Bad Weather Is Ripe For Client Calls!

In Cincinnati and many other places, we're experiencing several inches of snow today (I measured 5 inches), so most people will be home trying to stay warm. It'll be a great time to pick up the phone and talk with clients and see what's happening in their lives.

No sales pitches!

No asking for referrals!

Just focusing on them!

So when your community experiences bad weather, do you take advantage of calling your clients while they're home? They'll love to hear from you and at the same time you're planting seeds.

2 Ways To Connect More With Your Clients!

Isn't social media all the rage now?

Some agents are so excited about it, while others think it's a total waste of time. Well, I'm in the middle right now. I believe it's a powerful tool, but you also have to watch how much time you spend on it.

I've spent time studying and analyzing the social media platform called Facebook.

While it is an online media, if you're not careful, it can use up a lot of time in your work day.

I view Facebook as a way to stay close and in touch with my client base and friends. Period!

I don't play games on it (like Farmville) or activate a lot of applications. Those are time-wasters!

Here are 2 Facebook strategies I'm focused on right now:

1. Utilizing the personal page
2. Building a Fan page for my real estate business

On my personal page, I'm interacting with my clients and friends. I visit Facebook twice a day for about 5 - 10 minutes each...once around mid-day and then late afternoon to early evening. I want to find out what's happening in my "friends lives". My personal page is 95% personal and 5% real estate.

Next, I've set up a Fan page for my real estate business and this is really cool, because I invite people to become my Fans. It's permission-based marketing. When they select the "Become a Fan" button, they are giving me permission to talk to them about real estate. Right now, I'm posting once a day Monday through Friday on my Fan page. Also, I'm starting to promote my Fan page to prospects and the general public, because I want them to get to know me and have a resource for their real estate questions. My Fan page will probably be 90% real estate and 10% personal.

When you post, ALWAYS ask yourself, "Is what I'm posting of value to others?"

I will keep you posted as I go farther into implementing Facebook strategies and go deeper in building relationships with my clients, friends and prospects. Facebook is NOT a get-rich-quick strategy. It will take time, but I truly believe that it will become a great source of repeat and referral business into the future of my business. I am planting seeds and watering and nuturing them and over time I will reap the harvest.

Be consistent in your daily and weekly activities and you will see the results!

Are you on Facebook?

What strategies are you currently using?

Have you closed any transactions generated from Facebook?

Please post a comment below.

To your success,

Dan

P.S. Also, if you've never heard of ActiveRain, you are REALLY missing the boat. What an unbelievable, free source of real estate training, knowledge and possible referrals. Even if you don't blog, sign up today and discover the wealth of information that's there.

What If Your Business Was Being Followed?

What would you be thinking if you got a phone call from a producer from a national TV network saying they wanted to send a camera crew out to film you by following you around in your business 24/7 for the next 90 days?

You may be thinking...

"Bring it on"...

"Oh, I can't do that"...

"You mean I actually have to work?"...

"What have I got to lose?"

There are probably many different thoughts that would run through most agents' heads if they were given that proposal. Yet, if your real estate business is not running on all cylinders, why isn't it?

If you were to accept this 90-day challenge, 3 things would probably happen:

1. You would START doing the things you say you need to do.
   
2. You would STOP doing the things you know you shouldn't be doing.
   
3. You would MAKE monumental performance gains and change your life.

The next 90 days could make a phenomenal impact on your business, your life.

You don't actually have to worry about a national news camera crew following your every move, but you can challenge yourself or team up with another agent to have a contest. You could have an accountability partner that you check in with every day to measure each other's results.

You do need to have a prize for the winner, yet hopefully both of you would be much better off and your businesses running much better that you'd both be winners.

Anyone can sprint hard for 90 days in a row.

Just PLAN-DO-REVIEW. Run your business in 90 day cycles and see how focused you become by fine-tuning your activities each 90 days. It will allow you to acclimate much quicker to any market changes.

To your success,

Dan

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Are You Open To A Shift In Your Thinking?

I've decided to make a shift in my thinking and in my business plan for 2010.

It's a very subtle change in mindset!

