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Posted by Myers Barnes
I’ve just launched a new page on Facebook specifically for New Home Sales Training. There you will find valuable resources including training videos, new home sales strategies, and much more! I encourage you to utilize this valuable resource, become a Fan, and post your recent sales success stories on the wall as well to share with other likeminded sales professionals.
In addition, the FIRST 100 Fans will be entered to WIN a FREE copy of The Myers Barnes Ultimate Training Library—four of my most recent books on new home sales: Closing Strong - The Super Sales Handbook, Reach The Top In New Home & Neighborhood Sales, Supercharged Sales, and New Home Sales in a Nutshell! With these tools for success, you’ll learn the difference between merely surviving and Truly Thriving.
Keep checking back each week for more FREE New Home Sales Training Videos, Resources and Strategies!
Keep Selling, Super Achievers!
Myers
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Posted by Myers Barnes
Making a sale requires action, not inaction. Unfortunately, I see one sales center after another populated with so-called “salespeople” who are merely waiting for a prospect to walk in the door of the model. They’ve sharpened their pitch and are ready to hurl it at anyone who crosses the threshold. But, in the meantime, they sit and wait for the company’s marketing efforts to deliver the buyers to them. While they sit and wait, sales are being lost to more proactive professionals.
Here’s the reality. Marketing is the act of attracting. Prospecting is the act of seeking. The Bible says, “seek and ye shall find.” It doesn’t advise you to sit around and wait. In any economy, but particularly in a down market, you need to get out of your chair and find the buyers. Make it happen!
Prospecting is a contact sport. The more contacts you gain, the more sales you will close. Yet oddly, most salespeople wrap themselves in a cocoon and wait for change to occur, laying their hopes entirely in the ability of the company’s marketing campaign to generate leads. As a salesperson, you can let things happen or choose to seize control of your success. When you become an active prospector, you declare, “I accept complete responsibility for the traffic that comes in here. I depend solely on myself as a marketing department.”
Every day that you wait for someone to come to you is eight hours wasted. Get in the game and make direct contact!
No Comments » | Marketing, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management Training, New Home Sales Training, New home sales marketing, Personal Development, Real estate courses, Recommended Blogs, Sales Management, new home sales management | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
I’ve learned that people who don’t believe they are creative are usually wrong. Creativity isn’t limited to art, music, or literature. Being creative simply means you approach a challenge with a fresh look. You’re not a cookie-cutter robot who just churns out the same answer time and time again, regardless of the situation.
Look at “creative financing” which is prevalent in home sales. If you’re a forward-thinking sales person, you continue to explore “outside the box” thinking to help your clients secure the home they want, at a rate that will keep them in their home as long as they wish. They are relying on your ingenuity and knowledge of the process to find solutions that the layperson hasn’t discovered. “Creative financing” doesn’t mean locking a person into more debt than they can afford. That’s what contributed to this mess—and gave the term a really bad connotation.
So, get away from the term “creative financing” and instead explore “creative solutions.” Yes, it’s tougher to find the financing, but it’s by no means a rock-solid impasse. You need to unleash your ingenuity and talk to the financing sources in your network. You must also work to expand that network to keep broadening your creative resources. And so on and so on. Ask questions of your providers. Give them scenarios and get their take on what will work and what won’t. Demand creativity from them as well! Your diligence will make the difference between an offer and a closing.
Keep Selling,
Myers
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Posted by Myers Barnes
E-mail marketing is very effective and has a reasonably low cost compared to regular direct mail, but regular direct mail is not going away, and it can be part of an effective marketing mix to reach particular segments of the population who may not be in your e-mail lists. So let’s talk about getting the most from our “land mail” direct campaigns.
The most important thing to understand with regular direct mail is that you must determine your audience first, and then tailor your message to that audience. By getting more specific about your list, about who it is that you should be selling to, you can get better returns from more qualified leads. Conduct better research to isolate your ideal buyer characteristics in your mailing lists to get more on-target.
But direct mail now has a new helper to make your campaigns even more effective. Remember in my last post about e-mail marketing where we talked about a “website landing page” linked in the e-mail where the recipient could go to register for an event, to receive more information, or to receive a gift or a chance to win some incentive? You can do the exact same thing with direct mail by providing the website address for your campaign landing page.
Of course, it’s easier with e-mail marketing because the recipient only has to click a link in the e-mail to go to the landing page, but with a properly targeted list, a strategically crafted message, and an appropriate incentive, you can still push many direct mail recipients to the same landing page where they can provide you with solid contact information for an actionable, and most likely very qualified, lead.
And, variable printing has created the ability to further personalize mailers to each recipient’s name, interests, and correct product categories and thus make your communications more relevant to individual recipients.
If you make sure to follow these essential rules, your direct mail campaigns will yield more results and produce far more qualified leads.
Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising & e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.
No Comments » | Marketing, New home sales marketing, Real estate courses | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
When I told you “It’s Free in 2009,” I really meant it! Announcing the launch of my new video training series. All my most fundamental lessons about succeeding in new home sales will be available for you to watch anytime. Both on my website MyersBarnes.com and at YouTube, you’ll be able to watch new videos every week and enjoy all of my training FREE!
Keep checking back each week for more FREE New Home Sales Training Videos, Super Achievers!
Myers
Comments Off | Marketing, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training, New home sales marketing, Real estate courses, Sales Management, new home sales management | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
While direct mail has lost some of its ability to effectively connect with prospects who often see the mailing as simply “junk mail,” e-mail marketing has now become an incredibly effective and interactive method of helping prospects reach you.
E-mail marketing has an incredibly high return on investment because you’re only paying for your recipient list and the creative services used to create the art, copy, and e-mail itself, because there are no printing costs, and because those you are e-mailing have already opted to receive such mailings—these people actually want to hear from you and are far more likely to read what you have sent and make contact with you.
Many of you may have already begun to dip your toes into the e-mail marketing game, and have seen the incredible results. Others of you may have tried, but without attaining the response rate you’d hoped for. The keys to effective email marketing are consistency, a strategically developed message, and a website landing page that captures registrations.
Where most builders and developers fail with e-mail marketing is in applying consistency. Simply sending out one e-mail message and expecting hard returns is unlikely to accomplish anything. Think more in terms of a campaign—where a new e-mail goes out every two weeks, and possibly more often to promote community-specific events.
And, just as important as applying consistency, your message must be on-target and resonate with your audience. If you understand who the correct buyer is, you can create e-mails that are appropriate for their wants and needs. You also must provide the recipients with some incentive to make contact with you.
Typically, when NDG Communications creates an e-mail campaign, the e-mail provides a link to a “website landing page” that provides the e-mail recipient with a form to register to receive more information in exchange for some reward, possibly to enter for a drawing at an event, or the chance to win some prize. The recipient has an incentive, and you now have a registered (and most likely qualified) lead with full contact details.
Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising & e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.
No Comments » | Marketing, New Home Sales, New home sales marketing | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
In this post, we continue our discussion of how to properly reach out and engage Realtors in your sales process.
Remember, what the realtor wants more than anything is more REFERRALS. Even with cash incentives, the realtor may feel compelled to pass on some or all of this benefit to their client to get that coveted referral. So if you can structure a program that offers the realtor other incentives in addition to bonuses and good commissions—such as trips to a spa, or travel gifts—you’ll provide a spectrum of rewards that will help you attract more realtors.
And, if you can provide just as many rewards for the realtor’s clients such as upgrades or additional options, or help with costs or down payments, you will have given the realtor every reason to bring clients to your property.
Contact is also very important—It’s not enough to have just an introductory event and send out an occasional postcard. Create events that encourage realtors to bring their clients to experience what your community has to offer, and do them more often. Provide give-away gifts or drawings that reward both the realtor and client for attending.
Always remember: Providing incentives is the key to successful realtor outreach, and that without realtor participation, you’re missing possibly more than 50% of your potential sales.
Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising & e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.
No Comments » | Marketing, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training, New home sales marketing, Real estate courses, new home sales management | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
Frequently we come across blog postings, white papers, and articles in magazines regarding the use of Flash-based websites and its negative effect on search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Almost unanimously, many who claim to be experts condemn the use of Flash and label the technology as a “death wish” for those who wish to achieve high search engine rankings, especially on Google.com.
The Facts: Optimizing Flash is not easy, but far from impossible.
Flash is now a viable technology that helps create rich online experiences and, with common sense tactics, can be optimized to target search engine results. Innovation in Flash website development practices, combined with other development technologies (like JavaScript) can now help produce high Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings for Flash websites.
In July 2008, Google and Adobe (the developers of Flash) announced a joint-venture update to resolve the Flash/SEO issue. The introduction of Google’s Flash algorithm means most Flash sites are, by default, search engine-friendly—assuming your programmer is up to date on the latest techniques required to effectively optimize Flash.
Of course, some issues remain, but these are being addressed and industry-standard work-around solutions have been developed to make Flash a viable technology to use for websites. And with Google now capturing 64% of the search engine traffic, and providing reliable indexing of Flash sites with their new algorithm, Flash should be a major component in the technical palette of every web designer and programmer.
Still Not Convinced? More in-depth technical explanations of these techniques can be found online. There are many sources where more specifics can be provided on actual SEO for Flash tactics.
Here are some examples of Flash-based websites with effective SEO from the NDG Communications portfolio:
This Flash-based website is optimized for several key phrases, but our main phrase is “Townhomes in La Plata.” Our Google SERP (search engine results page) has this site ranking consistently between #2 to #4.
