-- Julie Escobar

Four Lead Incubation Strategies for Today's Agents

However you are generating business leads, whether by referral, website, blog, social media, SMS or pay-per-lead services, unless you USE them, well, unfortunately, you’re fairly likely to LOSE them. Our market is the perfect storm for lead loss. Why? Simple — with reduced patience and the insistence of a higher level of service, consumers are no longer willing to accept “good” or “good enough.” They know that competition is fierce and they know more (thank you Mr. Internet and Ms. Media) and expect more than they ever have in the past. So how are you going to project your business in the eyes and minds of your leads and current customers?

Let’s take a look at some ways you can turn “good or good enough” into “the right person for the job” in their minds…

1. Understand lead incubation. It starts with a desire to consistently stay in contact with a lead, whether self-generated or purchased until it results in a transaction. Sound easy? It’s not; it takes a carefully crafted system, creative marketing and a lot of patience. Consider an internet lead first. It may have potential, but more often than not, it’s not really a “done deal” now is it? Some are just curious about their market. Others are simply seeing what they might sell their home for today. Still others may not be ready to transact for years. However, by connecting with these possible buyers and sellers month after month you incubate or “warm the lead” until that consumer feels comfortable enough to reach out for your answers and trust you enough to do business with them.

2. Match your message to your market. Stop talking to consumers as if they are all the same. Sellers want to know what it means to their financial bottom line if they sold their house, what the process is, how long it would take, and the big question for many–what will you do differently than everyone else? Buyers want to know how to get the most house for their money, what their financial options are, and where they can get their down payment.

3. Share, Stay in Touch, Put Service First. The stats are in your favor if you take the time or put systems in place to make sure you are CONSISTENTLY sharing viable, valuable information, staying in touch and putting service first week after week via social media and month after month via additional means such as direct response postcards, newsletters, email, etc. then you will continuously grow your referral base. Think about it from the perspective of your lead. How valued would that make you feel? How many of your competitors are they likely to hear from with the same careful attention? Not many, I venture to say.

Salespeople are historically poor at this necessary component which is probably why the top producers are such a small percentile. Change your thought process (and your presentation) to be not just a real estate expert but a marketing expert as well. It’s a mindset that will serve you well. Capture the series of messages you want to convey each month or tap into a ready-made system such as our postcard campaigns, a drip email system, social media tools or better yet, a combination of all three to ensure that the process is consistent and efficient. While taking that step may seem daunting to you now, what it will mean to your bottom line and your career longevity are enormous.

4. Patience is a virtue. It’s also profitable! All right, not to sound like my grandmother, but patience really does pay off. Most lead incubation strategies are not overnight successes. That’s why they’re leads and not customers! Put in the time, make the effort and stick with it! The rewards are great, and with a terrific system, the work is little. Make it part of your overall marketing plan. Use it to show sellers how actively and diligently you work to find the right buyer for their home. Use it with buyers to let them know how vigorously you are searching for the right home for them. Use it, to keep your pipeline consistently full as you “turn up the heat” on your “warm” incubated leads as you continue to add new “cold” leads to your powerful system.

Hopefully you picked up a few ideas or at least a better understanding of what lead incubation has to offer. It keeps your pipeline fresh while you stay focused on prospecting, presentation and closing!

-- Kathy Moore Cloud

As a seasoned agent in Texas I am often asked by "soon to be" or "recently" licensed agents whether they should try to work with Sellers or with Buyers. My answer involves a few variables for which they must answer my own questions and for which they typically had not anticipated.

I suppose the first question I would ask a new agent is "What do you hope to accomplish?"

I've never really had a preference, although I have partnered with other agents in order to have a family life. In those situations we were like-minded agents with about the same amount of education and experience and clientele and sales volume....desiring similar results. We basically drew straws. "You take the buyers, I'll take the sellers” Once we knew which side we were going to focus on, we streamlined and fine-tuned, complimenting each side.

However, now that I look back I know that while I handled both sellers and buyers I gained a great deal of knowledge about each side every day that rolled. "Do you need the experience first and foremost?" Get five seller transactions and five buyer transactions under your belt first, and then decide which one you like the most if you're wanting to split the action.

When I did end up handling sellers exclusively I began to feel at a slight disadvantage not being directly involved with a buyer's hurdles in the ever changing market conditions. If I wasn't working directly with the buyer, helping them get over the hurdles I wasn't in tune with obstacles in employment, lender changes/requirements, and the economy in general. I could easily lose track of the buyer mindset as well, which would in turn affect my negotiating skills. I had to keep a pulse on the buyer market, pay more attention to newsworthy articles and speakers....not just watch the stats on the MLS. Some of the designation associations helped me with that, through networking with my peers.

