The Labor Department numbers for January came out today, and the most widely followed (and most misleading) employment statistic, the unemployment rate, fell. The bad news was that the economy is still shedding jobs, 20,000 last month. We cannot have any meaningful growth, and we will not have a revived real estate market without job growth. And this we do not yet have. In the State of the Union, the President recognized this and proposed several new programs to create jobs. Most of these have been seconded by the U.S. …

Have you ever noticed how the busiest people seem to get more referrals, more listings, more buyers and then, when they can’t possibly have any more time available, even more business comes their way?

Some call it an aura, others call it a success attitude or the law of attraction. Call it what you like—I simply believe that when you are consciously and productively engaged in doing activities that generate business, you radiate a feeling of success, and when that happens success begins to follow you.

As a luxury real estate marketing blogger do you feel like a fish out of water? The source of the “disconnect” that you are experiencing could very well be your lack of passion about that which you are writing. If so, you are OFF your personal brand signal. Unless you discover both your passion AND your own unique voice, which is your personal brand and style as a blogger, you are much better off channeling your energy into other marketing strategies.

Are people following your luxury real estate marketing blog? Are they watching your videos? If you do it right, you can build an entire personal brand and a large audience around your blog and videos. However, if your content is canned, meaning unoriginal or generic, you will not stand out as a distinct brand nor will you be follow-worthy. Canned content equals canned brands.

Personal branding for luxury real estate marketing professionals is all about consistently showing your true colors to your ideal target market. By clearly articulating your true colors, that is, who you are and what you stand for, through your brand identity, you will accelerate the pace of attracting more ideal clients. The more matches you make the more money you make. It is that simple!

You can work harder, or you can work smarter.
Most successful Agents don’t go into a secluded room, pick up the phone, and toil away making hundreds of random calls over a non-stop eight-hour period. Few people would even consider that approach. I know I wouldn’t, and I doubt you would.
 
Instead, those who win at prospecting begin by targeting who they will call and why. They don’t waste their time or effort calling iffy contacts that may or may not even be in the real estate market.
 
Prospecting is only effective …

Okay, I’ve spent a couple of weeks “teasing” you about the Zero2Hero Agent Challenge 2010 contest.  Good news is we now have about half the contestants we need, so there’s still time to enter!  I know there are many of you out there who are hesitating… Part of you wants to be a part of the contest but you’re scared.  Or maybe you want to know a little more before going for it.  So, I thought it might be a good idea to tell you a little more about what …

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, can you make a convincing case, to prospective home sellers, to hire you in the first few minutes of your listing presentation? If you can, you stand to win more listings, run circles around your competition and become the market leader in your area.

The Oprah Effect—Part 2

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, what does your personal or company brand stand for? Can you say it in a few words? Better yet, can you say what your brand stands for in just one word?

Recently CNBC aired a show called the Oprah Effect. This 42 minute show illustrates the power of Oprah’s personal brand. If you go to Hulu.com you can watch the entire show on your IPhone, on your desktop, on your laptop, and soon on your tablet computer, anywhere, anytime. In fact, you can even watch it right here on our blog post. As a luxury real estate marketing professional seeking market leadership, now is the best time ever to build your own personal brand.

One of the challenges for salespeople is that we sell in generalities when consumers really want specifics. If we stay in the generalities, we will lose.

We need to show the consumers specifically what they will receive when working with us; what specific results they can expect in sales price, net proceeds, timeframe, communication, and additional services and how that differs from the competition. We need to show them what type of guarantee we offer, if any. The commodity mindset a consumer possesses demands the specifics. If they don’t receive …

Quite often, we get calls from luxury real estate marketing professionals asking us for an image makeover in the form of a logo, or a new website that will assure their success in the new age of social media marketing. They think that is the definition of branding.

When I first got into real estate I was blown away at the lack of sales training that was provided in pre- licensing. As a matter of fact there were ZERO classes on sales. I figured that once I got with a company the sales training would begin. Wrong! Still no sales training. I looked at the classes offered by the association, and again, found that there were no classes offered on sales. I was blown away! Coming from a strong sales background, I quickly realized that a good sales person in real estate would do very well and an excellent sales person would be a superstar.

Luxury real estate marketing professionals can learn an outstanding lesson from Automobilli Lamborghini and the Auto Gallery of North Los Angeles.

Last week I announced plans for a national agent competition that our company is hosting.  I threw it out there using a lighthearted, humorous approach… and for whatever reason, the response has been horrible.  Now I realize that this isn’t American Idol and I don’t expect 20,000 people to turn out for an audition like they did in Chicago on last Tuesday night’s show… but I know there are some of you reading this article who are struggling in your practice.
Maybe the idea of admitting to being a “Zero” was …