PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE

People must feel comfortable to purchase anything. And the key word is "CREDIBILITY." There are three types of credibility:

1. YOU

(believe it or not first impressions count) How are you dressed, do you wreak with confidence so it is evident, do you smile

2. Your Company

(always have two or three statements that just roll off your tongue) Example-"The real estate industry has changed so much since our company was established in 1992" or "My staff is dedicated to servicing clients before the sale, during the sale, and after the sale."

3. Your Product or Service

My goal is to create not just clients, but life long friends, and referrals account for a major part of my success

More Biz in a Tough Market: The One Question More Realtors Need to Ask

by Brian Hilliard (direct quotes from Brian)

"Of all the people you've talked to this week, how many have you made feel like they should give you their business? In other words, a lot of times we can be so busy talking about what we've done, and are going to do for people, that we lose track of first creating an environment where this prospect (or Referral Partner) actually wants to work with us, or pass referrals in our direction. And when you think about it, that makes sense."

"There are plenty of choices out there for people looking to buy a home. And if we accept the fact that you're not the only Agent this person is talking to, then getting her to feel like she wants to work with you is absolutely crucial to closing the sale.

I'm talking about things like:

* Does she feel comfortable with your expertise in the area?

* Is she confident that you'll do what you said you do?

* Does she feel "listened to", even though she might be asking "stupid" questions?

* How confident is she that you'll take care of her even after the sale?

All of this comes together to create a general "feel," or "vibe" someone has about working with you. And the more positive you can make that initial feeling, the more likely you are to close the deal.

So what can you do to generate the right "feel"? Well, you'll first want to make sure that you always "Do What You Said You Would Do." That means sending out an email, returning phone calls in a timely fashion and showing up to meetings on time. A lot of times we can be so busy doing so many other things, that some of the "little stuff" can fall through the cracks."

Business Sitting At Your Doorstep

It is time to remind everyone once again.... When was the last time you picked up a phone and called your top five clients? your top ten clients? ... More business is sitting at your doorstep through your existing clients than spending lots of time and funds to find new clients.

I like the following from Betty Kincaid's Blog:

The recession has set the housecats free. It’s time to let your dormant instincts kick in. Like the alley cat, it’s time to work to fill your belly – in your case, by ensuring a steady stream of clients.

Where do you get those customers?

Order them by phone.

Call everyone you’ve done business with in the last 5 years to update their contact information, ask for the order & find out how you can help them succeed in 2009.

Start right now. Contact everyone in your database within 6 weeks. As you make the calls, the energy in your office will rise. The phone will begin to ring and orders will start to flow. You’re going to get busy, but don’t stop making your calls. Once you get to the end, start again.

Improving Your Quality of Life

Often one of the reasons people don't take the time to improve their quality of life, is that they think things will somehow just get better. They live their life in hope that their job or business will somehow improve. They hope that some lucky combination of circumstances will come about and as a result, they will finally be recognised and rewarded. Unfortunately this isn't how life works. How life works is; for things to get better, we must first get better. For things to improve, we must first improve. If we want to become more successful and happier in life, we must adopt a more effective approach.

The starting point of all change is in the mind, or more precisely, in how we think! Am I saying all we must do is improve the quality of our thoughts and we will improve the quality of our life? Yes! In fact, everything pivots around this fundamental truth. Success comes from results. Results come from actions. Actions come from thoughts. So, when we think more effectively, we take better actions, and produce better results. As you are the one who is responsible for your thoughts, you must decide how successful your life will be. It is always your responsibility, because only you have control of your mind.

Beliefs are magical things, they are at first thoughts and yet they are more than thoughts. Our beliefs comprise; how we come to know and understand things, give meaning to things, and create energy, emotions, and actions. Meaning doesn't exist out there in the world. Meaning exists only within the mind as we connect and link ideas with experiences. At birth, we have no beliefs. They develop as our perceptions, understandings and learning's grow and become a form of focused awareness. Beliefs develop over time from our experiences. We construct them via the ideas, thoughts, feelings, and meanings that we develop about various concepts. Beliefs are very powerful, helping us to have a sense of certainty and direction in an unpredictable world.