I hear some agents say they prefer sellers because they can schedule their needs and the paperwork better. Initially, getting the listing and having it up and running where it will basically take care of itself seemed more suitable to their family life. They seem to think buyers are too sporadic and unpredictable...while a listing was signed, sealed and delivered.

On the other hand, I hear some agents say they prefer buyers because they don't have to deal with a seller all the time. They consider listings very time and cost intensive. They contend that buyers come in on the weekends or at the end of a day after work hours to "look" at properties. So, it fits their household structure...the other spouse can take care of the kiddos while the agent only has to show in afternoons and weekends.

The main consideration should be "where" will you find your clientele? If you do not have listings to draw leads to you, what cost effective methods will you implement to obtain leads? In today's economy, listing agents are certainly thinking twice about the expenses involved with advertising listings and are looking at alternative economical marketing methods they'd not bothered with when the economy was in better condition.

In summation, if you want experience quickly and are financially able to incur some expenses I say work with both sellers and buyers. Secure a few listings which will bring in some buyer leads. Easy enough. Now all you have to do is maximize your time, and remember whether you are wearing a seller's cap or a buyer's cap at the appropriate times.

--Julie Escobar

Time – as they say is LIFE. It’s also a powerful stepping stone to success. Sales professionals eager to get more than just “now” business and instead build a reliable foundation for longevity know one thing for certain – time management – is a MUST do.

On the road to time management master, consider the difference just one hour can make in terms of repeatable, sustainable success in this business. This business, like most sales industries is above all else, a people business, which means if you want to STAY in business, you’ve got to make staying top of mind with your customer base a priority.

What hour you ask? Real estate expert and Coach Bernice Ross once shared with me, “Just about every top producer that I know starts their prospecting first thing in the day. They know that of the activities that are closest to the income line for them – prospecting is right there in the top three. Getting those things done first allows them to continually grow and stay connected to their book of business. Secondly, it really gives those agents a sense of control, power and self-accomplishment – and isn’t that the BEST way to start a day?”

Many agents choose to stagger their prospecting time and map out their week in advance, selecting 8:00-9:00am three days a week, and evening hours from 6:00-7:00pm two to three days per week. It’s a good way to maximize their ability to reach prospects and past clients, and for many successful professionals – it’s the smart habit to take a look at their schedule in ADVANCE of the week. That way everything gets put on the table. And don’t forget family and personal obligations in that task setting process. Prospecting time, showings, open houses and listing appointments are all vital – but so are soccer games, recitals, date night and lunch with friends. With a nod to wanting to be in this industry for the long haul – it’s the little things that will help you stay on the top of your game, avoid burn out and find that slippery thing called balance we all strive for.

Sherry Chris, CEO for Better Homes and Gardens shared with me in a previous interview that in her experience, top producers generally still can be found sticking close to that old rule of thumb investing about 80% of their time getting face-to-face, on the phone or online sharing with both past and potential clients. “Things have certainly changed in our industry and prospecting has truly taken on a new pace with the advances of social media. It’s definitely developed into a more ‘give before you get’ mode of contact. Whereas our old methods of prospecting meant picking up the phone and offering a service, now we can feed valuable information, fun facts as well as personally connect with our clients.” Sherry, for example, spends roughly 60% of her time building the Better Homes and Gardens brand and shares some valuable tips when it comes to building ‘social capital.’ “To be truly effective you have to successfully balance business information with personal touches, photographs, upcoming events, career milestones, etc. If the only thing you have on your Facebook or Twitter is your listings, you’re missing the boat. Let’s not forget too, that as valuable as social media is in today’s prospecting world, there is still no substitute for getting face-to-face or on the phone with your clients.”

How do you stick to it? While not always easy, it is important to find the motivation to continuously invest the time in building and maintaining your business. Consistency and repetition are certainly a start. Habits – both good and bad are rooted in those two components. Start forming the good habit of blocking your time by making an appointment with yourself on the same day every week, to plan the week ahead. You’ll feel more in control, more accomplished and more balance. And again-don’t forget YOU time. It is the key to sticking with it because there’s a reward for you! It’s like “time off for good behavior” every week – and a way for you to re-charge your batteries As keynote speaker and change expert Connie Podesta shares in her new book 10 Ways to Stand Out From the Crowd, “Make an appointment with yourself to be by yourself – even if it’s just for a few minutes a day. When it comes to balance – you don’t have a personal life and a professional life – you have a LIFE. Achieving that balance is not about making things equal in terms of time but having a sense of well -being in your life at all levels.” That little re-connect with yourself every day helps give you the resolve to see the week through.

