He was pretty surprised that my search for “Realtor” yielded 34 million results. That doesn’t include salespeople who are not actually “Realtors”.

I helped him realize that putting up another bad website about a boring guy isn’t going to get him any leads or help him sell anything, including his image. I told him about another route that he could take however, a blog.

He has heard of blogs, and knew that his cousin had something on MySpace, but he didn’t want to start a “journal”. I started by explaining how blogs were just websites that made it easy for someone to add content and it helped them organize it in a meaningful way.

He was finally starting to understand. To put it into perspective, I showed him this site and explained that although it doesn’t look much like a blog, it was, Wordpress in fact.

With this new knowledge he was willing to give it a shot. I designed a pretty simple layout for him also using Wordpress and put some bookmarks on his computer as to the login page and a few simple tutorials. Then I gave him an overview of how to post and good posting techniques.

What this will do for him is two things:

1. Define his expertise. If you write a regular column on auto repair in the Consumer Reports magazine, you are an expert whether you realize it or not. Many people believe the same thing about the internet. If you are writing your own website, you are the expert and nobody can tell you different.

2. Allow him to have something to attract new clients. Through well written articles he will be proud to show his potential clients an article that he has written. He will also have new clients finding him through his blog. Normally these people wouldn’t contact him, but because he is an “expert” (see #1) they contact him to get advice or an appraisal.

Just by having a blog for 3 months, this particular client has already closed one deal (he’s selling a house) for an out-of-town investor who has owned this particular house for 3 years and needs some cash!

Not bad for only 3 months and 18 articles!

business marketing

On a more realistic level, if you sell fish at a pet store, the cross sell items would be new food, new fish tanks, new rocks, etc.

Cross-selling has taken many businesses to the top. Think about sporting goods stores, they are almost strictly salespeople of items that are complimentary. They sell boxing gloves, baseball hats, fishing supplies, but all of those items are designed to go with a sport, a greater product.

If you are in an industry that has the potential to cross sell, think of complimentary products, and try offering them to every customer, gauge the response, and document how much additional profit was made because of that cross-sell.

Related: Upselling is the Easiest Sell

“Would You Like Fries With That?” – McDonalds Restaurant

This is, without a doubt, one of the most well known selling phrases in the world. And it is one of the most productive as well!

McDonalds has built a business that has seen tremendous growth because of their ability to upsell. Think about it, you want a hamburger…Do you want fries with that? Would you like to Super-Size it? And to drink?

These three questions are the backbone of upselling at McDonalds. You need to have a consistent upsell also.

For you it may be, “Would you like to add more RAM to your computer and make it run faster?” or “Do you want to add a leather interior?”

Simple phrases take a small profit and blow it through the roof.

You can only upsell someone after you have made the original sale, but once you have made that sale, the upsell is the easiest part.

Practice and rehearse a few lines and then unleash your new upselling skills on customers!

After many years of selling cars, I have learned that the customer is usually wrong. However, they don’t know that, and you should NEVER tell them.

Buyers on the other hand are usually right. They have done their homework and know what they are talking about.

The difference is simple, one is shopping, one is buying. I’ll let you figure out which one is which.

To sell to these two distinct groups of people, you have to approach them differently.

Here is how you do it.

Customers:

Customers are uninformed, you need to inform them. Inform them nicely, and never argue with them. They think they are right and you want them to keep thinking that way.

Here is an example. The customer tells you they would like to buy a new Honda, but the new Civic doesn’t come in black. Your response is, “If they made it in black would you be interested in buying it?” If the customer says, “No”, you turn him to a greenpea as fast as you can.

If the customer says, “Of course, I love black cars.” You say, “Well, let me show you something you didn’t think existed. Honda sent us a special shipment of black Honda’s and I think we have one left. Follow me.” Turn and start walking. When you get to the lot, try to find a black Civic. if you can’t find it, and you know they do exist, go talk to your manager and locate a base black Civic, give the guy a price quote and ask him the infamous, “Could ya, Would ya” question.

