Here’s a raw, heartfelt, honest discussion about being at rock bottom as a real estate professional. 

Being at rock bottom is no fun.  Climbing up from rock bottom is tough.  But, often it’s the first step that proves to you that climbing up is better than staying at rock bottom.

Not easier, not more pleasant - but somewhere in the back of your mind you know you’ll be OK if you can just get through that climb.

How do you know when you’re at rock bottom?  Matt identifies signs he noticed in his post.  Very often, though, I think you don’t recognize where you are specifically because you ARE at rock bottom, but you can’t see it.

Other people might notice that you’re starting to take out your frustration out on your clients or potential clients.  You think that things would be much better if the prospects you run across were more polite, would answer your emails, would repeat their telephone number twice when leaving a telephone message, and so forth.  It’s one thing to laugh about “crazy clients”.  It’s another thing to let frustration become obvious.

You know you need to prospect more, but you’re waiting for your website to start producing more leads.  And, the list goes on.

Matt has a mentor in Tom Ferry.  They’re working together to see if Matt will choose to climb out of that hole.  I hope he does.

If you think you’re at or near rock bottom, don’t wait.  You don’t need Tom Ferry, but taking a lesson from Matt, you probably need someone to be straight with you and challenge you to start that climb. 

Maybe it’s a best friend.  Maybe it’s a counselor at SCORE, which is a small business resource providing free online and face-to-face business counseling, mentoring, and training.  Maybe it’s a business counselor from the Small Business Administration in your town.

My life has certainly had its ups and downs, so I’m familiar with that climb.  And, I talk to REALTORS® all the time.  It seems to me that some of them are at or near rock bottom.  I hope they read Matt’s post and get inspired to start their own climb up that rope.

If there’s anything most of us hate, it’s waiting.  If you’re anything like me, you go to the grocery at non-peak hours; you plan things so that you’re never stuck going to the bank on Friday afternoon because you’re out of cash.

But, when it comes to real estate marketing, the waiting game is just part of the process.  You may find it annoying, but you can plan for it and use it to your advantage.

You might remember reading a post on this blog about Tigerlead, a real estate marketing tool.   Recently, I spoke to my client who is using Tigerlead.  He started using their services last year. 

In March of this year, he had six closings in one week.  He paid for the year’s Tigerlead fees in May.  He is adding to his team.  He had a good year last year, but this year is even better.  He is using Tigerlead to win the real estate marketing waiting game.  Do you need to use Tigerlead to win the waiting game?  The answer is no.  But, you do need to have a strategy.

3 Tips for Winning the Real Estate Marketing Waiting Game

1.  Understand the Game - The fact is that only a very small percentage of the people you meet, or who land on your website, are ready to buy or sell a home.   That holds true even for people who are doing real estate research on the Internet.  They may be just dreaming about their next home, even though they don’t plan to move in the forseeable future. 

If they do plan a move, they’re probably going to spend weeks, if not months tripping around the Internet before they are ever serious enough to want to talk to a professional.  You have to wait for them to be ready – you can’t just focus on finding those who are ready right now.

Keeping that reality in mind, you can implement strategies to deal with it.

2.  Provide Value- Tigerlead works for my client because it provides value to people who are on the Internet.  It’s a tool that buyers and sellers find so useful that they use it over long periods of time.   And, when they’re ready to talk to a professional, they call my client.  So, the first question to answer is: “What can I do to provide ongoing value to the people I come in contact with?”

3.  Stay Top of Mind – There are a lot of ways to stay in front of people without driving them nuts.  Maybe this is the time when starting that blogis something you really needto do.  Should your blog be all about buying and selling?

If you want to stay relevant to a larger number of people, you’ll need to blog on a number of topics:  the local real estate market, great homes that are on the market (especially if they’re your listings), home maintenance tips, mortgage information, local happenings, etc.

 Anyone have a great idea for winning the waiting game?

After my post about making sure your real estate email signature is complete and current, there were a few questions about how to create a signature.  Since many people use Outlook, here’s information about how to put a signature in Outlook.

Outlook Signature Overview for 2003, 2007 and 2010

There’s a great page on the Microsoft site that lists links to pages on creating signatures in all three of the latest Outlook releases.

Outlook 2003

For Outlook 2003, I found a text tutorial on the Microsoft site.   If you’re using Outlook 2003, be sure to note the “See Also” links on the right side of the text tutorial page.

Outlook 2007

I found a very clear video on creating a signature in Outlook 2007.   And, there’s a text version if you prefer that approach.

The demo doesn’t address adding an image to the signature, but I think you’ll see it’s easy to do.  The image below is the Signature popup you’ll see in the video.  You’ll notice that it has the Image and Link icons in the toolbar.

To add a social media icon, you would insert the icon of your choice, then highlight it and link it to your page on that site.

Obtaining Social Media Icons

There are tons of free social media icons on the Internet.  Just do a search for free social media icons and you’ll find all the styles and sizes you could want.  I like a set called Social.Me.  The set includes icons for any social media site you’ve ever heard of (or not), neatly organized into folders for four different sizes.

If anyone knows of good Outlook signature tutorials, please leave a comment with a link!   If you use something other than Outlook and you’re stuck on creating an effective signature, I’ll try to find one for you, or another reader may have the answer, so leave a comment.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things we tend to overlook.  You know it’s important to take advantage of every opportunity you can to promote your business and reinforce your brand.

But, are you overlooking one of the easiest places to advertise?

I’m talking about your email signature!

Now you’re probably thinking “Oh, I know about email signatures!”  But, have you looked at yours lately?

Before You Leave Your Computer, Update Your Email Signature – Right Now!

I get lots of emails from real estate agents and brokers.  I’m always surprised at how many real estate professionals neglect to create an effective email signature.

What should be in your email signature?

1. Your Name – Hopefully the recipient knows your name, but you may not sign your emails with your full name.  Adding a name to your signature helps people who don’t know you well.
2. Your Email Address – Yes, it’s true that the sender can see that in your email header.  But, what if someone wants to save your email address?  It’s much easier to just copy it from your email signature.
3. Your Web Address(es) – You need to have a live link to any website that you want people to visit. 
4. Links to Social Media Sites – Include live links to your Facebook page, Twitter account, etc.   But don’t use “raw” links.  By that I mean the “http://” kind.  Make sure you link reasonable text or a small icon to get visitors to your social media sites.
5. Your Telephone Number(s) – At a minimum, you need to list the number where you are most easily found – that’s probably your cell phone.  But, if you have an office number or fax number that your email recipients might need to use, be sure to include them.
6. Your Logo – Take this opportunity to reinforce your brand!

There may be other thing you want to include, but don’t make your signature too cumbersome.

Based on that list, take a look at your email signature.  Is it current?  Have you created a new Facebook page recently?  Added a blog for your real estate business?  Make sure your email signature includes that information.

What??  You don’t use an email signature?   Take a few minutes and create one right now!