The Relationship Revolution

How will you spend your extra day?

Hey, tomorrow wasn't on last year's calendar.  And, it won't be on next year's either.  You have an extra bonus day this year, and a great opportunity to do some critical things you might have been putting off. 
How about a calling marathon?  I bet you could leave a voicemail for every A+, A and B client in your database.  Leave a clever message wishing them a happy February 29th.  Or, you could plot out a drop-by day and visit your closest relationships.  Whatever you do, make the day count!  You won't have another one for 4 years!

Instant Success

Relationship Master Jamie Eldridge doesn't have to look for an effective mailing program anymore!  Jamie is in his second full year as a Realtor, and had been struggling to develop an effective mailing program for farming.

"Thank you and your organization for providing the services I've been needing. PropertySource has it all!"

He also had great success with his first Referral Challenge campaign, which started off with a bang!  He mailed his first batch on a Friday, and had a signed contract in hand Monday afternoon!

"I hadn't even done my follow-up calls yet when I got a call from a contact who was looking at some acreage right then, and asked me to come write a contract!"

Better Than "Spectacular"!

When we tell Jamie about how his latest mailing exceeded even "spectacular" response rates, he's going to be delighted. You may have seen the Microsoft posting, "5 steps to hitting your direct mail targets" by Joanna Krotz this month. In that article, Krotz points out that "Direct mail marketing is booming....The average response rates for direct mail vary considerably, depending on what you're selling, the package's appeal, how distinctive your offer is, and the quality of your mailing list.   Overall, a good return on mass mailings...runs from .1% to 5%. A 2%-3% response is excellent. Anything near 5% is spectacular."

Well. Jamie Eldridge, one of our Relationship Masters, was talking to his Systems Coach the other day, and mentioned the 10% response he got after sending out the latest batch of his Invitation Letters. Karen, his Coach, responded with another of those 'wow' words -- "Fantastic!"

These letters are professionally created and a powerful tool that drives traffic to an online site where clients and prospects provide complete contact information. The incentive is free registration for a national $50,000 drawing that's awarded quarterly. This information is, of course, key to keeping an up-to-date list for both direct mail and e-mail. As Krotz points out, "Many experts say that 40% of direct mail's success will depend on the list." We help our members populate their database, and the Invitation Letters are pivotal in keeping that list, as they say, "clean".

Now, we know that response to our professionally created Invitation Letters can be quite high, but I don't think we've used "beyond spectacular" before. Now we will! Good going, Jamie!

If you'd like to read the entire Krotz article, here's where it is.

You Just Never Know . . .

Barbara Feuerstein took her February Article of Value to Kinko's to get it printed. Simple errand, right? Nothing special. The guy who waited on her mentioned how professional it looked, and they got to talking. Turns out, he was trying to sell his house, and Barbara got the listing! So that next new transaction could be anywhere . . . Carry your relationship marketing tools with you!

Four Places to "Walk the Walk"

                                                                                                                  
Thought you might appreciate this article. 
I think this is good reading for all of us ... Bob
                                                                                                                  

How many recipe books do you have in your kitchen? I have quite a few and it doesn’t make me a better cook, the reason why, normally I do not follow the directions as laid out in the recipe. Are you doing this in your real estate career?  Many small business owners struggle simply because they do not follow the recipe.

There are a number of great resources to building an awesome practice, however, a number of us struggle in simply following the simple recipes that are provided to us each day. How often do we attend a business seminar, get a load a great ideas and strategies (recipes), just to put them on a back burner at our office, either they are forgotten about or never even gotten around too. Are you burning your business by forgetting about what could be cooking on your back burner?

Recipes that are provided for our business success are simply directions provided by professionals and others who have walked the walk and then they write out the recipe for us. What happens normally is similar to tasting your Great Aunt’s chocolate chip cookies made by someone that just didn’t taste the way you remember? When you state that they are not the way you remember them to be, the person that prepared them states that they just changed something small however it totally changed the end result. The same happens in business every day, there are a number of recipes out there for success, and when we stop to wonder why we did not have the same success as the other person, when we compare what was different normally it is because the recipe was not followed the way it was laid out.