We can learn a lot from marketing type companies like Coca Cola and McDonald’s on the way they launch a product. When you think about it launching a new hamburger or a soft drink is really not too dissimilar to launching a new property into the marketplace. There are products in the marketplace which in the real estate world comprises other houses and units. They are looking to find a buyer. When a vendor’s property comes on the market it is like a new product is being launched. A key in the process is how to differentiate your property from another property. 

If there is one clear thing we can learn from McDonald’s and Coca Cola, it is when you market you must use a multi media campaign to ensure that you get maximum cut through in the marketplace in a short period of time. When Coca Cola launched Coke Zero they did not passively just go onto their own website and put a logo of Coke Zero and hope for the best. Far from it. They advertised everywhere and in all forms of media and did it in a short period of time to ensure that the product was positioned in the consumer’s eye in a particular way.

In real estate when a property comes into the marketplace the first 30 days are crucial. Research shows that you will generally get your best offer on the property during this period and it is for this reason that you should have all your advertising happen in a short period of time at the start of the campaign versus a drip feed approach over many months. A property that hasn’t sold for months develops a perception in the marketplace as being “stale” or having a “defect” and that is the reason that nobody wants it. Unfortunately this is generally not the case at all and in fact the real reason why the property has not sold is that many of the buyers may not have been aware of the property during the early stages of the campaign or it was priced at a level that did not connect with the appropriate buyers in that marketplace.

Having been involved in thousands of property transactions as a real estate agent and auctioneer I know there are only two reasons why a property does not sell. Either the price is too high or the marketing is poor. You will never be able to establish what fair market value is unless every possible buyer in the marketplace becomes aware of it when it comes on the market. Buyers come from various sources, internet and newspaper advertising being the two predominant ones. The behaviour of many buyers is that they originally see it advertised in a newspaper then go onto the internet to explore more information such as a virtual tour and floor plans. Other sources include the signboard and the real estate agent’s database. Before appointing an agent ensure that every component of your marketing plan is discussed so not one buyer may slip through the cracks, as the family home remains the last tax free haven in Australia. Every dollar profit you make selling your principal place of residence is yours to keep.

1. You can make one million dollars a year with little tertiary education

2. You meet lots of interesting different people every day

3. You get happy by serving people and see them get happy

4. You make other people wealthy by investing in the best asset in the world and they make money while they sleep

5.You can control the pace of the work. You can work hard or work easy

6. You gain market intelligence which can help you make sound decisions about investing in real estate yourself

7. The more successful you become , the more you develop as a person

8. The time period between response and reward is small. Some of the best agents have been around for less than 5 yrs . You could not do that in the medical profession .

9. You do not have a boss. Whether you are a salesperson or principal you have control of your destiny.

10. The competition is not hard. It is over crowded with mediocrity and has plenty of room for decent people who are happy to work hard and serve people with integrity and skill.

A lot of agents spend more time and planning to prospect than prospecting . Thousands of organisations invest heavily in research and devise superb strategy plans and devise blue prints on how to win market share.

The research from Yale University shows that only a very small percentage of plans are every implemented. So here’s the big idea; Strategy without execution is simply a delusional thought unless implemented. The value of the plan is in the implementation.

Ultimately your life will be judged on what you do - not what you intend to do, or what you would like to do. You will be judged on what you actually do.

So here’s the solution. A clear strategy with a set of action steps written on a clear white crisp piece of paper implemented is far more effective than a 60 page document that sits in your draw .

To get started all you need is a pen and a nice clear piece of writing paper……

Sitting on a plane recently reading the Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma when I got talking to the guy next to me. Ends up this guy had an opinion that having a positive attitude was a waste of time because thinking you can fly doesn’t mean you can and visualising your going to win the gold medal doesn’t guarantee you will either. Got me thinking . Here is the big idea for you .

It wont guarantee you can fly or win the 100 metre freestyle if you never swum before , but it will let you do everything you attempt better if you have a positive expectancy . The best research ever carried out to support this is of course medical research into the phenomenon of the “Placebo Effect” .

Bottom line with placebo is that patients who are given sugar pills thinking they are getting real medicine , respond equally as well as the group who gets the real stuff. As they expect they are going to get better and have a positive expectancy then translates from the mind to the body. Heres a list of things that spring to mind that I think will give you a better outcome if you approach with an optimistic attitude :

1. speaking in public
2. asking someone out
3. doing a listing presentation
4. negotiating with a prospect
5. prospecting for new business

By the way, the best part of this is the cost. Costs the same to be positive or negative. Its just a choice, and with better choices comes better actions, and with better actions come better results.

