Lately I’ve seen too many companies complain that they are struggling to generate quality real estate leads despite them using little more than 3rd partly lead generation systems.  Sourcing out your lead generation can be pretty dicey.   Although they certainly improve your property listing exposure (I can attest), relying on these systems solely is likely to leave you in the same place you were before you started using them.  How is this possible you might think?   Answer: Everyone is doing it now.  And once everyone is doing it, then you no longer have a competitive edge.   This is the perpetual problem of the internet and its ubiquity.

I sketched out the old school sales funnel to illustrate what most real estate agents, brokers, and sellers are doing;

The unfortunate problem with the above sketch (besides the fact I’m graphically challenged), is that all of your competitors are already doing this.  You may have received an initial “pop” of activity when you started using them as you likely beat some of your competitors to market, but in the end if a property portal works well enough, it becomes ubiquitous and everyone starts using it including your competitors.   So where does that put you?  Basically we are in a never ending technology rat race.  So even though your competitors are there, you still have to post to all these sites (even though you didn’t 5 years ago), and it’s giving you little advantage if any.

So what’s a real estate marketer, agent, seller, to do?

The only answer is to create an “in-house” solution.  A solution that is unique, because unique, after all, is the only thing that is noticeable in the digital age.  You must hack the system by creating your own.

Here’s a few ideas to get you going;

• Webinars of value – a webinar of value is an educational or informational webinar, not a sales event (everyone is already doing those).
• Whitepapers that matter – why not create a document that none of your competitors have with unique content?  Market it with lead capture on your site to create an effective opt-in list.
• Respect opt-in protocol – when you do get subscribers don’t spam them.  I’m signed up for several competitor sites and usually it is spam central with self-centered email messages not relevant to the list I signed up for.
• In-person workshops – workshops can be very effecting in meeting your clients face-to-face while offering some educational benefit to them. Stay away from bait-and-pitch tactics where you sell them after promising education.
• Create content evangelizing them – if I see another “me, me, me!” video I’m going to throw up.  People will share quality content, not garbage.  When’s the last time you shared an advertisement with someone?

To build an effective in-house lead generation program you need to have strategy and goals.  Most importantly when you do generate leads, be persistent, yet respectful.  Follow up timely.  The chance of converting a new lead drops by 70% if you don’t connect in the first 24 hours.

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I was thinking this morning of how goals are achieved.  I think this builds on yesterday’s blog, Return On Effort.  Frankly, I just don’t know if intensity can be taught.  I think it has to come from within.  I’ve come to the actualization that life is extremely short and slothing around isn’t going to allow you to create something great.   Great companies, accomplishments, feats, whatever, come from individuals or groups of individuals that have a high level of intensity.

Notice I said “groups”.  Companies don’t become great because of a few select people with intensity.  They happend with a collectively high level of intensity.   Intensity in everything you do both on the clock and off the clock.   Simple task this month,  Blogging.   I set a personal goal of one blog per day, then decided it was boring.  One blog per day?   Reasons (excuses) for not being on pace include;  on vacation,  not feeling well, busy with other goals, blah, blah, blah.  All of us do all of these.  Do you let your thoughts control your actions?   Why not just start blogging?  Just do it.

Guy Kawasaki says that too much time is spent by entreprneneurs planning and strategizing and not enough time “doing”.   So why not crush the blogging goal?   Why not crush the sales goal, the lead gen goal, the appointments goal.   When did hitting your goals or even falling short become good enough?

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Return on Effort simply calculates your return on the effort placed.

Just to summarize in generalities, the less effort you place on something the smaller your return.   Your return can be in the forms of money, productivity, feeling of self worth, love, extended life, etc.

Taking a quick look at how it applies to work ethic I notice a few things.   Those around me that work the hardest, put in the time needed, and dedication get a larger return than those that do not.   Of course there are shortcuts which are building systems.   Building systems though really isn’t a shortcut becuase it requires an even larger front loaded effort to set up the system.  This can be automation of an email program, use of a CRM, etc.  Still lots of effort on the front.

