Selling Homes? Of Course, But There's More To It

Yesterday I was having a cup of coffee and a slice of blackberry cake in a coffee shop downtown Savannah. When everyone else finished their drinks and snacks, they left the plate and cup. Not me, no, I pick up behind myself, so I took my plate and cup to the front like I always do at such places and offered it to the person behind the counter. Now, a person who has a scintilla of service running in their veins would have accepted the plate and cup, thanked me and smiled.

Not this person posing as a customer service employee, no, she looked at me, slightly annoyed, and said, “Actually, would you take that down to the end of the counter?” I started to ask her if she wanted me to wash it, too. I just laughed and took it down to the end of counter, knowing no thanks was forthcoming (and there wasn’t).

This is an example of someone wanting a paycheck with no clue what it means to provide customer service. Did I get my coffee and blackberry cake? Yes. Was it good? Yes. Will I go back? I doubt it. The reason I won’t go back is because I can get the same good coffee and cake down the street with better, more personable service. I tried this place out and it failed to make me want to go back.

When I hear people confidently say about our profession – “I’m in the business of selling homes, darnit, not in the service business or socializing business or friend-making business, but the home-selling business!”—this appeals to my Hulk Hogan side, but it also leaves me unsatisfied with the posture.

Two people can be good at selling homes, yet one will be successful long term and the other will fade away into obscurity and mediocrity—why? Because of service. read more

Posted by Mike Farmer on Jun 20, 2008 under Best Practices, Guest Bloggers

Comments (7) Share This Subscribe

Don't believe everything you read – Call your Internet real estate leads!

I read an article today that Realtor.org put out talking about the 6 best practices of online leads. The author is a great guy and knows his stuff. However, he misses the boat on this one.

He spends a good amount of time discussing how important it is not to call your leads. This is completely wrong. As most of you know my Internet program through either 100MPH Marketing or my eHomes Realty Network, the reality is if you are not calling your leads which supply a phone number, you are letting buyers and sellers slip through your fingers.

The worst thing you can do is not make use of the information you are given to help your customers buy their home.

Of the over 20,000 people we have in our database, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times a person who supplied their phone number to us that was upset when we called.

In fact this is what we normally hear: “You are the first Realtor to actually follow up with us.” They are very excited and happy to talk about their real estate needs!

When I first started figuring out Internet leads back in 2002, I didn’t make phone calls. I only corresponded with people that contacted me. My first year of Internet Marketing I sold over 50 homes, but more importantly I lost more than 50 sales by not making phone calls. read more

Posted by Mitch Ribak on Jun 19, 2008 under Best Practices, Leads

Comments (10) Share This Subscribe

The 10 Dirtiest Email Words

If your email gets labeled as SPAM, it will not get read.

Many seemingly innocent and time-honored ad words are now considered SPAM words or add high SPAM “points” to filters which decide whether to toss an email. You may be using them in your e-mail subject lines without knowing it. Here’s a little help with that.

There are dozens of dirty words but I chose these as my top 10:

1. Free
2. Congratulations
3. Compare rates
4. Great offer
5. Order now
6. Guarantee
7. Amazing
8. Increase sales (started by another dirty email)
9. Dear friend (or your name)
10. Cash

Other SPAM triggers: read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on Jun 18, 2008 under Best Practices, Guest Bloggers

Comments (2) Share This Subscribe

10 Smart Email Marketing Strategies

Email marketing is another tool to increase business and drive traffic to your website but the emails must be received AND read to have any chance of success.

Here are some tips to smart email marketing:

1. Craft a compelling “grabber” subject line

Like any news article or blog post, the most important part is the headline. Like a headline, the subject line is your first contact with a reader and, like all first impressions, it is critical to craft a compelling reason to open the email. It is even more important with email. Emails are competing with a lot of other emails the reader is trying to cull—the delete button has been humming already before it gets to yours. How will you avoid that death null?

The best subject lines are simple, direct headlines. News or how-to advice seem to work best. Come on ads are removed faster than a weed in Martha Stewart’s garden.

2. Use HTML rather than plain text

Photos are an important part of any story and help get your story across. So is audio and video. They are more interesting than the WOT (wall of text).

3. Use professionally designed email templates

These are usually spam friendly and allow you to customize and brand as you like. Don’t be vanilla. Add links in the message to different parts of your site and measure which attract the most clicks. read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on Jun 16, 2008 under Best Practices, Guest Bloggers

Comments (4) Share This Subscribe