Adapting an Expired Prospecting Plan to Fit Your DiSC Style

We are all different. Why shouldn’t our Expired Listing Plan be different?

In the past, I have taken some time to talk about how to adjust a generic Expired Prospecting Plan to make it fit for your area in my article A Tale of Three Agents. I reference them in this article so click here to read that article first.

The next way I encourage you to adjust an Expired Plan after you have adapted it to fit your Market Area is by customizing it to fit your STYLE.

When I say style, I mean Behavioral Styles. All of the clients I work with are given a DiSC Profile. This helps me as a coach to understand who they are and for the Realtor to understand and build off their strengths.

I am sure many of you are familiar with DiSC, but if you are not or would like more information, log on to www.DiSCForRealEstate.com and click on the “What is DiSC” tab.

I am going to give a very brief overview before going on to explain how my clients have adapted their Expired Programs to fit their styles.

The DiSC® model provides nonjudgmental language for exploring behavioral issues across four primary dimensions:

Dominance: Direct and Decisive.

D’s are strong-willed, strong-minded people who like accepting challenges, taking action, and getting immediate results.

Influence: Optimistic and Outgoing.

I’s are “people people” who like participating on teams, sharing ideas, and energizing and entertaining others.

Steadiness: Sympathetic and Cooperative.

S’s are helpful people who like working behind the scenes, performing in consistent and predictable ways, and being good listeners.

Conscientiousness: Concerned and Correct.

C’s are sticklers for quality and like planning ahead, employing systematic approaches, and checking and re-checking for accuracy.

Most agents I work with usually come up with a primary and secondary style.

Many agents come up with High “Ds” as one of their two highest styles. Although being a High D is great when it comes to running a team, or closing a buyer, it can be intimidating to prospects early on and can be perceived as being pushy. In this case I encourage them to turn down their”D” and concentrate on the other highest style.

Remember the three agents I told you about in A Tale of Three Agents? They were the City Agent, the Suburb Agent and the Rural Agent? They all have different styles.

Based on what I told you about the City Agent’s Expired Plan, can you guess what style he is? Remember:

He is on the phone calling Expired Listings every day from 9:30 am to 10 am without fail. His intention with the phone calls is to see if the homeowner is still interested in selling their home and to make an appointment to come out, that day if possible.

After making phone calls, setting appointments and talking to those that are home; this City Agent then spends 30 minutes making up packets to drop off at the homes that he was not able to talk to.

City Agent is a High C.

Conscientiousness: Concerned and Correct.

C’s are sticklers for quality and like planning ahead, employing systematic approaches.

He does the same thing at the same time everyday without fail. He is very accurate, very precious and a very good agent.

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How about Suburban Agent? What style do you think she is based on the way she adapted her Expired Plan to fit her style as well as her market area. Remember she is the one that:

Uploads the picture, creates the card that then is printed in her handwriting and sent that day. She then sends out a post card through the same system 3 days later and another card 3 days after that. She continues with cards weekly for four more weeks and then puts them on a monthly card and postcard campaign which is automated through this system.

Suburban Agent is a High “S”

Steadiness: Sympathetic and Cooperative.

S’s are helpful people, performing in consistent and predictable ways, and are good listeners.

She created a system that she can put in motion that seems to be very personal, but is totally automated.

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So how the marketing person for Rural Agent?

Remember the marketing person:

She has a number of different scripts to use when she calls, but she never uses them. She was born and raised in the small rural community and knows most of the people (or some mutual acquaintance anyway!) in the tri-county area. She just calls them starts to chat with them, builds report and sets the appointment for the lead agent.

She chats with the neighbors when dropping off packets and even gets listing appointment through the neighbors who she builds report with.

She is probably the biggest “I” I have ever met

Influence: Optimistic and Outgoing.

I’s are “people people” who like energizing and entertaining others.

She has really put her natural gift of gab to work!

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Which of the four styles do you think best describes you? How can you customize your Expired Plan so that it will really play off your strengths?

