Anne Marie Malfi, Real Estate Marketing Consultant/Virtual Asst, Bucks County,PA

Respect - what does it look like and sound like?

Have you ever really thought about this question? What answers would you give? Do you think you do a great job with respecting your clients and colleagues - more importantly do they?

I didn't come up with these questions about what does respect look like and sound like on my own. I recently answered these questions for homework that was given to me by my daughter's principal. That's right at age 40 I found myself doing homework - guess you never stop learning and always have opportunities to learn no matter how old you are.

I think this exercise (homework) gave me many benefits

1. A wonderful opportunity to share with my daughter my perspective on what respect is - how it looks and sounds
2. Reminded me of how I can be more aware of how I come across to others
3. How I can be an example to her in how I respect her, our family and those that we encounter in our every day lives.

Here are are some of the answers to those questions that we came up with as a family:

Sounds Like: Looks Like:

It got me thinking about respect and how it relates to how we conduct ourselves in our businesses.

We all know we should respect others - we're taught this as children and many of us must adhere to industry code of ethics but often we lose sight of just how respect looks and sounds like and we can find ourselves not respecting someone without even realizing it. Sometimes the things we say can simply rattle someone to their core even if that was not our intention.

This quote sums it up nicely:

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me...All I ask is that you respect me as a human being." Jackie Robinson

Responsibility

• Respond promptly to all inquiries and requests and meet deadlines

Educate

• Educate, advise and guide our clients

Sensitivity

• Schedule and keep appointments or make necessary arrangements to change
• Be aware of cultural differences
• Remember that our clients are asking you to handle a very important and often sensitive area of their lives.

Professional

• In our appearance and our communications

• In our promises we make to our clients - make them and keep them (know what you're capable of delivering - see my previous post for more areas to explore on this topic)

Ethics

• Follow the Code of Ethics of the NAR

Communicate

• Communicate in a timely and thoughtful manner and do it often

Treatment of Others

• Treat our clients and colleagues the same way we expect to be treated (in person and online)
• Care about them and show it in all your interactions

Respect is...Listening, caring about other's feelings, keeping an open mind, agreeing and knowing it's ok to disagree, seeking to understand, being honest, direct, and lifting a person up.

As you can see respect comes in many forms and at the very least I hope this post gets you thinking about how your words and actions come across to those you interact with each and every day and will be a reminder that these things have an affect on your clients and colleagues (and your business) and will allow you to model for others exactly how you want to be treated.

Being aware of how we respect our clients and our colleagues can make all the difference in our business - the reputationof it AND the growth of it.

I will leave you with this final quote:

"Our inner strengths, experiences, and truths cannot be lost, destroyed or taken away. Every person has an inborn worth and can contribute to the human community. We all can treat one another with dignity and respect, provide opportunities to grow toward our fullest lives and help one another discover and develop our unique gifts. We each deserve this and we all can extend it to others." Author Unknown

Have some thoughts to share on the topic of Respect? Feel free to add your thoughts and perspective on how it relates to your business and life.

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I speak to you as not only someone that assists clients with their marketing efforts but as someone that was once a consumer - buying and selling my home and I'm going to tell it to you straight...

"your customers are checking to see if those things you promised in your prelisting appointment are actually happening."

I invite you to take out your marketing plan that you share in your pre-listing appointments and review it line by line to see if the things you are promising your clients are actually being done. Will their home be listed on your website? Is it? Will they be a featured listing on Trulia or Zillow - are they? You get my point right?

Here are some areas that you may or may not be promising to your clients for their listings on where they will appear that yield great results due to the amazing exposure they receive.

See how you're doing. If there are areas that your listings will benefit from having this added exposure make it happen and share it with your client. Go back often and look in detail at your tracking results that will allow you to share with your clients how much exposure their listing is receiving. You are tracking the results of these efforts aren't you? Feel free to post as a checklist against your PreListing Markeitng Plan to ensure you're meeting your client's needs.

Here's your checklist:

Website

Does the listing appear on the site? Does it accurately reflect all the details of the listing and is the price correct? How are the pictures?

Blogging

We all know and hopefully you've seen the power of ActiveRain blogs in helping to reach clients, promote our services and be a part of a community that helps us grow our business. Are you highlighting your listing on your blog and posting it to your local community? I currently work with agents who receive amazing feedback and gain new clients every day simple by bloggingnot only about real estate related issues and their community but about their blogs. (Check out Jeremy Blanton's great post about how to present your listings.)

