How to Maximize Your Competitive Edge
Fall is coming up quickly (although it's hard to tell for those of us here in the sweltering South) and I love the buzz online of how agents are gearing up to make the most of their marketing, time and budgets. If you're ready to get the kids off to school and dig in for a competitive fourth quarter - let's take a look at a few musts for your to-do lists!
- SOLIDIFY those goals!Take a good long look at your goals from the first of the year and see where you are. On track? Off track? Need updating? Got a VISUAL for it? Remember it's hard to hit a moving target - so you first have to know WHAT you're going after!
- Convert Your Goal to Activity:I learned this one years and years ago from sales and training icon Floyd Wickman. Know what activities you will need to do to reach your goal. What are the success ratios? If you need one listing per week, how many appointments will you have to go on? If you need 3 appointments, how many calls will you have to make? If you are very specific about what you need to do to achieve your goal-and you do it-you will achieve it.
- And the second part of that goal conversion is to TRACK those activities DAILY:Once you know what you need to do to succeed, keep track. It's not just what you do, but when. This lets you know if you're behind in achieving your goal and when it happened.
- Take MASSIVE ACTION. You know that old saying, "if you want what you've never had you're going to have to do what you've never done?" Now's the time to do what you've never done. This market it's time to pull out all the stops. Ramp up your social media. Saturate a market with Every Door Direct Mail. Put a new niche marketing campaignin place. Blitz your sphere or farm with direct response offers. Spotlight a multi-open houseevent. Walk your neighborhood farm with door hangers. Host a workshop or webinarat your local coffee shop, school or library. Take 5-10 top clients to lunch or breakfast. Ask other agents for referrals. Grab your calendar and pour on the marketing with a heavy hand over the next 30-60-90 days so that your face, name and brand are not just top-of-mind - they are the buzz people are talking about.
- FOLLOW up.This is the kicker. I've seen agents spend thousands of dollars on marketing, only to NEVER make a single follow up phone call or visit. Marketing is a full-court-press activity in today's market. Be willing to get voice-to-voice or nose-to-nose with your sphere and farm. That's where the referrals and the business is! Ask questions, be a resource, offer assistance! Will you get a few no's? More than likely. Will you get a few yes's? More than likely. Go for it!
- Analyze your results. Take a solid look at everything you do for the next three months. Figure out what worked and what didn't. What people responded to, what questions they had, what direct response offers got the most pick up. That way when you get ready to head into the first of the new year you can do more of what worked, ditch what didn't and have the resources to try some NEW things on for size!
Not sure where to start? Click here to see what top agents are doing this month to ramp up their marketing before the fall kicks into high gear (and get a valuable promo code to save on your next order) or call our marketing team at 866.405.3638. They've got the experience and expertise to help you find the tools you need at the budget that works for you. 
