My exploration into using videoconferencing as a marketing tool for real estate has taken me down many a road. There are lots of products out there including:  TokBox, DimDim and Skype.

I like Skype. Makes me feel very “international!” Some of my clients are located overseas and Skype is their product of choise.

More and more of my students in class tell me they are using Skype to communicate with their clients across the country and across the world.  What is Skype?
According to Wikipedia  . . . Skype (pronounced /ˈskaɪp/) is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and, in some countries, to free-of-charge numbers, are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

Speaking to some of my coaching clients, here are some business uses for Skype:
• Return long distance phone calls to clients
• Check your voicemail when traveling
• Make business calls without cell coverage
What makes it better is that is starts free if your client also has a skype account.
Video calls, like Skype-to-Skype calls are free, updating your clients is free, no matter where they are in the world. All you need is a webcam and software. Start by downloading the software:

www.Skype.com/download

If we want to be successful with today’s buyer, we need to remember what is – and always has been – at the heart of the sale: People will only buy something from someone they trust. Only the methods have changed. If you can’t meet them face to face, webcam to webcam will have to do.

• SKYPE to SKYPE (free)
• SKYPE to Local or Long Distance
• SKYPE to International
• SKYPE with IPHONE (mobile)
• SKYPE with video
• Free, Pay as You Go, Monthly

Skype-enabled audio and video are already infiltrating business settings, with users recording their Skype conversations and adding the recordings to their blogs as podcasts.

And the ultimate – the ability to see each others webcam and if necessary to record the call. A great software at Pamela.org  will enable you to do this.

Amy Chorew is a national real estate trainer highly experienced at helping managers and agents maximize the infinite opportunities that technology offers them. Her knowledge of the industry and the latest technologies available along with her unique ability to translate it all into easy to understand language make her a consistently top-rated trainer throughout the country. Her expertise in the area of Social Networking and the tremendous impact it is having on the industry has given agents and brokers the tools to move from traditional marketing to Web 2.0.

You can reach her at amy@amychorew.com,  or (860) 325-0101 or visit her blog at www.amychorew.com. Her technology coaching series is available at www.thetechbyte.com

Carla Cross, CRB, MA International Speaker

Brokers: if you don’t have time, here are four quick steps to a great business plan. Having helped thousands of managers and owners create plans, I’ve found an easy method to make that plan in no time. Better yet, I promise that plan will be a blueprint that will work hard for you.

  Here are the first two steps. I’ll give you the other two steps in a later blog (so you have time to work on these first two steps).

 1.      Gather and analyze the important numbers. Gather last year’s numbers so you can analyze them quickly. (Best to have your secretary/assistant do this for you). These numbers should include the results that most greatly impact on your profitability: (You may have some other favorites. Feel free to analyze them):

                  a.      Number of recruits

b.      Net number of agents (how good were your recruiting and retention efforts?)

c.      Number of listings taken

d.      Number of listings sold

e.      Ratio of listings taken to listings sold

f.        Number of sales

g.      Balance/ratio of number of sales to listings sold

h.      Expenses (what’s higher than your budget for the year? What’s out of balance with your income and profitability? What can you change?)

Analyzing these numbers give you great big hints as to what you should do as an action plan next year. In fact, you’ll find it difficult not to think ahead to your action plan! (That’s a good thing!).

             Your recruiting plan for next year

            Your retention plan for next year

            Your training plan for listings next year

Your coaching plan for each agent (balance of listings sold and sales?) (productivity)

Just with that first step, you almost have the action part of your business plan done! I call this the ‘spring ahead’ approach. You analyze what happened, and immediately start writing your next year’s action plan.

2.      Impact. What did you do differently last year that positively impacted your results? What did you differently that negatively impacted your results?

Answering these impact questions gives you great hints as to the action steps you should take next year. This really helps you when you go to all those ‘guru’ seminars that tell you what to do and when to do it. Instead of trying everything, now you can put those suggestions into context for what you want to accomplish.

For a comprehensive business planning system, with fill-in forms for each part of your plan, see The Business Planning System for the Owner, Manager, and Team Builder at www.carlacross.com.

P. S. Use this same approach with your agents. Provide them a format and template to analyze their last year’s business. That gives them the answers to the next year’s action plan (that spring ahead approach I mentioned).

