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 Income-Planning Worksheet Advanced tip: Permission Marketing Warm Calling Advanced tip: ABCs of Prospects Broker tip: Add Rehab to Your Business Prospecting Buyers Call-Ins Advanced tip: Use Personal Assistants for Prospecting Advanced tip: Public Speaking Community Involvement Prospecting in Print Tracking Prospecting Results Advanced tip: Lead Analysis Quiz: Prospecting Bright Ideas: Prospecting Code of Ethics: Prospecting More Resources: Prospecting |
PERMISSION MARKETING For the Advanced Salesperson The Old Sell is Dead: All Hail Permission Marketing Seth Godin, the author of Permission Marketing (Simon & Schuster) and the man Business Week calls "the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age", says traditional "interruption" marketing that intrudes into your life, no longer works. With the clutter of more than 2,000 marketing messages a day (from all media), the average person is an expert at ignoring you. The answer, Godin believes, is letting customers come to you. Here's how. Q: How does permission marketing differ from regular marketing? Godin: The three magic words when it comes to marketing messages are “anticipated,” “personal,” and “relevant.” If you can deliver on all three, you're going to make people happy and be more likely to get the response to want. That's tough to do with regular, or what I call interruption, marketing because you don't know whom you're marketing to. With permission marketing, people have asked for the information you're sending them, so you know they are interested. Q: How does that work in home sales? Godin: The thing about buying a house is that almost no one buys a house from a stranger. You have to turn strangers into friends and from there they become customers. You establish a link by getting prospects’ permission to talk to them about real estate. Let’s say there are 2,400 houses in your area. Most of the owners of these houses are not interested in selling. But everyone's interested in what his or her house is worth. Why not approach every owner and say: “If you give me your e-mail address, I will send you a monthly list of every sale in your area.” This starts the conversation. These people have now given you permission to talk to them every four weeks about real estate. And when the time comes for them to sell their houses, I guarantee they're going to call the person who's been sending them e-mail. TIP: Congress is considering several bills to outlaw or regulate unsolicited e-mails. (You'll need your REALTOR.org username and password to access this information.) Q: Why use e-mail instead of directing prospects to your Web site? Godin: Web sites allow people to remain anonymous. But if you have people’s e-mail addresses, you have their permission to talk to them on a one-to-one basis. Permission is powerful for several reasons. Not only does it strengthen your relationship with sellers, it also provides you with a unique listing tool. When you go out on listing appointments, you can tell sellers you have permission to talk to 100 or 200 people who might have a buyer for your home. It's a major asset. Q: Is permission marketing dependent on the Internet? Godin: No. The point is gaining someone's permission to talk to him or her about your product and then using the permission in the best way possible. Take something like open houses. Instead of seven, different open houses at different times, why not invite buyers to a brunch on Sunday morning, and then rent a bus to take them on a tour of eight or ten houses? When you think about it, every person on the bus has given you permission to take them around and show them houses. So instead of showing one person one house, show 10 people 10 houses. It's a lot more efficient. Q: In your book, you stress the importance of maximizing your business with customers. How is that possible with home sales, where people typically buy only one house at a time? Godin: Many real estate professionals need to redefine their jobs. They're not in the house selling business. They're in the moving business. Once you have permission to open someone's wallet and take out $400,000 to buy a house, you really ought to be selling them additional items like homeowners’ insurance, warranties, and all the other stuff people need when they move to a new home or town. I've moved four or five times in the last few years, and I can't remember a single instance in which a real estate company offered to recommend a moving company? Why not? It could double your profit with very little extra effort. Salespeople may not be able to offer all these services personally, but they can discuss such a program with their brokers or even work out referral arrangements with providers of related services. Warm Calling, next page > |
Keep It Ethical Inform clients of any compensation you receive from referrals to other companies. Article 6 and Standard of Practice 6-1 |