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How to Maximize Your Client Generation Results Using Stay In Touch For Success Marketing System© RE Edition
Dear valued customer, I firmly believe your success translates to my long term success; therefore, I believe it is critically important for you to understand the power of this simple to use system and how it can be used to maximize your sales results. The material contained on this web page offers you many ideas so you can ensure maximizing YOUR results. Please be advised not all suggestions may be applicable for your specific situation; however, a review of these suggestions may help inspire you to think of alternatives you otherwise may not have considered. I have attempted to place the suggestions in logical order of implementation (if adopted); however, you will note some of the ideas are independent of implementation order.
The suggestions are classified under two main headings, Drip Marketing Use and Other Uses. The Drip Marketing section will offer ideas you should strongly consider to maximize your client generation through use of the system as a drip marketing tool. The Other Uses section will offer ideas you should consider to maximize your client generation outside use as a drip marketing tool. In addition, I have included a section titled Jump Start. This is a must read if you are on a tight budget and want to effectively and efficiently start generating benefits from Stay In Touch For Success Marketing System©. I believe you will find this a great approach which can be quickly implemented at very minimal cost (e.g. cost for minimal amount of direct mailing). =========================================================================== Drip Marketing - Max Your Results By now you should have downloaded all of the documents and files and have read the READ THIS FIRST.pdf document and the Stay In Touch For Success Instructions.pdf document. It is a good idea to print these two documents and have them available for quick reference if needed. As you will note in the instructional document, you will need to compile, if you already haven't done so, your contacts (e.g. personal referral network) within some form of a database. After this is accomplished, you are ready to proceed with your drip marketing campaign. Suggestion #1: Be aware that all personal network members are not "created equal". Specifically, you will find some will perform better in regards to delivering leads than others. So it is strongly advised you establish a ranking of each referral member as to how you anticipate they will perform. I suggest in the Instructional guide you utilize an A.B.C rating system where your best performers are rated "A". This helps you to determine how much time, effort and expense you plan to devote to the member for both your drip marketing campaign as well as other motivational/marketing efforts. Of course your evaluation of a specific member may change over time so be aware this is an "evergreen" process and you probably should perform a reassessment at least once a year. The other primary reason for this classification of members is to determine whether the member is "worthy" of your investment to issue the Stay In Touch For Success Marketing System© via direct mailing. Your estimate of the cost to administer direct mailing to a given member is about $14 per year (that is if you use my full direct mail service) and might be a little less if you administer the direct mailing by yourself. Always assess your marketing expense from an ROI (Return on Investment) perspective as you make your investment decisions, but keep in mind the value of just one converted lead over the "life" of administering direct mailing to a specific member before you conclude if they are worthy (or not) of your direct mail distribution method. If you determine a given member doesn't pass the ROI test, then do not necessarily pull them from your list. As explained in Suggestion #2, email may be an appropriate alternative. Suggestion #2: Email is a cost effective alternative to administer Stay In Touch For Success Marketing System© if you determine direct mail is not appropriate. There are new agents and agents on a very tight budget who initially exclusively administer this system via email because it costs NOTHING to administer going forward. Believe it or not, there will be people in your personal referral network who are okay with receiving email and some who may actually prefer receipt by email. As you will find, I do incorporate in some of the customizable letters a question which asks the recipient if they would prefer to be switched over to email receipt. Make sure, as I outline in my Instructions document, you always receive permission to send email before you start initiating the emails. You may also want to consider only issuing your "A" rated members (see Suggestion #1) for direct mail distribution to defray your going forward costs, while "B" and "C" rated members will receive email (if they are agreeable). This option can be a very cost effective way to administer your direct mailing campaign. If you wish to initially administer the system exclusively via email, then you should modify your introductory letter to indicate you have obtained material as a service to your valued contacts and, if they wish, you can send the home and family themed content material via email if they will provide their email address. Another alternative is to send the first mailing via direct mail so the recipient has an idea as to the type of information you are offering and then ask them if they wish to receive in the future to simply provide their email address. Of course there are many alternatives and variations you can consider, but this should offer you a good starting point for email administration. Suggestion #3: This is a very powerful suggestion, and is also a bit of a spin on Suggestion #2. Keep in mind by distributing this material, you have a reason (or "excuse") to contact your valued personal referral network members. Whether you contact the member as a premise to determine if they want to consider switching over to email or any other reason, you have an excellent way to introduce your reason for your contact. Although the drip marketing can be a powerful reminder and reinforcement, there is nothing like direct contact. If you have established a relationship with the member, and you are sending the monthly letters and home and family themed documents, you shouldn't have any concerns with "do not call" rules. If you have specific rules within your office, it might be a good idea to clear this with your office manager or broker/owner before you call your network members. As far as this