Using the search phrase “Chestertown Waterfront Homes,” the Google SERP ranking for this Flash-based website is consistently #2 or #3.
So, while Flash is not necessarily the best choice for every website, it has been proven in usability research to enhance the overall user experience by making a site more interactive and intuitive. Remember, you have approximately 4 seconds to really grab a website visitor’s attention and help them make the decision to stay and consume more of your content. For now and the foreseeable future, Flash is still the best technology available to website designers to achieve real engagement and to convert visitors to registered users, and it can now be properly indexed by the world’s most dominant search engine, Google.com, ensuring that SEO goals are attainable.
Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising & e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.
No Comments » | Marketing, New Home Sales, New home sales marketing, new home sales management | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
Here are some cold, hard facts about New Home Sales in the 21st Century: Nationwide, more than 50% of all new home sales have been through a realtor. In fact, some builders have seen his figure rise to as high as 90% over the past year. Why is this the case?
In our challenged marketplace, with the overwhelming negative press the economy and the housing market have received, prospective buyers are now simply afraid, and feel that they must have representation to help them buy a home, and protect them from what they perceive as predatory sales people. This perception, while not often based in reality, is not one that will go away any time soon.
So, to market new homes, we must have a complete and easy REALTOR OUTREACH PROGRAM that clearly tells the realtor two fundamental facts:
First: What’s in it for the realtor? Offer clear incentives—a co-op percentage, bonuses, and any other incentives like trips, etc—real motivators for the realtor to bring prospects to your property, and put them right up front in all of your outreach.
Second: What’s in it for the realtor’s client? What can you do to help with price reductions, closing costs, financing, etc? And can you offer more options or upgrades?
Part 2 of this article will be posted next week. Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising & e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.
No Comments » | Marketing, New Home Sales Management Training, New home sales marketing, Real estate courses, Sales Management, new home sales management | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
By following some basic rules, we can ensure that we see real returns on our signage investment, ensure that we’re giving sales staff everything they need to get traffic flowing, and remove any room for excuses. Here are some more fundamental rules for making sure that we get the most from our signage.
TEMPORARY SIGNAGE:
These signs, while temporary, are absolutely invaluable for driving traffic. They include A-frames, flags, spinners, etc, with messages such as “Now Open”, “Event Today”, “Decorated Model,” etc, and they should all naturally list the property name and contact information including phone number and website address should those interested not have time to stop for your event.
PROXIMITY BILLBOARDS:
Rental outdoor signage like billboards can be very cost-effective, despite what you may have thought about their cost before. Rather than using these signs as branding for your company’s offerings and lifestyle, etc, these should be used as very large “directional” signs that are simple, basic, and to the point: OPAL POINT / NEW TOWNHOMES / NEXT LEFT” and of course, again, you must include the property website address.
READABILITY & CONSISTENCY:
Finally, what makes signage effective is ensuring that it is engaging and attention-getting while also being easy to read, easy to pull the essential information from (see the criteria for “Entrance Sign” above), and ensuring that all signs are consistent—that is, that each clearly looks like it came from the same property. When signs do not appear to be all from or for the same property, they are confusing to the prospect. And consistency helps build recognition, further maximizing your investment.
There are of course more kinds of signage, and things you can do with them, but these are the essentials you must follow to make sure your signage is really working for you as hard as possible.
Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising and e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.
No Comments » | Marketing, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management Training, New Home Sales Training, New home sales marketing, Real estate courses, Sales Management, new home sales management | Permalink
Posted by Myers Barnes
I’m proud to announce my latest book, New Home Sales in a Nutshell.
If you’re looking for invaluable scripts and strategies for success in a challenged market, this powerful manual will help you realize your goals and vastly improve your conversion ratio.
If you’ve had extensive new home sales training, or even new home sales management training, I guarantee you’ll still gain a great deal of valuable information from this book. There are proven strategies and new innovative tactics here that will help those in real estate courses gain a competitive edge.
Whether you need solid closing strategies or tactics to get buyers’ agents to work with you, New Home Sales in a Nutshell will have you closing sales like clockwork. This powerful little book is 100% useful information that should be on the shelf of every super achiever.
This Step-by-Step Guide provides:
• Tried and True New Home Sales Tactics
• Scripts for Success in a Challenged Market
• Sensible Solutions & Practical Negotiation Tips
• Bold Responses to Every Possible Buyer Objection
• Ten Closing Strategies that will Double Your Conversion Ratio
I know this book will be of critical importance in the coming year to the experienced and novice alike! For more information, please Click Here.
Myers
No Comments » | Marketing, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management Training, New Home Sales Training, New home sales marketing, Personal Development, Real estate courses, new home sales management | Permalink
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