SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDITION
KEEPING IN TOUCH— HOW TO STAY IN YOUR CLIENTS' LIVES FOR THE LONG HAUL
COVER STORY
DANNY MURPHY
DEVELOPING YOUR PRICING PHILOSOPHY WHEN IT'S TIME FOR A HOME OFFICE
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDITION
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DANNY MURPHY
CONTENTS 4) WHEN IT'S
TIME FOR A HOME OFFICE
15) KEEPING IN
TOUCH—HOW TO STAY IN YOUR CLIENTS' LIVES FOR THE LONG HAUL
20) DEVELOPING
YOUR PRICING PHILOSOPHY
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When It’s Time for a Home Office by Nancy Michaels
So, you’re tired of clearing your papers off the dining room table every time someone wants to eat (how dare they!). And you’re still recovering from the business call you were forced to take that time your 5-yearold pressed the phone into your hand just as you stepped from the shower (it’s amazing how professional one can sound while wrapped in a towel and dripping wet).
fairly easily for this purpose. Use bookcases, filing cabinets, plants, screens, even lighting to define your work space. It’s essential that you remain committed to your space as office space. Without this psychological distinction between home and work, the two areas of your life may slide into one another, causing you to lose focus, and thus, productivity.
Sounds like it’s time for a home Choose furnishings that are ergooffice. nomically correct, and which fit in with the decor of the rest of your Ideally, you’ll have a spare room to home. Lighting should come from turn into office space—preferably three sources: natural, ambient and one with a locking door. An extra direct. Give yourself enough storage bedroom, the basement, or attic can space to keep your work area all serve this purpose. If you don’t uncluttered. You may want to store have room for a dedicated office, your supplies in another part of the take a look around your house to see house, keeping just a week’s worth where you can carve yourself some in your office. And schedule a space. A closet, bedroom corner, weekly or biweekly cleanup where hallway alcove or even the area you go through your papers and files under a stairway can all be converted and either throw away or stow away 4
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anything that is not essential to the daily operation of your business.
event of a power failure. An uninterruptable power source supply is also a must for the home office. This will keep your computer running during a power outage until you’re able to safely shut it down.
Almost every business requires a computer system. Don’t skimp. You want something with enough speed and memory capacity to last into the future. A good-quality inkjet, or Another essential component of the preferably, a laser printer is also home office is telecommunications, essential. Investigate the all-in-one meaning telephone, fax and Internet printer, fax, copier and scanners. access. An account through an These may save you money as well Internet service provider or online as precious office space. I also service shouldn’t cost more than $20 recommend a computer backup per month and it will give you the system, which will protect the ability to send and receive e-mail. contents of your hard drive in the Top Agent Magazine
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It’s essential that you remain committed to your space as office space. You’ll probably want more than one phone line, three if you’re using one line for a fax and modem hookup. It’s wise to invest in a business line, which allows you to list your business name and number in the phone book and with directory assistance. To keep costs down, use that line for incoming calls only. If you don’t want the expense of a business line, but can do without a repeat of the shower scene, order “distinct ring” service from your phone company. This is a separate phone number which rings into your home line, but sounds different from your normal ring. This alerts you and family members to incoming business calls. If you’re dishing up dinner or washing the dog, you’ll know to let your answering machine, or better yet, your electronic voice mail system, grab the call. If you’re in the shower, hopefully your 5year-old will know to do the same. You may also want to order “call 6
answering” from your phone company. It’s just a few dollars a month and sounds more professional than an answering machine, and which won’t break down while you’re on vacation. A home office can either improve productivity, or harm it. You may find yourself doing paperwork at 2 a.m. when you should be sleeping, or flipping to General Hospital at 3 p.m. when you should be working. It’s helpful to treat your home office as you would an outside office, complete with “starting” and “quitting” times. This will help you stay focused, organized, and productive. And your family will appreciate having their dining room table back. Nancy Michaels, of Impression Impact, works with companies that want to reach the small business community and with small business owners who want to sell more products and services. Copyright©, Nancy Michaels. All rights reserved. Top Agent Magazine
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DANNY MURPHY
“My clients feel like they got more than they expected, and I take a lot of pride in that.” Top Agent Danny Murphy has over eighteen years of experience in the real estate world, beginning as an investor in residential income properties in California, Nevada, and Florida, and now as a realtor specializing in residential and investment property sales in Southern California. Selling primarily in the Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Irvine and surrounding areas of Orange County, Danny credits much of his success to his background in the corporate world and his degree in finance. “Coming from that world, I treat real estate like a professional business, I run it like a business. I do forecasting, budgeting, have a very detailed marketing plan, and I really try to Copyright Top Agent Magazine 8
