Residential Real Estate

Is Marketing Just a Numbers Game?

This is a question I"m sometimes asked as I lead workshops across the country, and I wanted to share my answer with you since I really think it can help your business. In a word, the answer is both yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the more qualified prospects you meet, engage and ultimately market yourself towards, the more likely you are to book more clients. No, in the sense that by telling everyone you meet about your business, will that automatically lead to you closing more sales. You see, the traditional interpretation of the "numbers game" statement is that the more people you run into, and ultimately give a business card to, the more likely you are to get more business. And I can"t tell you how many times I"ve seen your more experienced competition do exactly that all across the country. Shoving their business card in the face of any Tom, Dick or Harry who happens to be in their way. And while I applaud the enthusiasm of those individuals, I question the premise. If I"m an "empty nester" looking to buy lakefront property in a more secluded part of the state, why do I need an agent telling me about all the great listings they"ve got downtown? The short answer is I don"t. And the crazy thing is it happens all the time. That agent could meet 1,000 people like me, give cards to each one of them, and still not get any consistent results in terms of generating new business directly from those people. (Of course they could always refer him business from others they know, but for the sake of discussion, let"s keep things simple.) Conversely, if that same agent was networking in a part of town known for it"s "high end" clientele (the kind that could afford to buy a second property in another part of town), then engaging as many people as she could would absolutely get results. As a matter of fact, if she extended that marketing effort by incorporating a direct mail piece to a few subdivisions up in that area, then you could see how marketing for this New Agent would simply be an easy-to-play "numbers game." But it only worked because she was consistently marketing towards her target audience: People who had the desire (and means) to buy a 2nd home, lakefront property. So if you"re a New Agent who wants to get more business from your marketing, do yourself a favor and figure out exactly who your target markets are. And from there, determine how you can get in front of them as many times as possible. Then, and only then, will marketing become an easy-to-follow "numbers game" that can turbo-charge the sales of your business.

Team Building Melbourne commented:

Nice information on marketing is given in the post. I like the quality and the way in which the post is written

02.04.2012


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