]
The First 7 Days!
Once or twice a year, we run a little test to see who's doing what in follow up.
We set up a "mystery identity" and go into 100 websites and ask for MarketWatch or Home Loan Reports.
We leave what would appear to be a GREAT lead. We check the "yes!" box, we leave our name, email and phone number. We ask for the second highest price range...and press submit.
Then we wait.
It's amazing to see what happens. Without fail, the people who are most successful are the ones we hear from first. Often within the first hour.
We hear from more in the first 24 - 48 hours.
Then it starts to slow down.
Many times we don't get ANY sort of attempt at a follow up. Most of the time we get at least some kind of attempt, but very rarely do we get all 7 steps in the connection process.
I will tell you this though, the people who DO follow through all the way to the 7th step are MUCH more successful in connecting with prospects, identifying 5-Star Prospects and ultimately in closed transactions.
Follow through counts.
By step 7...the 5-Star prospects will be impressed.
You WILL connect with and identify MORE 5-Star prospects by using ALL 7 steps, and not giving up.
What would it take to make sure you can complete all 7 steps?
Do you have a good lead management system?
Do you have a rubber stamp or labels for when you print off your leads, so you know what step you're on?
Really focusing on the first seven days will pay off in a big way.
Don't give up.
Follow through is a WoW!
] The Psychology of "Bonding"
John Duncan shared a pretty cool experience on the Dashboard Light message board, and I wrote a pretty long response about the psychology of why he got that response...
Check it out by clicking on the Dashboard Light logo to the left and join in the discussion.
I'd like to know what you think...
] CWS Power Zone #1:
The First 24 Hours
The Certified WoW! Specialist is focused on what I'm going to call the Power Zones -- where little efforts can make a BIG impact.
The first Power Zone is the first 24 hours after they ask for something on your website.
This time is so important because so far, it's the PINNACLE of your relationship.
They have never liked you more than the moment they press submit on your MarketWatch or Home Loan Report form.
Think about it...they've jumped through at least 6 hoops to get to this point.
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They went to the internet to search for real estate info.
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They entered the words "Winter Haven Florida Real Estate" or something very similar.
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They looked at all the options that came up from their search -- and chose YOUR listing to visit.
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They liked what they saw on your website enough to leave their name and email address to get in
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They READ all about your MarketWatch or Home Loan Report offer.
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They filled out the form and pressed submit to ask for your HELP.
Now they wait.
Their excitement about you is at it's peak the moment they press submit...and it slowly declines from there.
The CWS realizes this dynamic and does everything possible to acknowledge that request and connect as quickly as possible.
How quickly can you connect with them?
The quicker the better.
Ask Megan Wachtman from Loveland Colorado. She told us at the Toronto Academy that she is able to connect with 80% of the people who ask for MarketWatch...and many of them she connects with IMMEDIATELY -- while they're still on the website!
There is never anything bad that happens by connecting with people who are still on your website.
Richard Zepeda's done it.
Joe Schumerth has done it.
Fabby has done it.
What would make it possible for you to connect with people quicker?
Would it be someone ELSE doing it?
Would it be getting your requests sent to a Blackberry or Treo phone?
It would be great if you could start measuring your response times -- and see how many people you could "catch" while they're still on your website..within 1 hour...whithin 4 hours...same day...first thing the next day.
Whatever you do to improve the first 24 hours will have an impact on your conversion, because the first step in conversion is connection.
Speed counts.
] Could You Replace Yourself Completely?
Writing that last post...I remembered what got me hooked on delegation. Or at least thinking in that direction.
It was Tom Peter's book "The Pursuit of Wow!"
In the book I remember him suggesting to make a list of EVERYTHING you do in your business...and make it your mission to find people who are better than you to do every one of the things on your list.
When you think about it...there are people who are better than you at EVERY element of your business.
Really question why you do what you do...and see if it isn't true that someone could do it better, cheaper, more effectively than you.
Wouldn't it be cool if you could remove yourself completely?
Just focus on the things you love to do.
I love doing THIS. Encouraging, leading, developing your abilities and expanding your thinking.
I don't love doing anything with your websites. I don't even know how! I don't love answering the phone, or dealing with emergencies or administrative stuff....but Sony does, and Lori does, and Jesse can do anything I think of.
I've surrounded myself with people who support me in doing what I do best...and LIKE best.
What do YOU like best about your business?
How can you do JUST that?
Think about it...write out what it would look like...and you'll be amazed at what will happen in your subconcious to start making it happen.
] Who Says It Has To Be YOU?
Don't complain (or compromise)...DELEGATE!
Who says YOU have to be the one to do MarketWatch?
What if you could concentrate on wrting the nice personal bonding message, and every other part of delivering MarketWatch you think is going to be very time consuming could be done by someone else.