While designing my 2010 business plan, I had a crazy thought! I asked myself "What's the difference between setting monthly goals for closings versus pendings?"

When working on business plans in the past, I've always focused on number of real estate closings I wanted to have each month. For some reason, now it appears more passive.

But this time, I wondered...what if I were to focus on getting pendings? It seems to keep me more in the present. It helps me stay in the mode of continuing to generate new business.

Always generate leads before servicing them!

When your mind is focused on closings, you're doing a lot of servicing of your buyers and sellers from pending to closing and that can take you off track of doing what you need to do to have a consistent business model month after month.

There's also more chances that a closing may not happen, so if you tie up all of your time trying to get it closed and it doesn't happen, just think of all the lost opportunities of putting together other transactions.

In today's market, you have to increase your numbers to get more transactions closed. In the past, you may have needed to average 2.5 or 3 pendings to get 2 closed. Now you may need 4 or 5 pendings to get 2 closed.

2 questions to ask yourself each day:

• What can I do today to get another PENDING in (month)?
• Who can I call today to get another PENDING in (month)?

I've thought about this in my head and also repeated it to myself out loud and it seems to make sense.

I'm going to make this change to my business plan this year and see how it works out.

In 2010, focus on the number of PENDINGS you have at any given time!

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this idea. Please post a comment here and share your opinion.

To your success,

Dan

P.S. Please join my Facebook Fan Page today!

I'm SHOCKED...or Should I Be?

I sent out a short survey last week and got many responses.

I want to thank you if you filled yours out.

If you haven't had a chance to take 1.5 minutes to fill it out, it's not too late. Just click survey link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GZHFM87

One of the questions asked in the survey was:

Have you completed your 2010 business plan?

I was SHOCKED by the response!

As of this moment, 80.6% of the agents said 'NO'.

Now the holidays are almost here and people are easily distracted, so that's one excuse.

Maybe some agents wait until after the holidays and New Years Day to work on their business plan.

Yet I wonder how many of the 80% will even get around to writing their business plan at all.

But then I asked myself should I really be surprised?

Real estate sales is a numbers business, where you have to do the activities and then track your results.

If you're not doing either, then you're probably doing no where near the amount of business you COULD be doing!

A simple, written business plan is a POWERFUL tool in helping you achieve your goals and dreams.

Without a business plan, it's like you're sitting in a boat in the middle of the ocean without a GPS system. You don't know where you're headed and you'll probably never get there. You may pick up a few listings or buyers by accident, but you'll continue to be 'lost at sea'.

A business plan that you personally write and decide which target markets you want to focus on can help you stay focused on what you need to do every day, so that you don't get off track.

I believe there's too many business plans floating around in the industry are far too detailed and laborious to follow.

If you're earning $500,000 - $1,000,000 per year in commissions and have a large team, then there's nothing wrong with using a more detailed business plan. Yet for most agents, simple is better!

I have my main goals and target markets selected for 2010. I'm working on designing a simple, 2-page business plan that I can laminate and review every morning and every night.

My business plan includes:

• income/transaction goals
• database size goal
• daily/weekly activities
• monthly transactions goal
• my top 4 target markets
• periodic rewards when hitting my goals
• 2010 year-end vision for my business
  

Finally, I believe that by just having and following a business plan can help you stay on track to do at least an additional 15% - 25% more business, because you'll have fewer lost sales falling through the cracks.

Is Your Listing Presentation Good Enough?

If you were going up against the number one agent in your market, how would you feel about your listing presentation?

Would you be ready to take them on?

Here's 5 components of a winning listing presentation:

1. Pre-Listing Call - When you schedule your listing appt, let the seller know you need to ask them a few questions to prepare for your appt. The more information you know about the seller and their situation, the better chance you have of getting the listing. You may also find out that you don't want the listing.
   
2. Home Preview - If you do a one-step listing appt, ask the seller to allow you to preview their home yourself as a buyer would. Then take notes of highlights and items that need to be addressed.
   
3. Market Statistics - When you sit down with the sellers, it's important to educate them on the entire market, their community market and then their home in comparison to the market. Never get into comparable pricing until they have an understanding of the entire market conditions.
   
