TECHNOLOGY@WORK
Ask Mr. Internet

Make masterful listing presentations

Leverage the power of an online mastermind group.

MICHAEL RUSSER

Q.The Internet is great for locating buyers, but how can I use it as a listing tool?
Frank Zedar
Century 21--New Millennium, McLean, Va.

Dear Frank:
The great thing about Swiss Army knives is that they’re a multipurpose tool.The Internet, too, is multifaceted. You can use it not only to find buyers but also to acquire listings.

One of the most effective ways of generating listings almost immediately is with a strategy I call Online Mastermind. To start, you need a digital camera, a laptop computer, and the willingness to follow three steps:

1. Establish a mastermind group.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the mastermind concept described in Napoleon Hill’s bookThink and Grow Rich, which describes how a group of people harness the collaborative power of a group “mind” or intelligence. Online Mastermind is similar, but members must

• Be top producers from your area (ideally from different companies).
  
• Be Internet savvy. They should at least use E-mail regularly.
  
• Understand that the group needs to collaborate to obtain more individual listings and sales.
  
• Agree to E-mail a notice or virtual flyer (see No. 2 below)on every new listing they take, the instant they take it, to other Online Mastermind members. If you don’t obtain every member’s explicit agreement on the last point, the collaboration won’t work.
  
  2. Create a virtual flyer.
  You can create a flyer on the Web or as a self-contained executable attachment that you transmit via E-mail.
  
  For help, try such systems as Picture Works' NetCard, which creates multimedia E-mail postcards you can use as online flyers. I like www.Websuite.com, which lets you create a flyer in minutes, even during the listing presentation.See Peg Bryant’s* virtual flyer atwww.website-builder.com/hot proptemplate.cfm?id=2665&uid=2655.
  
  Creating flyers is a matter of taking house photos with your digital camera and downloading them into flyer templates, along with descriptive text and the appropriate agency disclosures.
  
  3. Craft your killer listing presentation and give it maximum exposure.
  For an unbeatable presentation, explain to sellers that when they hire you, they’re tapping the area’s top producers, who’ll have first crack at selling the property.
  
  To add drama to your presentation, display the virtual flyer on your laptop while you’re connected to the Internet. With your finger hovering over the Send button, tell sellers that the moment they contract with you, you’ll instantly send the flyer to all the top producers in your group, setting off a frenzy of marketing.
  
  The first morning Rob Levy, a salesperson with Prudential Northwest Properties in Beaverton, Ore. (www.roblevy.com), used the Mastermind system, including virtual flyers, he landed twolistings.
  
  *Peg Bryant is a mythical real estate professional whom Mr. Internet uses to demonstrate various ways to market yourself effectively online.
  
  Russer is an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, and author. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. You can see his column, “Ask Mr. Internet,” on REALTOR^®Magazine Online every month and in the magazine periodically. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com.