BuilderRadio Podcast – New Tools to Communicate with Your Prospects and Buyers
Filed under: Best Practices, Interviews, Online Marketing Experts, Online Trends, Resources & Tools
Be sure to stop over and check out the new podcast of an interview I did with my friends at www.builderradio.com
New Tools to Communicate with Your Prospects and Buyers.
Click Here to Listen Now >>
In this interview, we discuss the following strategies for upgrading your sales tools:
1. Lose the ‘Dumb Phone’
A smart phone, such as the iPhone, is like a Swiss Army Knife for communication. It’s always with you, so it’s easy to use to shoot a quick video of a customer or a home, or shoot pictures of a home, and then send them via email. Don’t forget your apps that keep you connected to all the social media outlets. You’ve got to have that ability in your phone to keep in touch and communicate in new ways.
2. Video
Video is the second most powerful form of communication; after face-to-face communication, there’s nothing better than video. Video can share expressions and emotions that you can’t share in an email or even over the phone where you lose that visual communication. Even though it’s still one-way, your buyers can see your excitement, energy and enthusiasm. So it’s very powerful.
3. Video Email
Video can be used to communicate with customers directly. There’s a great tool that I use called Eyejot.com. Video email gives you an opportunity to communicate more and better than your competitors. And the more you communicate, the better your chances are of making the sale. And by the way, a basic Eyejot.com account is free, so it doesn’t cost you anything to communicate on a much better level!
4. Social Networking
Social media is like word of mouth marketing on steroids. The first thing about social media is that it’s very broad; there are so many sites out there. The second thing people tell me is that they don’t have the time to engage in all the different social avenues. When you’re using social media, try to be efficient with it. Use your smart phone in your down time or in the evenings to make quick connections and have valuable conversations, and you’ll see the opportunities present themselves by using these new tools to better connect with Realtors, past customers and future buyers.
5 Ways to Engage Echo Boomers
Are you ready for the new generation of home buyers? Echo boomers – there are 80 million of them with a total of $200 billion annual spending power. With an average gap of 24 years between those buying or selling real estate and those who represent them, will you be able to speak their tech savvy language when they come to you looking for a home? Let’s face it, there is a huge difference between what they call a “digital native” vs. a “digital immigrant”. How do you know if you are one of these immigrants? If you where born before 1970, there is a good chance you are. You know what it is like to use a typewriter, you remember buying your first Motorola brick phone and there is a good chance you saw the fax machine make its way into the office. You are also a professional communicator and you know you have to stay on top of the latest technology and communication methods used by this new crowd. So here are a few tips to get to know Echo Boomers and what they are looking for when it comes to buying a home.
Be Found
We all know the stats, 9 out of 10 home buyers start their search online. Be found where they are looking! Get your social community set up and treat it like your child. Feed it, dress it up and take it places! Don’t just set up a Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter account and let it set there. Create your social community and the Echo Boomers will notice you. Get your homes online! There are plenty of reputable listing sites ready to take your listing and get it sold! No longer does the rule “if you build it they will come” apply but rather “if you put it online, maintain and tweak it they will come”. The search starts online, will they find you?
Be Smart
With 94% of echo boomers using their cell phones to surf the web and send email a smartphone will keep you in the game! Loose the dumb phone and use your new iPhone to your advantage. You can send emails, text messages, photos, videos and connect with all of these new social networking sites at the touch of a fingertip. If you don’t have a smartphone, stop reading this blog, go get one and then we can talk (or maybe text?)
Be Texty
Get your texting fingers primed and ready. Don’t be surprised if an Echo Boomer asks you to “text” them the details on a home or listing. 80% say their cell phone is their “lifeline” and would rather text than talk. Be ready to respond to a text in a timely manner which means no more chicken pecking! I know that for some of you this really chaps your hide. You might call your pubescent teenager on the phone that you pay for, leave them a message asking them where they are and the text you back “What do you want mom?” Well, this new generation is more responsive and comfortable using their thumbs instead of their mouth. It doesn’t make it right, but it “is what it is”.Their punishment will be oversized thumbs and an early onset of carpel tunnel syndrome. So who has the last laugh?
Be Speedy
Echo Boomers are used to getting responses at the speed of light. When they email you, call you, text you, Facebook you they expect a response and quickly. Don Tapscott says it right in his book Grown up Digital the “Net Gen” has a “need for speed”.They have no idea what it is like to wait around, this is an immediate gratification generation.