I run come across so many agents that are trying to fit into molds and read scripts and send letters that is not who they are. Trying to do this business like someone you are not is not going to allow you to reach your full potential. Who are you and how can you create your business around THAT style.

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I also want to touch on just briefly is how to customize your Expired Plan to fit the style of your prospects.

I just outlined for you the four DiSC Styles and encouraged you to draw from your strengths. I also encourage you to adapt your style to better relate to your prospect’s style.

Now I don’t want to confuse anyone so let me clarify that a person’s style is not influenced by if they live in the city, the suburbs or a rural area. You cannot assume that because your prospect lives in a certain neighborhood and that your accountant lives in that neighborhood, therefore all people in that neighborhood must be High “Cs” You must not generalize like this.

If, however, you call someone on the phone or meet them when you drop off a packet, pay attention to what people say and how they say it.

Do they talk fast and vibrantly?

Are they more systematic in their responses?

Are they very precise in their answers?

If you are a High “I” and talking loud and fast and the prospect on the other side of the door or telephone is slower speaking, more exact in their word choice, how much rapport are you building. While I encourage you to be yourself, I also encourage you to tone down extremes if you don’t seem to be connecting with people.

People Reading can be one of the most effective sales tools I work on with my clients. Using the DiSC Styles in People Reading is beneficial whether you are working with Expired Listings, FSBOs, sellers, buyers, everyone. To build rapport, it is import to listen, observe and adjust your presentation in order to build rapport. Remember, it is about them, not all about you.

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Real Estate Coach Cheri Alguire helps Real Estate Agents get more listings and make money in any type of market. To find out more about her Expired Real Estate Leads Program visit http://expiredrealestateleads.com/ or visit http://www.prorealestatecoach.com/ to find out about her Real Estate Coaching Programs.

Discovering Your Niche Market

By Cheri Alguire

How many times in your business have you heard, “You need to choose a niche”? While nearly everyone talks about the benefits of a niche and that they need to find theirs:

• How do you really choose a niche?
• How do you know the right one?
• Will you really like it?
• Will it prove profitable?
  

For me, in the beginning it seemed to boil down to one critical question: How was I going to attract clients?

I understood finding my target audience from the marketing I had done in my previous businesses. After hearing the speakers, taking the classes, and reading the books about the importance of choosing a niche, I began to understand that to really have effective advertising, my business and marketing plans must start with a clear idea of what my niche market would be.

I am a business and life coach for Real Estate Professionals. Okay, there are still a million Realtors in the United States, but to be honest, when I first began coaching I thought that niche was too narrow. I knew there were other Real Estate Coaches out there. All I could focus on was the overwhelming feeling that came to me in trying to figure out how was I suppose to compete with the other coaches with that same niche. So, I decided I wasn't going to limit myself. I decided I was also going to work with small business owners. They were kind of like real estate professionals since they both had small business and I had owned several small businesses in the past. I knew there were a lot of small business owners out there.

I also told myself I didn’t want to get “bored” working with just Real Estate Agents. Now, several years later, after working with hundreds of real estate agents, brokers and managers, I have found a couple groups of ideal clients that excite me: real estate moms looking to balance their business and their life, busy real estate professionals looking to efficiently manage their time and brokers or agents looking to build an effective team.

Sometimes you chose your niche and it works out from the beginning. Other times, your niches evolve as you and your business change and grow.

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Coach Cheri Alguire is a Business Coach who works with Real Estate Professionals, Small Business Owners, Moms, and New Coaches. To find out more about her new book: A Guide to Getting It: Branding & Marketing Mastery please visit http://books.cherialguire.com

A Tale of Three Agents: How to Adapt a Real Estate Expired plan to Work in Your Market Area

By Cheri Alguire

When you as a Real Estate Agent adapt an Expired plan to your Market Area, you need to adjust that plan to fit “where” you are working expireds.

Before I give you examples of three clients that have modified Expired Plans to meet their areas, I want to make sure everyone is clear on what the goal of working expired listings is: “getting the listing appointment.” Now, actually getting the listing at a marketable price and then selling that listing are two other articles, but here we are going to be talking about “getting your foot in the door.” I have three clients in total different market areas that use three totally different approaches.