Another good strategy is to connect with an integrity partner. Someone with whom you can share that same high level of goal setting and stick-to-it mindset – after all, where you may find it easy to put off your tasks for the day – it’s not QUITE so simple when you know someone else is counting on you to hold up your end of the agreement.

Having an effective system certainly helps as well. For busy agents, it’s no longer a ‘should do’ but a ‘must do’ if you expect to keep up. What’s interesting is to note how these systems still run the gamut from complex contact management systems to good old fashioned 1-31 files. Bernice Ross shared a story of one agent who is among the top in the business who makes it his goal to talk to fifty clients a day. “Sometimes he talks to 5-10, leaves messages for a few more and uses social media options such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to send out links or messages to 25 or more additional clients. The point is that every day he’s making that commitment to sustain contact with his clients. When you consider the average person now knows at least six REALTORS®, you can be sure that the one they’ll do business with is the one they’ve heard from the most.”

Do you HAVE to get involved in social media? Well, you certainly don’t HAVE to do anything you don’t want to, but in terms of keeping pace with today’s consumers, it’s a step in the right direction. Reggie Nicolay, Director of Social Media for Cyberhomes.com wisely pointed out, “It’s interesting to note that Facebook was originally designed to be an online address book, which perpetually updates itself so it’s always evolving as opposed to an offline solution such as Outlook which is always out of date. It’s also a tremendous resource for changing the face of how you prospect. Where in the past, building rapport may have been difficult or cumbersome and time consuming, social media allows me to market on a more one-to-one level with my target audience. Clive Thompson said it well when he called it an ‘ambient awareness’ that occurs. You’re offering bite-size pieces of information and solutions with your customers and getting to know them better through these social networks. It’s kind of like making deposits and withdrawals from a social ‘account’ if you will. You get to know your customers better and they get to know you better, and in doing so, you build that trust that’s necessary to grow your business.”

Sherry Chris added, “Technology has really allowed us to become more specialized in that it makes it easier for agents to identify their niche and build a network around it in a far faster, and easier way than ever before. That’s great news for all agents, but especially for those just coming into the business.” In talking with agents every day, I couldn’t agree with her more. With time, energy and marketing dollars all in short supply these days, it just makes sense to pick a niche you’re passionate about, find those groups both in your community and in all of these online communities and build your business that way. It’s less time, less money and a whole lot more fun!

“If you’re looking to engage with Gen X and Gen Y consumers, social media is by far the way to go,” shared Mrs. Ross. “It’s important to communicate with people in the manner and method that’s most comfortable for them. Social networking is also a great way to get outside the box a little. I’ll give you an example. I had an agent tell me that she met a new doctor in her community who was obviously just getting started and looking to spread the word. What did she do? She went over and interviewed him then wrote about him in her blog. Soon after, she heard from the doctor who was happily getting referrals from her article, and he was happily referring customers to her as well. That’s a classic case of ‘giving to get,’ of helping first and reaping the rewards for a long time to come.”

What I loved about speaking with all of these talented experts is that while all brought wonderful new ideas and insight to the table, is that they all did seem to find common ground on three major points:

1. You’ve got to be willing, in today’s market, to make a friend first and a sale later. Take the ‘get by giving’ approach to your business.

2. Whether its one hour a day, ten hours a week or 80% of your time, make and KEEP your prospecting appointments with yourself. Put them right up there with a payday in terms of importance – because they are!

3. There’s still no substitute for personal contact. Getting on the phone, meeting face to face and getting to know your customers will ALWAYS be tops on the ‘to-do’ list.

I hope you’ve picked up few lessons along the way. Our customers need us now more than ever, and it’s up to you to let them know that you are there for them, with answers, with integrity and with resources they can trust. It’s incredible to me to hear story after story of agents who are literally having their best year ever despite tough economic times and sometimes shaky markets. Why? They know that it’s a people first business and they do just that – put people first.

by Joeann Fossland

In these challenging times, going back to basics, as many suggest, just doesn’t cut it! While many of the foundational prospecting activities are still important, most agents are finding they need to be thinking creatively and coming up with innovations and new strategies to have a business that thrives.