So if we wish to get better we must start by developing better beliefs. And you can chose to change any one you want to by first identifying a limiting belief, and then creating a new counter-belief that better supports you. Then become willing to let go of the old belief, and adopt the new. Simply accept any resistance, and then repeat the process until you can state the new belief congruently. Manifesting your dreams and desires into reality does not depend on your education, your ethnicity, your cultural heritage, or your current environment. It is solely the result of how you think and what you believe. One of the most important beliefs we can adopt is that in order to succeed and be happy we should be constantly improving the quality of our lives, by constantly growing and expanding our thinking.

Lew Smallwood

Julie Escobar - Her Experience Provides Benefits

Julie Escobar is Director of Corporate and Convention Marketing for ProspectsPLUS! Julie has more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the real estate industry. In her current position, she provides fresh ideas, products and tools for the training team and valued clients of Bradenton, FL-based ProspectsPLUS!

Get more of her tips, tools and strategies each month in the free Master Marketing Newsletter^TM from Prospects PLUS! Visit www.ProspectsPlus.com, call Julie at 1.800.287.5710, or e-mail her at julie.escobar@prospectsplus.com

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20090910_backschool.htm

Build Buyer Interest, Generate Leads With Videos on YouTube

by Paul Montelongo

Social media marketing has become, quite frankly, an essential way to do business and one of the premier sites the home building industry should use is YouTube.

We in the industry work with prospective buyers who are savvier than ever — due in large part to the information they glean from the Internet.

However, no matter how savvy the buyer, they still seek the most fundamental of all sales concepts — they want to trust the salesperson and company they are working with. After they have gathered all their information, they want to be validated. They want to work with real people with real insights.

This is where a vehicle like YouTube can be your most influential tool.

Videos bridge static information and the visual. They give your prospective buyers a view into your product and your personality. In addition, they function as a lead generator as well as a lead qualifier.

YouTube Is Simple to Use

With YouTube, you can shoot a short video and upload it to the site within minutes. YouTube then provides you a link that you can copy and paste into an e-mail to your prospects, or post on your Web site, blog or other social sites you may have, such as Facebook or Twitter.

All you need is a video camera and an idea.

YouTube technology is easy to use. But in case you’re a technophobe, don’t worry. Someone in your office, or just about any high school student, will be able to upload a video for you.

What you will probably find more challenging will be creating and developing the ideas for videos that will distinguish you and elevate you above your competition.

The following are a few tips on what to do when making your video — and what to avoid doing.

Video Do’s

• Brevity Is King. Make your point and show your product quickly.
• Authenticity Rules. Be personable. Smile and remember to be friendly. Think trust and remember, you are showcasing how easy it is for people to get along with you in a sales environment.
• Frequency. Post videos and update your footage regularly.
• Be Original and Spontaneous. Carry your video camera with you at all times and be ready to record anything that is remotely interesting or informative in your line of work.
• Brief Customer Testimonials Are Very Powerful. Anyone can write a testimonial, but with a video testimonial, the viewer can look into the eyes of your customers and gauge their sincerity.
• Archive Them in One Location. Create your own YouTube TV station. It’s free, simple, quick to do and can be customized with your corporate colors and logo.

What to Avoid

• Bad Lighting, Bad Sound, Too Much Background Noise. You don’t need to be Steven Spielberg to produce a decent video, but use some common sense when it comes to the quality of your videos.
• Disrespecting the Copyright Laws. If you wish to use music, photos, literature and other videos, conduct a brief Google search to see if you are infringing on any intellectual territories. There are plenty of royalty-free pictures and music available for your videos.
• Distasteful, Off-Color, Unruly, Offensive or Objectionable Material. Can you be edgy and interesting? Absolutely. How is objectionable defined?
• Not Integrating Your YouTube Videos With All of Your Other Internet Marketing Strategies. YouTube videos should be a component of a well-thought out marketing plan. In the housing industry videos should be a component of your overall marketing landscape.
• Copycat, Copycat. It’s okay to take an idea and expand it to make it your own. Be as original as you possibly can and avoid copying the video ideas of a competitor or colleague.
• No Contact Information. Every video you produce and post should include your contact information. A simple e-mail or Web site address is sufficient. As with other marketing, your goal is to have prospective customers contact you for more information. Help them out.
• Not Combing Your Hair. Think about the impression you wish to make and dress accordingly. If you want to project a highly professional image, wear business clothes and film the video in your office with you behind a big walnut desk. Or, because you’re selling a lakefront community, casual attire is more appropriate as you film your video on an outside patio overlooking the lake (possibly with a mojito cocktail on the table).
• Keeping Your Videos a Secret. If you are going to make an effort to shoot video footage, by all means let the world know it’s out there.