(Forms for analyzing and planning available for agents, too. See The Business Planning System for the Real Estate Professional.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, specializes in business planning workshops and systems for real estate professionals. Her book on real estate business planning is the only internationally published book for real estate professionals. She is the author of business planning courses for major franchises, and for the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers (CRB). Her business planning resources have been quality tested and recommended by both CRS and CRB.

When I first automated my real estate business, my goal was to increase my touches with my clients while decreasing the amount of work it took to accomplish that.  Simply put, I wanted to build my relationships with my clients without compromising my free time, since it can be a daunting task to stay in close contact with a long list of clients.

First you must have a very good real estate specific database (CRM.) The next principle is key and very effective: make sure everyone in your database is on some kind of a plan or follow up system. Now, using that concept, here are a few of the high touches I recommend:

1. Send a follow-up letter/thank you card after every meeting, listing appointment, closing, buyer’s day out, etc.

2. 7 years of follow-up. We know that people move every 5 to 7 years, so I recommend a 7 year follow up system that automatically touches each of your past clients monthly for the next 7 years. Tip: If you are going back to launch the plan, set it on the actual closing date and delete all activities up to today’s date. This will make your anniversary letters correct.

3. Monthly postcard or letter. There are lots of great resources - don’t try to reinvent the wheel!

4. Birthday cards or calls. Try using e-cards, and a phone call is always appropriate.

5. Anniversary of their home purchase. It’s fun to take photos of the family in front of their home and watch how the kids grow over the years!

6. Wedding anniversary. My strategy is to call the husband 2 weeks prior and “remind” him! Believe me, he will be grateful for that call, especially if you can give him a couple suggestions for a new restaurant in his area to go to or any other great ideas you might have.

7. Holiday greetings. I prefer sending Thanksgiving cards rather than Christmas cards, because fewer people send them. And you can also send cards at other holidays as well.

8. Special event ideas. Look through the different tools and options built into your CRM

9. Buyers looking for homes like theirs (present and future home needs) use your CRM to match the needs versus your inventory. (This activity will help you get on both sides of more transactions)

10. Four to six voice touches per year with every contact. This may seem overwhelming but just make it a quick phone call to say hello and see how they are enjoying their home, etc. Make sure you schedule the next contact after completing each call; this will ensure that no one falls through the cracks.

11. Send them business.  It’s the winning by giving principle. Give one outbound referral each week from your business. This should go to a business owner where you have recently moved a family like the local dry cleaner, the area veterinarian, or nearby restaurants. This simple high touch principle will be responsible for a significant increase in your referral business.

12. Geographic farm.  Pick an area and work it forever. Send Just Listed, Sold, Reduced, Open house, your new neighbor, and area stats to these people. Be the area expert!

High touches are not difficult to execute on if you have the proper systems in place, the hard part is getting started. I suggest the following steps:

• First, get your real estate specific contact manager up and working with all your clients in it. It is more important that you do the right thing here than it is that you do it perfectly

• Next, purchase some good high touch systems that are automated and simple to use

By automating your client contact you’ll make business flow like never before and have that freedom you’ve been seeking to spend time with the ones you love!

———————————————————————————————————————-

Verl Workman is a leading national speaker, coach and consultant.  Despite his busy speaking schedule, and role as co-founder of Pinnacle Quest Consulting Group, he still sells real estate so that he can test and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques that maximize results.  He uses that knowledge to assist individuals and companies in building effective business strategies, implementing powerful technology solutions, and establishing strategic competitive advantages through coaching, seminars and private consultations.  To contact Verl visit www.verlworkman.com or  www.PQPipeline.com or email him at AskVerl@verlworkman.com.

Follow Verl on Twitter: http://twitter.com/verlworkman

http://www.facebook.com/VerlWorkman 

Since when did marketing have to be hard?

I’m having a webinar this week on Thursday with 3 of my “Web Warriors” who have relied on their websites for the majority of their marketing income through real estate SEO. Everyone wants to know, “How do you make $100,000 just from your website?”. The average income just from their websites is a little over $75,000. And that is just so far this year in what many call a “down” market. Each of these agents loves a “down” market as it seems that their competition stops investing in their marketing tools.

While there is no getting around having an expert optimize your website for you for marketing purposes, there are many things that you can do yourself to help your website to be seen by your prospects. In the following video I mention the 3 major components of getting found by the major search engines and beating out your competition.

