It’s tough to stay motivated in such a sluggish market. Writer and marketer Seth Godin points to where your motivation really needs to come from:

http://bit.ly/kGsa3b

Do you have trouble overcoming objections? Or maybe you just give up as soon as you hear an objection. If so, you need a system that’s easy for you to remember and use. Real estate trainer Dirk Zeller offers these six steps to overcoming objections.

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20110415_steps.htm

That’s how we judge you and how we remember you.

You are presumed to be showing us your real self when you are on deadline, have a headache, are facing a customer service meltdown, haven’t had a good night’s sleep, are facing an ethical dilemma, are momentarily in power, are caught doing something when you thought no one else was looking, are irritable, have the opportunity to extract revenge, are losing a competition or are truly overwhelmed.

What a great opportunity to tell the story you’d like us to hear about you.

Click here to read more of Seth Godin’s blogs: www.sethgodin.typepad.com

Every business needs customers to be successful. But just like the guy who’s desperate to get a date, if you need the customer or client too much – it may send them running in the other direction. Dirk Zeller calls this the “Desperate Agent Model” when you need the DEAL more than the client needs YOU.

Zeller compares “Desperate Agent” practices with “Champion Agents” in a recent article. Tweaking your communication goals can make all the difference in which side you fall on – and your bottom line.

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I once worked for CENTURY 21’s Regional Headquarters in Miami. The company was very conscientious about bringing in big name sales trainers to educate agents. Most of the sales trainers were good, and the agents obviously enjoyed the training. These training sessions would often end with agents jogging to the back of the ballroom to purchase cassettes (this was fifteen years ago).

 Sales training was everywhere, but what has always been lacking in the real estate industry is quality training on how to market yourself and your listings. This, I think, is the primary reason agents make such basic marketing mistakes. One mistake that especially bothers me is when agents take a shotgun approach to advertising. They’ll be in a magazine for a couple of issues, switch to radio, try direct mail, never committing to any one medium long enough to gauge its effectiveness. This is the Ricochet Rabbit approach to marketing.

 Our lives are more fragmented than ever; as a result, it is difficult to communicate your marketing message. Consistency is the key to creating top of mind awareness. Your target audience needs to receive your message over and over and over. That’s why we use the word campaign. In my mind, four months is needed to qualify as a campaign. This gives you sufficient time to measure your results and determine if you made a good marketing investment.

An ol’ timer once told me, “A bend in the road isn’t the end of the road unless you refuse to take the turn.” Buyer activity is much slower and the inventory of available homes is huge. The market is not horrible; it is simply different. For the agents who want to prosper in today’s real estate industry, it is time to adjust; it is time to take the turn. Read More