Social Media Networks

Facebook- are you posting links and sending them to your clients who are on facebook. What a great way to promote your listings to other Realtors® and to show your client that you are actively talking about their listing.

Twitter - Tweetlister is a great tool for presenting your listings and provides tracking results.

Trulia & Zillow

Your listings are usually provided by a feed or you can enter them in yourself. You can enhance your listing and provide your clients with reports either on their listing or for homes similar to theirs. I like to periodically check my client's listings to ensure they not only fed correctly but often I will add more photos to increase the likelihood that they will be viewed more. Are you also involved in the forums and questiosn and answers section of these sites? Another great opportunity to extend your reach and show your value as a Realtor®.

Real Estate Shows and Flyers

Not only can they stand on their own but you can embed them into your blogs and on social media networks. What client wouldn't love to see their listing presented in this very special way? Did I mention that this tool has great tracking capabilities too?

Craigslist

Perhaps you have a market that would do really well from posting here. There are many options from posting straight text to embedding flyers to html that can present your listings in not only a unique but visually pleasing way.

Postlets

Creates a single page site for your listing and syndicates to several sites.

Realbird

Creates a single property site along with widgets, ability to embed the flyer and syndicates to several sites. Also tracks views and visitor stats.

Classified Flyers

Easy to create, targeted single property sites and flyers syndicated to real estate directors and search engines.

Property Flyers

Do you have an attractive flyer that presents all the details of your listing? Is it up to date with new photos and pricing? Do you have all the ways of contacting you on this flyer - website, social media and phone?)

Advertising (newspaper, home magazines)

This form of advertising works well for many and I'm a big proponent of balancing on line and off line marketing efforts. While many of abandoned this form of marketing often times client's still view this as a viable method of marketing. Did you promise to run ads? Are you? Think about what will work for your listings and in your market and do it if it's something you've promised.

Open Houses

Are you conducting them as promised? Are you tracking visitors and following upwith the visitors - clients and Realtors® for feedback and are you providing that feedback to your client?

Marketing Activity Results

I previously posted an example of what and how you can share feedback with your clients. Clients want to know this information and it will give you a great opportunity to provide feedback on showings and share feedback on possible updates needed or price changes.

Email Campaigns

Are you alerting customers from your database and fellow Realtors® and colleagues of your listing? Don't miss out on this important aspect of marketing your listing and services - perhaps it will be seen by someone looking behind the scenes right now or by someone who can mention to someone they know. Your reach has just been extended.

Regular Contact/Follow-up

Make those phone calls, respond to leads and inquires, and participate on blogs, social media networks and forums. Write a hand written note, send an email campaign. Take a client for coffee or check in with them on their recent home improvements. My point is have regular and consistent interactions with your clients and prospects. If you remember them, they will remember you.

Did I miss any? More importantly - did you?

Sometimes I think we are so intent on recreating new ways to run our business that we forget the simple things we have already established that will work if we work them correctly or at all. Don't recreate the wheel unless you have to and focus your efforts on getting the results you're clients need and depend on.

I invite you to dig in deep to your pre-listing materials to ensure you are promising things that you can actually deliver on and use this as an opportunity to fine tune your services and offerings. This will go a long way with your clients who are depending on you to deliver the results you promised to them and will most likely grow your business in the way of referrals by these very happy clients.

How did your Pre-Listing Marketing Plan measure up?

Do you have an experience with your clients reviewing your marketing efforts that you want to share?

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Some previous posts to help you with your marketing efforts:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/715158/creating-a-connection-with-your-marketing

http://activerain.com/blogsview/693888/Do-you-know-where

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1015159/Marketing-is-a-lot-like-exercisingtone-and-see-results

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What is the purpose of a business - your business?

Some think it's to make a profit (a good thing, yes) but that's not the only or best way to look at it in my opinion. The true purpose is to create and keep your customers - the profits are the natural result of creating and keeping those customers happy. To experience success in your business, the emphasis should be - has to be on creating experiences with you and your company and keeping that customer. (Otherwise you have no clients and certainly less opportunity for profit - makes sense doesn't it?)

Like many of you, I am an entrepreneur and I am responsible for my own marketing, finances, administrative tasks, operations and customer service. There's no option to press 1 for operations, 2 for accounting - it's all me. I often wonder when I'm experiencing a really busy period in my business "how will I get it all done?" How will I satisfy my current clients and at the same time continue to grow my business? Do you wonder the same? There's always work to be done for our client's and as we all know there are tasks we need to do for our own business - website updates, blogging to be done, not to mention staying in touch and not falling off the radar screen with our social media networking.