4. Pricing - It's real important when sharing the active listings and recent pendings and closings that this is what the market is bearing in price...it's NOT your opinion! Make sure the seller understands that. It's not your opinion of what the list price and eventual sale price will be, it's the market's opinion.
   
5. Marketing Plan - I always save my marketing plan for last, because if any of the prior steps cause a roadblock and either of us doesn't want to move forward and work together, then I don't have to waste my time on this step.

So once you have designed your listing presentation into a flip chart or PowerPoint presentation, it's time to practice, practice, practice. When it comes out naturally and free-flowing, it won't be considered canned and you'll exude a lot of confidence...no matter who you're up against.

One final thought...never assume you're the only agent doing a listing presentation. Even if you are, don't take shortcuts in your presentation. Every seller deserves your best and it will show.

Don't Stop Activities While Planning!

Can you believe it's Dec. 1st already? Where did the year go?

Well, during this month, many real estate agents take time to re-evaluate their business plans. While this is good to do, you have to be careful not to fall into the dangerous trap of something called "Prospecting Neglect".

Because of all the distractions this time of year, it's easy to "forget" to the important activities while you're thinking of ways to improve your 2010 business.

So, it's real simple.

You need to write down 3 action steps that you'll commit to doing every day, Monday through Friday. If you can get them all done in the morning, all the better. They can be:

• making your prospecting calls
• working on updating your clientbase
• continuing to show listings

Even if you work on your action steps between now and Wed, Dec. 23rd, you'll be ahead of many agents when 2010 comes rolling in. The holiday season is a time when many people are enjoying all of the parties and shopping, etc, but work on helping those clients, who want to take advantage of a great buyer's market. Serious sellers have their properties on the market over the holidays. You should help sell them.

So, if you're finding out that most people aren't interested in doing anything now, that's okay....you're building list of clients, who will be ready to buy or sell after the 1st of the year.

Do all of your daily action steps each morning and then you'll have every afternoon and evening to work on your business plan as well as take some time out to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends.

The Answer Is Easy...Work Your Plan!

Do you have any real estate books, tapes, CDs or DVDs that are sitting on your shelves or in your drawers?

What are you doing with them?

I know...probably nothing.

You briefly think about them...you glance at them from time to time when you walk by...you say to yourself "I'll get around to it."

Well, it's time to stop neglecting these income-producing ideas.

9 out of every 10 ideas work...if you make the effort to implement them. If you work the idea, it will work!

You've probably got real estate training programs in your office that if you just started implementing them, instead of letting them continue gathering dust, you could earn an extra $5,000...$10,000...$50,000 more income in a given year.

So what's stopping you?

...distractions?

...not wanting to learn a new strategy?

...don't have time to change?

...wonder if the ideas really work?

...money is tight?

I've been there before...I know what you're going through. But in this ever-changing market, you must adapt and take action or you'll be left behind and your business will die.

You need to focus on mastering 3 - 4 target markets for your prospecting division of your business.

Don't be a 'jack-of-all-trades' real estate agent. When I hear an agent say that they do residential, new construction, farm land, commercial, etc., I think to myself "They can't be good at all of that."

Focus your business on 3 - 4 niche markets and DOMINATE them! Design them...master them...delegate them and put them on auto-pilot.

Determine which 2 target markets have recently earned you the best R-O-I (return of investment) on your money and research how others are doing it. Study their ways of implementation and see how you can improve your system. Sometimes just tweaking it can bring you much better results.

Go deep in really looking at your systems to see how you can make it the best it can be. Constantly test different strategies to see which ones provide the most results.

Once you have your 2 target markets up and running and on auto-pilot (you have the steps to the system in place and they are put into your weekly schedule), then select another target market from your resources materials laying around your office.

Test and delegate tasks that you're not good at to someone else. If an assistant can completely implement a system and help return a profit to you without much 'behind the scenes' effort, then by all means do it.

Your real estate business needs to be in constant motion...you can't rest on your laurels and expect business as usual. Target markets change...different price ranges get hot and cold...technology is constantly evolving. By targeting fewer prospecting strategies, you'll be able to master them better as well as your time.

