreadsheet, and then added some calculations to help analyze what was going on during that period, and to project what history might tell us about the future.  The chart summarizing the history and projections is right here (click it to enlarge).

First, let me orient you to the national portion of the chart. 

• The years are in row 1. 
• Total National NAR Membership, year-by-year, is in row 2. 
• The actual national agent membership loss for each year is in row 3. 
• The national percentage membership gain or loss is in row 4.
• The total percentage of national membership loss for the entire down cycle period is in cell G5.
• The projected national membership loss is in cell H6.

I did a separate analysis of the same issues for California; because I live here, it has the biggest NAR state membership, and it demonstrates what can happen in a down cycle when extraordinary factors are added in.  California's extraordinary factor during this period was the ending of the Cold War and the negative impact that had on aerospace contracts.

So now, let me orient you to the California portion of the chart.

• The years are in row 7. 
• Total California NAR Membership, year-by-year, is in row 8. 
• The actual California agent membership loss for each year is in row 9. 
• The California percentage of membership gain or loss is in row 10.
• The total percentage of California membership loss for the entire down cycle period is in cell G11.
• The projected California membership loss is in cell H13.

Observations

On a national level, the downturn really wasn't all that bad over eight years; only 12.98%.  Compare that to the increase in national NAR membership (cell H2) over the next nine years; it almost doubled! 

Oh, but California; what a shock that was.  41.06% (cell G11) left the business during the downturn.  Then, amazingly, membership way more than doubled (compare cell G8 to cell H8) in the next nine years.  Talk about a manic depressive state!  :>)

The questions to ask yourself now are:

• Are you in a location where the downturn won't be severe; or very severe?
• Are there any extraordinary market conditions locally that could make your downturn more severe?

Some would argue that the mortgage meltdown is an extraordinary circumstance that could make the real estate business much more difficult, for an extended period of time, for everyone, everywhere.  That's your call.

So Where's the Opportunity In All This?

Ironically, the bigger the membership loss is, the bigger the opportunity for surviving agents.

There are a huge number of agents in the real estate industry whom I call hobbyists.  They don't really run their business like a business (i.e. with significant planning, investment, marketing and systems).  They simply rely on their existing relationships for business (i.e. their immediate family and friends).  That clearly won't be enough to sustain them in a down market.

The Hobbyists were already finding the bar to doing business being raised beyond their reach; what with Internet marketing technologies, competitive pressures on commissions, and all.  Now that the market has turned, huge numbers of them will be forced to leave the business entirely.  History shows that that happened before; and it projects that it will happen again (maybe in even greater percentages this time).

So what does this all mean for the survivors?  It means that there is an enormous opportunity to salvage the relationships that the hobbyists would otherwise be leaving behind.  It means that the survivors who do this successfully will not only survive this current downturn in style, but will position themselves for fantastic gains when the market inevitably turns upward again.

How can a survivor agent accomplish this relationship salvage operation?  Answer:  Turn the departing hobbyists into strong referral sources.  Offer to reward them for any business generated from any email databases they share with you.  Ask them to introduce you via one of your emails. Let them notify their relationships that they are leaving the business, but leaving them in very good hands.  Nurture these databases with automated 33 Touch campaigns (ala "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent", i.e. MREA).  Invite the departed agent to continue to make posts in your emailings from time to time; this will help keep a warm connection going.

This is definitely a Win/Win proposition.  Departing agents can still monetize their relationships without having to do any real work; and you can build a much larger "Met" email database, almost over-night.  Building a very large, warm and fuzzy "Met" email database will enable you to do massive automated marketing campaigns which cost next to nothing.

Just think about the MREA model; you know; two transactions from every 12 names in your Met database per year.  Go ahead; bring some cheer to your departing agent friends; they'll welcome it. 

Tip for departing agents; only buddy up with agents who are actually prepared to take the very best care of your treasured relationships.  You'll be taking good care of those relationships, and you won't be leaving money on the table.