It's simple when you think about it:

• Have a plan each day/week for what you need to accomplish
• Put your customers first (follow-up and produce results they can see)
• Partner and rely on associates and organizations to achieve these goals

Being a service based company; I am hired by my clients because of my expertise in marketing and virtual support. My client's main objective, priority, need and care is that I will actually deliver what they hired me to do. I think this is true for all of you too - you're clients have hired you to provide them with valuable services and they are expecting a lot from you - are you delivering?

It all comes down to managing our client's experience with our company that involves providing them with results, integrity, honesty and knowledge.

Have the mindset: "Your business is my business."

My advice is quite simple ~ Be a service provider that:

Readily shares knowledge and expertise with your clients in person and throughout all your online interactions.

Show them they can trust you and count on you.

Stay in contact, be available and follow-up with them regularly.

Actually show them that you want their business, transactions and experience with you to be successful and rewarding.

Exceed their expectations. Don't have the "It's none of your business" attitude when dealing with clients and colleagues. Business isn't personal unless you make it personal. Just think of how great your interactions will be and how great the experience will be for the client when you make it personal. (for an example of this visit this post.)

By providing them with the services they require and doing it in a way that exceeds their expectations you are in fact growing your business. Your clients will just naturally see the benefits of working with you and you will see it in the form of testimonials, feedback, future business and referrals.

We all know the value of referrals - we all want them and by approaching our business and services we offer in these ways who will your clients be inclined to mention when someone mentions needing the services you provide? Your business is now receiving the best form of marketing - your clients spreading the word about your services and all you had to do was run your business the way you always intended - with honesty, integrity and good ole fashioned great service.

As I always say - run your business as if you were on the receiving end of the service - would you hire you?

By following this simple approach to your business, you can make your current clients happy and at the same time grow your business in the way of word of mouth marketing (current client referrals, mentions on social networking sites and blogs, colleague referrals, etc.) which in my opinion is the most solid way of growing your business.

Feel free to share:

How do you get it all done?

What has your experience been with receiving word of mouth marketing and client referrals?

What has helped you grow your business the most? (Blogging, social media, referrals, add yours)

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I consider myself a very creative person and that creativity is often inspired by many people and experiences. I am always trying to find new ways to channel that creativity.

One way I share my creativity is in the kitchen. I have a true passion for cooking - creating eye and taste-bud pleasing meals for my family and friends. There's nothing quite like hearing their words of gratitude and sheer pleasure as they enjoy the fruits of my labor - leaving them with the feeling they want more has to be one the greatest rewards for me.

Often I find myself going through my pantry and cabinets to find ingredients that will create a new and family favorite dish - this is especially true when I'm due to visit the supermarket but just haven't made it there for the week. Often it comes down to taking a risk - trying something new - exploring and hoping that the ingredients I put together will work.

Can't the same be said when it comes to our marketing efforts? Isn't it about taking risks and chances - trying something new - exploring new tools and avenues and hoping that all our efforts and time will bring us results?

Some people may not be able to do this (but they can if they change they're thinking.)

• They may need to follow a specific recipe (plan)
• If they don't have all the ingredients (knowledge on what to do/try and the ability to know when it's working and not working)
• They will either not make the dish (quit with their efforts)

or

• They will run to the store for the exact ingredients (create a new plan/go back to the drawing board.)

It really comes down to deciding if you're going to keep doing what you've always done (getting the undesirable results that you don't want) or if you're going to change things "the ingredients" up and see what happens. This does not mean to abandon the things that are working and do everything new but to look closely at your business and marketing and see what "ingredients" need to be changed. You might just like what you've created but you won't know until you channel that creativity.

I challenge you today to approach your marketing efforts with this same creativity. Find new ways to either create or spice up your marketing efforts that leave your clients with a very satisfied feeling and the feeling of wanting more.

It's never too late to start tapping into your creativity whether it's in the kitchen or in your business and you certainly don't need to be doing it without help from others. Look around you - at your colleagues, look at what you did in the past that worked, what needs tweaking, get a new book, look around ActiveRain for some inspiration, ideas and support - it's everywhere you look.

Think of your marketing efforts as a way to engage your clients.

• Invite them to interact with you on your blog and social media sites.
• Share your knowledge with them, what you're doing not only for their listing but what you're involved in within your local community.

Think of it as a pot luck dinner party where everyone brings an item - invite your clients to be a part of your marketing efforts and advertising. Generate some excitement about what you're doing and people will naturally been drawn to it and will want to be involved.

