Welcome to RealClues The Weekly Newsletter for Real Estate Professionals www.RealEstateCoach.com–The Place You Go to Make Real Estate Dough(tm) ™ Monday, January 12, 2009 No. 358

Copyright (c) 1996-2009 www.RealEstateCoach.com and Teleclass4U.com, LLC. All rights in all media reserved. We have a no SPAM policy. If you received this newsletter and did not subscribe to it, visit www.RealEstateCoach.com to unsubscribe.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Are you a female manager, owner broker, or executive in the real estate brokerage business or for a company that provides services to real estate professionals? If so, there is a very special, by-invitation-only conference coming up from March 25-27, 2009 in Savannah, Georgia for women in leadership positions in the real estate industry. I have a limited number of invitations to this event. Please email me at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com for more information.

Table of Contents 1. CoachingClues: It’s Not How Much You Make–It’s How Much You Profit 2. Welcome Notes: Three Aha’s from the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference 3. Reprise: Powerful Questions: The Key to More Profit in Your Real Estate Business 4. Create a Better Life: Nine Secrets to Make Your Business Plan and Your Business a Success in 2009 5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg): Good Mortgage News and Good News from Real Estate Connect 6. This Week at www.LuxuryClues.com: *Highlights from Real Estate Connect: Ten Tips You Need to Know for Your Business *My Journey from PC and Palm to Mac and iPhone: Days 1 & 2: Throw all of them out the window. *The $1,400 Bottle of Grappa–Can I Keep the Bottle? 7. Featured Products: The $1.2 million dollar closing script 8. New at www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com for January 1-15, 2009 *Seven Ways to Build Your Real Estate Success Now *How to Get Top Real Estate Ranking on Google in 2009 *Time Efficiency Tips *Sleep Your Way to Weight Loss (Simple Ways to Peel Away Those Pounds) 9. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching 10. Give Us Your Feedback on this Newsletter 11. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe

1. CoachingClues: It’s Not How Much You Make–It’s How Much You Profit Over 90 percent of all real estate agents operate without a business plan. If you want to increase your profitability in 2009, you must address how to increase your revenue, as well as how to decrease your costs.

There are numerous ways to create a great business plan. The most important step is to write your goals down and share them with someone else. If you do nothing else from today’s column, taking this one step improves the probability you will achieve your goals from 5 percent to over 90 percent. Here are seven additional steps for creating a powerful business plan for 2009.

Step 1: Analyze your numbers Begin your business planning process by reviewing your numbers from 2008. How many transactions did you close? Where did each of those leads originate? What percentage of your leads closed? To increase your profits, track your results.

Tracking is challenging for most agents. To track results from mailing pieces, use a coupon code, or an 800 Call Capture system. To track web results, use Google Analytics, Point2Agent, or GetClicky.com. To track the cost associated with each person in your database as well as the cost of each of your marketing campaigns, use a new system from Broker’s Helper. (You can demo a full version of the site at www.AgentToolboxpro.com). This system includes over 1,500 different online and traditional marketing campaigns (in both English and Spanish), a full blown website, unlimited access to single property sites (i.e., 333ElmStreet.com), plus 1,000 email marketing pieces per month for only $49.95 per month. (Postage, printing, and the cost of promotional items are extra.) The system automates the entire marketing and tracking process for you. All you have to do is “point, click, and forget about it.”

Step 2: Focus on your strengths Once you have analyzed your numbers, identify the activities that generated the greatest number of closed transactions. These are your strengths. You can increase your profitability by expanding on what’s currently working. The 80-20 rule says that 80 percent of your income is generated by the top 20 percent of your activities. Thus, you can safely eliminate the bottom 20 percent of your activities with little cost to your production, but with a big increase in profitability. For example, if web marketing produced four closed sales and your geographical farming produced nothing, stop the geographical farming and put more funds in web marketing.

