Prospecting and Marketing to attract more listing prospects

Prospecting and Marketing to Attract More Listing Prospects

We’ve all heard the words prospecting, marketing and advertising tossed about, but sometimes we don’t really understand the difference it them. From what I’ve seen over the years, “prospecting” is what almost any one in our industry hates to do. The word gives the image of sitting on the telephone and cold calling. And we all feel glad to have the excuse of the Federal “do not call” laws to free us from prospecting. I’ve also seen that to most of us “personal marketing” and “advertising” are what we spend massive amounts of money doing with mixed (or no) results.

If you honestly want to list more homes, and keep a larger portion of your commission checks, you need to have a change in your mindset!

“Personal marketing” is putting your personal branding and image on all of your materials so the public will remember you. “Prospecting” is directing your efforts to a smaller group of people while “advertising” is directing your efforts to the general public, even though most of them will not be buying or selling in the near future. “Advertising” is generally very expensive and not very effective because it goes to the general public. “Prospecting” can be relatively inexpensive or as costly as you want it to be. In our series of articles on Prospecting, marketing and advertising will give you many more ideas, but we will take a little about the specific methods that work for getting listings.

1. Monthly Postcards

Every month you should be mailing postcards to the following groups of people:

- A geographic “farming” area of at least 300 homes. Once you have had 2 to 3 quick selling listings in the area and have mailed “Just Listed” and “Just Sold” postcards the homeowners, you will start getting listings because you are the “neighborhood expert. Here’s a few hints on selecting an area:

1) You don’t have to have all 300 homes in the same area. When I was listing so many homes, I “farmed” 4 different areas. One of the subdivisions only had 100 homes and I had remarkable success in it. I had 2 listings that had sold fast. Then one day I got a phone call from a seller who had just cancelled her listing with an agent from the largest company in the area. The agent had left a list of the recent sales and when the owner’s got frustrated on the lack of a sale, they looked over the list again. They saw that I had sold 2 homes in less time than they had already been on the market! (another hint, never put who listed or sold the comparable sales when you prepare a CMA!!)

2) Select an area or area near your own home.

3) Select an area or areas you like.

4) Select an area or areas where there is a good amount of turn-over each year.

5) If you chose to “farm” several areas, you might want to choose different price ranges. That way, maybe you “move up” seller/buyers might just “move up” to another of your listings!

- All of your past clients.

- Everyone else that you know.

2. For Sale By Owners (FSBOs)

To be successful with “by owners”, you need to combine a series of postcards, visits, help and competitive commission rates. Scaring them is NOT a way to get a listing. Understanding why they are trying to sell on their own is a much better strategy. You may also want to try making phone calls after you have checked the Federal Do Not Call List first. After all, not many agents are making calls any more!

3. “Expired” Listings

Owners of homes that didn’t sell are usually very frustrated and think we are all alike. The post cards you send them need to show that you understand their frustration and show that you are different.

4. Just Listed and Just Sold Postcards

Every time you have a new listing, you should send out 20 to 200 postcards. The Just Sold post cards need to go to the same people. Who do you mail to? Conventional wisdom says to mail around the area of the listing. But you can mail more. If the listing is in your “farming” area, be sure to mail to the whole area. Another great idea is to make your “Just Listed” and “Just Sold” post cards look alike for extra impact.

As you can see, I am a fan of postcards. Postcards are great for several reasons:

a. You have a very short time to make an impression between the mailbox and the trash can. The recipient may look at a post card if it is visually interesting, but will most likely throw away a letter without ever opening it!

b. Regular sized post cards take less postage than letters.

c. With the quality of ink jet printers today, you can design and print your own post cards.

That last hint will, all by itself, will help keep more of your commission dollars!

The author of this article is Linda Grissette. Some of you may remember her as Linda Grayson. Linda is a Broker-Associate with River City Real Estate. She is also the company trainer. Learn more about how River City Real Estate can help you make more money...even in today's market...browse through this site.

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