Nov 8 2007 8:56AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
Blog This! using: Blogger.com | LiveJournal |

The more I travel and meet with sales … the more I’m asked the same question, “Do you have any good ideas to get some quality traffic? The people that visit my community are in no hurry to make a decision. They’re waiting for prices to go down.” My answer is always the same.

First, people are going to continue to shop and shop and shop if they believe there might be a better “decision” or better deal around the corner. The only way you can cause this to stop is to help your customer define what a perfect deal and a perfect decision mean to them. Once you do that … you have a reference point to prove that your product is the answer.

Second, is a personal marketing plan … which is the topic of today’s blog. It was the best thing I ever did when I was on-site and selling. Without one … you don’t know where you’re going … where you came from … and how well your doing. Let’s take a look at the basics.


Personal Marketing Plans

Writing a marketing plan isn’t much fun. And besides, it takes a lot of time. But in today’s market … with today’s market realities … it’s not a question “if” you should … it’s a question of “how soon” can you?

Marketing plans should be simple and to the point. For most people that should mean one or two pages, but to others it might mean more. Here are a few things that you might want to think about and possibly include as you develop your own marketing plan.

Sections

What you include in your plan is completely up to you. You’re in charge and you set the rules. Here are some of the fundamental items that you might want to consider for sections or chapters in your marketing plan. They are in no particular order:

Personal Realtor Program
Homeowner Referral Program
Prospect Program
Follow up Program

Topics

Here’s the heart of your plan. Use each of the topics below to address each of the above sections you choose to include in your marketing plan. In other words, each section or chapter should address your current situation, marketing goals, marketing objectives, marketing actions and measurement plan. Here a separate look at each:

Current Situation: Use this topic to outline your current program or position. You’ll want to compare yourself to your competition.

Marketing Goals: State your goals in terms what you want to accomplish. Let’s use our Realtor example. You might write, “Increase Realtor sales by 10 percent; or Make ____ Realtor sales.

Marketing Objectives: State your objectives in terms of what you want to do in each section. Take the Realtor Program for instance. You might write, “My 2007 goals are to: Make ____ Realtor contacts; Host ____ Realtor Tours; Generate ____ Realtor visits. These are the things your do to accomplish your marketing goals.

Marketing Actions: This is the schedule that will give your plan “life”. All you do is use your Marketing Objectives section and make it time specific. It becomes your marketing roadmap.

Measurement: The last section should detail how you will track and measure results and check your progress against your goals. Don’t forget to define how often you will measure.

The whole point is to do something. My ideas are basic … but that’s the point.

PS: You won’t believe how much it helps.