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Turn Listing Drudgery Into An Unbeatable
Competitive Weapon ...
Taking a new listing is always a bit of a
double-edged sword. On one hand you have new
potential business, on the other there are a ton
of details to address while managing the listing
through to its sale. Depending upon how
elaborate you are in supporting and marketing
your listings, this can take up a major portion
of your time. And the more listings you take,
the more likely details will fall through the
cracks and the echoes of sellers screaming
"What's going on with the sale of my property?!"
becomes louder.
This "do it yourself" approach creates a major barrier to the number
of new listings any agent can handle at one time. The good news
for you however, is that you are about to learn a strategy that will
free you up to take as many listings as you want, have total control
over what needs to get done, and even gives you an unbeatable competitive
edge during your listing presentation. Sound too good to be true?
—read on...
Systemize, Delegate, Automate
Listing Marketing Coordination (LMC) is the process of handling all
aspects of marketing a new listing and keeping the seller informed up to
and including the point of sale. Effective listing marketing
coordination consists of these three parts:
-
Systemize - a consistent set of steps and
deadlines are created in template form that will be used to execute
the listing marketing coordination process
-
Delegate - have a Listing Marketing Coordinator
run the process for you
-
Automate - automate as many of the listing
marketing coordination functions as possible (i.e. automatic showing
feedback, etc.)
To illustrate how these go together, the following is an example
of how one of my students,
Joan Prout of RE/MAX Villa REALTORS® in Jersey City, NJ uses virtual
assistant
Carrie Gable of
Palatine, IL to handle all of her listing
marketing coordination details:
Pre-Listing
-
Joan gets a lead, sends VA an e-mail with the name
and address of lead.
-
VA adds the lead to her
Top Producer account along
with the assigned campaign.
-
VA goes into a previous listing on the MLS and grabs a
photo of the building/home so that VA can somewhat customize the
documents.
-
VA adds the photo and potential client’s information
onto the cover sheet of our pre-listing package. VA prints in color,
binds the document, and sends via DHL to the potential client.
-
Joan makes the follow-up call after she receives the
confirmation that the package was delivered.
-
Joan meets with the potential client.
Marketing Presentation
VA creates PowerPoint marketing presentation for Joan that she
goes over during her initial meeting that outlines all the marketing
activities that Joan does for her sellers through her VA.
Actively Market the Listing
Once Joan takes the listing, VA implements the New Listing
Checklist:
-
Enters the property in the Hudson County, Garden
State and NJ Multiple Listing Services
-
Adds property on
www.joanprout.com with multiple
photos, links to showing request forms, disclosures, flyers,
condo fees, pre-inspection reports and any other pertinent
information
-
Creates a virtual tour for the Internet
-
Designs and blasts out an e-mail to database of
700+ prospective buyers
-
Blasts e-mail to the agents in two of the MLS’s
that Joan subscribes to
-
Produces color property flyers (VA prints in-house
and sends via DHL direct to seller)
-
Fax blasts a flyer to list of 70 Real Estate
offices
-
Writes and places classified advertising
-
Sends Joan the Hot-line script to record
-
Logs onto Joan’s computer via
gotomypc.com and:
-
Adds a new folder in Joan's InBox for the
listing
-
Adds a rule to her Outlook that will make all
e-mails regarding the listing move to a specified folder (by mls#, address, tour number,
Realtor.com number, etc)
-
Adds a signature to her Outlook with copy and
links for the property so she can use on the fly and save
time
-
Enhance listing on
www.Realtor.com with copy,
photos, links, etc.
-
Enhance the listing on
www.REMAX-NJ.com company
website
-
Create an ad on
www.craigslist.com
NJ real estate section
Tracking Listing Marketing Activity
VA will e-mail or snail mail weekly reports
to sellers with the following information:
-
Realtor.com traffic
-
Virtual Tour traffic
-
Web Hits
-
REMAX-NJ.com traffic
-
Showing Feedback – gathered via phone
-
Hotline calls
-
Summary of Marketing Activities
It's exhausting just reading this list isn't it?! Yet, nearly
every item here is done for Joan by her Virtual Listing Marketing
Coordinator. This frees her up to take as many listings as she
wants while knowing that all the details will be handled expertly. Now
that is what I call "control!" Yet there is more...
Turning Drudgery Into A Competitive Weapon
Clearly, most other sales professionals don't have a prayer of
competing with Joan for listings if they try to do it all themselves.
Also, what kind of reaction do you think a prospective seller is going
to have when they see that Joan has her own dedicated "Listing Marketing
Coordinator" that will execute a huge array of marketing activities and
give them comprehensive reports on a weekly basis? With the help
of her VA Joan has effectively turned listing "grunt" work into a
powerful tool to beat out other listing agents and free her up to do
what she does best.
So what does this kind of support cost? According to Carrie
Gable, Joan's VA, typical listing marketing coordination packages
executed by her team will run from $150 - $450 per listing, depending on
your required list of tasks for each listing. NOTE: The
Prelisting and Marketing Presentation tasks are extra. Keep in
mind that each VA specializing in listing marketing coordination will
have their own pricing schedule.
Is it worth it? If you ask Joan I think you will know what the
answer will be. As a real estate sales professional you have two
choices: you can either be a slave to your business, or you can
have it serve you —which is it going to be for your business?
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally
recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to
the real estate industry. He's dedicated to helping real estate
professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet.
You'll see his column on REALTOR® Magazine Online every month and in the
magazine quarterly. Send your Internet questions to
help@askmrinternet.com or you
can visit his Web site at
http://www.russer.com
This article is reprinted in its entirety from the
May 2005 issue
of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
REALTORS®. Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above.
Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark and Ask Mr. Internet!™ is a
trademark of RUSSER Communications. |