Search Engine Optimization Part 1 by Randy Eagar

More and more agents are now figuring out that with 87% of the buying public using the Internet as their home purchasing tool (NAR Statistics), it just doesn’t make sense to not have an Internet marketing strategy that includes their website. They are realizing that an “optimized” website (one that is made search engine friendly) will draw buyers to them like bees to honey. That is why the label of “passive-active” has stuck.

Having your website “optimized” makes it work for you.

 Read those last three words . . . “work for you”. Thus, while you’re doing nothing at all, your website is actively working for you. Pretty soon you’re getting lead generating phone calls just like my 3 Web Warriors this week: Pat Wattam, Barbara Reeves and Liz Warren. Try these few tips and I think you see a jump in your rankings.

Randy Eagar, CRS
President, WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com
(800) 277-1316

Have you ever enjoyed an experience like this:  You meet with someone and two hours fly by and you can’t believe the meeting is over!  You still have so much to learn from them that you just don’t want it to end!

What if every meeting or presentation you were a part of ended like that? Would your second connection with these people be easier or harder to schedule?  Easier is the answer of course!

So the question is: After working with you, do prospects leave so energized, so pumped up, so laden with valuable information, tips, strategies, resources and inspiration that they can hardly wait to meet with you again? 

If your goal is not to surprise, delight, engage, energize and really connect with people you are doing business with, you might want to fine tune your strategy.

Today I met with a most amazing professional. Tony Jeary may not be a household name to you, but he is the executive coach of choice to the world’s top CEO’s and high achievers for over 20 years.  His clients include presidents of companies like Wal-Mart, Firestone, Shell, and even the United States Senate!  You can’t leave his presence without being so excited about possibilities that you need and want more…

And that is exactly what most sales people and leaders should aspire to….guiding those we serve to a place that shows our prospects and customers  how to achieve their own best scenarios to  attain their personal and professional success.

Whether you are selling houses, tires, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals, your product or service must include specific components that ignite and inspire those we serve by providing solutions to their problems. Here are a few key activities to include in order to fine- tune your personal and professional interactions:

1) Be and sound ENERGETIC!  If you aren’t truly excited about what you do and how you do it, you will rarely communicate the value to another person.  Without contradicting your personal style, allow your enthusiasm and passion for what you offer be transparent so your prospects can engage with you and participate in working with them to provide solutions to their needs.
2) Invest in PREPARATION!  Want to really impress someone? How about having prepared a full spectrum of information about them and possible solutions to help their business available so they can see that you made an investment in them?  Too many sales people spend the bulk of their time perfecting their presentation, trying to “sell” their product or service instead of investing the time to get information about the prospect’s needs when preparing for the meeting.
3) Be a true EXPERT!  How deeply do you study your own product or service and that of the competition? Can you draw from accurate information and statistics to help determine the best solution for your prospect or customer?  People will ALWAYS pay for expertise.  Become an expert by investing even 30 minutes a day every day on a competency and you will develop solid expertise in your given niche.
4) Learn PRESENTATION skills.  All the information on the planet won’t help you if you haven’t learned the most engaging and powerful ways to communicate.  People connect logically and emotionally.  Logic will help them see the value, but emotions provide the actions to buy or not buy.  Study up on Behavioral styles and generational communication dynamics to connect with all four communication styles and age groups.  Invest in presentation skill coaching if this is an area for serious improvement.  It is guaranteed to pay off! (For a free report on the 12 biggest mistakes most sales people make, visit www.Fripp.com)
5) Be AUTHENTIC with your word. Nothing is more devastating than someone who shows up, makes all kinds of promises and doesn’t deliver. If you are not a systems person, set up checks and balances to keep you focused and on target with action steps and deliveries on what you promised.  There is no second chance when you compromise your integrity. It is a highly underestimated and powerful action that doesn’t cost in dollars, but in attention to executing what you have promised. 

Focus on these simple steps and you are sure to be the provider of choice and create raving fans and repeat business.

Terri Murphy, Author of 5 books, her latest with Donald Trump. She is a Speaker & Consultant can be reached by email: Terri@TerriMurphy.com or for more information visit www.TerriMurphy.com

by Verl Workman, Speaker/Trainer/Coach

There are universal principles for getting referrals that all businesses should use – and that includes all of you Real Estate agents!

Many people feel that the best way to get referral is to simply ask, and while that is an easy strategy, having a true referral business requires a real strategy.  I used to be a leader in selling hot tubs and satellites systems for 8 years before becoming a Real Estate Agent. The key principles I learned and the strategy I developed continues to work today in every business I am or have been part of.