Lead Generation

For many real estate agents it seems that their concept of "lead generation" is something akin to playing lotto.  Place the right ad, in the right space, at just the right time, and you win the transaction.  No wonder so many of them go broke playing this game.

Its all about relationships people.  Lead generation, if you want to call it that, is all about attracting responses; then nurturing them to the point where there is sufficient trust to do business.

Trust is the natural result of repeated, escalating contacts wherein both parties recognize mutual benefit potential through communications that naturally build credibility and confidence.  That sentence is a mouthful, to be sure, but when you fully understand it, you'll be well on your way to much more effective lead generation.

What's the key to attracting responses?  Make information offers that you know your target prospects will find easy-to-say-yes-to.

What's the key to nurturing relationships?  Continue making information offers that escalate in intimacy. 

For example, your first offer might be to show current listings, without any cost, obligation or sharing of personal information; that would be an easy-to-say-yes-to offer for most buyers to accept. 

Your next offer might be to save the search profile and automatically send all future listings that fit the profile.  This would escalate the intimacy of the relationship, because in order to accept this offer the potential buyer would have to provide, at the very least, an email address.

The next series of offers might be more information about local lifestyles, schools, shopping, health care and anything else that would help the potential buyer visualize living in the community.

Or it could be a series of escalating offers about financing the home purchase; you know, online calculators, current mortgage rates, lender requirements, loan shopping, etc.

The trick is to keep inviting your prospect back to high value information that you control on your own Web site.  Over time these offers will position you in the prospect's mind as one who is very knowledgeable, skillful and a high level performer in all things real estate.  Year after year NAR surveys show that perceptions of agents' knowledge, skill and performance are the most important agent selection criteria.

When you think about lead generation in real estate; think courting.  You know, the tentative first meeting.  The awkward line of questioning until sufficient mutual interest is discovered.  The escalating series of offers; coffee, lunch, dinner, day-trip . . .etc.  The acceptance of each offer enables more time spent together, more sharing, greater intimacy. 

Do all that long enough and, well, serious and meaningful relationships will develop.  Continuing a futile search for just the right, "Hi!  Will you marry me?", kind of line is just going to get you smacked.

Want more leads?  Then set a system up to make a lot more easy-to-say-yes-to offers, to a whole lot more people, on a regular and continuing basis.  Here are a whole lot of free offers that will show you how.

Real Estate Agent Marketing Survey

Here's something you can add to your blog to increase interest.

Try taking this survey, then get your own Quibblo account; it's free.

Real Estate Agent Marketing Survey

Survey by Quibblo

Guerilla Relationship Marketing 2

If you buy into my suggestion in my first Guerilla Relationship Marketing post (i.e. to leverage existing networks), then here's something else you should know.

When I first became an independent marketing and systems consultant (over 15 years ago) I joined my local Chamber of Commerce.  They had a dozen standing committees and numerous events each month; all great opportunities to meet new people and network.

I observed that sometimes these contacts led to fairly quick business, and other times they did not.  Being the compulsive analyzer that I am, I resolved to figure out the dynamics at play so I could make improvements.  Here is what I learned:

• If I went to a meeting and said nothing to no-one; nothing at all happened.
• If I went to a meeting and spoke to the issues of the meeting; occasionally people would catch me after the meeting to chat a little.  Once in awhile those chats even led to business.

If I went to a meeting and volunteered to help with the work of the committee a few things happened:

• More people would catch me to chat
• A few people would ask me for advice
• A few of those people would become my clients

When I created my own marketing committee, set the agenda's, and led the meetings:

• Even more people would ask for advice
• Even more became my clients

Based on this experience, observations and analysis I've boiled success in networking down to three keys:

1. Demonstrate Caring

If you're not going to speak up at a meeting, you might as well not even go.  People need to see and hear you demonstrate that you care about the same things that they do.  Speaking up breaks the ice and makes it easier for them to reach out to you.