target the kind of business I want. I’m a little more methodical and business-oriented with my management style, more so than typical agents.” This almost obsessive attention to detail is counterbalanced by a highly personable, deeply caring side. “I love the fact that I get to help people,” he says. “I remember during the downturn I helped a lot of people get out of difficult situations financially. I was able to take actions that helped clients save their credit, avoid foreclosures, or keep their homes. Helping people through tough times has been extremely rewarding. But I also get to help people in exciting situations, whether it’s buying their first home or having children and needing a Top Agent Magazine
bigger home.” This true concern for his clients has not only cemented his reputation as one of the more successful Orange County realtors, it has also translated into a greater than sixty percent referral rate. A major difference between Danny and other realtors is his willingness to merge both old and new marketing strategies to sell homes and communicate with past and future clients. “I think a big part of my marketing is combining the fundamentals like knocking on doors, doing the old-fashioned grunt work, which is something a lot of realtors let fall Top Agent Magazine
by the wayside.” As far as implementing new technologies, Danny utilizes modern techniques like an automated sequence dialer for calling clients, and a prominent presence on social media, including Pinterest, his Blog and a Facebook Business page. “It’s a very comprehensive approach of online tools, phone, text, mailers and then weekly emails. I also like to take my clients to lunch when I can.” Communication is also a key element to his success, and Danny is diligent about exceeding the expectations he has set for his customers. Copyright Top Agent Magazine 9
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“I’m a good communicator, and I try to overdeliver to the client. I fully understand the home buying and selling process and I protect them during this process. My clients feel like they got more than they expected, and I take a lot of pride in that.” Danny’s success has inspired him to give back to his community, and to that end he sponsors sports teams at local schools, charity drives, and what he is most proud of: utilizing a non-profit organization called Integrative Resources, an employer of the disabled, to help with distributing his marketing pieces.
An avid surfer, Danny spends as much time as he can when not working in the nearby ocean. “Surfing is my church,” he says. “It’s a soulful release for me.” He also enjoys traveling extensively with his wife Alyssa, relaxing with their chocolate labrador and both of them are what he calls “unsophisticated golfers.” As for the future of his business, Danny plans on increasing his focus on luxury-inspired markets, as well as refining ways to improve the quality of marketing services provided to all of his clients. Most important, however, is his desire to “run a good, strong and ethical business that I’m proud of.”
For more information about DANNY MURPHY, please call 949-413-6967 or email Danny@TheSoCalLife.com 12Copyright Top Agent Magazine
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g n i p Kee h c u in To
HOW TO STAY IN YOUR CLIENTS' LIVES FOR THE LONG HAUL
One sign of a great real estate agent is there long list of loyal client following. Part of achieving a great referral base is being a great realtor during the transaction. But, that’s only half of the work. To truly be your client’s realtor for life and keep them coming back to you as well as referring others to you, you have to stay in their lives past the transaction. Keeping in touch with your past clients can be one of the most important parts of your business, and one that many realtors tend to push to the wayside. Do you stay in your client’s lives, or do you disappear? People refer people that they feel they know well and that they trust, people they consider friends. However, earning and keeping your client’s trust involves maintaining a delicate balance with how much you contact them. Experts recommend reaching out to your clients at least quarterly. But, it’s not just about how often you stay in touch. You also need to be mindful about how you are reaching out to them. Here are some tips on how to keep in touch with your clients for the long haul: Top Agent Magazine
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INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL CONTACT One of the best ways to keep in touch with your clients is to simply give them a call every once in a while. Follow up and see how your clients are doing. Offer them assistance if they need it. Personalized contact helps to ensure that you remain as important to your clients long after the sale as you were during the transaction. Giving your clients a call on special occasions such as birthdays or holidays also makes for a great personal touch. Of course, nothing beats face-to-face contact. Stopping by to say hello can be a great way to keep in contact. An even better way to catch up and maintain that friendship is to set up a lunch or coffee date with past clients. Giving individual clients your undivided attention goes a long way towards maintaining that bond you formed during the transaction and earning your client’s loyalty and trust. Interactions like this make a lasting impression on your clients. Of course, many busy REALTORS® may not have time to follow up with every client oneon-one. A great way to still give personal attention to your clients without meeting each and every one for lunch is to throw a client appreciation party. This allows you to get in some face-to-face time with each client and make sure they all get your undivided attention and quality time to catch up with you, even if it’s only for a short time. Now, if you have a lot of past clients, this can be difficult to manage during one party. One way to get around the numbers problem is to organize smaller events based on client’s inter-
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ests. Instead of throwing one giant party, host a pool party for the families with kids or a wine and cheese get together for single clients. Hosting special events like these ones goes a long way towards keeping your contact with past clients more personalized and setting you apart from those businesses that simply send them a calendar once a year.