Great research on this idea of positive thinking can be found in lots of books with my favourite authors being Dr Bruce Lipton and Dr Wayne Dyer.Favourite book is Excuses Begone by Wayne Dyer.

1.  Provide outrageous value every day: People do business with people they like and trust so make it your goal to go beyond the call of duty in all of your interactions with customers. In a world that has become low touch - high tech, the best thing you can do is make people feel really special. Whilst other providers will talk price and benefits, they won’t be able to duplicate how you make someone feel. Prices, benefits and terms are always forgotten but not the way you have made them feel.

2.  Think 80/20: Focus on the 20% that generates 80% of the revenue. Don’t get caught up in being busy doing the things that don’t matter. Doing the things that don’t count.

3.  Write a not to do list: What are you wasting your time on? What are you doing that is not income producing? Keep a thirty minute log of your work day for five days and this will provide you with a cat scan of your life. Cross out everything you do that does not lead to a result driving you forward.

4.  Take the thirty day fitness trial: Exercise every morning for thirty days. Do something you love. Run, walk, bike ride, swim or go to the gym. Make your decision after thirty days on whether to continue. Don’t decide before you do it because you will be lying to yourself as to whether this has worked for you. If I was a betting man I would bet the fact you will have more energy, feel more alert, sleep better and feel extraordinary so you will never go back to waking up late, feeling tired and lethargic and going through the motions.

5.  Become a student at everything you do: Be curious about becoming an expert in your field. Read books. Listen to audio books. Ask questions of experts and mentors. Attend training. Do a self-audit and identify areas of improvement. Once you have found those areas go into ‘renovation mode’ and start fixing. By the way, you car is a university on wheels and you can choose to listen to stuff that is motivating and inspiring or you can choose to listen to talk back radio and the fact that interest rates may go up, and that Madonna has adopted another baby.

6.  Write your 100 thing bucket list: On a clean sheet of paper write down 100 things you want to do before you die. Go crazy, go wild. Watch the World Cup football final in Europe, take your family to Disneyland, snorkel in the Maldives, skydive, run the New York marathon or write a book. By the way go and watch the movie ‘Bucket List’.

7.  Other people’s opinions are none of your business: No need to worry what everyone is thinking of you. No need to please them. As Bill Cosby says: “I don’t know the key to success, but I know the key to failure is trying to please everybody”. It’s not what people say or think that’s the problem, it’s whether we give permission to these things to upset us.

8.  Make Sunday schedule day: Spend one hour on Sunday scheduling your “Big Rocks” into your diary. Put everything in, including health and fitness, personal development, business meetings, and family time. What gets scheduled gets done. Before you know it your weeks will be world class and the habit of being super productive and living your best life will be realised. All by that ‘hour of power’ on Sunday.

9.  Build a world class environment to support your success: Do an audit on your environment from your office to your friends to the food you have in the fridge. For instance, if being around certain people makes you feel discouraged or drained, limit your time with them. If having chocolates in the fridge is too tempting, replace with healthy protein bars or fruit. What’s in your CD player? Is it inspiring like great music or a brilliant book?

10.  Self renewal: Have a mini vacation every week to regenerate yourself. Might be something as simple as having a massage one afternoon or taking time out to connect to nature. You will find that you will have more clarity, make better decisions and feel a lot more energetic in doing your business.

Here is the current episode of Real Estate News that appears each Saturday on SKY Business with my top 5 picks and best tip of the week.
http://www.realestnews.com/remails/ep40_news.html

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Here is the current episode of Real Estate News that appears each Saturday on SKY Business with my top 5 picks and best tip of the week. http://www.realestnews.com/html/ep36_2.html

Attended the real estate leadership forum last week - here’s the big ideas I took away :

• The top agents across the country have high print media presence
• The higher the vpa - the higher the list to sell ratio and income the agents and office makes
• What you market is what you attract- ie if you market quality property with world class advertising , then you get those type of vendors calling you for listing presentations
• Great book to read is “sell for more” by gil davies
• According to Robert Bevan from Best Practice , the top 10% businesses are recovering 95% percent of their VPA
• Top agents run an attraction business and print media is the vehicle to achieve this - too hard to build a brand using online only due to the search functionality of large web portals

Here is the current episode of Real Estate News that appears each Saturday on SKY Business with my top 5 picks and best tip of the week.

http://www.realestnews.com/html/ep35_4.html