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The City Agent:
The first Realtor is located in the city. He uses the ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com program to locate the Expired Listings every morning. (Let me stress how important it is to work Expired Listings daily. It is crucial to contact them right away. A large percentage of Expireds will relist immediately. If you are only working Expireds on say a weekly basis, you will not be able to get your foot in the door simply because you are too late.)

This City Agent works Expireds in areas that he farms and is very familiar with. There are also a very large percentage of homes in his area that ARE NOT on the Do Not Call list. This agent is on the phone calling Expired Listings every day from 9:30 am to 10 am without fail. His intention with the phone calls is to see if the homeowner is still interested in selling their home and to make an appointment to come out, that day if possible.

After making phone calls, setting appointments and talking to those that are home; this City Agent then spends 30 minutes making up packets to drop off at the homes that he was not able to talk to. In these packets he includes some marketing materials about himself, some market update information about the current conditions in the area in their price range, and personal letter about why he wants to list their property and why he thinks he can sell it.

Between 4-5 pm, this City Agent then drops off these packets hoping to run into home owners that are getting home from work. Because traffic and parking are an issue and his market area and neighborhood are condensed, he creates a plan and walks the packets to the front doors of the 4-5 Expired listings for the day.

Now there is continued follow up that he does if he is not able to get an appointment right away, he will follow up two days later with a phone call to make sure they received the packet and weekly phone calls for the next two weeks along with one other mailing that first week and then weekly mailings for the next five weeks.

Using this approach gets this City Agent 3-4 listing appointments a week and 1-2 sellable listings.

Would this kind of approach work in your area?


The Suburban Agent:
The second client I am going to tell you about lives in an upper middle class suburban area in the Midwest. This Suburban Agent’s area is very different than the first one I told you about. 99% of the homes are on the Do Not Call List and calling just is not something that works for her area.

Many of the neighborhoods have a no soliciting policy and even if they don’t have a formal posted ordinance regarding door knocking, it is something that is frowned upon and not something that works in her area.

This Suburban Agent also looks up the Expireds through ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com daily, but what she does is makes a list of the homes and drives by them taking a picture of the front of the house.

Because so many agents are sending the same thing, including information about themselves and the company and a standard cover letter, she has found the way for her to stick out is to send a greeting card in an envelope that is personally addressed to the homeowner.

The greeting card is in an envelope that gets opened and the card has a photo of their house on the front. On the inside is a handwritten note that is personally addressed to the homeowner that says simply “I want to sell your house, and I think I can. I know you will be getting a lot of mailings form numerous other agents, but I would love to meet with you to show you why I am different. Please call me so we can set up a time to meet. I look forward to meeting you.” And she signs her name and includes a copy of her business card.

The Suburban Agent uploads the picture, creates the card that then is printed in her handwriting and sent that day and it costs her less than a dollar, plus the cost of the stamp.

If you think this type of approach might work in your area, you can check out that postal card system for Realtors at www.CardsforRealEstate.com

Now, like the City Agent, this Suburban Agent doesn’t just make that first initial contact and leave it at that. She sends out a post card through the same system 3 days later and another card 3 days after that. She continues with cards weekly for four more weeks and then puts them on a monthly card and postcard campaign which is automated through this system.

A couple of years ago in her area it would have been considered a waste of money and time to continue to follow up with this lead for a year. However, she has found that many homeowners in her area have decided to pull their home off the market for a period of time before putting it back on the market. This Suburban Agent is going on 4-6 listing appointments a week and over half of them have been expired for over 3 months.

Would this kind of approach work in your area?


The Rural Agent:
The last client of mine I want to tell you about today lives in a rural area in the North West. This Rural Agent has actually hired a marketing person that gets compensated just for getting listing appointments. That is her only responsibility on the team five days a week and she rarely goes a day without getting at least one listing appointment, usually it is 2 or 3. That is 10-15 listing appointments a week.