PROVIDE CLIENTS WITH USEFUL NEWS PROVIDE CLIENTS WITH USEFUL NEWS One way that many REALTORSÂŽ keep in touch with their clients is by sending them newsletters. This form of contact can be a double-edged sword. You want to make sure you provide them with useful information that reminds them of your value as a real estate professional. Otherwise your communication will amount to nothing more than spam, and clients will think of you less as a trusted friend and more as a nuisance salesperson. Clients react much more positively to communication containing information that is pertinent to their lives. Update your clients on what is going on in their local community and housing market. Demonstrate your knowledge about the community and the things that are important to your clients. Include information about local cultural events, community news, housing statistics, information on the mortgage market, home maintenance advice, home design tips, and anything else that your clients will find personally useful. Your clients will always be interested in value.
SEND CLIENTS MEMORABLE AND PERSONAL CARDS Sending your clients cards related to important events in their lives and letting them know that you remember those events and care will go a long way towards building and maintaining a close personal relationship with them. You want to make sure your cards stand out, though. Sending popular holiday cards can be a mistake, as they will most likely get lost amongst all of your clients other holiday cards and will be quickly forgotten. Instead send something more personal such as: HOME ANNIVERSARY CARDS: Send cards to each client on the anniversary of the closing of their home.
CONGRATULATORY CARDS: Remember important events such as wedding anniversaries, graduations, new babies, etc.
SPECIAL BIRTHDAY CARDS: Instead of just sending your typical birthday card, add something special to yours that will stand out. Include a $1 scratch off ticket or a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks. Make sure to include a handwritten personal note. Top Agent Magazine
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GIVE CLIENTS AN UNUSUAL GIFT Make sure the gifts you send your past clients stand out. Send your past clients an odd gift at the beginning of the year or on a holiday. Think outside the box and send things like funny magnets, customized mugs, a personalized piece of wall décor, and other fun and unusual items. A great way to make your gift stand out even more is to include a funny note with it that will catch their attention as well as make them think of you. For example, one cute idea is to send clients a bag of popcorn with the note, “Real estate is popping, give me a call.” You could send a bag of goldfish with a note attached that says, “I’m fishing for your referrals.” Get creative and have a little fun with it, your clients will notice and remember you for it.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
Social networking sites make staying in contact with past clients in a more informal and friendly basis much easier. Connect with your past clients on Facebook. This will help you stay up to date on the important things happening in your pact clients’ lives. In return, it provides you a great platform for keeping those past clients up to date with what is going on in your business as well as keep in contact in a more informal manner. Use Facebook to remind past clients to check their basement after a heavy rain or that they can contact you for help during tax time. 18
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You can even organize your contacts on Facebook into customized lists such as “past clients,” “industry contacts,” etc. This will help you better manage your Facebook contacts. This will also allow you to view specific news feeds based on these lists and send messages to a particular list of contacts. Don’t forget about the many other social networking sites such as Twitter or LinkedIn either. Utilize this technology to drive personal contact with your clients.