The 6 keys to getting referrals are as follows:

1. You must script the way you are going to ask and practice the script

2. You must ask a minimum of 3 times in different ways during an appointment

3. You must teach them how to give you a referral

4. You must provide excellent service

5. Every problem you solve is an opportunity show how great you are and ask again for referrals

6. You must follow up forever!

1.  The script: 

“ Mr. and Mrs. Jones, thanks so much for your business, and we look forward to working with you (selling your home, buying your new home, etc).  Our business thrives because of people like you who refer their friends and family to us to so we can help them achieve their dreams of homeownership, so if you know of anyone who is thinking about buying or selling a home please give them our name and number.”

2.  Different ways to ask at varying opportunities:

Script:

“Ok we are all set for the appraisal on Friday, just fill this form out as to your best contact information and we will have Dave get a hold of you on Friday.  If you could also fill in this quick form as to why you chose us so we can continue to offer great service I would really appreciate it.  One last thing;  Right here on the form there is room for you to list 4 or 5 people that you know that might be interested in buying or selling a home. If you would just fill in their contact information, we will follow up with them and promise to give them the same service you have come to expect from us!   Oh by the way if you need extra paper or an excel spreadsheet feel free to let us know and we will provide the extras )”  (It’s ok to add humor.)

3 . Teach them:   Once again we really appreciate your business. 

Script:

“Just as I’m sure your business grows because of your great customer referrals, our business thrives because of them as well.  If you could do me a favor, and whenever you are talking about your new home (or your experiences selling your home), and someone shows interest, please just jot their name and number down and give me a call. I have found if you give my card out, they rarely follow up, but if you give me their name and number, you know I will always follow up” 

4.  Provide excellent service.  The best way to gain trust is to be exceptional.  In a service business like real estate there are so many opportunities to provide great service above and beyond the expectations of the client.  Everyone on your team including your receptionist, administrative assistant, buyers agent, photographers, title company, etc. all have the opportunity to leave a lasting impression on your customers. This creates a company culture that rewards clients for choosing your company –and a great experience will drive unlimited referrals

5. Every problem you solve. When service is needed or a problem is brought to your attention the attitude you demonstrate will be the turning point of whether or not that client will refer their friends to you.  So you have a choice point, and that is to look at a problem with the attitude of “Oh boy, another problem”, or “I’m so sorry there is a problem!”  A better response is: “Let’s get this figured out quickly so you can continue to move forward with your new home purchase”.  Once the problem is solved it is a great opportunity to ask for a referral. 

The dialog might look something like this:
 “ Ok, Mrs. Murphy, there you go, we’ve gotten those issues with the appraisal cleared up, is there anything else  I can do or help you with while I am here? “ Well great, then! Oh by the way, who have you talked to about this new home you’re buying?  I bet your friends are eager to see you settled in and are looking forward to that first housewarming get together!  Would it be ok if I called any of them to see if they are interested in buying/selling a home as well?  Great, how can I contact them and would you mind just giving them a call today and let them know I’ll be calling this afternoon?”  Terrific! And thanks so much!”

6.  Follow up.  This is where most companies and real estate agents fail!  They practice “Kung Fu closing”.   They get a client, the client buys or sells, the property closes, then the real estate agent is off into the sunset never to be heard from again just like the ending of every Kung Fu episode in the 80’s.   A great referral business has systems in place to make sure they are “heard from” on a regular basis.  At least one touch a month for life.  This could be in the form of an email newsletter, a survey, a phone call, or a mailer with discount coupons for local businesses or restaurants or whatever the season calls for.  The bottom line is it must be a system and it must be consistent.  If you regularly communicate with your clients, then they will keep you at the front of their mind so when anyone mentions buying or selling a home, your name comes up.  And because you have been so diligent about asking for referrals they are excited to be able to give you one

Getting referrals is not difficult, however is does require a strategy to make it happen consistently.  Everyone in your company needs to learn the dialog, practice the scripts and provide excellent service, and when this happens you will knock it out of the park with the most profitable kind of business….referrals

———————————————————————————————————————-

Verl Workman is a leading national speaker, coach and consultant. Despite his busy speaking schedule, and role as co-founder of Pinnacle Quest Consulting Group, he still sells real estate so that he can test and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques that maximize results. He uses that knowledge to assist individuals and companies in building effective business strategies, implementing powerful technology solutions, and establishing strategic competitive advantages through coaching, seminars and private consultations. To contact Verl, visit www.VerlWorkman.com or www.PQPipeline.com or email at coach@verlworkman.com.  You can also connect with Verl on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/VerlWorkman

Randy Eagar, CRS

Most agents now have their own personal website. But are they taking advantage of real estate SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Most agents are . . . dare I really say it . . . cheap. Okay, frugile. For this reason, you need to take a look at some fundamental aspects of your website to see if it can “set sail” and allow you to fly, skimming along the water, of if you’ll need to “set sale” to it and buy another one that has the fundamentals that will allow you to be seen by the major search engines and thus your potential prospects.