2. Demonstrate Competence

If people can see you demonstrate competence in some minor or side activity, they conclude that you must be even more competent in your regular business.  Demonstrating competence will definitely draw more people to you.  Also, the circumstances in which you demonstrate your competence often cause you to have more interactions with those who are also demonstrating their competence.  This extra contact and shared experience  increases the relationship bonds and makes it even easier for you to talk real estate.

3. Demonstrate Leadership

If you really want to supercharge your networking, then observe some needs that you are especially well qualified to do something about; then do something about them.  Recruit helpers.  Publicize your activity.  Get results.  If you do those things you'll definitely find more people gravitating toward you and asking for your help with their real estate transactions.

So get out there, find an association that fits; and demonstrate your caring, competence and leadership.

P.S.  If you've got a story that demonstrates these principles in action, please share it here; everyone will appreciate it.

Hi! Will you marry me?

How well is this approach working for him?  Bet he gets slapped a lot. This post is about a natural and more effective way to build relationships.

Remember back to when you first started courting? You knew what you wanted, but somehow you learned not to just blurt it out upon meeting someone. You took a little time. You got to know each other first. You found common areas of interest you could relate to.

With time and repeated contacts; in person, on the phone, in notes and letters; the relationship began to grow. Eventually, the relationship reached a point where you could talk about those things that seemed too abrupt in the beginning, without much discomfort on either of your parts at all.

But for some strange reason, when it comes to business and selling, we tend to forget everything we learned about building relationships naturally and comfortably.  Instead we behave as if some different kind of relationship building process applies.

We throw out our names, proclaim how terrific we are, then immediately ask our prospects to, in effect, marry us.  Sort of like that cartoon above.

We ignore all we've learned about relationship building from our families, friendships and work relationships.  In it's place we substitute overly aggressive, impersonal and egocentric behaviors, then wonder what went wrong.

No wonder sales people deal with so much rejection!

Business relationships are really no different from any other human relationships. They all have to be built the same way.  The most effective lead generation and sales communications are designed to facilitate the following five natural relationship building elements.

The Five Natural Relationship Building Elements

1. Make Contact

You must make contact with a person, or there is no chance for a relationship to build. Invariably, more than one contact is needed. Miller and Heiman in their classic sales training book entitled, "Strategic Selling" conducted national surveys to determine that successful sales people typically sell after their fifth contact with a prospect.  They further observed that since ninety percent of all sales people give up after the first contact, it turns out that only 10% of the sales people in America generate 90% of all the sales.

Contacts can be made on the phone, on the Web, in email, in letters, in brochures, at public meetings, in seminars, in small groups or one on one.  Generally, a combination of contact types is desirable.  Remember, you had coffee, and then a movie, then lots of alone time before you felt comfortable talking about marriage.

When planning your marketing communications keep this need for an escalating series of contacts in mind. If you make each contact easy to say yes to, you'll find it easier and more natural to move your prospects along toward the client-hood.

2. Discover Mutual Interest

Remember this initial courting scenario?  Initially there was a rapid series of questions along the lines of:

• Where are you from?
• Where did you go to school?
• What do you do for a living?
• What are your hobbies?
• Who do you know that I know?
• Seen any good movies lately?
• Heard any good music lately?
• What's your favorite restaurant?

That exchange was all about finding mutual interests.  If you found them, the relationship escalated.  If you failed to find them, relationship building stopped.

In business, just because you can have contact with someone doesn't mean you'll be able to develop a relationship. There must also be recognition of mutual interests.

When someone perceives that they really need or want what you've got, they'll naturally grow closer to you.  When you perceive that someone really is a good fit for what you're selling, you'll naturally grow closer to them.

To speed up this mutuality phenomenon learn to discover needs and share solutions more quickly and effectively.

3. Establish Credibility

Even though you may have sufficient contact and perceived mutuality, these alone are still not enough to build a relationship.  Buyers and Sellers come into contact with realtors all the time; but if they think the realtor is a bozo, they're still not going to do business.

