Imagine being an airline pilot. You're flying across the country but unsure where you're headed. How would you know where to land, or if you did, is it where you had planned? This is the problem many loan officers face. They're generalities - working in business without clear strategies. That's like flying into the abyss - lost in the chasm of space and time.
For example, a loan originator whose vision is to build a clientele of savvy investors would be significantly off track to accept clients who can only qualify for sub prime loan products and have no plans to invest in real estate. A loan officer focused on building relationships with affluent clients that have high FICO scores would not be wise to attract first time buyers.
The same can be said for dealing with real estate agents. If you want to work with experienced agents who are established in their respective communities, you would undermine your efforts dealing with new, recently licensed agents with little or no base of clientele.
In today's issue, I continue my series of articles discussing marketing planning by describing strategies and how you develop them for 2006.
What are Marketing Strategies?
Marketing strategies describe the direction you will pursue and guides the allocation of resources; like time, money and people. By following a predefined set of strategies, you keep your marketing on track and carry out your mission effectively and efficiently. Strategies that are crafted suitably deliver clarity and focus for many years with only modifications made along the way.
There are several ways to determining strategies. For the sake of simplicity and efficiency, you'll use a contemporary approach. It includes investigating your business to understand its strengths and weaknesses, and evaluating the outside environment for opportunities and threats. With this approach, it helps you think from the market's perspective and align internal and external factors to create value and establish a key competitive advantage.
Internal Focus
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. In looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors - for example, if all your competitors provide on time closings, then high quality loan processing is not a strength in the market, it is a necessity.
Consider it from your own point of view and from the point of view of agents you deal with. Don't be modest. Be realistic. Here are questions to help you:
- What do you do well?
- What do agents see as your strengths?
- What advantages do you have?
External Focus
Opportunities and threats are external factors. A useful approach to looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them.
Here are questions to ponder about opportunities and threats:
- What are the good opportunities facing you now?
- What trends in the real estate community that you are aware of?
- What obstacles do you face?
- What is your competition doing?
- Could any of your weaknesses threaten your business?
You Attract What You Seek
In addition, you want to describe the type of agent you want to attract to your business. With pre-determined criteria you're putting the Law of Attraction into motion, which says each human being is a living magnet, that we radiate thought energy and that we invariably attract into our lives the people and circumstances that harmonize with our dominant thoughts.
When you describe agents, include three areas: demographic, behaviors and values.
- Demographic - Does the agent work full-time or part-time? How many years have they been in business? What is their monthly sales volume? How much do they invest into marketing activities monthly?
- Behaviors - How would you describe the agent's behavior? Someone who is direct and to the point? Someone who is a team player? Someone who is empathetic and patient? Or someone who plays by the rules, and is cautious?
- Values - What would you list as the top five most important values the agent possesses? Honesty, Integrity, Fun, Loyal, Customer Focused, Family Oriented, Trustworthy, Respectful, Professional, Strong Faith, Leadership, Accountable, Tolerant, Appreciative.
Deciding Meaningful Strategies
Using the data you collected from your internal and external focus, and the profile of your ideal agent, you can form between 3 and 5 strategies critical to your building your business.
Your strategies should address:
- How your marketing will develop relationships
- How you will capitalize on opportunities
- How you will overcome or fix limitations in your marketing
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Getting Deeper into Mastering Your Marketing
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Each week I try to give as much information as I can given the space available. But if you're serious about taking your marketing to the next level, you need to take the next step. If you want to...
- develop a powerful marketing message,
- create a perception of expertise that agents clamor for,
- develop campaigns that keep your pipeline overflowing,
- build relationships that are loyal for a lifetime,
- establish yourself as a guru in your community,
- get more referrals consistently,
- make marketing less of a struggle and burden...
Then the Become an Agent Magnet Program has what you're looking for - detailed, how-to action plans on growing your business with successful relationships with agents.
Learn more about it here:
Thanks for support,
Jeff Nelson
Salesachievers
Helping loan officers attract more clients
© 2004, 2005 by Jeff Nelson
All rights reserved