If you want to know if you have a falcon or a turkey for a website, pay attention to a few fundamentals that you can check out on your own:

1. 1. Can you set a unique Title for each page of your website?
   To check this out, simply click through to various web pages of your website. If the Title at the very top of the page of your browser stays the same, that’s not good. The major search engines will consider you as spamming them, just as if you put “real estate”, “real estate”, “real estate” into the copy of your website. You should be able to make the Title of each page of your website relevant, or congruent with, the content on that particular page. If it is not, the search engines dock you.
2. Does your content have paragraph headers with your main search phrases?
   Search engines are now very heavy into looking at your content and comparing it with what the viewer has typed into the search engine. Having paragraph headers that match either exactly or even closely can make all the difference in getting found on the first page or last page. For example if you live in Denver, and you sell luxury condos and want to be known for that, create a paragraph of content and at the top of it create a paragraph header like “Denver Luxury Condos Now Selling Like Hotcakes”. The problem with most agent is that they either don’t have enough content, or the content that they do have is all about them, and not what the prospective buyer wants to read about.
3. Is your website compelling?
   Look at your website and ask yourself this very blunt question. If I were a buyer, and I came to this site, what is there on this site that would “compel” me to want to call or email? The vast majority of the time the answer to this question is NOTHING. And if you say that you’ve got “reports” that you give away, or a “newsletter”, think again. Your buyer only wants information on your location and homes.
4. Do you use “drip marketing”?
   I can’t believe the low percentage of agents that use this incredibly effective tool. Drip marketing combined with a search the MLS is extremely powerful. It basically tells the buyer that all they have to do is to type in their housing parameters, and you’ll send them the new listings that come up each day that meet them . . . IF you have their email address and name. It’s like magic.

Your website can be incredibly effective, or it can be a boat anchor. Set sail or set sale!

Randy Eagar, CRS
President WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com
(800) 277-1316

Chunking is good.  Both kinds of chunking work for me.

One kind is a time management tool that I learned from Tony Robbins and I taught it today on the planning webinar that I recorded for NAR’s Learning Library (Put Power and Purpose into Your Business Plan). 

That kind of chunking is managing your time by types of activity instead of individual activities.

So, I coach and teach that Monday and Tuesday are Prospecting chunked.  Wednesday is marketing, all kinds.  Thursday is Service to contact all listed Sellers and Pending Clients.  Friday is Leadership to think and strategize.  And Saturday is chunked for luxury, as much time off as possible. 

Not the whole day is dedicated to the chunk, although it may be a whole day mindset.  At 9 am you schedule an hour dedicated to the chunk for the day.  And you may do some of those things on other days but the goal is to limit that other day stuff.

On our daily webinars (www.1stFifteen.com, try it, it’s free… for now) we remind people of the chunk for the day. 

The other kind of chunking is breaking down a topic into small pieces.  Since our daily webinars are only fifteen minutes and I cover three or four topics each day, I have to chunk a topic into a few minutes. 

It is having a really interesting and valuable effect on my work.  This week’s main topic is Presentations.  So, I have to choose five ideas on the topic of presentations that can be taught in three or four minutes each.  I want each topic to be soooo interesting that it makes the 1st Fifteen participants think about it all day and ideally incorporate it into their business.

It is a really interesting challenge for me and it’s valuable because I find myself thinking about topics in a type of detail that I hadn’t previously.  

Chunking a topic may be more of a Coach/Speaker thing.  Chunking your time is really the best time management advice and methodology I have ever learned.  Try it, become a chunker.  Oooh, I think I just invented a word.  Become a chunker, today.

It’s Customer Service Week…Really?

I have to ask ….What’s wrong with this statement?  Customer service week?  Does that mean we focus on service specifically during seven short days in October?

I must admit, I have never heard of Customer Service week, so I simply had to check out what I could find. Sure enough, I did a search and found out that in 1992 the U.S. Congress proclaimed Customer Service Week a nationally recognized event, celebrated annually during the first full week in October.