telephone conversation "introduction", you may want to mention, after you introduce yourself, you are calling to see if they are receiving your periodic/monthly mailings (especially if it is sent via email). This contact allows you to gauge how the recipient feels about the material and also offers a friendly nudge/reminder about the informative material you are sending. If you are making the telephone contact shortly before an upcoming mailing, you could consider mentioning the upcoming mailing and mention the title/content of the pamphlet/brochure. Be advised you may find a few members who wish to be excluded from future mailings, which is okay, especially if they are receiving via direct mail. These are likely people who are not "high value" network members and it allows you to reduce your future mailing costs. Very important - remember if you don't ask you may not receive. What I mean by this is you should always include in your telephone conversation a statement about your appreciation in receiving leads. You, of course, can determine what words work best for you and for specific situations, but here is a good suggestion which works well in almost all situations. "first name of person, as you hopefully know, I am always appreciative of names of people you know who are now or may be considering the purchase or sale of a home. I strive to provide excellent customer service and I will promise you I will treat anyone you might send my way with the best of care and service." If the situation is appropriate, you may want to follow up the above statement with an inquiry if they are aware of anyone contemplating a home purchase/sale off the top of their head. You would be surprised the number of times a prospective lead will pop into their mind by asking this question. As part of our telephone contact suggestion, you should also consider asking the referral member if they are aware of anyone else who may have an interest in receiving the home and family themed documents. It works best if you can get the referral member to have the interested party to contact you directly to receive the future mailings, however, this may not always work. If the referral member passes along the name of someone, it is beneficial (if the prospective member doesn't call you directly) to see if the current referral member has, or is willing, to mention the mailings to the potential new member. This helps to clear the way for your contact and including the new member on your mailing list. Make sure to find out if they would prefer receipt via direct mail or email during your contact. You can always consider sending an introductory letter if the "path" isn't initially cleared with the prospective new member. In the introductory letter you can simply mention "Jane Smith" mentioned you expressed an interest (or thought you would be interested) in receiving my home and family themed material. They can then evaluate what you sent (assuming you included a sample document) and inform you if they would like to be included in your future distributions. Remember there is strength in numbers, and the more you can grow the size of your personal referral network the greater your chances of increased sales and SUCCESS! Bottom line -- Use your distribution of the monthly material as a premise to contact your valued personal referral network members. As mentioned above, you can accomplish several important tasks during your telephone conversation as well as cement a positive relationship with the network member. By sending your valued personal referral network members informative home and family themed content material, you create an environment which is easier to request something from your referral members (e.g. leads and potential new referral members to add to your list). This concept is called the Law of Reciprocity which can be used as an effective marketing technique. At a minimum I suggest you make at least two telephone contacts each year, especially if they are an "A" list member. Suggestion #4: After you initially establish your personal referral network members with your past clients, friends, family members, and other acquaintances you should start considering (if you already haven't) inclusion of other "sphere of influence" members within your contact list. As a real estate sales professional, you come in contact with many other professionals whose work directly relates to the housing industry. These are potentially valuable contacts that are in a position to deliver you high quality, easily converted leads. So who are good examples of people who could fall within this “sphere of influence”? Here are several examples:
The above is a list of people who interact with current and potential home buyers and sellers and could serve as a valued resource for the residential agent in delivering high quality leads. If the agent can establish a positive relationship and effectively “stay in touch” with these resources, there is an opportunity for a new stream of clients. Of course if you expect these people to recommend you to their customers and their circle of family and friends, you will need to establish yourself as an agent who provides high quality service and “sell” this fact to these individuals. After all, like most people, they will likely be comfortable in recommending you only if they are reasonably certain you will provide excellent service. If you have already established a relationship, you may already have accomplished this requirement. If you have not established a relationship, then you will need to “sell” yourself and your excellent service to these people. Now comes what I call the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” part of the relationship. This involves your willingness to recommend these people to your past and current clients, family and friends in return for his/her recommendation for your services to his/her contacts. Before you proceed; however, you need to consider the reverse of the above requirement -- you will need to have a level of comfort with the potential “sphere of influence” referral member before you recommend them to your contacts. In addition, it is important you consider whatever parameters your broker/owner may have in place regarding any recommendations/endorsements you offer. As a general rule, if you offer more “indirect” endorsements, you eliminate any potential backlash (e.g. complaints, legal action) which may stem from poor performance from the recommended company/person. As one example of an indirect endorsement, if you state you have heard positive comments from others (clients, friends or family members) regarding a particular person/company, you should minimize any negative ramifications. As your