Don't wait another minute to get started - Act Right Now!

Quit making excuses! Quit being distracted!

Plan your day and focus only on your self-imposed activities!

You are soley responsible for your success!

Send me an email to dan@danweis.com telling me which target markets you plan to focus on in 2010.

It will remain anonymous.

To your success,

Dan

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Is Your Business Where You Want It To Be?

The past 12 months have been tough times for many agents across North America and beyond. Yet, not every real estate agent has struggled. Some agents have maintained their consistent sales pace from previous years, while others have exploded.

How can there be such a wide gap between the struggling agents and the top-profiting agents?

Part of it comes down to the fact that the top-profiting agents take charge of their business. They have the necessary skills (or take time out to learn and implement those skills) to survive and even thrive in the current market.

The real estate market is in constant fluctuation. By continuing to apply marketing and advertising strategies that worked in the past, your business will only stand still. Successful agents who go back to doing the basics and add some new and innovative strategies will fly by you.

There are still some tried and true methods that will keep on working today, but you have to be focused on how the younger generations communicate and want to serviced. There are fundamental differences between the baby-boomer generation and Gen X'ers and Gen Y'ers. The technology explosion has left some agents way behind and they'll never catch up.

You must constantly be in learning mode. Reading books, viewing online articles and attending seminars are a few of the ways to improve your business. Then as you learn, you need to apply what you've learned. You must take at least 30 minutes of every day to learn and apply something new.

Some agents think they know it all and don't need to keep learning. I hope you're not one of them. I believe that constant and never-ending learning from the successes and failures of other top-profiting agents will shorten my learning curve by years.

What you need to strive towards in your real estate business is buidling a predictable, duplicatable business plan that will be your road map for achieving your goals. If you stay the course and consistently do the numbers in your plan, you will achieve success in your real estate business. Don't fool yourself though...you have to do the numbers. Your results will be measured by your numbers!

Will you make mistakes and fail sometimes? YES! If you never failed, you won't go very far in life! Fail your way to the top! It's been said that failure just means your idea didn't work this time and now you just need to find another way to make it work.

Do you really want to know the difference between you and someone earning $100,000 or more per year?

Successful agents are willing to do what other agents are not willing to do on a consistent basis. They do the simple, repeatable, basic tasks over and over and over again. They follow their business plan...they tweak it when necessary...they focus on their strengths and delegate their weaknesses to other who are more proficient in those areas.

Do you want 2010 to be your best year ever? I know it sounds cliche, but you CAN do it. IF you commit to a plan, focus on it today...complete your daily activities (as hard as they may be until you get better at doing them)...review your results...make corrections...and do it all again tomorrow, you WILL achieve your goals!

How Are You Adapting To Market Changes?

Have you heard about working smarter versus working harder?

Over the past 2 years, your real estate market has probably gone through many changes...falling prices, many foreclosures and short sales, most zero down loans disappeared, financing industry going through major changes. The question is have you adapted to the changes or just put your head in the sand?

It seems like there's something new to learn almost every day in the real estate industry and it's important to make sure that you keep up with those changes or over time you'll be left behind.

I've taken 16 hours of continuing education courses over the past 2 weeks. Many strategies learned have been refreshers from the past and there have also been new ones to test out.

What I've discovered is you can never stop learning. I spend at least 30 minutes each day (often times more) reading articles that interest me to improve my real estate business.

One of the great learning resources that's only been around for the past several years is ActiveRain. If you haven't heard of ActiveRain, here's the essence of its purpose:

• it's a great real estate forum and resource center
• you can read posts from agents and others from around North America
• there are 100's of groups that talk about niches, like Facebook Tips, etc
• your posts can be picked up in the search engines (Google loves ActiveRain)
• you can gain points by posting, commenting on posts and inviting others
• you can post articles for consumers to read (localism.com)
• you can send and receive referrals from agents and other professionals
• consumers can find you, follow you and, if interested, contact you to help them
• there are optional fee services, like advertising and getting an outside AR blog

I'd recommend just checking it out. It's free!

To join, click on this link: ActiveRainRegistration

To your success,

Dan

Are You Following These 2 Success Philosophies?