How many of you on the call are drooling over the thought of having someone else doing all of your prospecting so all you had to do is go out and do the listing presentation and sign listing agreements all day?

Like I mentioned, she does this in a rural area so door knocking would definitely not work in this area. Because she is such a high volume agent in a sparsely populated area, she does cover several counties in order to hit her production goals.

Again, the thing all three of these agents have in common is that they keep up the Expired Program Daily. (Five Days a week) Every new Expired that comes up on the ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com System that is not on the Do Not Call List (about half of them in her area are) gets a phone call with the goal again of setting that listing appointment for the lead agent.

Now the marketing person on this team has a number of different scripts to use when she calls, but she never uses them. She was born and raised in a small rural community and knows most of the people (or some mutual acquaintance anyway!) in the tri-county area. She just calls them, starts to chat with them, builds rapport and sets the appointment for the lead agent.

If she is not able to reach the people by phone, she begins compiling a packet that again includes information about the team, a sampling of the marketing materials they use and a personal handwritten note to the seller.

This person then maps out the homes that Expired that day and right after lunch, begins to drive to each of the homes she was not able to talk to that day and personal drops off a packet. Again, her hope is to run into the seller and set that appointment. She has even received calls to set up listing appointments after she has run into the neighbors while out there, chats with them for a while and ends with a half joking remark to the neighbors telling them to encourage the sellers to call them if they are serious about getting their home sold. She even gets the neighbors working for her!

Again, she has a follow up plan in place to follow up the next day with a phone call to make sure they received the information, another mailing 3 days later, and again three days after that. Weekly calls and mailings for the first six week if the property does not relist or they inform her they would like wait for an extended period of time and then she just puts them on her monthly Lead Farm Mailing after that and never takes them off. She figures they will sell someday and if not, she has enough rapport with them after the personal contact that she might get (and has gotten) referrals from them.

How many of you think this type of approach might work in your area?

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I gave you examples of three very different areas. I tried to choose areas that would represent the majority. But if I didn’t describe your area, what could you do to a standard marketing plan that would make it fit your area better?

I work with an agent that works in very elite areas that have household help that open their mail for them and discard any junk mail. She also uses the personal greeting card system with a very short personal handwritten message inside.

I work with agents in resort and second home markets that have owners that live in other states. Most of their contact is done through high quality mailings.

I have another agent in a very high tech area so his mailings direct them to his website where most of the expireds decide to email him and set up a listing presentation.
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What might work in your area? Take out a piece of paper and take 20-30 seconds to describe your market area and list one thing that you might want to try in your market area.
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Real Estate Coach Cheri Alguire helps Real Estate Agents get more listings and make money in any type of market. To find out more about her Expired Real Estate Leads Program visit http://expiredrealestateleads.com/ or visit http://www.prorealestatecoach.com/ to find out about her Real Estate Coaching Programs.

Are Expired Listings Really Worth Workingi n Today’s Real Estate Market?

I am a real estate business coach. I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of clients over the past 7 years, and, you know what? Something has changed with most of my clients’ businesses over the past few years. My guess is that if you are a real estate professional, this is also true to some extent for your business as well.

I will tell you one other thing about many of my clients; most of them are exceeding their goals and many are having their best years yet.

They are in all different types of markets. I have clients in markets across California that have had 30 percent decline in values and record breaking foreclosure rates, and clients in areas of Tennessee where Days on Market are just now beginning to creep up there and everything in-between.

I have clients in many different areas across the United States. I have clients in the Midwest, clients on the West Coast, and clients on the East Coast.

I work with agents that target many different price ranges and niches of clients.

I work with agents that are solo agents; I work with agents that have mega teams, agents that have been in the business less than two years and agents that have been in this business for over 30 years.

Most of my clients have been successful over the past year because they have really learned to do one thing extremely well. Work Expired Listings. Now three years ago, most of them where having success because they mastered working FSBO Listings, but they all really had the pulse of their markets and shifted their focus early and deliberately to Expired Listings.

