Saturday, February 06, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
2 Ways To Connect More With Your Clients!
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:
- Utilizing the personal page
- 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.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
What If Your Business Was Being Followed?
- You would START doing the things you say you need to do.
- You would STOP doing the things you know you shouldn't be doing.
- 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
Click ActiveRain Real Estate Network - It's Free!
Real Estate Referrals, Marketing Ideas & More!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Are You Open To A Shift In Your Thinking?
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.
- What can I do today to get another PENDING in (month)?
- Who can I call today to get another PENDING in (month)?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
I'm SHOCKED...or Should I Be?
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.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Is Your Listing Presentation Good Enough?
Here's 5 components of a winning listing presentation:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Don't Stop Activities While Planning!
- making your prospecting calls
- working on updating your clientbase
- continuing to show listings
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The Answer Is Easy...Work Your Plan!
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.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Is Your Business Where You Want It To Be?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
How Are You Adapting To Market Changes?
- 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
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Are You Following These 2 Success Philosophies?
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".
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Will You Fall For The Seasonal Slow Down?
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
Join ActiveRain Real Estate Network - FREE
Real Estate Referrals, Marketing Ideas & More!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Are You Familiar With The "WIIFM" Test?
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.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
If December is a slow month...
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.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Do You Feel Lost At Sea In A Storm?
Monday, November 24, 2008
What Are You Dreaming About Today?
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.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
5 Ways To Find Buyers From Brochure Boxes!

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.
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.
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.