Real estate agents have a myriad of skill sets to learn as they build their businesses. There's prospecting - database management - buyer & seller presentations - negotiating, and so much more.

With these skill sets, there comes learned knowledge and activity knowledge.

You may be asking yourself "How can I achieve more in less time?"

Well, these 2 powerful philosophies will help you:

1) Be "Education-Focused" - Study and learn from others who have been or are currently doing what you want to achieve. Whether it's reading books or online articles, attending seminars, or one-on-one coaching, you can really cut down your learning curve by studying from others who can show you what has worked and what didn't work for them.

2) Be an "Action Implementer" - If you only read about a great strategy and never use it, what have you achieved? Will you be great at doing it the first few times? NO!!! But you have to keep at it to improve your skill set. Fail your way to success! As you increase your repetitions, you'll get better at it. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. We've all made mistakes throughout life. Are you sometimes afraid to pick up the phone and make a call? Sure you are. We all have been at one time or another. But "Top-Profiting" agents keep doing it until they are proficient enough at it to make it a proven system in their business.

So take an allotted amount of time out of each day to learn a new strategy and then take the time to put it into action. Remember, "you don't need to get it perfect, just get it started".

Will You Fall For The Seasonal Slow Down?

With the tradition of Halloween coming up this weekend, it got me to thinking about how the months of November and December are full of distractions for the typical real estate agent.

There is:

• gift shopping
• holiday parties
• family gatherings
• vacation get-aways
• hanging out at the mall
• taking time off to unwind

Now the reality is Thanksgiving is really only a 4+ day holiday weekend and Christmas and New Years Day with the days in between seems to be 2 weeks. But there are still another 40+ days during that time where most people still work at their jobs. I understand that it's easy to fall into the trap of "taking it easy during the holidays", but the holidays aren't for 2 solid months.

You don't want to be "dead in the water" come January 2, 2010. The action steps that you take over the next 60 days will propel you into 2010 with closings in January, February and March. Otherwise, you may not get your first closing of the year until March or April. That's a killer on checkbook!

It can be tough to be consistent throughout an entire year, but by following a business plan that you can tweak along the way, you'll hopefully find yourself in a better financial position of not being behind the 8-ball.

So a couple of steps I'd recommend taking right now are to:

• review your business plan. If you don't have one, design a simple one for starters and build on it.
• determine where your buyer and seller transactions came from the past year or two.
• figure out which strategies generated ZERO commission dollars and stop doing them for now.
• take your top 2 or 3 business strategies and become an expert in them - maximizing your results.

Now is the time to re-focus on your business plan and goals, so that you can get a jump start on 2010.

To your success,

Dan

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Are You Familiar With The "WIIFM" Test?

Before you try a strategy or do something for a client, do you give it the "WIIFM" test?

"WIIFM" stands for "What's In It For Me?"

You have to look at how something will be perceived by your client. Is it something that makes you look good or does it benefit the client? Is it obvious to the client that it benefits them?

Here is a great way to restructure your marketing and advertising dollars from just being expenses to putting your systems into profit mode.

Write down every strategy you used this year that was an expense to your real estate business.

The goal here is two-fold: (1) to provide value to your clients and (2) to do it at little or ZERO cost to you.

As you look at each item, determine the amount of money you spent on it and how much income did it bring you. Did you lose money on it, break even or make a profit?

Don't do strategies just because your clients want you to do them...if they aren't effective and increasing your business.

During this time of year, agents are often solicited to buy music CDs, calendars, pens, magnets, etc. You need to determine if these items are really keeping your name in front of your clients.

How many homes have you shown, where the refrigerator magnet was not of the agent who has the home listed?

If you want to revamp your business and focus on your clients, try brainstorming and really think about "WIIFM" - What's In It For Me (your client). Everybody, us included, is always thinking about our own needs first. So, think about what you can give to your clients that will be of value to them.

Here's one idea I just started using myself:

The www.lowesrealtorbenefits.com program.

Your client receives a periodic e-newsletter from Lowe's with your contact info on it...you can have Lowe's send a 10% off coupon to your client...you can buy discounted gift cards.