The annual NAR Buyer and Seller Profiles repeatedly show that the number one agent selection criterion is "knowledge" about every aspect of real estate.  Buyers and Sellers, more than anything else, want to believe that their agent really knows what she or he is doing in real estate.

Since knowledge is the number one selection criteria, and credibility is one of the key, natural relationship building elements; it only makes sense to have the majority of your marketing communications be about demonstrating your real estate knowledge.

4. Deepen Confidence

Contact, mutuality and credibility alone are still not enough to build relationships.  Buyers and Sellers connect with agents all the time who know what they're doing, but are flaky as croissants; so they still won't do business with them.

How can you demonstrate that you are worthy of confidence?  There are two main ways:

1. Be responsive:  Return calls and emails quickly.
2. Make lots of promises, and keep them:  "I'll find out and call you back."  Then do it quickly.  "I'll get that information for you."  Then send it, quickly.

People are always watching you perform.  Set high standards for yourself, and meet them.  Then watch people's confidence in you grow.

5. Build Trust

Trust is the natural result of multiple contacts, discovered mutual interest, established credibility and deepened confidence. To build trust, all your marketing and sales communications must seamlessly support the advancement of the previous four relationship building elements.

How much trust do real estate agents need?  Well, the amount of trust required to do business is affected by three key factors:

• Purchase Price - The higher the price, the more trust is needed.  Since home purchases are typically the most expensive things most people ever buy; agents need more trust in this regard than any other sales person.
• Complexity - The more complex the buying decision is, the more trust is required to do business.  Real estate transactions are pretty much the most complex transactions that people get into.  So the trust bar is at the top here too.
• Impact - The higher the impact of the transaction, the more trust is required.  Since buying and selling homes involved moving, shelter and happiness of both Buyers/Sellers and their families; the trust bar on this issue is just about as high as it gets.

You are not selling widgets at retail.  You are in the major leagues of selling.  You need more and deeper relationships to be successful, than sales people in most other fields.

The winners in this game know that it's all about starting, building and maintaining relationships; and that doing it naturally works much better than, "Hi! Will you marry me?"

Why all the fuss about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) anyway?

I attended a panel discussion of leading search engine companies (including Google) on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Google acknowledged that 80% of all searchers only look at the first page of search results, and that very few venture beyond the second page of results.

Since each page usually contains 10 links; what is the value in raising your site to number 21 if almost no one will see it?  If you can't get on the first page, it doesn't really matter much where else you fall in the results.

Given the millions of pages that come up in typical searches, why do people think the odds are good that they're going to raise themselves to the first, or even second, results page; when there are thousands of search engine optimization companies and individuals all competing to do the same thing with the same few words that every other agent in your neighborhood is trying to use?

And should anyone beat all the odds, what makes them think their efforts will be any good tomorrow; given that the search engine companies constantly change their search algorithms; specifically to foil any and all attempts at SEO (except through their approved and self interested pay-per-click models)?

But let's say it could work.  Would the expense even be worth it?  Well, not if you believe the NAR surveys, or Gary Keller.  The evidence overwhelmingly shows that real estate is a relationship marketing game. 

Systems that help you start, build and maintain relationships are the best place to put your marketing creativity, time, money and energy.

What Agents Do That "Online" Can't: Part 1

"Online" has done a very good job of making basic property information available.  It's very easy for anyone to see current listings, property statistics, photographs, maps, even sales trends online.  Computers are very good at storage and retrieval of massive amounts of data.

The questions consumers should be asking themselves are, "Is this enough of the right kinds of information for me to make a good home purchase decision on?" And, "What else do I need to know in order to make a good analysis and decision?" 

By raising the following points you'll be better able to help consumers realize that what they get online is definitely not enough information, and it includes almost no analysis.  Once these points are clear, only fools would not seek help from a true real estate expert. 

You Can Provide a Comprehensive Inventory Analysis

There are five aspects to the kind of analysis you can provide; and none of this is, or can ever be easily provided online.

