Plan 2: For a Mid-Level Salesperson Who Wants Consistent Business

This plan will take a regular monthly investment of around $1,500 toward marketing and should be carried out for a minimum of nine months. In theory, you could follow this same marketing plan for the remainder of your career.

This plan is built primarily around direct mail because direct mail consistently produces one of the highest rates of return for salespeople who have a mid-sized marketing budget. This plan will work very well all by itself, but additional things like a supporting Web site and face-to-face marketing will provide incremental increases to the plan’s effectiveness.

Objective: Establish consistent, permanent, name recognition and deal flow that will generate new and repeat business at a level of income desired.

Months One and Two

1. Develop a budget and schedule for your plan.

2. Decide how large your target market is and whether it is large enough to meet your goals. To make this program economically viable, you need a target market of at lease 1,000 homes; 3,000 homes are even better.

3. Estimate how the funds will be allocated: so much for design and copy, so much for printing and photography, so much for mailing and postage. You can confirm these costs later. To carry out this program, you will need between 10,000 and 12,000 marketing pieces ever 90 days.

4. Create a series of four-color, high-quality marketing materials that focus on the unique selling proposition you have identified. These materials should promote you—not your company, not your listings, but you personally.

TIP: To determine if you’re marketing materials truly focus on you, look at each piece for 15 seconds, and then write down the main thing you remember about it. If you remember anything but your name or your marketing slogan, start again.

Materials should include:

• A four-color brochure, with envelope if needed
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• A 4-inch by 6-inch, four-color postcard, printed with the same four-color image on one side and with different promotional messages
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• Stationery, business card, and envelopes, all of which have the same design elements and marketing them as your brochure and postcards
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• All pieces should complement each other and use the same basic design elements, marketing theme, and approach
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• See Plan One for timing your work with designers, copywriters, and printers