Step 3: Enough about you–let’s talk about me! If you’re still doing vanity marketing that focuses on you, it’s time to stop it. In a study of over 1,000 consumers, BestAgentBusiness.com reported that virtually all people hated receiving cold calls as well as postcards with agents’ pictures on them. To improve profitability, interview your present and past customers about what matters to them. Ask for feedback about what they want from their agent, about which real estate websites they visit, and what captures their interest both in print and online. When you meet a new client, track how they found you. Conduct a post-closing survey to learn how to better serve future clients. Most importantly, stop sending out mailers with your picture on them. That alone can dramatically increase your profitability.

Step 4: Use “Give-to-Get” Marketing as part of your business plan Just announcing your services or accomplishments does nothing to motivate people to work with you. A proven marketing strategy is to provide special reports or other items of value. Use your print marketing to drive people to your website to obtain these. For example, you could run a postcard campaign that says, “Save $100,000 or more your next mortgage. Visit www.yourwebsite to learn how!” Have the web visitor sign up for the free report. Continue to market to them by offering other items of value.

(In case you’re not familiar with how to save buyers this much money, here’s how it works: For buyers who wait to purchase in today’s market, an increase of one percent on their interest rate means that they will pay approximately 25 percent of the loan amount in additional interest over the course of a 30 year loan. A two percent increase translates into approximately 50 percent more. On a $200,000 loan, those amounts respectively would be $50,000 and $100,000.)

Step 5: Be of service If you want your community to support your business, look for ways to serve your community. One agent was not making any money from his SEO (search engine optimization) program. He decided to drop the SEO program and give that money to his local food bank. He volunteered with his daughter one afternoon per week. His business increased by 15 percent. This “give-to-get” approach to marketing is one of the strongest ways to build your business. Be sure to include “give back” time as an important part of your business plan.

Step 6: Is your plan sustainable? Once you have put your plan together, are you energized and excited or are you filled with dread? If you feel fear or dread about doing what you have written down, change it. If something doesn’t feel right to you, search for what does. Once it “feels” right, you’re now ready to start taking the actions that will lead to increased profitability in your business.

If you want your best year ever in 2009, create a written business plan, follow it, and adjust it as the market changes throughout the year.

2. Welcome Notes Welcome to our new subscribers this week. Each week RealClues provides you with great strategies to improve both your business and your life. If you find this issue of RealClues helpful, take a moment to hit the “forward” button and send it to another friend in the business.

I’m writing this on a plane back from New York City where we just wrapped up the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference. There was a wealth of great ideas. Much of the emphasis was on social networking and on developing a global clientele. Check out the posts over the next few weeks on LuxuryClues.com for more information on how you can put these powerful tools to work in your business. Here are three of the highlights:

1. Agents who represent international clients make, on average, 50 percent more than those who do not. Furthermore, once an international client contacts you, there is a 50 percent chance they will close a transaction with you.

2. Adobe has created a new tool that allows Google and other search engines to “read” what’s on your videos and use the material in their rankings. Video is the hot application for 2009. Dump the music and add relevant, well thought-out content to any videos you produce.

3. Becoming involved with social media is a must if you want to work with the next wave of buyers and sellers who are predominantly under the age of 40. My recommendation is to start with LinkedIn.com and open an account there. See Real Estate Dough, Chapter 16 in terms of how to use this powerful tool. After LinkedIn, it’s also smart to get involved with Facebook. The secret is to view these tools as great ways to meet people in your community the same way you would at a social event. You don’t use these tools to market your services; you use them to be involved in an online neighborhood of people who share your interests.

For the other seven tips, see http://budurl.com/r9da.

Have a great week!

Bernice Ross and Byron Van Arsdale, Chief Dough Makers www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.RealEstateDough.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.RossdalePress.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com, and www.TeleconferenceLine.com

3. Reprise: Hot Opportunities to Dominate Your Real Estate Market This article first ran in January of 2008. The tips it contains come from NAR’s research. Get the scoop straight from what the sellers and buyers had to say about what works for them.

http://budurl.com/z59b

4. Create a Better Life: Nine Secrets to Make Your Business Plan and Your Business a Success in 2009 This is Part 2 of “Dirty Little Secrets of Business Planning.” The first and most important step is to make a plan, but how can you have a plan that works? This article provides nine proven tips that will help guarantee your success in 2009.

http://budurl.com/u9sq

5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg) Discover how easy it is to find out what’s right about the real estate business! A new study from Baylor University that will surprise you, reports from brokers at Real Estate Connect about the early sales numbers for 2009, plus much more. Just click on the link below and listen!

