“Remember you have two ears and one mouth,” is a good rule of thumb when meeting with potential clients. While you may feel anxious to explain why you’re the best agent to represent them and list their home, you’ll have a better chance of success if you use your mouth to ask questions and both ears to listen carefully to the answers.

Determining seller motivation is a key factor in ensuring how you serve them will meet their goals. If you can determine their hopes, fears, and what drives them to make decisions, you’ll be able to build a working relationship which will contribute to a smooth transaction and future referrals.

Below are 10 great questions to ask during your first meeting with prospective clients. Truly listening to the answers will help you understand where they’re coming from and what they expect.

1. How many past experiences have you had owning homes and/or moving?

2. Why is now the right time for you to move?

3. How long have you considered this move?

4. How will this move benefit you (and your family)?

5. Are there any downsides to this move for you, or potential pitfalls you see?

6. Describe to me, in an ideal situation, the best possible experience you could hope for in the sale of your home.

7. If for some reason your home didn’t sell, how would it impact you (and your family)?

8. How will having a real estate agent benefit you? (Listen carefully to this one… it will hit on their expectations of you!)

9. What were your past experiences like with real estate agents? (Or, if they haven’t had one yet, ask them to talk about experiences they’ve heard about with friends / family. Let them know, good or bad, they won’t hurt your feelings with their answers.)

10. Are there any specific issues you’d like me to address or questions you’d like to ask me?

Don’t feel like you have to march them through every question. Don’t try to fix every fear or make every promise– listen and pause before you speak. Don’t try to finish their sentences for them. Follow their line of thought and move naturally with the conversation. Along the way, you may hit upon revelations that the client had not yet discovered on their own… make sure to give them ample time to reflect!

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“There is no substitute for face-to-face reporting and research.” –Thomas Friedman (http://www.thomaslfriedman.com)

A while back, I wrote on the subject of “Managing Connections.” At the end of the day, it’s not how many people we’re linked to, but how well we form lasting relationships with those we encounter.

With the rise of social media marketing and internet-based lead generation in real estate, it’s important not to lose sight of the value of face-to-face interaction. No matter how many emails we exchange, direct messages we send, or comments we leave on blog posts, very little can rival the nuance and personal connection we deepen when we meet in person.

Many social networks online provide opportunities for meetings “IRL” (in real life). On Twitter they’re called “Tweet Ups” (a take-off on “Meet Ups”). Regardless of how you do it, or what you call it, make a point to form face-to-face relationships with some of the people in your virtual network.

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Viewed over 9,000 times, this two minute video featuring Bernice Ross provides useful insight into ways to help homeowners stall a potential foreclosure. If you have past clients who may be facing the threat of foreclosure, this video may help you help them avoid (or at least delay) an unfortunate outcome:

Watch the video on YouTube now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JL7ICPeUMo

The video covers lender assistance (HOPE NOW), legal assistance (NACA), and the “ask for the note” strategy.

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“The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.”
–John E. Southard

Gratitude might be the best gift ever.

Have you ever asked yourself what really makes you happy? If so, your answer is mostly likely not “material things,” is it? I know it’s not for me. For me, it’s the small things in life… like today’s milestone.

This issue of Tuesday Tactics is our 52nd edition, marking one full year of publishing free help for real estate professionals.

While I’m wildly proud to see how far things have come over the past year, along the way I wondered if what we’re doing really helped. Based on the feedback I’ve been given, I can honestly say the gratitude shown by many of you is the real fuel that keeps driving this newsletter forward.

I can’t thank enough the thousands of people who have taken the time to show their appreciation. You’ll never see first hand how much it means to me personally and to our entire team, but trust me when I say that it means the world.

I guess over the past year, our experiment has proven that the philosophy holds true: When you DO GOOD, you GET GOOD. For us, and I feel for everyone in real estate, the most powerful way to form relationships with others is to turn the table and instead of focusing on yourself, focus on helping others. Though the byproduct might be a commission, the real return comes in the form of sincere gratitude.

So, as we celebrate our 1-year anniversary of the Tuesday Tactics newsletter, I challenge you with a simple question: What are you going to “DO GOOD” today that will lead to “GETTING GOOD” tomorrow? (I apologize to all of our grammar sticklers out there!)

Again, thank you for your loyal support of both Oakley Signs & Graphics and Tuesday Tactics!

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“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”
–Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert)

Recently, you probably came across an article, video clip, or moment in the world that reminded you of a past client. You probably haven’t spoken to them in a while. You might have found yourself reflecting briefly on the time you spent with them working on the sale. Then, as quick as it arrived, the recollection passed, and you went right back to stoking today’s fires to attract tomorrow’s buyers.