STAY ORGANIZED
No matter how you choose to keep in contact with past clients, make sure to be consistent. Consistency will help you stay organized and diligent about reaching out to your past clients regularly. A tool used by many real estate professionals to stay organized is a customer relationship management solution. Whether you use one that is online or a computer software program, this will help you stay organized when managing your contacts and allow you to set notifications to alert you when you need to contact certain clients, send out gifts, plan a client appreciation event, and many other things throughout the year. Staying organized and consistent in your contact with past clients will help you continue to build and manage your referral base, as well as open the door to repeat and referral business. Top Agent Magazine
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Developing Your Pricing Philosophy By Dirk Zeller
Ask a dozen agents to explain their home pricing philosophy, and you’ll
hear a dozen different approaches. And if the talk reveals frank responses, you’ll also learn that the most common pricing strategy is no strategy at all. Here’s my advice: Break out of the ranks by establishing and following a specific strategy for arriving at the ideal selling price for each home. Adopt the philosophy that, in real estate sales, price is king. Price trumps all other factors—including marketing approaches, home condition, market competitiveness, and sales approach. I believe that, in the end, marketing and condition of the property are controlled by the price. The alternative, advocated by many agents, most sellers, and even some sales trainers, is to emphasize marketing over pricing. Rather than working to set the ideal price, they believe success will come from optimizing the home’s condition and presentation and then marketing it with skill and savvy.
I take the opposite belief, based on years of experience working with sellers who wanted unrealistic prices for their homes and who experienced firsttime sales failures as a result. Over my sales career, I resurrected and re-listed more than 600 expired listings—nearly 75 a year. Among all those transactions, I never met an owner with an expired listing who thought that an unreasonable price had anything to do with the home’s failure to sell. They all blamed the previous Copyright Top Agent Magazine 20
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agent and that person’s approach to marketing. Each sought some magic marketing strategy to change the reality of the law of supply and demand. There is a magic strategy: Price the home correctly. Price is the only factor that can overcome sales obstacles, compensate for a home’s deficiencies, and motivate a purchaser even if the condition of the property and your marketing approach is less than perfect. Getting the listing at any cost Does this scenario sound familiar? An agent (usually a newer agent) is short on business or maybe even desperate for the chance to stake a sign in someone’s yard. The agent wants a listing at any price – even if the chance Top Agent Magazine
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to seal a deal erodes the likelihood of selling the property. To gain a seller’s nod of approval, the agent makes a flatteringly high pricing recommendation, throwing out a number the client wants to hear and then hoping something good will result from the bad situation. I can think of few examples, if any, where this philosophy works. Hope isn’t a successful pricing strategy. Worse, the please-the-client mindset is a hard one to abandon. Agents who achieve listings with unrealistic prices find it hard to later counsel their clients honestly.
If you take and price a good listing competitively, it will sell. You can’t keep a good price a secret! The pitfalls of a “please the buyer” approach are many and significant. By overpricing, you can practically count on a reduction in your productivity, profitability, and salability, and here’s why: It’s impossible to keep your productivity high when your time is spent in conversations with an unsuccessful seller who lacks motivation to take corrective action. The seller’s negativity, concerns, and phone calls will only increase with each week or month the house remains on the market. 22
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As time goes on, you’ll devote more and more time unsuccessfully trying to create a sale not only for your seller but also for yourself. This will pull you away from activities that are more likely to deliver income. The ensuing frustration will de-motivate you and stunt your ability to secure better appointments that create other income opportunities. An unsold, overpriced listing negatively impacts your profitability because it costs you time and money to service while it delivers no revenue to your business. And the situation only gets worse the longer the listing languishes on the market. You’ll end up deducting the expenses of this in-limbo listing from the proceeds generated by any revenue-producing deals you manage to close in the meantime, reducing your net profit and business success. Unsold homes that linger on the market seriously diminish your salability, which is the term that describes your sales success track. Your salability is based on such key statistics as your average ratio of listing price compared to sale price and the average number of days your listings are on the market. Obviously, these statistics, which prospects rely on when choosing one agent over another, can be crushed by a “get the listings at any cost” philosophy. They’re also harmed by the “start high and reduce later” tactic. If you take and price a good listing competitively, it will sell. You can’t keep a good price a secret! Dirk Zeller is an Agent, an Investor, and the President and CEO of Real Estate Champions. Copyright© 2014, Dirk Zeller. All rights reserved.
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