ADvantage Solutions
Newsletter

February 1999

Published Monthly by Joeann Fossland, GRI, LTG

Coaching High Achievers For Sales Success

(520)744-8731 email: Joeann@joeann.com (800)597-4196 fax

Feel free to share "ADvantage Thinking"! Published monthly & Copyright 1998 by ADvantage Solutions Group. Copy & pass along in its entirety, please, or with permission, if partial. To subscribe, use the subscribe link in the menu at left or email or fax your contact information.  My goal is provide you with solutions and ideas to give you the advantage!

Hello friends!

The format of this newsletter is changing to incorporate more of your great ideas! I appreciate the feedback and contributions from you!Each issue now poses one brainstorming question and the following issue will give the best of the responses. There is a prize for the best answer and a drawing for another from everyone else that responds

Hugs & Smiles, Joeann

 

ADvantage Thinking
Advantage Solutions Newsletter

  • READER INPUT: Great Ideas, New Contest & Winners
  • ADvantage Thinking: Energize Your Actions With Strategies
  • RESOURCES and SHAMELESS PLUGS

 

This Month's Winner is for best idea is:

Susan Mekenney (Smekenney@aol.com) RE/MAX Horizons http://www.MoveToVirginia.com

QUESTION:

What was your best marketing tool or idea for 1998?

I take a picture of my clients in front of their new home during the home inspection.  I then have it made into a change of address postcard--full color.  And I give it to them at settlement (celebration). They love it and I now have a collection of happy buyer pictures that I marry with any letters or surveys I receive from them to use as testimonials for new clients.

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OTHER IDEAS:

The randomly picked winner of all the entrants is Holly Kaufman ~ RE/MAX Masters Vancouver, BC hollyk@remax.net

Her best idea was using a custom-created newsletter and calling 1/12 of the people it is sent to each month.

Blake Morgan (abqblake@earthlink.com) Prudential Preferred ABQ, NM

Offering coupons for buyer bonus incentives, attached to the flyers in the info box on the sign and inside and inside the house.

Linda Norton (linda@fortcollinspropertiy.com)

Just Listed and Just Sold cards for the entire subdivision each time she lists or sells.

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QUESTION for this month:

What is your most effective way of creating buyer loyalty?

Two winners: One for the best answer and another randomly picked from all submissions.

Prize is a free class delivered by email! (This month's winners should contact joeann@joeann.com for details on how to sign up)

Send your answers to this months questions before February 28th.

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READER RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

More Book Recommendations:

"The Eight New Rules of Real Estate"- Doing Business in a Consumer Centric, Techno Savvy World by John Tuccillo http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=07931669/joeannfosslandA/Recommended by Terry Farrell, CRS (realtor@oz.sunflower.org) RE/MAX Kansas City

"Selling From the Heart" by Van Deeb http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1887002448/joeannfosslandA/Recommended by Van Deeb (www.sellingfromtheheart.com)

"DNA Leadership through Goal-Driven Management" by Jim Ball http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=188757004/joeannfosslandA/Recommended by Mal Duane (malduane@worldnet.att.net) Framingham. MA

Other recommended books can be found on my site at www.joeann.com/fun-new.htm

Share your favorites with us by emailing me the title and author


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ADvantage Thinking:  Energize Your Actions With Strategies

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"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you on track and in action with goals you have set for this year? Did you get extremely creative in developing those actions, or just plan to do more, harder and faster than last year? A sure recipe for burnout and disappointment is to keep expecting more of yourself, without significantly changing your approach tactics. Developing strategies for success gives you the power to produce, not just ordinary results, but extraordinary results.  By creating broad guidelines of excellence, new ways of approaching your business and market will begin to percolate.

Give Up The Old & Outdated Strategies

It used to be that hard work, effort, determination and doing the basics were all it took to have a business that supported you well.  It worked but took a lot of struggle and effort.  This way is costly: physically, emotionally & spiritually.   Cold calling is one of those strategies.  We all know it will work eventually but it is an expensive way to spend time, especially with the relationship oriented society we live in today.

Coaches Tip>

What assumptions do you have about your business that are based in the old model of struggle and hard work? make a list and really question whether they are still working. Are there a bunch of "shoulds" that you think (or sales trainer or broker tells you) you must do in order to be successful? Where are you taking actions and getting fewer results than in the past? Outdated strategies will take more energy to keep going and begin to diminish in the return.

What Is A Strategy?

A strategy is HOW something gets done rather than WHAT you do.  When you create a strategy, you focus on the end result, rather than specific actions.  It is your positioning and your approach that will help you reach your goal economically and easily. You could focus on improving relationships, the systems, even yourself, rather than directly working on the goal.  After you devise the strategy, the plan comes naturally. One strategy could be to increase your web presence and your understanding of how to best generate business from cyberspace.

Coaches Tip>

Focus on 3-5 Strategies that will upgrade you and your business for 1999.  There are an unlimited number of strategies that might work, but the key is to look for a strategy that will ultimately save you time, money and effort.  New and creative ways to network or create strategic alliances are examples of strategies that could exponentially expand your sphere of influence.

Raising The Bar of Excellence

To be truly EXTRA-Ordinary this year, implement strategies that significantly raise you standards.  Let go of the buyers that aren't ready, willing and able to buy NOW.   Refer out ones you don't like (life is to short to work with jerks).  Give away those that want something outside your service area.  Don't hold onto those listings that are never going to sell or those sellers who are impossible to work with. Be determined to have more fun.

Coaches Tip>

Use the exercise of creating strategies to examine how to you can connect those things you love about being in this business more powerfully into what you do each day.  Tie in what you value to what you do each day.  If you love riding your Harley, a strategy might be to expand the networking you are doing with other Harley riders, create a special "ride" that you sponsor.  Bring in the Harley dealership to give big prizes.... Well, you get the idea!

A strategy will always EXPAND rather than narrow your goals and outcomes.

ALWAYS! Be creative.

Focus on your brilliance and unique interests and strengths and 1999 will be an EXTRA-Ordinary year!

"Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

For more on this topic and some ideas about specific strategies, join the free teleconference call or check out the RealTimes article:"Jumpstart 1999 with Ten Magic Strategies"

http://www.realtimes.com/rtnews/rtapages/1999020_jumpstart99.htm