relationship evolves with a given partner, you may want to consider asking if they would consider offering a special discount for anyone you may refer who mentions your name as the referring party. This is a great way to help increase your partner's business as well as improve your relationship with your other personal referral network members and prospective clients. Once a mutual arrangement is established, you should consider, at a minimum, an exchange of several business cards. The business cards should be freely handed out when an opportunity arises for recommending each other's services. You may also want to consider providing or exchanging brochures offering more information which can be given to prospective new clients/customers. In addition to the above business card and brochure exchanges, the agent should also establish a cost effective means to stay in touch with his/her “partners”. This can be accomplished several ways such as periodic phone calls and/or frequent written communications. You may also want to consider adding the new "partner" within your database for distribution of the Stay In Touch For Success Marketing System© mailings. It’s an extremely cost effective means to maintain your contact and positive relationship with these very powerful referral members. In conclusion, make sure you include the “sphere of influence” component within your personal referral network. If handled appropriately, it can serve as an extremely cost effective means in generating new business! Suggestion #5: I have been asked if the material within this system can be used as part of a FARMING strategy. The simple answer is yes; however, you need to make sure you implement a cost effective approach. With a FARMING approach, you typically don't have a previous relationship with the member. As a result, the chances of the individual becoming a good referral source is less than your established core network of past clients, friends, family members, and others within your "sphere of influence". However, don't necessarily discount the possibilities of growing your network and possibly finding new clients through using the system material as part of your FARMING strategy. Be aware many of the FARMING area recipients may never become good candidates for providing referrals for a variety of reasons including the fact they may already have a preferred agent. For this reason, you will want to trim down your FARMING area distribution list after "testing the waters". You accomplish this by simply asking the potential network member, after sending an initial mailing or two, if they are interested in receiving future distributions (and their preference in receiving via direct mail or email). This can be accomplished by simply adding the request in the letter content. If an individual positively responds with an interest in receiving future distributions, then they are likely a good candidate to be added in your personal referral member network database. You may also want to consider initially only offering the option for a new member found via your FARMING strategy to receive future mailings via email if they are interested. This is a way to cost effectively grow your personal referral network via your FARMING network. =========================================================================== Other Uses - Max Your Results Using the system content material outside your drip marketing strategy can be an extremely effective means to grow your sales. With a little creative thought, you will likely come up with several opportunities given your specific situation to utilize the valuable informational pamphlets and brochures. Here are just a few suggestions how the material could be used outside a drip marketing campaign: Suggestion #1: One of the home and family themed documents is titled “Questions and Answers on Home Ownership”. This document provides useful information, especially for first time home buyers, on factors which should be considered when purchasing a home. Copies of this document could be offered to prospective home buyers at Open Houses. This is a wonderful opportunity to assist new home buyers with useful information and to establish yourself as an agent who provides excellent and "beyond the norm" customer service. You should also use this as an opportunity to ask the person/people if they would like to receive your monthly informative home and family themed material. If you bring along a list or some document samples, you can show them the samples if they request. Suggestion #2: You will notice many of the home and family themed material will address questions you may receive either directly or indirectly as a real estate agent. As just one example, one of the documents offers useful information on Reverse Mortgages. So should you receive an inquiry about how Reverse Mortgages work, you can quickly and easily provide the requested information. This is an example of how you distinguish yourself from other agents and establish your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). If you want to learn more about the USP marketing concept, please go to my home page. I suggest you look through all of your purchased home and family themed documents so you are aware of all subjects and can be in a better position to provide the documents when requested. Suggestion #3: If you either have a web site or are contemplating establishing your unique web site, you should strongly consider adding selected home and family themed documents as resource material on your web site. This also helps to establish your USP and offers interested parties the opportunity to quickly access a given informative document by simply accessing your web site. Because the documents are set up in pdf format, they are already formatted for easy web site insertion and access. Make sure you select the email formatted pdf document for your web site insertion because they are designed for easier reading than the direct mail formatted pamphlets and brochures. Suggestion #4: Another potentially powerful use of this system is through offering third parties the opportunity to distribute one of your pamphlets or brochures. For example, someone in the child care field might be interested in provided your “How to Childproof Your Home” pamphlet. This is just one example of an excellent way to use third parties to help disseminate your marketing material. Remember to always make sure the pamphlet or brochure contains a label which provides your name and contact information! With just a little thought, I am sure you can come up with a half dozen or more opportunities to offer selected pamphlets/brochures to interested third parties who will happily distribute the documents.