For those of you who don’t know, you say, “If I could get a black Civic for you, would you be ready to buy?”. You can substitute the item for anything. If I could get you a free car, would you take it? the possibilities are endless.

Here is how you sell to buyers:

Buyers are actually interested in buying, therefore, they may actually be right when they say, “Honda doesn’t make a Civic in black anymore.” Instead of taking them to the back and trying to find one, say, “Really? I didn’t know that, give me one second, my manager just told someone they could buy one. I need to correct him.”

This response is perfect because you complimented their intelligence and now you have a chance, away from them, to find the facts. If Honda is making a black Civic, you say, “I grabbed a brochure on the way out, and it looks like they just added black as one of the colors available on the Civic. Want me to see if we have any in stock?”

This way, you don’t insult their intelligence, but they “just added” that color, so you can correct them, but you don’t have to insult them in the process.

Don’t think this process only work in car sales, it can work in any industry.

The only difficult thing about “Customers vs. Buyers” is deciding which one is which.

I’ll let you work on that!

Here it was pretty rainy, which is never good for any sales business.

I don’t know the exact figure for the real estate market, but I would assume that about 75% of people looking to buy or sell a home first look on the internet for information.

These people aren’t just looking for loan information either.

They are comparing home prices, looking at locations for building a home, looking for information about buying land, buying lots, selling lots, and everything else related to the home buying process.

If you want to get in on this internet rush, it isn’t too late, but it is too late if you don’t do it right.

There are hundreds of websites that have calculators about loan amounts, payments, “How much can I afford” type calculators, etc.

Then, there are hundreds of websites that allow anyone to search the MLS for their region free of charge.

But one thing the real estate industry doesn’t have a lot of is all inclusive agent websites.

There is a real estate agent in my are that has a website that I always use to search the MLS. Then I go to another website to do calculations, then I go to a third website to read articles on current trends in housing prices (California is about to plateau they say).

If you want to find some free leads, you need to have your website professionally developed. There is no way around that.

Be prepared to spend a good bit of money to get the MLS search programmed, and calculators installed, and other features that you will need. You want to make your website and all inclusive Realtor website for your area.

Once you get your website up and running, read “1 Easy Step To Online Real Estate Sales Success”.

Find a website design company who has worked with Real Estate Agents in the past, then view their work and find something you like.

Tell them you want a website like a website you found online.

Prices should range between $1,000-$5,000 to get it fully programmed and online. Then you should expect to pay about $100 per year for your website hosting.

Get your website online ASAP, every day you are losing potential clients!

However, that is uncommon, as you know. Normally you’ll get a call from someone who wants to know a price, or wants to try to low-ball you asking if the seller will take $100,000 less than the asking price.

An easy way to get customers to call you is to get them to your website. Once you get them to your website, give them as much information as you possibly can.

This information should include selling prices of homes, lot sizes, seller willingness to negotiate, year built, and of course your contact info.

If you don’t yet have a website read this article titled, “Build A High Converting Real Estate Website“.

Here is a simple trick that will generate leads to your website.

The beauty of free articles is that people will search using terms like, “house price in Madera Ranchos”.

You will have written an article titled, “House prices in Madera Ranchos on the decline”. Google will see your page, and match your page up with the searcher and send that person to your website!

Once you have begun to write articles, don’t stop. Try to write one per day and post them to your website once per day. That way you have new content every day. Search engines like new content as much as your potential clients.

After all, how do you think most people find this website?

You only have to write this article one time, but you will get buyers to your website for years!

However, there are some people who have a sphere of influence that reaches thousands.

Imagine these two scenarios.

1. You sell watches. Your high-end watch is bought by a labor union president. That president is proud of his new $2,000 watch. He wears it to all of his meetings, and someone, trying to kiss up, says, “Nice watch.” The president says, “Thanks, I bought it at XYZ Jewelery Store.”