However getting back to the people that put in the effort, they see the results faster and tend to have less frustration.   Return on Effort is amplfied when working for a small company or if you are self employed.   The return can increase exponentially as the time investment (which can equal effort in some cases) is banked up.

Here’s an example:

An owner of ABC Business diligently works from 7am to 7pm, whilst the owner of XYZ company works from 9am to 4pm.   Now all things being equal as far as productivity per hour is concerned, ABC is inputting 12 hours into the equation while XYZ inputs 7.  Not a lot of difference in a day.  But in a week that 5 hour difference is amplified to 25 hours of difference.   Over a year that number is 1300 hours.   Chances are ABC is also working weekends.  And let’s just say a modest 10 hours per weekend.  That’s another 520 hours  bringing the total edge to 1820 hours per year… yikes!   This sounds strangely like Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hours.

The 10,000 hours crew seems to develop a higher level of passion for their work and typically improves success to failure ratio (which I’ve heard is 1 success for every 3.8 failures for entreprneneurs).

Based on this, are you maximizing your investment of effort on the front end to achieve the returns you are looking for?   Or are you unhappy, jealous of competitors, frustrated, etc?

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TWTRCON 09 was an great experience.  Being the first major Twitter Conference, attracted several big names in Silicon Valley such as Guy Kawasaki, Seth Greenberg (Intuit), Adventure Girl, MC Hammer, and more.   My big takeaway was being able to build a sound Twitter strategy for my business.  

Twitter is becoming part of the American lexicon almost immediately and that requires people having policy and procedure in place especially if you have employees using the service.  Over 50% of the people surveyed at TWTRCON are making money using the tool (myself included).  We also were able to hear from Animatra at Twitter who was talking about the future of Twitter and some of the enterprise applications that will be coming out.  

If you aren’t already using this tool, consider adding it to your belt.  Prior to doing so, create a strategy for attracting and engaging customers.   Drop me a line if you need some help.

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Here we come!   TWTRCON is the first official Twitter Conference in San Francisco.  I’m more than excited to go.   I have several success stories from Twitter and am looking to pick up some ideas to expand how my company engages the right kind of people on Twitter. 

Guy Kawasaki is going to be the keynote, so I can’t be more excited because his book, The Art of the Start, has helped me through several of my startups (and there has been a few).    

With just 250 tickets, TWTRCON is sold out.  I’m excited to know that we are the only real estate company that will be present.  Also having never been to SF, I’m excited for that as well.  

Lastly I’m looking forward to sharing the information that I learn with you especially if it can help your business.   I’ll bring back some pics!

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Everyone in my office is talking about our lawncare/landscaper.   His name is Jim Windisch.   Jim lives across the street from me.  He was able to get his foot in the door through persistence.  Last year he always asked for our real estate business.  I had another company handling our lawncare business at my real estate company that prevented me from allowing Jim in.  

Then one day I needed some work done to my own home.   Jim handled it with a smile.  He was always upbeat.  Two days after he was finished the neighborhood association gave me Yard of the Month!   I still didn’t give him my real estate business contacts.  But fast forward 9 months.  Something happened where it became a conflict to use our other company.   The door was open….

During the 9 months and prior, many lawn care companies had called on us for the business.  They all had the same consistencies.   One call, then never hear from them again.  Jim of course was persistent.   He received our business. 

Since then he’s done many lawncare jobs and landscaping jobs and is looking at hiring a crew.  Brian at my office says, “The guy seems like the happiest guy on earth!”.   He always is that way.   It’s amazing what the positive attitude and the persistence can yield.   Rarely does this work on the first go around.  It takes both items to yield the equation.  

How many people do you know that are the opposite?   What does this equation give you?   Bad Attitude + Gives Up Easily = ?

