 | |  | | ||
|  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 | PROSPECTING IN PRINT Direct mail—both traditional and electronic—helps support personal contact during prospecting. When you plan your mailing efforts: · Follow sound basic principles of direct marketing . · Establish credibility by promoting your recent sales and listing in the area. · Offer testimonials from past customers. · Prominently feature your phone and e-mail. · Ask prospects to call you; request action. · Mail three pieces at two-to-three week intervals, and then follow with a phone call and request for appointment. TIP: Don’t worry about overdoing your promotions, says sales guru Lauren Harper-Haden, LEHH Enterprises, Schaumburg, Ill. People have a lot going on in their lives; it’s unlikely they will remember something from a month ago. Marketing expert Greg Herder of Hobbs/Herder Advertising, Newport Beach, Calif., emphasizes that unlike direct mail for personal marketing, prospecting direct mail wants instantaneous action. You are looking for a listing today. Printed pieces that are particularly effective for prospecting include: · Door hangers · Doubled-sided postcards that can be torn apart and mailed back. · Postcards emphasizing a recent sale nearby with a prominent phone number. At the same time, suggests Herder, prospecting marketing pieces should reinforce your personal marketing efforts by using similar graphics and repeating your personal marketing line and logo. TIP: Build your e-mail list by offering to enter prospects in an online contest. Offer a good prize—a television or dinner for two in a hot restaurant. Tell participants that they must enter via e-mail and will be notified the same way. Hold a second contest and offer a different sort of prize to those who did not participate—sports tickets, for example. Sooner or later, you’ll motivate most people to participate. Measure Results, next page > | Keep It Ethical Do not make specific solicitations to people who have exclusive contracts with other real estate professionals. However, if you are doing a large-scale mailing, it is acceptable to mail to everyone on the list without verifying whether or not they have contracted with someone else. Article 16 and Standard of Practice 16-2 and 16-3 Keep It Ethical Offering premiums and prizes is great, but be sure you reveal any conditions of the offer. Standard of Practice 12-3 Keep it Legal Some state and local laws restrict the use of premiums and contests. |