It's Time to Raise Your IN-10-SITY

Days like today don't come around very often. In fact, they only come around once in a lifetime. It's October 10th, 2010. That's 10/10/10. What a great reason to come up with a list of...

Ten Things to Boost Your Business

#10. Take ten minutes to print a one-line report of your current data base of contacts. Review it from top to bottom. Eliminate any duplicate entries you may have, highlight any contacts who are incomplete and purge those names and "contacts" that you have no idea who they even are.

#9. Put ten of the incomplete data base entries on your daily to-do list and begin to acquire the missing data. Spouses names, kids names, email addresses, etc. can all be found out by a simple phone call. Repeat this until you have completely updated your data base. Done correctly, this is almost guaranteed to add leads to your business.

#8. Take ten minutes to practice the following script; "Hi (insert name of contact), it's Sean Carpenter with Coldwell Banker. I hope you're doing well. The reason for my call is I have been putting together some great information about our current real estate market and I want to get it out to the people I know. In order to do that, I've been taking some time to update my Relationship Roster and I noticed that I am missing some information from you. Do you have a minute for me?"

#7. Dial numbers on your list for ten minutes. All you need is one good contact a day who adds some information to your current data base. If you want, you could make calls for longer than ten minutes but baby steps seem to work well for most people.

#6. Take ten minutes to send a hand written thank you note to each person you speak with in person, whether they provide you with any new information or not. That personal touch will come back to you in time, trust me.

#5. Research your market statistics over the last ten months. What has happened in your local markets since January 1st, 2010? Can you create a chart, graph or general report on prices, inventory levels and pending home sales?

#4. Identify the ten top selling areas in your local MLS based on # of sales or average days on the market. These are great areas to be knowledgeable and focused on as they are turning over business and doing so quickly. If you know someone who lives in one of those areas, don't you think they'd want to know this information? If you're selecting an area to hold an open house, these might be great places to start.

#3. Schedule ten Open Houses between now and January 1, 2011. Buyers who are out looking in the 4th quarter are usually more "buyer" than they are "looker." Because there are only 11 more weekends left in the year, that means you'll probably need to double up on certain Sundays (hold shorter opens houses; 12:30 - 2pm and then maybe 3-4:30?) or choose a day that isn't a "traditional open house day" in your market. That's okay. Why not hold an open house on Thursday afternoon or Tuesday evening? Consumers today are looking for different, not status quo.

#2. Touch ten people a day on social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. It won't take you a lot of time but it will continue to help you build relationships, solve problems and have fun.

#1. Take ten seconds each day when you wake up to say these words to yourself, "It's going to be a great day because I choose to make it great!"

Being "The Source" of the Source

Your clients, friends and family trust you, know you and love you. They look to you for advice about their homes, their communities and anything else that might be on their minds and that is a good thing. Remember, if they are calling you, that means they're not calling who? Right - the competition.


People are always asking me what types of things they could be "the source" of. I respond to them - "anything." Here's a perfect example.


I was reading the March issue of Money Magazine over the weekend. I am not a huge fan of Money because they haven't been card carrying members of the Realtor Fan Club over recent years but they might just be guilty of today's rule of thumb when it comes to selling magazines- "if it bleeds, it leads."


Anyway, the cover story of this issue is "The 20 Best Money Websites...and Ones You Should Avoid." It covers sites in areas of interest such as your portfolio, wallet, home, health, job and purchases as well as listing some great iPhone apps and also shares many tips and links to additional cool sites.


This is exactly the type of thing to send to your data base. You could make a hard copy of the article from the magazine and mail it your your list with a cover letter including a seasonal greeting and quick update on the market...or you could add it to you blog (like this)... or you could go online to Money.com and find the article there and share the link to your sphere via email...or even post it on Facebook or Twitter or any other social networking site. By doing that, you just became "the Source of the source."


You could do this with recipes, television or movie reviews, restaurant recommendations, sports updates or anything else that people might find interesting.


But What If They Hit "Delete"?


So what? That's okay, because they will have seen your name and known that you reached out to them. They may not read it all all, they may save it and read it later or they might read it right away, find value in it and who knows...might hit the "reply" button! How cool is that?


Or they might think it so neat that they share it themselves with people they know and add in their email the following blurb:


"Hey, check out the cool ___________ that my Realtor sent me!"


So what are you waiting on? Start "out sourcing" to your data base, friends and family. Remember, they don't need to be thinking about you every second of every day. You just want them to think about you when they have a need for a great Realtor.

What Am I Supposed to Send Them?

Keeping in touch with your friends, family, clients and contacts - also known as your "sphere of influence - is one of the critical tasks that need to occur on a regular basis in order to insure your success as a full-time Realtor. I often hear from people that they are unsure of what to send to these people.



Don't over think it, just send something!



It helps if it's valuable and relevant. That will mean different things to different people so really ask yourself what you want the recipient to think, say or do with the information once they receive it.



Regular contact with the people who know, like and support you will insure that they will continue to do so in the future with their business and all-important referrals. Brand recognition is critical in a crowded landscape like real estate and unless you have the millions of advertising dollars of a McDonald's or Coca Cola, chances are you'll need to be persistent through many different channels of contact.




What's your plan for email? Direct mail? Personal notes and letters? Phone calls? Personal visits? Customer appreciation events? Most experts say that people need to be exposed to your message once every 16 days or else they'll begin to forget you and your message.



If you're associated with a powerful brand (local, national or international) some of the "recognition" has already been taken care of. In national studies, the Coldwell Banker logo has a 96% awareness among those who were surveyed. That means that Coldwell Banker associates need to do everything they can to connect their name, face and service to that recognizable logo so when people see the blue and white CB, they think of you. If you're affiliated with another real estate company or brokerage, how can you leverage the name/brand recognition of your company in the area where you practice to grow your business in 2010?



Below is an example of the kind of thing I think your "contact list" may find valuable, relevant or both, depending on their current situation. If nothing else, it's that "touch" that connects your brand, your name and what you do and gets them thinking for that brief moment about your face and what it is that you do.

For a copy of this image, please email me at Sean.Carpenter@cboki.com

So what is it that you find valuable and relevant to send to your contacts? How has your business grown by keeping in touch with your spheres of influence? I'd love to hear some of the "stuff" you have sent to keep in touch with your contacts in your data base.



Thanks for reading and remember...keep building relationships...solving problems...and having fun.