You just sold a watch to a very influential man (large sphere of influence). He now told his watch buying experience to a room full of like-minded people.

2 more people come to your store to look at expensive watches.

2. You sell homes. A single man, new to the area contacts you and buys a home for himself. He works at a small company, and doesn’t interact much with employees.

Then he goes home, and watches TV. Then he goes to bed.

The man in the first example has a very large sphere of influence, where the second man has a very small sphere of influence.

There were times in my sales career where I purposely took a loss on a car to sell it to a “high-powered” man or woman.

This usually paid off through additional sales, referrals and brand recognition.

Sometimes it is smart of you to take into consideration who a customer is within the community, where he lives, if he associates with other potential customers, and how large his sphere of influence is.

Sell your product at a discount if you have to, just make sure a large “sphere of influence” customer gets at least one!

Brandon Hopkins

We found the car he liked, in the color with all the options he wanted, except chrome wheels.

He really wanted the stock wheels, but in chrome.

I remembered that we had a set of chrome wheels exactly like he wanted in storage that we had taken off of another vehicle.

He asked how much they would cost and I, stupidly, said, “They shouldn’t cost anything, we already charged another customer the cost of new wheels.”

When I got to the sales office my manager asked how the conversation went. I told him exactly what I said, and exactly what the customer said.

He was furious. He was angry that I had given the customer something he wanted, and hadn’t got anything in exchange. This leads us to the point, DON’T GIVE AWAY ANYTHING! Which is exactly what my boss yelled at me as I walked out the door.

Whenever you are negotiating with a customer, and they ask for something, you should always get something back in return. For example:

Customer: “I want 20″ Chrome Wheels on my truck, can I get a discount on them?”
Salesman: “I might be able to get you a discount if you are ready to buy today, should I tell my manager you are ready to take the truck home?”

Customer: “Can I get 10 free oil changes like the store down the street is offering?”
Salesman: “If I can get you 10 free oil changes, are you ready to take this car home today?”

In both instances, you don’t promise anything, but you get a commitment from the customer.

Make sure you know that you can actually do what you are negotiating. You shouldn’t negotiate with chips that you don’t actually have.

Don’t forget the lesson, I never did, “DON’T GIVE AWAY ANYTHING!”

Real Estate Sales:

If you sell real estate, you know how tough it is to get noticed. Here is a way you can create some buzz without spending a lot of money.

Hold a contest in which people submit guesses to a question that you have come up with.

Potential questions could be:

Where is the oldest house in _________ located? (Use your city or area)

What was the first business established in _________?

Who was the first Mayor or City Official for ____________?

What was the most expensive home ever sold in __________?

What is the oldest business to have it’s roots in _________?

Use one or more of these questions on a flyer. At the top of your flyer should be all of your contact information and also a discount on home selling or home selling.

This should generate substantial curiousity and hopefully you can get a lot of people to participate.

In order to make it exciting, you will need to offer a prize. Maybe solicit donations from neighborhood companies, or come up with the prize yourself.

Only one person should get the prize, the first person to come up with the answers to the question(s).

You can also try contacting the newspaper and see if they will print the flyer for free since you are trying to make your city a more exciting place to live. Maybe the will donate the ad space for one week and run the flyer every day for a week.

In exchange you could list them as supporters of the event.

Make sure your entire week is focused on promotion of your contest.

Don’t sit around here, start working on your contest!

Assuming you just did that, here is how you can now use that fact sheet to close more deals.

Let’s say you have a client on the edge of a purchase. This client doesn’t need you to sell the product anymore, but he needs reassurance that you will be there for him over the long haul.

A client like this would benefit greatly if you pulled out your company fact sheet (on letterhead of course) and showed him how long your company has been around, your market share, the company valuation, etc.

Turn your prospect from a weary consumer to a client educated on your company by utilizing your fact sheet!