On May 20, 2008 I did a TeleSeminar on working Expired Real Estate Leads. To listen to that TeleSeminar go to www.ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com

I will be sharing with you over the next few weeks what I shared with the participants of that TeleSeminar.

What I am NOT going to give you over the next several weeks is scripts and dialogs of what you need to memorize to say or what to send to potential listings. Most of you already have a “plan” or “scripts” or ”letters” you picked up from a speaker or a book, or from your expired system or from the Top Producer Library. If you don’t, you need something to start with. Go to Realtor.org and look up the article titled Prospecting Plan for Expireds. There is a copy of that article posted on the Tips Page at ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com.

What I AM going talk to you about over the next few weeks is how to take that plan from NAR, or one from another source, and adapt it to fit

· Your Market Area

· Your Style

· Your Individual Prospects

I am sure you enjoy the stories over the next few weeks of

• The City Agent
• The Suburban Agent
• The Rural Agent
  

Stay tuned!

Coach Cheri Alguire has coached hundreds of Real Estate Agents in many different market areas. To learn more about working with Expired Real Estate Listings visit www.ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com

www.ProRealEstateCoach.com

Expired Real Estate Listing Leads: The Five “Ws” (and one “H”)

By Cheri Alguire

Why:

The real estate market is slower right now and more and more home sellers who want and need to sell are not doing so as quickly as in the past. This means there is a bigger pool of potential clients in the expired listings that pop up every day.

How:

The best place to find your Expired Listing Leads is through a program that will check your MLS System, double check them to make sure they have not been immediately re-listed, cross-reference them with the local tax records, find owners’ names and contact information including telephone numbers, and then check those numbers against the Do Not Call List. Now, this can all be done by your administrative assistant, or by you, but that would be an extremely time consuming. It is best to use a service like the one at ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com

Who:

Your assistant can get the list - and apply a preset action plan - and even do the mailings to the Expired Listing, however, an experienced agent or team member that is experienced at calling leads and setting appointments must also be involved. Once the appointment is set, the agent do the listing presentation must be good converting that appointment to a signed listing contract. Chances are, you will be in competition for this listing and the potential client has already had their house listed for a period of time and they are clearer on what they want to see from their new agent.

Where:

The expired real estate listings you are going after will be in the Farm areas you work, in the areas and neighborhoods that are selling the quickest in the current market in your area, and in the price ranges that are currently selling the quickest in your current market conditions. It is imperative that you stay extremely updated with these ever changing market statistics in order to best direct your efforts.

When:

You need to contact expired listing leads immediately and continuously. This means your first contact should be the day the property comes up as expired. Many expired listing leads will want and need to get their house back on the market as soon as possible. It is also important to note that there will be a multitude of agents contacting this lead on the first day or two after it expires. For those leads that take time to make up their mind in who they will relist with, it will be important to have continued contact that lessens in frequency of contacts over the next days, weeks and sometimes even months ahead.

What:

A combination of phone calls, mailings, drop-bys and even emails when that information is available. Different people respond differently to different forms of contact and you are never sure which one will be the best method for this lead.

Remember, the goal of these contacts is to get the appointment and eventually the listing!

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Find out more about Cheri’s Expired lead Program at www.ExpiredRealEstateLeads.com or www.CheriAlguire.com

Knowledge Really is Power

By Cheri Alguire

While training for my half-marathon, I needed some knowledge of running fundamentals. In deciding to become a student of the game of running, I immediately headed to the nearest bookstore. Let me tell you, there are a LOT of books on running and I looked through every single one. In fact, I spent so much time at the bookstore browsing through running books; I got more than one weird look from the sales clerk!

Ultimately, I selected five books to begin my education on running a half-marathon. Out of those five, my favorite two were:

1. Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Half-Marathon Training, written by Heather Hedrick, and
   

2. The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer, written by David A. Whitsett.

Once I read these books, and the other three that I’d purchased, I also spent some time on the Internet. I took a lot of notes and, along with my trainer, eventually developed a training program I could stick to. Beyond that, the information I learned gave me the ability to see the finish line clearly. Before this, both the half-marathon and the actual running of it were nothing more than a fuzzy goal in my mind.