So before you add a strategy to your business system, see if it passes the "WIIFM" test.

If December is a slow month...

If December is a slow month for you, will you....

A) focus more on shopping for presents?
B) attend more parties and drink more egg nog?
C) work on your 2009 businesss plan?
D) keep in touch with clients and continue to list and sell?
E) all of the above

The best answer is (E). You can do all of the above. You just need to prioritize your time better and work when you're working and play when it's personal time.

Many of us tend to look at our business cycles from Jan. to Dec., because of tax season.

I think that's a dangerous thing to do, because if your sales typically slow down this time of year, it's easy to get depressed, distracted and lose some confidence in your business.

I choose to look at my business through a quarterly cycle. I make a business plan for every 3 months. Now usually there aren't significant changes to it, but when changes are needed, I am then quicker to respond and not fall behind.

You need to be looking at your first quarter plan right now.

Are you where you want to be in your real estate business?

What are your biggest concerns or fears about your real estate business right now?

You may have more than one issues and that's OK to list too.

Take a couple of minutes and reply to my e-mail dan@agentsuccesscoach.com and write down what's really holding back your business right now.

What I want to accomplish here is to find out what your concerns and roadblocks are and then I'll come up with some answers and post them anonymously for everyone to benefit from.

I won't list your name, so your privacy will be respected.

I believe this can be a great learning experience for everyone.

The reality is...we're not in competition with each other, but only with ourselves. The more we learn from each other and take action on the ideas that work, the more skilled and compensated we all will become.

I've always believed and continue to believe that there's enough business to go around for everyone who's willing to work for it. The more business we do, the less business there is for those who shouldn't be in real estate in the first place.

So, before you click off this post, click on my email dan@agentsuccesscoach.com and share with me what some of your concerns and struggles are right now. What is it that your need to get better at doing? Which parts of your business need the most help.

Do You Feel Lost At Sea In A Storm?

Most real estate agents have never been in a real estate market like this.

How you react to it will determine your success or failure.

Now is the time that many real estate agents start working on their next year's business plan.

Look at which target markets, i.e. expireds, fsbos, relos, REOs, client base, etc., provided you with the most business. Then analyze the info to see how you can improve your systems. In this market, it's better to be an expert in fewer niches than a generalist in many. You should really focus on improving your skills in 3 - 4 target markets and truly master them.

Review at any transactions that fell through as well as prospects that were actively looking, but didn't buy. Figure out what you could have done differently to keep the deals alive and closed.

Look at what steps you should add to keep buyers from slipping through your fingers. Did you not keep in close enough contact with them? Did you have a buyer consultation with them first? Did they not listen to your advice?

It's often said that you can't bring a dead plant back to life. Well, old leads are usually dead leads. But you can learn from it. Take some time to put new strategies together to convert more of the buyer leads you're getting. Improve your skills by asking better questions, go deeper with your questions. Show people that you really care about helping them. Nobody likes to be sold, but if someone takes a real interest in you, you normally pay attention to that.

A well-rounded business plan also include marketing and advertising programs. Look at which programs provided actual leads and were profitable to you. Don't advertise in magazines solely to appease your sellers. You need to either put that money elsewhere or improve your ads to be more direct-response; driving leads to you. In my opinion, over 90% of all magazine real estate ads are a waste of money. But when done correctly, you can generate leads from time to time.

Now it's time to pull out all of your receipts for everything you spent money on. Go line by line and ask yourself, "Did this item make me a profit or was it money down the drain?" You need to let go of marketing and advertising that aren't bringing you a return on your money. Now, I didn't say to cut out all of your spending and go hide in a hole. But you need to look at which expenses are really necessary to help your business continue to grow.

One other thought: as you go through this process, you may want to bounce some ideas off your broker, manager or fellow agent, whose opinion and experience you trust.

Where do you want your numbers to be this year? Don't listen to all of the naysayers out there. There's enough business for those who really want it and will work for it. Do you want it?

In the end, you need a road map to know where you're going in these challenging times. Review your business plan every day. It will help keep you focused. Do the activities consistently and the results will come.