According to their website* this is a national event specifically devoted to recognizing the importance of customer service and to honoring the people who serve and support customers with the highest degree of care and professionalism. Excuse me? Where I come from, we strive to do this at every opportunity.

And I thought that customer service was, in fact, a principal driven activity based on the absolute privilege to serve and gratitude for the opportunity to service those customers and clients who I am fortunate to have work with me.

There are millions of providers for your services out there!  What are we thinking? 

I called my friend and colleague, Scott McKain, author of “Collapse of Distinction” for some insight.  Scott is an expert on customer service and the value proposition.  I had to ask him about his thoughts on what he thought about this one week phenomenon.  He said that having a customer service week is part of the problem. In the old days we had a complaint division, which morphed into the customer service division to handle customer dissatisfaction, leading us to believe customer satisfaction is an ongoing situation that calls for eternal vigilance.

He continued, “As long as there is a special “week” dedicated to the service of a customer, it is clear, we “fail to get it”.  Customer service is the cornerstone of how we go to market and how we have the opportunity to integrate our differentiating value instead of “adding” value to create that creates an exceptional experience

McKain pointed out we would never dedicate a specific week to “Good Product Week”…it’s ridiculous to think that our product or service would be a focus to be “good” for a designated number of days. 

It isn’t enough to be good or even great at service today in order to capture, serve and retain a valued customer….we have to provide an extraordinary experience in the process every time!

As long as we think that our service should be highlighted for a week, there is no doubt the customer will look elsewhere to a service provider who “gets it”.

For more information visit: *www.csweek.com/customer_service_week_background.php,
and www.ScottMcKain.com

by Verl Workman, Speaker/Trainer/Coach & Freaking Sales Animal

You’ve all heard it a hundred times—make sure you use a real estate specific CRM (Contact Relationship Manager)—but what’s the big deal?  You have all your past clients contact information tucked away on index cards and post it notes, right?  Or you’ve recently upgraded that system to your day planner—what more do you really need?

Well, everything, actually!  Keeping your database is about a lot more than just having all your contact names in one place.  But first, before we discuss some of those points, let’s first determine WHY you should even bother in the first place.  Let’s look at the value of a client.

Let’s say you have a client, John, who bought a starter home 3 years ago.  Your commission was $5,000.  Recently you ran into John and his wife at the grocery store and they’re pregnant…with twins!  Of course you congratulate the happy family, and John says they really need to move into a larger home and asks to talk to you about that. You could earn at least $10,000 if you double end that transaction!  And just think, on average people move every 5-7 years, so it’s quite possible that John’s growing family may move again in another 7 years….suddenly John is now a $15,000 client.  Now what happens if John refers you to his cousin and his best friend….do you see what is happening here?  The original income from John’s transaction is going to continue to compound over time—to where John has a personal worth to you of $75,000 or more.

Unless…you haven’t been keeping in touch with your clients!  Imagine the scenario above, but instead of securing another listing, you see John, congratulate the happy family and then you’re asked the dreaded question, “So, are you still selling real estate?” And when you assure him you are, he says, “Oh, I wish I’d known that; we just listed our house with someone else.” Oops! So what happened here? Was it because you were practicing “Secret Agency” and waiting for your clients to track you down?

If so, you really need to master your CRM and start using it! Here are some success rules to follow:

1. Software must be real estate specific
2. Utilize action plans and always schedule your next touch
3. Use it daily for schedule and to do’s
4. Have it open and running on your desktop all the time
5. Client gets entered upon first contact
6. Utilize the Client Type feature with every person in database
7. Back up your data (after all this work, you don’t want to lose it!)

If you do this with each of your clients, you’ll never again be asked that dreaded question, “So, are you still in Real Estate?”

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Verl Workman is a leading national speaker, coach & consultant. Despite his busy speaking schedule, and role of co-founder of Pinnacle Quest Consulting Group, he still sells real estate so that he can test and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques that maximize results. He uses that knowledge to assist individuals and companies in building effective business strategies, implementing powerful technology solutions and establishing strategic competitive advantages through coaching, consulting and private consultations. To contact Verl, visit www.verlworkman.com or www.PQPipeline.com.  Email: AskVerl@VerlWorkman.com.

Follow Verl on Twitter: http://twitter.com/VerlWorkman

Friend Verl on Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/VerlWorkman