All Forum Posts by: Jeremy T.

@Pedro Machin 

I believe that incentive is too arbitrary and 'long-dated' to a prospect.  

Marketing incentives need to be something the prospect can take advantage of in short order or after a product/service has been transacted (i.e., a money back guarantee on a set of steak knives, for example). 

As an agent you know (and if not, you need to measure) the duration of a typical retail transaction from the prospect receiving a marketing piece to closing on their sale/purchase.  On average, I would venture to guess that the process is at least several months in duration and is filled with excessive/extensive logistics and paperwork.  Receiving cash back if unsatisfied with your "custom home search" at closing doesn't do much to mitigate their immediate concerns. 

Also, you want your marketing to build trust and rapport with prospects.  Your incentive is basically saying: "if you are unhappy with me and my process of finding you a home I'll give you money back at closing".  I understand what you are going for with this, but you are basically saying "hey I have this process for helping you to find a home.  If you don't think it's any good, you can get some money back and not do business with me again or refer me to any of your circle of influence".  You are looking for your marketing to generate one client, who then refers two people to you, then those two refer two each, etc.

Like Antonio said, focus on educating, not selling.

@Pedro Machin 

I have a few questions:

Just so I understand you correctly: you are marketing to people who purchased their home between 2-5 years ago?  Assuming I am correct, aside from the length of residence, I see you are using price and location.  How detailed are your location parameters? Why would the 500 people on your list be motivated to inquire with you about their property value when there are a number of websites that will do that for them without the threat of being bombarded with spam (not that you would/will spam them, but think of it from their perspective)? 

I believe your marketing must reflect how the specialized knowledge that you possess can/will solve your prospects problem(s), primarily through using your expertise to build trust.  That doesn't happen overnight or by sending them a single postcard.

PM me and we can discuss some ideas if you like.

Oh wow, thank you @Kurt Kwart her facebook page is highly entertaining.

I always find it peculiar when someone will spend their (seemingly) valuable time getting into 'arguments' with trolls from the internets.

I don't know much, but I can imagine that it would be much easier to run a successful rehab business when the rehab business itself is nothing more than entertainment and you can rely on HGTV's parent company for your paycheck.  Of course, you can then parlay your "expertise" into FREE informational training seminars in which you provide aspiring house flippers the "opportunity of a lifetime" and grant them access to your "nationwide database of distressed homes" for a cool 30 grand per person.  

See how easy it is to flip houses profitably?!?11?!

Yes, I am a cynical a**hole regarding such matters.

 ^^^ THIS

There is a tremendous change in perspective and motivation when one indulges others in their goals.  This projection of goals will provide an inherent sense of responsibility to push through the inevitable 'resistance' that will develop along the way.

Let's say you are an absentee owner who wanted to unload a property.  You probably have a very specific set of circumstances that have led you to the point of wanting to liquidate your investment.  Additionally, you receive several yellow letter style/postcard piece(s) of mail every day/week in which some guy/gal has 'handwritten' the same message (I'm sure it's merely a coincidence that their handwriting and message is exactly the same...) about how he/she would like to '$$$BUY$$$ your house for cash dollars' (I'm paraphrasing here). 

Look, there is no doubt that these campaigns are successful in certain markets or with a 5 figure/month marketing budget and a fully functioning call center to handle the inbound call volume.  When a market becomes saturated with the same message, the effectiveness of the hokey, 'aww shucks, all I have is this measly legal pad and red pen (hell, I even use this pad as a coaster for my coffee!); therefore allow me to scribe you this simple message about how I want to buy your property' is diminished, IMO. 

You need to determine how you can stand out.  I don't think lowering the bar is the answer.  These are likely successful/sophisticated individuals in other areas of life.  Be personal, be professional, be prepared and figure out what keeps your prospect up at night. 

If you want to compete in the most competitive market, you need to find a way to separate yourself.  Doing what everyone else is doing is not an effective means to accomplish that goal.  Read the forums, learn about what things drive the landlords of BP up a wall.  Tailor your marketing message to allow the "you" at the start of this post to say "Oooh, this is an interesting piece of mail, I wonder what it says?  Aha! Yes! This person gets it and I believe they can help me solve this problem!".

I believe that the threat of vandalism on a property that someone owns yet has no way of keeping tabs on certainly qualifies under the umbrella of "what keeps your prospect up at night?" 

Combine that with the traditional avenues of distress (bad tenants, drugs, disease, divorce, death, dirty property, unemployment) and you could have a winner.  The only way to know is to test it out.

Well, you can use the listsource proprietary calculation for "current value" which they charge $0.50/record...which I think is a waste of money. 

Alternatively, you can also use "total assessed value", which as we know is not indicative of much in a vacuum, but in regard to neighboring properties, you can compare apples to apples (for the most part).  Listsource charges $0.0012 (i.e., a little more than 1/10th a penny/record) for "total assessed value".  I just include that in the "Add Additional Fields" portion of Purchase My List.  I wouldn't filter by this value because you don't want to exclude nulls, but on a list of 5000 names, adding this value to your output records will cost a whopping 6 bucks (and that is full price)...well worth it, IMO.

Giddy up Pittsburgh BP members...you will be graced by the presence of this hideous mug two weeks from today.

 Yes, but you need to make sure to include that information in your records in the "Add Additional Fields" of the Append Output Fields tab when you go to purchase your list.  It costs 0.01/lead (full price), and, IMO, is well worth the 10 bucks it will cost you to double your potential leads.