Marketing-The Foundation of Success in Real Estate

Making it big in the real estate business takes a lot of hard work. In fact, it is presumably harder than most businesses you could get into. But, the other side of the coin is that the rewards earned in this business are far greater than that earned in any other average business.

You have a tremendous earning potential in the real estate business if you create an effective system for accomplishing the mundane repeated task of your business to earn higher returns.

But generally, people flock towards this business by just keeping the profit range in mind and the common perception is that all you need to do in this business is to sell a house and maintain good network to earn profit. But this is not true, as some investors who know everything about the real estate business sometimes only manage to earn average.

The main secret to succeed in this business lies in the techniques used by the sellers. As a real estate investor, you need to attract the sellers and for this you need good marketing techniques. Your business will thrive on the marketing techniques you imply to attract customers. So start thinking like a marketer and try and develop new strategies to dominate the market and captivate the customers. To attain constant success, you must adapt new marketing strategies combined with other business skills. Besides marketing, you should also have good negotiating and convincing skills.

Firstly, you have to understand the concept of marketing and the way it works to make the best out of marketing. While applying a marketing strategy, you can try the conventional and random approach. The only hitch in this approach is that you can only interact with limited number of sellers and very often, the costs incurred are very high on telephones and advertisements. This process can be very draining, as it sometimes leaves you with nothing, neither the money nor the customer.

The support of the media results in a very systematic and organized approach to attract large number of sellers and it also provides a significant impact on your business. Other cost-effective methods to draw huge responses are through the Internet, television, radio and classifieds in the newspapers. By using the media, you dont have to chase the customers and instead, the customers who are interested in selling will step forward and contact you.

The marketing strategy works well under any given market conditions and also helps to establish direct contact with the potential customers. It draws genuine customers and those who qualify to meet your criteria for the final deal. Once you have a listing of the potential sellers, you can concentrate on your other business skills to close offers. This method of direct marketing is highly cost effective and saves your precious time by targeting only potential customers.

The deadliest duo in the real estate business is the real estate agent and the mortgage broker, who combined with their marketing skills, can cross any business hurdle. They both focus on the adopted path of their business and also give each other business.

Once you know the market, you can maintain a constant flow of prospective sellers and earn huge profits by putting in minimum effort.

Get Over The Fear of Networking

It's a fact that most of the business that is conducted today is the direct result of network marketing efforts. Most people have to see a product or service advertisement seven times before they will buy, but are more likely to purchase much sooner if a friend, family member, colleague, or some person of influence refers them to that product or service.

It's the fear factor that drives most small business people away from networking.

Public speaking is the issue I'm going to discuss today, and I make it really rather simple. If I can do it anyone can. Practice the steps listed below.

1. You are a professional and what do professionals do? They study and they practice their craft. So step one is the most important, practice at every free moment of the day. Practice to where you have it down without even thinking about it, until it becomes natural.

2. Get plenty of rest prior to an event and have your materials already prepared no later then the night before.

3. While on the way to an event, you need to do 2 things. You need to relax and start getting motivated. To steal a line from Happy Gilmore, "go to your happy place".

Now here's the real secret. How to network without rejection. Well you first have to realize that your not there to sell everyone in the room. In fact your not there to sell anyone at all. The purpose of networking is seeing how you can help others and they, in turn, can help you. Now if you get a client out of this then great, but it's not the objective. Now knowing that your not there to sell anyone, then no one can reject you. Follow the instruction below to develop your own 30-second spiel.

1. Hello my name is (your name) and I'm with (your company name)

2. This is important! Do not simply say the type of business you are in. Instead you want to create a 1 to 2-sentence statement of what your business does. Example "We help families create wonderful summer memories while staying cool and refreshed."

3. Tell them 1 or 2 important facts or typical hot buttons your clients will have.

4. Well the only thing left is to tell them who makes the perfect client for you and in a rejection free statement if they know anyone to please have them contact you. Remember you are there not to sell them, but to find those that can help you to find more leads and you are there to help them.

5. Try to keep it to no more than 30 seconds.

Now you have the tools to be able to network without rejection and without fear.

Why Good Clients Don't Always Give Referrals

Despite being delighted with your services and eager to share you with their friends, even good clients miss opportunities to give referrals. This is caused by entropy, inertia, and inconvenience. Basically, most clients will not inconvenience themselves to give a referral – they may postpone giving it, or forget it altogether.

Common reasons why referrals may fall through the cracks:

• The client thought of another business provider to refer (“Let me think, I believe Tony’s sister is in that business…”)
• The client had no easy way to pass contact information (“I don’t have her number on me. I’ll send it to you when I get home”)
• The client forgets to give the referral
• The referral-receiver lost or forgot about the referral
• The referral-receiver has indefinitely postponed making the contact, due to lack of time or attention, or a change in their own schedule (“I’ll do it later when I’m not busy”)
• The referral-receiver is too busy, too nervous, or misinformed to initiate contact
• Another person gave the referral-receiver another contact before they had a chance to call the business person
• The client had no incentive to give a referral

What is required to get a referral often ends up being a grand coincidence. For example - a friend asks for a referral AND the referral-giver happens to remember AND the referral-giver happens to have your business card on them. In this example, inconvenience wasn’t a problem. As soon as one of these factors is inhibited, the referral is lost.

Savvy independent business people know the value of referral business – most thrive on it. Even though customers are often delighted to give referrals, there are many that fall through the cracks because of the customer’s natural sense of avoiding inconvenience. By using Referral Marketing, marketers can improve their odds of gaining more referrals and encourage referral-giving behavior – resulting in more referral business and a better bottom line.

Contact me for more information about the program I use that allows you to "click it and forget it". Meaning, once you input your client’s information and the campaign you want them in, it will send your marketing piece to them, asking for referrals with a click of the mouse. It also sends birthdays, holidays, and their yearly review reminder for you. Allowing you more time to build your business.

How To Build a Repeat & Referral Based Real Estate Business

However good your skills are in negotiating and selling real estate, any marketing professional will tell you that they are not enough to retain your clients. Communication is vital to winning and keeping clients for your business building rapport and earning respect are vital. Clients do not just buy your services; they buy your continuous support and that means maintaining that important element of human contact.

Without that human touch, your business will lose clients. With it, not only will you retain clients but also you will gain referrals. Statistics show that it is less expensive to keep a client than gain a new one. Most of us know the 80/20 rule that 80 % of business comes from current clients and 20 % from new ones. But were you aware that according to the Harvard Business Review it costs up to 8 times more to gain a new customer than retain an old one (Zero Defections by Frederick F. Reichheld and W. Earl Sasser, Jr.). If you do the math you will find that the 20% is only worth 4% of your business in real terms. You do not want to lose your past clients!

One of the main features is to utilize a Client Database Management system that allows you to maintain communications with little effort on your part. Formulate a desired contact strategy and produce 100% customizable direct mail for your clients on an annual, quarterly or monthly basis.

Designed pieces include postcards, letters, and folded card formats and can include calendars, recipes, sports schedules, magnetic dry erase boards and more. The contents are fun and full of helpful and informative tips for your clients.

Some subjects for example can include home improvement tips or knowing when to refinance. Each piece works to keep your name in front of your clients year round and also prompts your clients for onward referrals.

The service is typically competitively priced and pays dividends as you get referrals from clients already in your book of business by the most powerful medium of all word of mouth.

In the competitive world of real estate, that's a solid gold guarantee not only of continued repeat business but of new business as well.