1. Market Analysis

The real value of information isn't the raw information itself, but rather the analysis, interpretation and application of the information to decision making.

Say there are five similar houses on a list.  Which is the best one?  The correct answer is. . .it depends on a number of factors not easily available, or available at all, online (only a good agent would be able to answer all these questions):

Who are the buyers?

• Number of people
• Ages
• Special requirements
• Financial situation
• Financial goals
• Mobility

What do the buyers want?

• A turnkey operation
• A fixer-upper
• Something in between

How far is each home from:

• Shopping
• Work
• Neighborhood playmates
• Parks
• Child care
• Health care
• Entertainment

Neighborhood trends:

• Trending improvements
• Trending declines

Deal factors:

• How long has each home been on the market?
• What are the motivations of the sellers?
• Are special financing terms available?

2. Property Analysis

• Maintenance condition
• Condition compared to other properties in neighborhood

3. Inspections Analysis

• Inspectors involved
• Reasonableness of inspection reports
• Verification of reports accuracy

4. Circumstantial Factors Analysis

• Schools
• Student body demographics
• Conveniences
• Child care facilities
• Specialty stores
• Entertainment attractions
• Traffic
• Noise
• Congestion
• Nuisances
• Pets
• Unfenced water
• Garage bands
• Heightened fire danger

5. Local News Awareness

• Special events traffic; parking
• Major property developments nearby
• Major traffic developments nearby

Good agents develop rapport with their buyers and intuitively weave these issues into their conversations.  Online agents don't spend enough time developing relationships with their buyers, nor do they have access to these kinds of information.

Can any of these factors have much impact on a home's price or livability?  You bet.  Should they be part of a buyer's decision making process?  Absolutely.  Will they get this kind of insight from an online real estate agent?  Probably never.

So clearly, you can win this part of the argument.  The question for you is; are you making this argument?  Where is it on your Web site and other marketing materials?  How often are you putting this argument out there in your conversations?  Or are you just letting the online real estate services dominate the discussion?  You know, you still could lose this one by default; if you don't show up.

I'm sure I left some really good points out here.  I'm also sure given the thousands of experienced Rainers out there, the comments on this post can be fleshed out to make this quite a marketing reference tool.  So feel very free to add to these points.

In our next post we will explain in detail that you're better than online real estate services because, "You Can Market Property More Effectively".

What Agents Do That "Online" Can't: Part 2

This is the second in a series of blogs designed to help agents make a much stronger case for being better than online services.

You Can Market Property More Effectively

Online real estate services focus more on working with buyers because:

• The Web can serve buyers needs better than it can serve sellers needs
• More buyers use the Web in their real estate process than sellers do
• They make more money from buyers than sellers by charging a percentage of the usual commission (paid by the seller) rather than a flat fee.

Given that most buyers are also sellers, the agent who can make the best case for offering the most comprehensive services will have the best shot at two (or more) sides of the deal.

The local, traditional agent has a huge advantage when comparing capabilities against an online real estate service.  Here are seven reasons why:

1.  Pricing Analysis

Drive through different neighborhoods and you can feel the difference.

Walk through two homes, same model, same neighborhood, and you can feel the difference.

Those feelings can justify significant pricing differences.  An online agent will never experience those feelings.  That's why they'll rely on accepting low-ball offers to make their sales numbers.

If a seller wants to price their home right and sell for the highest possible dollar, they're much safer going with a local agent.  Even after a 5-6% commission; they're still ahead.

2. Staging

Put an item in a thrift store and it will sell for a few dollars.

Display the same item attractively in an antique store and it will sell for ten times as much.  Why?  Staging.

Leave a room over-stuffed with furniture and personal belongings and you'll make it harder for prospective buyers to visualize their stuff in that home.

What should stay?  What should go?  Where should things be rearranged? These are decisions that can only be made by an experienced home stager, onsite.  The online folks don't have a chance here.