With every challenge, come opportunities. As I work with my clients, every year when we do the annual business planning, a review of the current challenges, trends and opportunities is a crucial part of designing a plan that will create business in the current climate. This, however, is not a yearly activity that is not monitored ongoingly. I strongly recommend a month assessment of the goals and results as well a quarterly reviews of what is working and what isn’t. Brainstorming with your mastermind group, your team or a few other agents the opportunities of today’s challenges is a great way to get those creative juices flowing.

Here are a few ideas to get you started with strategies to increase your bottom-line:

1. Challenge: Fewer buyers and sellers. Buyers are either still waiting for prices to hit bottom or buyers that cannot qualify for today’s loans. Sellers are choosing not to sell now unless they have to because of price competition with foreclosures and REOs.

Opportunity: To increase business from areas that are not the traditional buyers or sellers. Consider showing your sphere of influence and others interested in sound opportunities how to invest in real estate.

Create a group of 10 of your past clients and/or sphere to invest in properties.

Educate your clients about the advantages of holding real estate in a self-directed IRA. If they have an ROTH IRA, they can buy and sell properties and pay NOTHING on the capital gain. One company that is a leader in this is http://www.entrustarizona.com/. They offer regular webinars to teach you how to understand this better

2. Challenge: Many agents both are reaching retirement age and wanting to work less or have just gotten out of the business after giving it a try. Over 82% of agents don’t renew at their first renewal period. The membership in NAR has dropped from 1,4000,000 to slightly over 1,000,000 in the past few years and looks like it is still going down. I know you know people who have left the business.

Opportunity: As an active agent, you can help these agents profit from the work they have done by helping them transition to being a referral agent, instead of quitting and walking away empty handed. Most of these agents didn’t have an escape plan. They don’t have a salable business. They do still have a sphere of influence and past customers and clients. You can build alliances with these people to handle their local referral business.

The retiring agent has an elegant way to transition to a professional referral agent and you have a new stream of income from their referrals. Studies show the average person leaving the business has at least 2 people who they could refer each year.

Contact people you know who have quit, have left or are getting ready to leave the business and offer to service the needs of their sphere. A new company www.MyGreenParachute.net has a free system to help to manage and grow this segment of your referral business.

3. Many whose homes have been repossessed are now renting instead of buying.

Opportunity: To serve the needs of these renters

· Get into property management

· Put together investment groups to buy homes and hold as rentals

· Do informational seminars to help people know the steps to take to rebuild their credit to be able to buy again (usually in 3 years) Helping people through their rough times is an excellent way to build loyalty for future business and for referrals.

These suggested strategies are applicable right now to most markets. The consumer needs and the economic picture are always shifting. This exercise is one, when done regularly, will ensure that you are thinking on the cutting edge and thriving because of your innovation! Set some time right now to get together with others to find some strategies you can employ to add to your bottom-line this year!

- Mike Brooks

Your results in sales – and all of life – are completely dependent on what you think about all day long. Your thoughts lead to your actions, and it is your actions that determine your results. But everything starts by your mental attitude, by what you dwell on all day long.

I’m sure that you’ve heard this before, and you may even believe it’s true, but if you do not act on it, then you’re no better off than if you’d never heard this before. I once heard that someone who doesn’t read is no better off than someone who can’t read. In fact, if you’re like most people, much of your self-talk and attitude, through most of the day, would indicate that you don’t know the law of the mind, or that you don’t really believe in it.

Most people’s thinking is really negative. It is pervasive and happens so quickly, that most people don’t even realize how bad it really is. And because we’re talking to ourselves at a rate of about 60,000 thoughts a day, we receive a lot of negative input from our own minds. Even our conversation is often negative, and I’m sure you’ve caught yourself or others complaining about the economy, the government, the leads, the weather, etc…

Imagine now that there was an application available for your iPhone (or other device you have) that would begin recording every thought and word you had and said from the moment you woke up in the morning to the moment you went to sleep that night. Imagine that it kept a perfect record of everything and that the next day you could hear it all, word for word, thought for thought. How scary would that be?

Now imagine this: You have such a device with you at all times and it is called your subconscious mind. It not only records everything you say and think, but it also records every feeling and emotion you feel and it believes it as if it was the truth. It then makes sure that you act in direct accordance with the truth as you believe it to be and that becomes your experience and your results in life.

This is the great law of being (some call it the law of attraction), and it is the most important concept you can learn and apply in your life. Just remember this great truth: You future is being shaped right now by the thoughts and feelings you hold in your consciousness today. So if you bought that new iPhone app, what would it be recording?