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Learning never stops.   It’s taken all of my 30+ years to realize this.  I have so much to learn.  I’m humbled by it.   As a small business owner I realize that the learning process must be constant.   Yesterday I learned a bit about incremental sales from my friend Andrew Brown.   Andrew has a food delivery business.   His business is built soley off of helping restaurants achieve incremental sales.   

This business is able to negotiate as high as 30% of a restaurants gross sale because they aren’t costing the restaurant anything.  It is an incremental sale.  The beauty is this is built around his entire business model.  His business is dependent on the fact that Americans don’t want to cook and want to order to be delivered but the restaurants don’t have the man power to do it.    I realized a good fit for incremental sales in my business over the last month but yesterday had an epiphany of how I could make this work on a larger scale for my own. 

How can your business increase incremental sales?

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In a battle of business titans who will win?   Innovator or Duplicator?

I’d classify myself and many of the people I surround myself with as innovators, constantly changing, trying to jump the curve, stay ahead of the game, change our industry and ultimately change the world.

Many of competitors in my industry have a business model of pure duplication.  Wait and find out what an innovator is doing, then duplicate.  Some have bigger budgets, and scream louder, then call the newly adapted innovation their own.  Personal favorite of mine.  The antidote for the disease they try to spread is of course, laughter.   The velocity of change that is happening will only hinder the duplicator, never on the edges, the bleeding edges.   When they get to the edge its no longer the edge.  It’s the middle now.

However the loud screams they shout are heard by some and someone once told me, “He who screams the loudest gets heard.”  I think that was true during Marketing 1.0.   Maybe we are in Marketing 1.5 right now, but as the dramatic shift occurs, where ideas spread virally, the likelyhood of building a sustainable business model on duplication deteriorates.

Root for the innovators.

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It’s nearly 2009.  Have you set your goals?   Do you ever set goals?   Many people INTEND to set their goals only to look back having let another year go by.  At my ripe age of 30, its easy for me to look back and say, “What have I accomplished in the last 10 years?”   You should be asking yourself the same thing.  Chances are things aren’t that bad despite the economy, especially if you are a Richer Report reader.   Let’s take a look at how I set my goals each year.  Keep in mind there are many ways to do this, but the main thing you do is to SET GOALS.  

1.  Identify the various areas of your life.  

Example, I use the following:  

• Family
• Religious
• Charity
• Business
• Financial
• Education

These are in no particular order but I take into account that I need to be growing personally in these areas.  

2.  Eat an elephat in bites

If you have $100 in your checking account but are worried about the $1,000,000 or more you will need to retire, don’t panic.  Focus on what you can do today to impact things.   Example, reduce debt, start savings accounts, etc.   A couple friends and I once started pooling $50 per month each into an account to buy real estate.  It sounded silly at first but after a couple years and small incremental bumps up in contribution, we had 4 rental homes.

3.  Give to charity

This is an area I’m putting a big focus on in 2009.  The more I seem to give away, the more I get in return.  This continues to happen.  I’ve found a couple charities that are very dear to me including my church but also including an organization related to one of my business verticals.  This gets creates a lot of interest in donating for me, thus I’ll donate more. 

4.  Don’t forget family.  

I’ll admit it.  I’m a workaholic.  To me my work is very meaningful and therefore it doesn’t seem like work to me.  But it is still very easy to get engrossed in projects and neglect family time.   This year I’m planning visits to relatives that I haven’t seen in a long time, and devoting extra time to my wife. 

5.  Write your goals down.

Most people never write them down.  I go as far as printing them out and putting them in a picture frame on my desk.   This allows me to visualize my goals constantly.

6.  Set reminders to check status

Set a time each month, or week, to see where you are, if you are on pace, and if not, what needs to be done.   This is the most important.  Don’t write your goals down and forget about them. 

7.  Get someone else involved (if you can)

My wife and I are doing goal setting together, then my business partners and I.  I’m including my parents in my goals for family and travel. 

If you are new the goal-setting process, don’t be afraid.  You’ll improve over time and see measurable results.  Remember,  ”luck” is the intersection of preparation and hard work.

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