3.  Photography

This is an area that separates the really good agents from the rest.  They know that the photograph is the first and only chance to grab someone's attention.  If it's done well, you get a chance to show a second photograph.  If that goes well, you get a chance to show more.  Photographs are the primary marketing tool for drawing prospective buyers in.

What makes a high quality photograph different from a snapshot?  A good agent knows that lighting, lenses, camera angles and after the fact retouching has a lot to do with it.  Good agents will use each of these factors to best advantage; or they'll hire somebody who can to take good photographs.

One way or another, local agents have the advantage when it comes to being able to get superior photographs.

4. Online Marketing Savvy

Just because you're a local agent doesn't mean that you aren't taking just as much advantage of the Web as the online agents do.  In fact you can do an even better job.

Sure, the property itself is of primary importance, but the property comes with neighborhoods, schools, shopping centers, entertainment centers, hiking trails, beaches, lakes, rivers and a myriad of other local attractions.

Local agents know what's cool and they package their listings smack in the middle of all that coolness, online.

A national, online real estate service simply can't afford to localize their MLS listings the way you can and do.

5. Agent Relationships

According to NAR surveys, at least 80% of buyers work with buyer's agents.  That means that at any given point in time, if you want to reach 80% of the buyers in the market, communicating directly with buyers agents is the best way to reach them.

Good local agents know their local markets.  They know who the really active agents are; personally.  They keep in touch because they have all these agents in their databases and can call or email them easily.

This kind of outreach is another thing that makes local agents a better bet than online agents.

6. Personal Network

It's rare when a house is ready to go on the market the day you take the listing.  More than likely there are some repairs, gardening, painting, staging and other small jobs that need to be done.

Because local agents develop good relationships with quality local vendors of these services they can easily project manage getting a home ready to sell.

Online real estate agents can only look through the yellow pages and take their chances.  What odds would you give them on getting quality work at a fair price?

7. Personal Marketing and Administrative Systems

Good local agents have systems in place that make it easy for them to perform at a very high level.

• Their Web site forms pass new leads into their automated marketing systems.
• Their marketing systems help maintain relationships with their entire prospect databases; automatically.
• They have segmented databases that include:
•     Buyer leads
•     Seller leads
•     High quality local agents
•     High quality local vendors
• They have automated action plans to schedule and control their listing activities
• They have automated action plans to schedule and control their closing activities
• They have online document creating capabilities
• They have online electronic signature gathering capabilities
• They have online transaction management and document distribution capabilities

In a nutshell, they have cutting edge systems that are optimized and localized for every key aspect of the real estate process.  Online real estate services can't even begin to compete with that. 

So yes, local agents, you definitely have the edge over your online competitors (especially with sellers); but again, you've got to tell your story as frequently and as loud as they do.  It's still possible, even with all these advantages, to lose this debate; if you don't show up.

What Agents Do That "Online" Can't: Part 3

This is the third in a series of blogs designed to help agents make a much stronger case for being better than online services.

Deal Making Ability

When it comes down to closing deals, local agents have a real advantage over online agents.  Here's why:

1. Deal Analysis

Local agents have much greater awareness of all the tangible and intangible factors that come into play when closing deals.  These factors are negotiating points.  The more you know, the more you can bring into the negotiation.

2. Non-Data Factors

Personal acquaintance and access to agents on the other side makes it possible to gather more information and cues during negotiations.  This insight helps inform the strategies you give to your clients.

3. More Current Information

Relevant real estate information very often does not show up in online databases and listings until long after the fact. 

Local agents know about recent listings and closings before they get posted.  This makes it easy to spot a trend and bring it into the negotiations before your online competitor even has a clue about what you're saying.

4. Crisis Resolution

How many times have you see a closing coming down to the wire and some glitch or oversight pops up.  Being local and having established, local relationships can give you a real edge over your online competitors.

So once again, yes, you local agents definitely have a better story to tell over your online competitors.  Just make sure you're telling it.

When the Going Gets Tough. . .