When you take the time to educate yourself, these fuzzy goals become clearer, make more sense, and you can finally begin to truly visualize yourself meeting them.

What I want you to do – RIGHT NOW – is make a list regarding your goals. I want you to answer these questions:

1. What is the category my goals fall in?

2. What information do I currently have on this category?

3. What else do I need to know?

4. Where can I go for this information? Think about the Internet, bookstores, libraries, coaches and/or trainers, and possible mentors that already have this information.

5. What do I hope to learn?

6. How will this make a difference in my meeting my goals?

As you answer these questions and seek the knowledge, you will gain power. Your goal will become more defined and you will be even more anxious to get started! Education is a strong motivator for success. Educate yourself first and success will follow!

Knowledge is power! Learning has never been easier. You can research practically anything on the Internet. Books have been written on virtually every subject known to man. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do something – the information is out there to teach you.

Cheri Alguire is a real estate, business and life coach who partners with you to help you take your business and your life to the next level of success. For more information on Cheri Alguire's book 13 Lessons Learned in 13.1 Miles, visit www.13lessons.com For more information on Cheri Alguire can partner with you to take your real estate business to the next level, please visit http://www.CoachCheri.com

April Fools' Kid

Every family has to have at least one. That child who is the one you can blame for the early gray and mommy stress. If you have middle child, he or she is probably the one. Or it might be your youngest. Mine, is my middle child.

Over the past 18 years, he is the one that I would get the call from the principal saying he was in trouble at school again, this time for tap dancing on the teacher's desk while she stepped out. He is the one that would play tricks on his little sister that caused her face to be covered with permanent marker (something to do with a penny rolling over her nose, don't ask) right as we were trying to get out the door in the morning.

Yes, this practical joking child lives for April Fool's Day.

Over the last few years his April Fool's pranks have included stories about failing classes, getting kicked out of school, being in jail, and being hurt. I think I liked the purple-flamingo-on-the-back porch-tales of his younger years much better.

So, for all of you moms out there that have a child that LIVES to make your heart skip a beat, hang in there! I am still waiting for my son's prank for this year. As I sit here and wait, I found an article with some interesting stats on April Fool's Day. I thought I would share them with you.

May your April Fool's Pranks be mild!
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Comic Stimulus

by Vera H-C Chan

Yesterday Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:17:56 PDT

Tuesday is April Fools' Day, and a slowed economy, serious politicking, and global turbulence may be driving people to seek comic stimulus. Online research into April tomfoolery is up 40% over last year.

In the past 7 days, searches have soared 302% for "practical jokes" (as opposed to impractical jokes), 344% for "april fools' jokes," and another 1,564% for "april fools' pranks."

Get ready to file the workplace harassment claims: Your sacrosanct place of productivity isn't inviolable. Worker bees are investigating "april fools' office pranks" and "office pranks." You won't be able to answer a phone call without wondering if you'll hear "prank call soundboards."

In the spirit of public service, beware these April fools:

1. Youth means guile. Sweet-faced, female pre-teens prone to uncontrolled giggling should be approached with extreme caution.
2. Don't trust them when they're older either: Conspiratorial women 35-44 make up 1 out of 10 pranksters. However, ladies 45-54 are more likely to be into verbal wit then short-sheeting.
3. Biggest gathering of April Fools? Depends. Folks most into "april fools day" hail from Wisconsin. However, Pennsylvanians led queries into jokes and pranks. Must be all that pre-primary stress.
4. Media conspiracies. Slate has come out with its April Fool's self-defense kit, although searchers have already been checking out "snopes hoaxes" to educate themselves against mass manipulation. Meanwhile, Wired panders to readers with its top 10 nerdy pranks.
5. Did you hear the one about... If you're going to tell a joke, avoid ones about dumb blondes, people's mothers, and Chuck Norris. Everyone has been reading them online already—and don't come crying when Chuck Norris' mom comes to kick your sorry patootie for making fun of her boy.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/91276