Start Listening
A simple Google of “Echo Boomer” will give you a laundry list of what experts, writers, TV personalities and your next door neighbor has to say about the up and coming generation. Know what your buyers are looking for and facilitate their needs. A study done by NAHB and Better Homes and Gardens shows some impressive statistics about what Generation Y is looking for in a home:
Echo Boomers are adults now, not kids, and they want to be taken seriously and given the BEST customer service you have to give! Let’s face it, this generation has high expectations of what this world should be like (i.e. their first home) and who better to make that happen for them than you? No need to be discouraged because they want a trusted adviser, you actually have the competitive edge over your Echo boomer counter parts but you must be able to talk their language.
What are your thoughts?
Batman Has an iPhone – Do You?
Lose the dumb phone! You’ve got to have the right tools to be cool. But more importantly you have to have the right tools to run your business.
Real estate is visual. What’s the best way to convey that to potential buyers? Shoot a video. Use your smart phone, or if you want to make a very minor investment in the same tool I used recently at the International Builders’ Show then for just $199 you can buy a flip mino. It’s a little tiny camera, but it packs a big punch.
Take a look at this video, (Shot with my flip mino) the third in a series from my presentation at IBS. This will give you some great tools and ideas to work with to enhance your real estate business.
Let’s talk about content ideas.
What is your secret sauce? Throw out some content ideas.
To view the 4 part series click here.
(video) Epcon Communites Goes Tech at National Sales Conference
I’ve recently discovered, after presenting at Epcon Communities’ national sales summit, that Epcon agents are people who take action!
During the summit, I had the pleasure of sharing concepts with their sales team and builder partners on how to create digital communities. We talked about integrating new technology into the sales process.
After my discussion on incorporating video into the sales presentation about 12 sales executives didn’t just take notes, they took action. They went to Target and bought Flip Mino cameras (rumor has it security almost kicked them out for trying to negotiate a group discount)
You know me, I never go anywhere without my own Flip. While I was there I shot a few clips myself with some amazing individuals!
In the first interview, I talk with Phil Fankhauser the CEO of Epcon and the best-dressed man in the industry. He shared some great concepts the night before. Here is my favorite quote, “If the market is 17% off, doesn’t that mean we are 83% on?”
Next up is Nanette Overly, the VP of Sales and a dynamic individual discussing action steps for 2010.
And finally, Ed Barber, Sales Executive of the year for Epcon talks about how he is going to use video email to blow up his business in 2010. (plus he talks about his dog, Teddy Bear)
Is Social Networking a Waste of My Time?
“How in the world am I supposed to keep up with all of the Social Media stuff, I don’t have enough time as it is?” I hear this question just about every time I present on the subject.
I just finished a great webinar with sales agents about social networking and building communities while building a powerful personal brand. Sure enough, during the Q.A. portion, someone asked it again.
I think it is an extremely valid question. The last thing you would want social networking to be is a time sucker, especially if it replaces critical business development opportunities. My standard answer is don’t spend more than 45 minutes a day of your “business” time.
Let’s face it, I have yet to see someone be 100% efficient from 8-5 every single day. So take some of that spare time and engage in your digital network. On that same note, don’t get caught in what we call “digital quicksand” where you emerge hours later and realize you have been doing nothing but playing Mafia Wars.
It may look like I spend more time on these sources than others, but I follow my own advice. I have a few tools that allow me to be efficient. (tweetdeck, hootsuite etc) but my swiss army knife is my iPhone loaded with all of my social networking apps. Because I am connected, I can use my “down time” for connecting with others. Yes, you will have to trade in your “dumb” phone for a “smart” phone – I talked about that in a recent post.
Think of all those times you are waiting around. Maybe you are getting your oil changed, stuck in traffic, waiting for the dentist, sitting at the mall waiting for your wife to finish shopping at the Gap – you name it. This is a great time to pop on Facebook and talk to a few folks, send a retweet or comment on a LinkedIn discussion.
If you are committed to using social networking to build your business, this is how you can do it without wasting time. Or you can just stop watching American Idol and use that time to build your brand – just a thought. Some call that being a workaholic; I just call it smart business.
I shot this video on my iPhone waiting for my oil to get changed. (I was a bit under the weather, sorry for looking so rough)
