So I’ve been having a ton of meetings as of late with agents worried about their business.  This isn’t new, and I’m sure it’s not specific to the Chicago market, but it’s something that deserves some attention.  Here’s the long and the short answer:

You cannot control a sale – your short term future is not defined by what you do today or tomorrow.  What you do in business today is going to affect your business 90 days out (or more) and should be worked into an actual business plan.  The goal, however, should be to start implementing ACTIONS that will translate into HABITS in your business going forward.

In this short video I discuss the creation of business habits as part of a business plan moving forward, as well as offering some ideas as to what you can do to start creating these habits tomorrow.

As you’ll see at the end of this video I am kind of let down by the amount of true collaboration that we see between agents and coaches alike with regards to sharing of actual implementable actions.  If you have done something in the past that you would like to share with others, or that you know could help someone out, please leave it in the comments.

All the best – Matt

Planning and Habits for your next 90 days in Business from Matthew Dollinger on Vimeo.

This is the first of a series of posts expressing insight into certain topics covered during my recent trip to the Blogworld Expo 2009, in Las Vegas.  You can view all my notes/thoughts and rambling by clicking here“

So, maybe I’m a little bit biased (since it is was my educational focus), but this thought was rumbling around in my head during the entire expo event.

“Engineering is the heart of everything in your business”

Here’s what I mean:

One of the most talked about buzz-words/concepts at BlogWorld this weekend has been about “strategy”.  Your social media strategy, your marketing strategy (both “new” and “old”), your engagement strategy, etc…  It was a very refreshing take since many of the events and discussions I have been apart of in as of late have been a “just do it” mentality – especially with regards to social and online media.  Many speakers and panels alike discussed the necessity to not only embrace new concepts and technologies, but to take on these challenges with a well thought out strategy.

So how do you “build” a strategy?  To me it is actually multi-phased, and rather than being “built” it is actually Engineered.

Step 1. – Understand – The questioning/fact-finding phase

Step 2. – Assess – What do we know/have at our disposal?

Step 3. – Design/Visualize – Laying out an “if this then that” map/Start with End in mind

Step 3. – Analyzation – Learn/ Assessment of collected data/engagement/results

Step 4. – Adaption Process – Using Gained knowledge to learn and improve.

Step 5. – Repeat – Using gained knowledge, reassess from Step 1

Are you an engineer?

It’s easy (and yes some even consider it sexy) to call yourself a consultant, social media expert, or marketing person.  No one ever tends to consider themselves an engineer.  But in this time of “geek ascendancy” and shrinking/disappearing budgets, I personally think it’s necessary to approach EVERYTHING from a standpoint of engineering.

Too often I see “brain storm” marketing campaigns tossed together without thought of consequence leak from individuals or companies.  I might even suggest that engineering is the “new rule” of marketing or business in general.  Since “new” media especially has given everyone a soapbox to shout from, isn’t it even more important now to fine tune your role out before launch?

The end of “Test” Markets – an example

What do you mean you're not hungry?

Back in the day, when McDonalds or any other company wanted to roll out a new product they would do geographical/regional testing.  For example – if they were looking at releasing, oh…, the McRibb Sandwich – they might do some research and find that barbecue is most popular in a particular region or market (i.e. the SouthEast).  They would then contact their franchises in that area, prep them on marketing and preparation of the item, roll it out to the public and see how it was received.

If it succeeded – great… our data shows it’s successful in BBQ market.  If not – no worries… we rolled out a crappy item to only one area and not to the whole country.

Today.  If McDonalds did that today, they are unable to confirm that poor (or good) response to the particular item would be confined to the target region (and a small trickle of Word of Mouth marketing to outside areas).  Due to the expansive reach of the social web the poor response would creep like wildfire across the country – reflecting poorly on the McDonalds brand.  The question I pose to you is – “How many leaks has your test-marketing already caused?”

I am not a marketing expert

I am sure that some will disagree with the things that I have written above, and many are more insightful/creative than me when it comes to marketing.  My strength isn’t in writing passionate copy or Adobe Illustrator.  I’m a process guy.  In my mind there is a Beginning – a Process – an Outcome – and Analysis.  And where I might have traded my pocket protector for a laptop, the core of an engineer will always revolve around problem solving.

This is the first of a series of post both on what I learned while at BlogWorld Expo 2009, but on a larger level to help those in my network to start approaching their business from an “engineer’s mindset”.  Who knows… maybe you’ll even start to feel that engineers are sexy.  Intel does!

Matt Dollinger
The You Factor

Is this your Marketing Strategy?

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) is what most real estate agents are referring to when they say they are “Working by Referral” or “Sphere” related business.  This is the oldest and generally the most regarded form of marketing because it depends on a personal and typically genuine recommendation from one consumer (or provider) to another.

