5 Tips on Selecting and Using Keywords

November 19, 2011
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Today we’re going to tip our hat to those on the marketing side of our business. I’ve asked marketing guru Brian Flook to contribute some thoughts on how we can maximize our online efforts. If you’re in marketing this is must-know stuff. If you’re in sales, you’ll find it an interesting peak into the workings of the web. Enjoy! 5 Tips on Selecting and Using Keywords By Brian Flook, MIRM, President of Power Marketing Marketing new homes today has changed radically. Some builders are keeping up and some are not. The Internet should be the centerpiece of your marketing efforts and your website is the epicenter of your Internet marketing campaign. But, the lifeblood of a successful Internet campaign begins with keywords. Keywords are the terms searchers (or in your case prospects) key into a search engine like Google, Bing … Read More…

Why Do You Do What You Do?

November 12, 2011
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Here’s a very important question to ask yourself: “What the heck am I doing here?” You heard me correctly. It is perfectly acceptable – even healthy – to ask that question. It just depends on your tone and your intention. You see, you can ask that with a sneer and a snide attitude and it becomes your own personal pity party. But change the tone and the context and it becomes one of the most important questions ever. Think about asking the question “What the heck am I doing here?” from a perspective of intense introspection and curiosity. How would that approach change both the tone and the meaning? The fact is that we should always be challenging our own motives and actions. As a means of staying connected to a purpose and a vision the question forces a deep … Read More…

In Defense of Margins

November 5, 2011
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In my travels I frequently hear salespeople suggest that if their homes were priced “more competitively” they would sell at a much faster pace. No doubt that is true, just as it would be for cars, jewelry, insurance, or any other product. It’s the price curve in action. Oh, that it were so easy. Alas, the simple solution comes at a heavy cost: profit margin. Every dollar that comes off a price is a dollar removed from the bottom line. A salesperson might say, “If they lowered my price by just $5,000 I could sell these homes all day long.” Again, that might be true – but at what cost? If your company’s business plan is to deliver 300 homes this year, a $5,000 price drop on each of those homes will cost the company $1.5 million dollars of direct … Read More…

Saving the Prospects from Themselves

October 29, 2011
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In a recent Southern California sales training session that was focused on improving negotiation skills, I was playing the role of a pushy prospect trying to squeeze another thousand dollars out of a deal. I had this exchange with a superstar salesperson: Prospect (me): “Are you really going to let me walk away from this deal over a lousy thousand dollars?” Salesperson: “Are you really going to walk away from your dream home over a lousy thousand dollars?” He went on to point out that walking away meant buying a different home that was clearly not my number one choice. The implication was that if I took the deal from another builder who offered a higher incentive I would be flat out buying the wrong home! The message to me is this: we have to come to grips with the … Read More…

The Big Goal

October 22, 2011
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If you’ve spent any time studying the great John Wooden (“Wooden on Leadership” is an awesome read, by the way), you’ll note that the former UCLA basketball coach spent very little time talking about the subject of winning.  Despite lining up the most impressive winning record in the history of sports, the man seemed to have eschewed discussing the subject of which he was clearly the master. Wooden knew that you cannot always control the outcome, only that you can control your actions that lead to the outcome.  His entire philosophy can be summed up into one simple yet profound phrase: Play Perfect! This is all he ever wanted, from himself and from his team.  Just play perfect, and everything else will fall into place.  From that simple philosophy pours an excess of application.  In the world of the new … Read More…

Motivational One-Liners

October 15, 2011
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Here are three great one-liners, two that I’ve known for some time and one that I just learned…. “I’m going to swim. I might as well swim fast.” Michael Phelps “I don’t try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.” Mikhail Baryshnikov “I always wanted to be someone. I guess I should have been more specific.” Lily Tomlin Your turn. Share with the world your own great one-liner, will you please????

Feng Shui Help, Please?

October 8, 2011
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From time to time I’ll ask for input from readers on some of the more troubling topics that affect those of us in new home sales. So once again it’s your chance to flash your brilliance and come to the aid of your fellow sales professionals with this question: How do you work around Feng Shui objections, particularly those objections related to the number “4”? We’d be most appreciative if you would take just a moment and offer your input below. Thanks in advance!

What the Industry Can Learn From Steve Jobs

October 1, 2011
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What the Real Estate Industry Can Learn from Steve Jobs By Carol Ruiz The news seemed to come out of nowhere: Steve Jobs, stepping down as CEO of Apple, due to increased concerns about his own health. Followers of the company were perhaps less surprised, since he had taken a medical leave earlier this year, but the finality of the news left a bittersweet feeling. Bitter, because a deadly disease continued to ravage his body; sweet, because Jobs left Apple absolutely on top, capping the most successful second act in the history of American business. At face value, this has little to do with selling and marketing new homes. However, the philosophies that Steve Jobs brought to Apple resonate across industries and products. Here are a few lessons you can take from the example of a true innovator and agent … Read More…

10 Reasons Why Your Online Sales Program is Failing

September 24, 2011
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By Mike Lyon All too often I encounter Online Sales Programs that aren’t running on all cylinders. When I talk with builders about the possibility of a 20% conversion rate from leads to appointments, many people will say, “How is that possible? We have an Online Sales Counselor and we just can’t seem to get there.” This is when you need to look intently at your process and perform a checkup on your program. Here are some of the most common reasons we see an Online Sales Program under performing: Wrong Person – This position requires someone with the right drive, ambition and organizational skills. They don’t have to be a computer geek, but they do need to understand computers and programs. They also have to be motivated to pick up the phone and dial for dollars, plus be a wiz … Read More…

Why Are People Ignoring Your Emails?

September 16, 2011
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By Dennis O’Neil Telephone conversation will never be as influential as an in-person conversation. And email follow-up cannot replace the phone. Sometimes though, your best or only option to reach a prospect is email, and in those cases you want that communication to be as effective as it can be. The most common feedback I hear from salespeople about communicating with prospects via email? “They never respond.” There’s a huge list of possible reasons someone doesn’t respond to an email you sent them. What if they never get the email? Maybe their computer crashed, or they forgot to pay their Internet service bill, or maybe that new spam filter they just installed blocks everything. Those are all things we cannot control, so forget about them. When prospects do receive your email (and trust me, most of them do), but they … Read More…

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