There are other video storage sites available, such as Viddler.com and Flickr.com, that you can use as well. Each has its own special features, but YouTube is by far the most widely used and is universally recognized.

Keep in mind that, as with most other forms of marketing, video marketing is a work-in-progress. The more you work with it, the more it will work for you.

Paul Montelongo, CSP, CGR, is a nationally recognized speaker, author, syndicated columnist, entrepreneurial consultant and an international authority on sales motivation. He works with businesses and organizations around the country to build team responsibility and personal morale. Visitwww.youtube.com/plmontelongo for video evidence and his blog at www.paulmontelongo.com/housingblog for social media marketing proof.

The Enemies of Learning and Change

A young man approached Socrates the great philosopher and sage and pleaded that he accept him as a student. Socrates responded by asking the young man to walk with him along the bank of a river and then beckoned him to enter the water with him. Suddenly Socrates grasped the young man and forced his head under water. He struggled frantically to free himself but Socrates held him tightly and kept him submerged. Finally, the young man became exhausted so Socrates released him and then asked: When you thought you were drowning what one thing did you want most of all? Still gasping he exclaimed: I wanted air! Socrates smiled and said: When you want knowledge as much as you wanted air, then you will get it!

The lesson for us is that to learn and change we must be committed. How we approach learning inevitably shapes what we understand to be possible in dealing with the difficulties that confront us in life. Being a committed learner is central to developing what the Dalai Lama calls a flexible or pliant mode of thinking. How each of us operates as a learner inevitably shapes what we see to be possible when dealing with difficulties that may confront us.

One way to discern how we approach learning is to consider any unintentional blockages we may have. These enemies of learning often occur as our silent statements and judgements. They may include an inability to acknowledge our ignorance or admit that someone else may know. Or we may be unwilling to allow others the permission, or authority to teach us. Sometimes it is self-doubt about our ability to learn and change, or perhaps being trapped in a mood of anxiety, or of resignation, or of resentment. Knowing and acknowledging our enemies of learning is the first step in moving beyond them.

Another key step is to identify and develop our allies of learning. These include humility, which enables us to acknowledge our ignorance and to grant ourselves permission to learn from another. Courage, so we allow ourselves to be open to new, and sometimes difficult areas of learning or to different methods of learning. Also, developing a constructive frame of mind along with a way of being that incorporates curiosity, wonder, humour, lightness and playfulness. These attributes and a determination to persist with learning will serve us well.

Throughout time people have always had to adapt to changing circumstances. However, what we are faced with currently is not just change, but change at warp speed. We are now living with change that is unprecedented in both speed and frequency. If change is about learning, then faster and more frequent change is going to require faster and more frequent learning. If this is the case, then the question is: How? We may be able to learn new skills and strategies, but how long before these become obsolete and then what do we do?

It is imperative to move to another level of learning, deep or experiential learning, or what Peter Senge calls, second order learning. Why is it that we often find ourselves stuck when dealing with difficult circumstances and issues we can’t resolve? Why do the same issues continue to limit our effectiveness in our professional and personal lives? Typically, we might respond by saying: Because we don’t know how to deal with them. In other words we have not been successful in changing our behaviour so that we can get more satisfactory outcomes. Engaging in critical thinking and reflecting on why it is so will cause us to deepen our learning. I invite you to explore and identify any enemies and allies of learning you may have.

Examine your thinking and identify three enemies of learning that are evident and that you wish to release. Ask yourself: do I confuse knowing with having an opinion? Do I confuse knowing with thinking I’m right? Do I regard knowing as having information?

Then identify three allies of learning that you wish to reinforce and that will significantly impact your ability to learn and succeed in life. Ask yourself: Is my way of being such that I am open to learning? How can I be more open to learn from other people and events? Finally ask every day; what else is possible?

as posted by Lew Smallwood on his blog today...