As defined by Wikipedia:

Word of mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. Originally the term referred specifically to oral communication^[1] (literally words from the mouth), but now includes any type of human communication, such as face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging.

With the invent of Twitter, Facebook and blogs these mediums have allowed for “more” recommendations, (through RT, Link sharing, Posting, and Online Reviews).  The question becomes:

• Has this increase in WOMM QUANTITY taken away from the QUALITY of an actual referral?

Or

• Have the “identities” attached to these recommendations (profiles, online identities, Open ID’s, etc) substantiated these claims?

This question is one that demands a much deeper discussion and understanding, and not where I want to go with this post.

However, the idea of WOMM can be explained best visually through a recent post by David Armano who ran a contest for the best visual representation of Word of Mouth Marketing.  The winner, Mario Vellandi, submitted the entry below.

David and I were both impressed with the same breaking down into Promoters, Passives and Detractors.  This is a classic case of the saying, “bad experiences tell 10 people”.   Overall this is a great representation of the overall WOMM model.

What I WOULD like to see is how could be analyzed using today’s metric models.  Let’s say that more and more of the WOMM is NOT actually done via “mouth” but done via highly-viral technology platforms like Twitter, CitySearch, and others.  If a disgruntled recipient “used” to tell 10 people, how broad is their reach NOT with Social Media and online review sites?  Isn’t the actual effect magnified by a power of 100?

This only amplifies the need for a serious listening model to be overlying the tech world in a “comcastcares” format.  Imagine, based on this model alone, if one of the Detractor’s concerns had been addressed immediately

By addressing the conern of one Detractor, the individuals could have prevented an entire chain of eventual Detractors from forming, thus maintaining his/her brand reputation.  Listening is the key here and a strategy that should be implemented immediately through Twitter, Google Alerts, and other programs.

WOMM is still THE most respected and effective form of marketing available, but with the power of the web, could turn against you in a minute’s time.  With proper prepartation, message creation, and simple analyzation of past messages for improvements, etc. many of the common pitfalls we face could be avoided.

Summary: Start with creating a solid “brand aware” message before broadcasting and then keep your eyes and ears peeled.

Matt Dollinger

Per my post the other day, “Leadership: What You Could Learn From Dan Hesse“…  Sprint has impressed me again with their most recent ad campaign (below).  You be the judge.

Matt Dollinger
The You Factor

In 2007 Sprint/Nextel appointed Dan Hesse CEO of the customer-service-flailing company.  Since then, Dan and his marketing team have worked across all different forms of Media to deliver a message of customer service and “biz-love” to clients across the nation.

Sprint on Facebook

Sprint on Twitter

First Sprint declared a Revolution…

Then preached responsibility to their employees

They made an effort to educate their clients

And they listened to what we wanted.  Then they delivered.

Regardless of what business you’re in today, we could all learn a thing or two from Dan Hesse and Sprint/Nextel.  They have shown that the business of leadership can break from whatever stigma has been thrown at us, but only through innovation, communication and implementation.

Take some lessons from Dan.

Matt Dollinger

The You Factor

You need to solve this problem by making it someone else’s problem
You said you were going to change
You said you were going to connect
You were going to understand their needs
You were going to become integrated
You were going to find out what makes your client tick
You were going to let them into your space
Instead you focused on incentives, impressions, and going “viral”

What happened?

I saw this video yesterday for the first time, and am embaressed to say so.  It is so brilliant and hits so spot-on, that I watched it over and over.  Geert Desager and his team over at OpenHere have presented  Bring The Love Back Please take a look:

So in this relationship of Advertiser and Consumer, where is the change occuring?  The advertiser still knows tons of data about the Consumer, but what conslusions do they make about that data.  Here are my points drawn from this video:

1. The Consumer has had enough
2. We have no idea who the consumer is anymore
3. We have no idea what the consumer wants anymore
4. The Consumer wants to talk to us
5. We don’t want to listen
6. It’s not about the money, it’s not about the “coupon”

As I said, I think that there’s a great lesson to be learned here and one that will be especially pertainent for the Real Estate industry moving forwards.  Next up, their second video…

Matt Dollinger

The You Factor

Read the Full Post Here

The post wasn’t overly eloquent… well written… or one of Nick’s best (No offense, I think he’s a great blogger and really enjoy reading his columns over at Agent Genius) but something about it really stood out and made me think. And most of all, it made me ask (and comment) on the question that follows:

“Do You Deserve Customer Loyalty… Ask Yourself Why?”

Below is the comment I wrote on the post.

“Nick,

Where I totally agree that there is rampant (what I call) follow-the-shiny-object loyalty out there, I think that one has to ask themself the question at the same time: “What have I done in the past, and currently, to deserve the loyalty of my consumer/client?” I worked in Real estate recruiting for a very long time, and if ever wanted to see a bigger lack of loyalty, that was it. Pay me a bigger split? You’re going to feed me leads? I’m yours.

