Open House Dialogue

When you are at an open house you are going to be speaking to the most qualified prospects you will ever meet. 9 out of 10 times they are going to buy a house and/or sell a house. Here are some of the questions you should ask them:

1. What brought you to our open house today?
2. Where are you living now?
3. How long have you been looking?
4. What is the situation on your present home?
5. Why have you decided to move at this time?
6. Are you currently working with other Realtors?
7. When would you like to be in your new home?
8. What price range are you looking for?
9. How long have you been searching for a home?
10. Have you ever come close to finding your dream home and if so what was it like?
11. Do you mind me asking how much equity you have in your home?

Write the answers down if appropriate and if they are not working with a Realtor ask them if you could add them to your email list and possibly send them links to properties they might be interested in.

Then ask them if they would be interested in working with you.

Prospecting 101

There is nothing more frightening in business than prospecting…unless you understand a bit more about what is going on at the other end of the phone. Next time you get a call from someone prospecting for your business think about how you handle the situation and then you will start to better understand what happens when you are prospecting.

1. Prospecting means taking action. You have to to pick up the phone or you aren’t prospecting.

2. Prospecting is like baseball. You have to get to first base before you can get to second, third and home. Try to move business forward and don’t try for a home run every call. Each call should advance you around the bases.

3. Call back. Most people actually appreciate your persistence as they feel guilty about not calling you back. That doesn’t mean they will automatically say yes, but they are prospecting in their business too and appreciate what you are going through. People don’t call them back too.

4. People do not return calls because they have higher priorities. It does not mean they hate you. Think of how you prioritize calls coming to you and that is exactly what your prospect is doing.

5. If there is an answering machine leave a detailed message..and let them know you will try again at a certain time or if they want they can call you, but leave the door open for you to keep calling.

6. When you do reach a hard-to-get prospect recognize they have been busy and ask if it is a good time to speak. If it isn’t schedule another time. Don’t say “You are a hard person to get hold of” or “Finally we speak. I thought you died”. Start talking as if you reached them on the first call and don’t be judgmental.

7. Have a plan for the conversation and an anticipated outcome; a meeting, a proposal, a test drive etc.

Direct Mail and Email Marketing are Tops

The choice of marketing tools is always difficult and marketers are always trying new ways to reach their markets, but Direct Mail continues to be at the top of the list.  Of all the new medias that have been developed over the past 5 years, email marketing has risen above all others.

Direct mail and email generated the best return on investment among media channels in 2006, according to respondents – both B2B and consumer marketers – to a new Harte-Hanks survey administered by CSO Insights, reports MarketingCharts.

For companies marketing to consumer, Direct Mail provided the number one return on investment (ROI) from 70% of the respondents and email marketing was number one with 47% of the respondents.

For companies marketing to other businesses, 50% of the respondents chose Email Marketing as the number 1 ROI with Events/Tradeshows and Direct Mail closely bunched around 45%.

About the study: Among the respondents, 28% represented technology companies, 19% from the manufacturing sector (non-tech), 13% among services companies, 9% financial, 7% in healthcare and 5% retailers and consumer package goods companies – with a variety of other sectors (nonprofit, government, education, travel and transportation, among others) making up the other 24%. Approximately 60% of survey respondents represent B2B marketers.