(If this is your first visit, don’t miss our first Positive News that is just as appropriate today as it was a year ago! Just click and listen–it’s that easy!)

http://budurl.com/cafa

6. LuxuryClues.com: Highlights from the Inman Conference *Highlights from Real Estate Connect: Ten Tips You Need to Know for Your Business http://budurl.com/gfcy

*My Journey from PC and Palm to Mac and iPhone: Days 1 & 2: Throw all of them out the window. http://budurl.com/sf9c

*The $1,400 Bottle of Grappa–Can I Keep the Bottle? http://budurl.com/95xy

7. Featured Products: The $1.2 million dollar closing script The owner of your company just gave you a dynamite referral–the president of a major studio. In your market, prices are declining 1.5% PER MONTH. Your buyer makes an offer on a new home built by a major Japanese developer whose home office is in Tokyo. What would you say to the sellers when they turn down your buyer’s offer of $1.2 million? This was the dilemma I faced when the LA market lost 30% of its value in 18 months. The scripts I developed to work with my 10 REO lenders are the most effective seller closing scripts in the market place. If you want to learn the secrets to getting sellers to “get real,” you need our List and Sell Real Estate Like Crazy Audio CD Program. Click here to learn more:

http://budurl.com/u4ny

**Managers: Coach Your Agents to Productivity Coaching improves performance. Many top producing offices have hired their own internal coach or have managers who coach their agents. The result? Major increases in productivity and bottom line. To learn how you can increase your office production and keep your agents on track, you need our “Coach Your Real Estate Agents Like Crazy” Audio CD Program. To learn more about the program that can put more $$ in your pocket, click on the link below:

http://budurl.com/u5xk

8. What’s New at ListenandLearnRealEstate.com WHAT’S NEW AT www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com for January 1-15, 2009. ($29.95 per month for eight new audio broadcasts every month) Our library now has over 130 titles–check out all of them by purchasing a one month membership for only $29.95 or stay for eight more titles every single month.)

*Seven Ways to Build Your Real Estate Success Now Real estate agents are struggling to succeed in today’s highly competitive market. This session gives you proven tips to get your business running strong in any market.

*How to Get Top Real Estate Ranking on Google in 2009 Google changes their algorithms all the time. A new change in early 2009, will change the way rankings are handled forever. Learn what you need to do to come up on top of the real estate searches for your area.

*Time Efficiency Tips Tired of working so many hours per week in your real estate business? Want more time for you? You can create more fun time in your schedule by making a few minor adjustments in how you accomplish certain tasks. This session reveals the secrets of how to have more time for you.

*Sleep Your Way to Weight Loss (Simple Ways to Peel Away Those Pounds) No kidding–lack of sleep can cause you to gain weight. This session includes three easy ways to drop those extra pounds painlessly. It also includes some of my favorite suggestions for giving your brain the food it needs and still keeping it healthy.

9. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching Looking for a well-trained coach who knows the real estate business? Our coaching team can help you increase your production and make your dreams come true. Send an e-mail to Shane@RealEstateCoach.com and we’ll help find the right coach for you.

10. Give Us Your Feedback On This Newsletter We want your feedback-to share your thoughts and suggestions, please e-mail us at Shane@RealEstateCoach.com.

11. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe Visit our Web site, http://www.RealEstateCoach.com to subscribe/unsubscribe to RealClues.

Copyright (c) 1996-2009, RealEstateCoach.com and Teleclass4U.com, LLC. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute RealClues as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the contributors to this newsletter is attached.

Contributors to this newsletter: Bernice Ross, MCC, and Byron Van Arsdale, MCC, Owners, www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com; www.RossdalePress.com; and www.TeleconferenceLine.com Shane Bowlin, REC General Manager

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