I encourage you today to gather your ingredients, get creative, set the table and invite your client's for a really great meal that will leave them not only wanting more but talking about it for a very long time.

Where does your creativity come from and how has it inspired you with your marketing and business?

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Disney knows that the attitude their employees portray has a direct impact on the success of their business. If you've ever visited Disney, I think it would be hard to find someone that is not happy and pleasant to deal with - they simply don't hire people that can't commit to being that way. Imagine being known as an individual or company that has this very attitude.

I do think the same can be said for the real estate industry or any company for that matter if they possess and hold these qualities and attributes near and dear to their hearts as part of their every day way of doing business.

Since this post can apply to the real estate industry, the many roles we all hold and any business for that matter I am referring to all roles as "Servicing Agent"(real estate agent, broker, marketer, stager, mortgage broker, insert your role because it applies to all business.)

Innovative

A servicing agent that has "new" and "forward" thinking. Not afraid to try new ways of doing things and looking at things. This is not to say that the typical, tried-and-true methods should not be used, but it does mean that if those things are not working that you should try to mix things up and try to do some things differently or simply add them to what you're doing for even greater results. Perhaps you have a unique listing or even a client that suggests something you've never done. Think about the way you did real estate or your business even just a few years ago - were you blogging and involved in social media networking and could you ever have imagined that those things would bring you what they have and to where you are today? It's all about letting go and trying some new things - you won't know the results unless you try. My servicing agent of choice would be someone that invests in their business because it's a benefit to me - the consumer.

Community Focused

There's nothing better than coming across a servicing agent that you recognize from your community. Whether you've seen them in your supermarket, at a community event, or you simply know of them because you see their signs, business cards or know someone that has worked with them. While technology has increased our chances of reaching our community in an even greater way (blogging and social media sites) allowing us to share stories and news about our local communities and being seen as a "local" expert, there's nothing like being "in" and "out" in your community that will truly have a great impact on reaching your targeted audience. Having the balance of participating in your online and local community is a sure way to increase your chances as being a Realtor® of choice by many.

Quality Driven

Client looking to sell or purchase a home or make a large investment with your company are looking for a servicing agent that gets them the results they are looking for but they also want a servicing agent that is responsive, pays attention, is reliable and accountable. A servicing agent who focuses on what they promise and does it beyond my expectations, whether it's a simple follow-up call, posting my listing where they said they would, and updating me all along the way - that's who I want representing me. They also don't make excuses for not getting something done. Why? Because they associate themselves with and partner with people that have the expertise to get it done in a way that they would if they were actually doing the task themselves. They are meeting my needs.

Every real estate professional, company and entrepreneur has a story don't they? And nowadays there are so many ways to share those stories especially online. Truly being involved with your clients, getting to know them and dealing with the many scenarios that occur in ever day life provides much opportunity to share your knowledge, expertise and your personality - sharing how you helped someone resolve a situation or having a particular bit of knowledge about an area or aspect of real estate and your business- is again another way that you can relate to a consumer, build a trust and hopefully make a lasting connection.

Decency

Have the decency to be honest even when you're sharing difficult information is essential. Having the decency to follow-up and stay in touch with the person that hired you and trusts you with one of their biggest assets and decisions of their life. Be the kind of Realtor® or business associate you would want handling your transaction/business if you were on the other side. Always keep in mind...Kindness goes a long way and always comes back to you when you give it out.

Optimistic

You certainly need to be optimistic in business especially with the market today. And frankly, who doesn't want to be around an optimistic person? I for one am drawn to optimists. Optimism inspires confidence. Think about it, who wants an agent that has a seller thinking their home will never sell - perhaps it will be difficult but there are ways to communicate the challenges and still be optimistic. You are walking people through difficult times and must do all you can to remain positive while at the same time being an honest and trusted advisor. Optimism is also important to have when times are slow in your market and business and having it will help you get through the tough times. Your optimistic attitude will be remembered and spoken about when it comes to your sphere of influence providing you with referrals and that's something that we certainly want to have happen to continue growing our business.

A big part of the Disney experience is that cast members are encouraged to always go the extra mile for the guests and do unexpected nice things for them. To me this is just common sense, and something that is necessary to make that connection with a consumer/prospect that will eventually be a customer.

If you meet the above requirements - You're Hired! (And I think your prospects would agree with me)

So how did you rate? Do you possess these attributes to be able to work for Disney? What do you feel it your greatest attribute (on or off this list) that is bringing you great results in your business?

Photo Credit ~ Cinderella's Castle: Uploaded by Paul Mannix on Flickr

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