But what is different now… is that the consumer, and the agent in that matter, has the right to question that relationship and in turn question their loyalty. As an agent (or other provider) have I :

- Worked in the best interest of my clients throughout the transaction?

- Followed up with them about changes or improvements they wanted to make to their house and provided referrals? – Assisted them with movers, tax exemption information, etc?

- Sent them a RESPA for tax purposes at the end of the year?

- Updated them on recent sales in the neighborhood that effect their eventual resale value?

- Not only SENT them, but sat down with them on a yearly basis to go over a CMA of their property?

-Called them with the recent headlines and helped them make sense of it all?

- Sat down with them to differentiate National real estate headlines from Local real estate market conditions? – Made recommendations on how to enjoy their neighborhood, schools, parks, etc?

- Overlooked my greed and advised clients that don’t need to sell right now to sit tight if it’s in their best interest?

- And lastly, if my clients ARE in financial straits and facing Foreclosure, have I come to their aid and helped them?

That… would cause me to be LOYAL. Heck, probably half of those things would probably cause me to be loyal. But in this market, and in this day and age, I think we all can admit that the bar has been raise. The question becomes, has the REALTOR we used to BUY the home, raised their game along with it.”

Let me know your thoughts here… and if you deserve your customer’s loyalty… I’d like to welcome you to learn, share and collaborate on My Facebook Group and at my blog www.TheYouFactor.com.

]]> http://theyoufactor.com/2009/01/22/do-you-deserve-customer-loyalty-ask-yourself-why/feed/ 1 http://theyoufactor.com/2008/12/12/how-to-develop-and-obama-like-marketing-plan-for-your-business/ http://theyoufactor.com/2008/12/12/how-to-develop-and-obama-like-marketing-plan-for-your-business/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:10:03 +0000 Matthew Dollinger http://theyoufactor.com/?p=65

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential. – Barack Obama

If you are like me (and even if you aren’t) you probably watched the election this year with Awe.  It seemed that even when the going got tough and the mud-slinging got rampant, our now President-Elect Barack Obama kept his cool and ran one of the most innovative and effective campaigns EVER.  Even taking out the “Presidential” element of this campaign, Mr. Obama ran one of the most awesomely instrumented marketing, informational, and electrifying “companies” out there.  And I, for one, think that he has single-handedly changed the political world forever.

Recently, there have been hundreds of posts regarding his comprehensive campaign and what we in the business community should learn about it.  Alison Rogers who writes the column “Diary of a Real Estate Rookie” at Inman recently wrote an entry entitled “A Presidential Marketing Lesson” and breaks the bullet points of his campain into 5 easily digestible areas of focus.

1. Define your brand.

2. Give people a place to find you.

3. Have a weird name.

4. Offer, if it’s possible, premiums.

5. Put the calls to action in your drip marketing.

And where I agree with Alison on these points I think that it goes even further than this.  There are many paralells that we as business folks should identify with (in additon to those above) and adopt immediately.  Some of those that stand out to me are as follows:

• Be Human – The guy was likeable.  He could talk to a celebrity and then turn around and talk to a UAW worker in Detroit… and he did so by being authentic.  (For more on this check out the book Authenticity – What Consumers Really Want by Pine, Gilmore and Joseph)
• Put your Value Proposition where everyone can see it.  On his website there was an ISSUES tab that outlined his views, stances, and what he wanted to do about it.  QUESTION:  Do your clients see your value proposition and what you stand for on your website or in your branded items?
• Don’t sugar coat shit.  I don’t know another way to say it, (sorry if I offended anyone), but it’s true.  Obama ran this entire campain on change and hope… but in his acceptance speech, Mr. Obama set the record straight by stating, “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.” Read the full transcript here
• Use all the tools.  SMS, Email, Viral Video, blogs, podcasts, oh my!  Obama used all of them to get his message of Change out to the public.  But… many of us aren’t incredibly savvy to this technology?  Hire someone.  Take a class.  Try something out.  Experiment.  I will say this and mean it… you cannot compete in today’s marketplace without using all the tools at your disposal.
• Stick to your message and brand.  Throughout everything, Obama stuck to one point and continued to leverage it throughout the campaign.  CHANGE and HOPE.  These were not necessarily tangable elements, but allowed him to capitalize on the desire for a better America.

And lastly, excite your audience by believing in what you preach.  Read, listen, or watch any of his speeches throughout the campaign and see how, even calmly, he is passionate about everything he speaks on.  Where President “Elect” Obama may have changed the rules of presidential campaigns forever, by taking some points from him and his “You Factor” I think we can all turn our respectful business worlds on their ear.

- Dollinger