If you’re like most people, this happens a few times a month, sometimes more.

Now, imagine that instead of letting the moment fade away, you took five minutes to reach out to that long-ago client to let them know you were thinking of them. It didn’t take much– an email, a short voice mail message, a late afternoon phone call– just to catch up a little.

Do the math, and you’ll realize that even at a few times a month, you’d only have to spend a handful of hours a year to go above and beyond what many agents do to maintain a relationship with a past client. In the five minutes it takes to “wake” a sleeping client, you accomplish all of the following:

• You let them know you’re still in real estate
• You update your client database with fresh information about your client
• You open up the door for new business or referrals

Do yourself a favor and listen to that nagging voice in your head that says, “I know I really SHOULD do this kind of stuff.” You’ll be surprised how glad people will be to hear from you, and they’ll be happy you kept in touch. Agents who succeed regardless of market conditions are experts at this type of relationship management. 

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If you’re using video to market yourself and your properties, smart move! Did you know there’s an effective, free way to better syndicate your videos online? TubeMogul.com can help get your videos a wider audience, and most importantly, tell you more about how those videos are being viewed.

From their website:

“TubeMogul OneLoad is a free service that provides a single point for deploying videos to the top video and social networking sites. OneLoad distribution is accompanied by our powerful analytics showing you who, what and where videos are being viewed. In addition, TubeMogul’s InPlay(R) analytics (for supported sites), provide the most advanced suite of video analytics on the market. See real-time viewership, audience engagement, geographic tracking, stream quality and much more for your videos.”

Consider distributing your home tours, neighborhood profiles, and “main street business videos” (short clips which feature those small businesses which make your town unique) with TubeMogul. It’s also a great way to let clients know you’re going the extra mile to market their listing.

Learn more and take a test drive with a free account here:
http://www.tubemogul.com/

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You may or may not realize it, but just because a photo is on the Internet doesn’t mean you can use it for free on your own blog. In fact, if you use a copyrighted photo illegally, you could be facing an expensive lawsuit.

So where can you get free photos? Believe it or not, there are lots of photographers out there who want to share their photos with you. All you have to do is know where to find them and what the rules are for using their photos.

Flickr.com, a massive photo-sharing site, allows you to search for photos which have special usage rights under the provisions of the Creative Commons License. This means you can search for images which will not only fit your topic, but will also be free to share. Check out the information available on Flickr’s “Creative Commons” page:

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Also, here’s a tutorial which shows you how to search Google Images and find free images you can use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-rZ8D1lqg0

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Ever wonder how some people manage to keep up with dozens of news, industry, and entertainment websites?  The answer is simple:  They follow their favorite websites using RSS feeds.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” It’s a standardized format that allows people to automatically syndicate website content. Rather than going out on the web to check in on your most frequently visited websites, you can have that content pushed to you in one convenient, easy-to-read spot.

The following videos will show you how RSS works and how you can start taking advantage of it today:

How RSS Works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

What is Google Reader?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y

You should add Free Help for Real Estate Agents to your RSS reader. Once you have a Google Reader account, subscribe to our RSS feed:
http://www.freehelpforrealestateagents.com/feed/rss/

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“Resentment is one burden that is incompatible with your success. Always be the first to forgive; and forgive yourself first always.”
–Dan Zadra

Resentment is a deal killer. Whether between managing brokers and agents, agents and other agents, or between spouses, resentment is one of the most corrosive elements in a relationship. Sometimes called the “silent killer,” resentment is largely the result of unaired grievances or poor communication. What may be in actuality a very small (and often misperceived offense) can be the seed from which a series of bad decisions arise– passive aggressive behavior, professional sabotage, and higher stress levels across the board.

Resentment can also become toxic between buyers and sellers. You’ve probably been in negotiations where one side begins to really dislike the other. This attitude is ultimately counterproductive to closing the sale. Rather than focusing on the terms and compromises at hand, the two parties become entrenched in personal warfare. Successful negotiation means keeping resentment out of the picture.

One thing you can do to mitigate resentment is to make sure you never make a comment, however small, that disparages the buyer to the seller or vice-versa. Even if you think the comment may be sympathetic to and supportive of the listener’s frustration, what you’re actually doing is encouraging resentment. What’s worse, if the resentment ever boils over to full-scale confrontation, you might find yourself in the uncomfortable position of defending or explaining comments you may have made carelessly during the course of the deal.

Keep an eye out for growing resentment on either side of the fence. Anything you can do to diffuse or manage resentment before it manifests itself will go a long way to securing your future success.

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In the market for signs soon? We’d love to earn your business!
Please be sure to visit us at: www.OakleySign.com