As mentioned in the heading of this web page, the Jump Start approach is a great way to start implementing this powerful marketing system, especially if you are on a tight budget and do not want to start sending any significant amount of direct mail. This approach involves a hybrid of some of the above mentioned steps, but when implemented as outlined, will start generating results very quickly. NOTE - If you purchased the email only system option, the "jump start" approach will help you get off to a great start. After administering email for some time, if you determine you would like to start issuing the system material via direct mail to "high value" referral members, you can always purchase the direct mail option to allow flexibility in issuing the material through either direct mail or email. 1) Whether by direct contact or an initial direct mail letter, you will want to introduce your "home and family" themed information to any and all potential referral members. During your contact or within the letter you will mention you have the material available via email and would be happy to include them on your distribution list. You can also mention that you can update them on real estate matters within the emails if and when you have information to send (this of course is your choice). This is a great way to provide your referral members with housing/real estate related information you deem appropriate while also sending them useful and informative home and family information. You will find that many of your referral members will be agreeable to the emails and will find this is a great way to start building your email contact list at virtually no cost. 2) If your initial direct mail does not produce a positive response, don't necessarily assume the individual is not agreeable to receiving your emails. The letter gives you a great "in" to calling the potential referral member directly. In the phone call, you can discuss any real estate or other matter you deem appropriate for the individual and take the opportunity to ask them if they received your letter concerning your informative emails. You will find that may people either forget to respond or just didn't take the time to respond; however, many will be agreeable to receive the emails during your follow-up phone call. Also, in your contact or letter, you should also state there is absolutely no obligation or catch in receiving the emails, you will not share your list with anyone, and they can request to be removed from your email distribution list at any time. 3) As stated in Suggestion #5 within the above Drip Marketing section, you will find a Farming approach is a great way to gain new potential leads and referral members. This approach, as outlined above, involves sending an initial "introductory" letter via direct mail. You can opt to include an example informational pamphlet/brochure in the mailing or simply mention the type of home and family themed information you have available. You will state the information is available for future distribution via email if they are agreeable to provide their email address. As stated in #2 above, you should also state there is absolutely no obligation or catch in receiving the emails, you will not share your list with anyone, and they can request to be removed from your email distribution list at any time. 4) The key to maximizing your results is to continuously grow your email distribution list. This involves establishing a discipline where you ask any and every potential referral member if they would like to receive your informative home and family themed information. Remember, there is strength in numbers, so growing your referral contact list WILL help contribute to your success! 5) By following the above steps you can quickly start gaining the benefits of "keeping in touch" at virtually not cost. As you get settled in with the initial email approach you will be able to assess the number of referral members you have generated. You then can give consideration to grow your database of referral members with those high valued members who may not have been agreeable to receiving email, but would be willing and happy to receive direct mail. One approach you might consider is to incorporate a question in your initial contact (either direct contact or direct mail) which states you "may" have the ability to issue the informative material via direct mail if there is enough interest. This approach gives you a feel as to the level of direct mail interest and if it would be worth your time and cost to implement direct mail distribution. It also provides you an "out" should you find the interest level is not sufficient.
I hope you find these suggestions useful in helping you maximize your results through use of Stay In Touch For Success Marketing System©. Because I am always looking for new ideas to help my customers maximize the results of using this powerful system, I welcome any ideas you may have. So I encourage you to pass along to me creative suggestions you have implemented. You can send your tips to me at the email accessible on my home page (see below for access to my home page). I want to thank you once again and congratulate you on your purchase. As the old saying goes, "there is no time like the present". So please don't hesitate, start taking action now to begin your system planning and implementation. The quicker you take action, the sooner you will see positive results!
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