. . .The survivors go marketing.

One thing that helps keep the survivors going is their optimism and conviction that if they keep focused, and work steadily; things are going to work out just fine.

Their optimism doesn't just come from some kind of Pollyannaish faith, however.  They have a very objective perspective on things that is based on solid facts.  Take a look at what makes them optimistic; I think you'll find some cheer here.

The Demographics Are On Your Side

Year in and year out; homeowners move.  Jobs change.  Families grow.  People retire.  Incomes rise and incomes fall.  Hot economies or cold economies don't stop these life changes.  The changes keep right on happening, and people keep right on moving.

On average, across the nation, 10% of homeowners move every year.  Sure, at some locations the rate is higher; at some locations the rate is lower, but on average 10 out of every 100 move.

That means if you have a database of 200 homeowners, 20 of them are likely to be both selling and buying a home in the next 12 months.  That's a potential 40 transactions, just with the people you already know; not counting the new buyers (and potential sellers) you'll meet from working those listings.

If you are keeping in close touch with these people, the news gets even better.  Each of them is 1. Related to; 2. Works with and 3. Is friends with at least three other homeowners.  So at a minimum, that's 200 in your database times 3 = 600 more homeowners who are only one degree of separation from you.  That's another 60 homes sold and 60 homes bought in the next twelve months.

So think about it.  Maintaining close relationships with just 200 people can put you close to 160 possible transactions in the next 12 months.  What kind of year will you have, even if you miss 90% of those?

The survivors know that you don't have to be very successful, to be very successful.

Relationship Marketing Works Best

Every year the NAR surveys show that relationship marketing works best.  I consolidated a bunch of those surveys on a spreadsheet to see what additional insight I could squeeze out, after a little sorting and number crunching.

The chart below shows the results.  (You can see the whole presentation on my Web site at http://cobel.com/html/marketing_optimization.html)

Two big insights came out of this exercise.  First, relationship marketing is by far the most productive kind of marketing.  Second, 80% of the most productive kinds of marketing can be done effectively on the Web.  That means lots more marketing at much lower cost and much less effort.

Marketing Communications Are In Place

The Internet is such a common feature in most homeowners lives that it's become the very best place to distribute agents marketing materials.

Besides listings, of course, your Web site can have lots of reports, tip sheets, newsletters, local information, virtual tours and much more that is of great interest to both buyers and sellers.

If you've got a good Web site in place, you've got the foundation for launching some pretty high powered marketing campaigns.

Marketing Systems Are In Place

"If you build it, they will come."  Yah; but only if they know that it's there.

Having a great Web site in place is only the foundation for high powered marketing campaigns.  You've also got systematize and automate the distribution of touches that will keep bringing people back, again and again, to your Web site.

Gary Keller's book "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" confirms the key statistics.  If you touch and "Unmet" (i.e. a farm) database 12 times per year, you can expect one transaction for every 50 names in that database. 

If you touch a "Met" database 33 times per year, you can expect two transactions for every 12 names in the database.  That's eight times better results from marketing to people you already know.

Granted, that's a lot of "touching" to keep up with, but it's not a big deal at all when you've got your marketing systems in place.

The Numbers Even Get Better For Survivors

The long-timers have definitely seen this all before.  The market gets hot and everybody and their mother gets a real estate license.  These newbies sell a few houses to their immediate family and friends, but they rarely sell much more than that.  Why?  Because these newbies aren't really in the "business".  They're just dabbling.

Then, inevitably, the market goes the other way.  (Markets do that you know.)  The newbies leave in droves and the survivors pick up the pieces.

Remember, the newbies (who've left the business) still have relatives and friends who are buying and selling houses, and those people still need help from somebody (and that somebody can be you).

Consequently, the spoils, when times get tough, are even larger than they might otherwise be for the survivors. 

So don't listen to the people who are leaving the business, because they were never really in it anyway.  Keep your optimism alive.  Do what the survivors do. . .and thrive!