You guys have it easy compared to what we had to go through to deliver MarketWatch when I first started doing it. We didn't even have the Internet. It was all Catalogs...so we had to cut and paste.
Did I complain?
No.
I Delegated.
Enter Darlene. She was the one who was responsible for all the actual work. Not me. It would never have gotten done if it was up to me.
I've told the story of Darlene a lot. So I'm not going to do it here...but if you haven't heard it, it's in your Owner's Manual.
Right now, within 2 miles of your office, is someone who would LOVE to have something to do for money on Wednesday afternoons. They're internet and computer savvy. They're organized. They love routine, and they're dependable.
MarketWatch is something you can set up to be run without you....quite well.
Let's say you did it every other Wednesday...and it took your "Darlene" all afternoon to do it. 4 hours @ $10/ hour is $80 a month. ($160 a month if you did it every week)
That's less than $2000 for the entire year. About a THIRD of what you guys told me was the national average commission.
This is what I would call a "no-brainer".
New Years Resolution #1 -- MarketWatch on Autopilot.
] Merry Christmas!
Wishing you all the best for the holidays.
Dean, Sony, Lori and Jesse
] What's in a word?
I was out Christmas shopping today and something interesting happened.
I'm in line at a card store waiting to pay...and at the cash register they have a nice wooden box with the words **"Annie B's Irresistable Caramels".
**
I couldn't resist.
I bought some, and they were great.
Would I have bought them if they just said "Caramels"?
Probably not.
It reminded me of some other times when single words made a big difference.
This summer Sony and I were looking for a handyman to do some things at our house in Georgetown. I was looking in the classifieds at all the "handyman for hire" ads -- and in a SEA of essentially the same ad, I came across an ad that said:
**"Perfectionist For Hire"
**
Of course we hired him.
We probalby paid a premium too, but he got right into our deepest fear about hiring someone to do work for us...and REMOVED that fear, by going above the empty promise of "quality" work, and "experienced tradesman" all the way to PERFECTIONIST.
In Canada, the big grocery chain is called Loblaws, and they have a premium private label for products called "President's Choice".
They launched a new cookie...and instead of just calling it "Chocolate Chip Cookies" -- they called it The DECADENT choclate chip. That sounds just about what you're looking for in a cookie doesn't it? It's my favorite.
Just paying attention because it caught my eye today...and I KNOW there's a way to harness this.
Just give me some time to think of it :)
] "But That Would Take Too Long...."
....And OTHER thoughts that lead to mediocrity.
Writing personal, bonding emails that come from a real person every week or two does indeed take longer than setting up a system to send out the same message again and again.
But how much is it costing you to NOT do it?
What would it really take to send out a simple message to your MarketWatch list every couple of weeks?
The reality is doesn't take that much time to do it if you've got a system around it...and maybe even someone to help.
You're out there looking at homes every day -- or your buyer's agents are. It's not that difficult to have a couple of homes on the top of your mind for the different price ranges in your market.
If someone asked you "what are the two nicest homes in the $200,000 to $300,000 price range?" -- You'd probably have an answer for them wouldn't you?
Those are the homes you want to talk about in your email. Hopefully you've even got some new listings of your own you could talk about too.
The big thing to remember is even though there may be more than 100 people getting your updates every week...THEY don't know that it's going out to hundreds of people. They don't know anyone else on your MarketWatch system. All they care about is ME.
The ultimate goal for you to have is to have them feel like they're the ONLY one you're sending this message to.
You want them to feel like they're getting a "letter from camp" every week from you describing what's going on and all the new homes you're seeing and showing.
Personality is what bonds people to you.
A System is what you set up to allow your personality to be transferred.
] Personality Beats Sterility
I've been watching conversion processes in action for the past few weeks, and I'm more amazed than ever!
For several weeks I have been getting the EXACT SAME MESSAGE approximately every 2 or 3 days as part of several MarketWatch programs.
This is ridiculous.
Essentially, this message says "How about these homes?! You want to buy one of these? I can help you buy it you know! Don't forget, I'm a Realtor, and it doesn't cost you anything to buy a house through ME....you are going to buy through ME right? Cal me, Ok?!"
Every 3rd day.
Same exact message.
There is exactly ZERO personality in the message after the first time.
Once somebody sees the EXACT same message for 3 times in a row, they KNOW YOU DON"T CARE.
It's clear I've been set up on some automatic system that sends the same message again and again.
This is exactly why I don't like using those automated systems.
Now contrast that with a thoughtful message going out every week, or every 2 weeks even, that has a little personality to it.
] The Year In Review
So I said "Hey Jesse...don't you think it would be cool to have a book with all the best posts from the year in one place so they can review all the best ideas?"
"Yeah, that would be cool -- like a Yearbook", he said.
Isn't Jesse great?