What Are You Dreaming About Today?

Everyone has dreams!

Some dreams are suppressed, some are considered doubtful, while others may be happening right before your eyes!

Dreams are often easy to imagine, but acting on them and bringing them to life takes commitment and desire and persistence on your part.

One way to help your visualization process is to design a 'Dream Board'.

Go through various magazines...Money, Fortune, Success, Robb Report, etc. Find magzines that are focused on your interests. It could be golf, travel, quilting, missionary work...whatever really gets you excited is what you need to clip out of magazines and put on your own dream board.

There are different types of boards you can use. Go to a printing company and they'll be able to provide you with the right kind of board. Then after you fill up your Dream Board...take it one step further and take it to Kinko's or somewhere similar and have them laminate it.

Now this process may take a few days or a few weeks to complete depending on how quickly you're able to find the pictures and photos that really inspire you. Don't be in a rush to just put any photos together. This is very important to assemble!

You may even want to start out with one or two 8.5" x 11" boards and work your way up to bigger sizes as you collect more pictures of your dreams. See the board to the left. It's actually neon-yellow colored paper with hand-written quotes on it. That was my first Dream Board.

Also, here's two walls in my office, where I bought many 'Successories' note cards and attached them to my walls. It allows me to read the sayings and use the power of visual photos for inspiration. Each picture and its scripted message has a different meaning to me and it re-focuses me when I review them.

Whatever you do, know that with all of the distractions happening every day, it's important to stay focused on your goals and dreams for your life.

There's nothing wrong with putting yourself in a 'cocoon' sometimes...shielding yourself from all the negativity.

When you have a blocked out time to make calls or work on a project, that's the ideal time to be sure you don't get interrupted...by other people or phone calls. You'll achieve so much more when you complete the task at hand. So turn off any extra phones and tape a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on your door, so you can efficiently and effectively work on your project.

In the end, know that motivation is internal and you need to surround yourself with positive, successful people as well as constant and never-ending thoughts of what it is you want to achieve.

5 Ways To Find Buyers From Brochure Boxes!

I just returned from visiting my brother in Boulder, CO this past 3-day weekend.

Wow! What a beautiful place!

As I flew in on Friday morning, the foothills had a thin layer of snow that sparkled in the sun light. By mid-day, most of the snow had melted.

While I was there, I noticed that most real estate companies had brochure boxes attached to their for sale signs.

I found out that homes are a lot more expensive in Boulder than back here in Cincinnati. I walked down one street of early 20th century homes (photo above) and pulled out a black & white flyer of a home with a list price of $2,500,000. In Cincinnati, that home would be listed for $400,000 - $500,000.

That got me to thinking...what strategies can be used to get more buyer calls from yard signs?

Here's 5 brochure box, yard sign strategies:

1) Print a color brochure with photos - add a toll-free hotline # on the flyer for prospects to call about the current price on the home. You can also be notified when someone calls and follow-up with them right away to see if you can show them the home or answer any questions.

2) Offer free home buying and selling reports - people are always looking to see how they can save time and money. Write some free reports and promote them. You can become an expert in the eyes of the consumer.

3) Invite prospects to read your real estate blog - people want to learn and by inviting them to your blog and web site, you may pick up another client

4) Add a sheet with details about your other listings - tell your sellers that their property information will be posted at your other listings as well.

5) Promote any buyer or seller service guarantees that you offer - add a sheet that states your various service guarantees (what they can be is another topic). You need to stand out from other agents in your area. When done right, you will get business from this source.

The important thing is to do something. Then go out and test to see which strategies will work for you.

The #1 goal is to get prospects to contact you, so that you can qualify them. If you give people everything, they have no reason to call you. Then you won't ever know who they are and won't be able to help them.

We all know that consumers want to stay invisible as long as possible. Don't we too sometimes? But by having them inquire about a property or service you provide, you're potentially offering them something of value. Show them that you're there to counsel them, not sell them. Nobody likes being SOLD!

Even though 80% or more of home buyers today search online for property, those and others still drive by homes in their areas of choice. Now go put your yard signs to work and generate some leads.

To your success,

Dan

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