Fine Tuning Your Mission Statement

As we reach the middle of the year and you review your stats and progress so far, it may be a good idea to fine-tune your unique Mission Statement for your personal business. 

The purpose of your Mission Statement is to, first of all, reflect what you are passionate about in your business and in life, and, second, to give your clients, and especially those potential clients, a solid feel for not only the “what” you do but also a bit of the “why” and the “how.”  The textbook elements of your Mission Statement can be viewed as:

Who is your target market?

What is your contribution, ie, the features of the service you provide

What are your distinctions or benefits, ie, what makes you unique and why should someone consider using you?

 My own Mission Statement is:

I help people with some of the biggest financial decisions of their lives, using highly personalized services focused on making their experience a rewarding one.

The elements of the Mission Statement can be seen as:

Target Market:  people wanting to buy or sell real estate and who are looking for a highly personalized service approach.  Thus, my mission statement will probably not appeal to the REO division of a bank or a flipper looking for low priced bargains.

Contribution:  the features of helping those people with financial decisions through services provided during an “experience” or process, not just a transaction

Distinction or Benefits:  highly personalized services focused on making the experience rewarding.

There is no mention of “selling houses” but there are two echoes of money in the references to “financial decisions” and to “rewarding,” yet the emphasis is on service.  In other words, this Mission Statement not only hopes to appeal to those who look for excellent service, but it also is intentionally not all that attractive to folks whose primary goal may be to simply to win a negotiation or to bottom feed.  Yes, you can and should be selective in whom you want to serve, and recognize your own strengths as well as those areas where you might not thrive.

So, what’s your own passion in our business—and what kind of clients do you want to serve?  Be sure to take some review time at the midpoint of the year to refine that passion and tap into it for your own unique Mission Statement as part of your Roadmap for a strong 2013 and beyond!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

We're Number One . . . FOUR WAYS!

Hopefully, everyone reads the weekly email Prudential Real Estate This Week from the Prudential corporate offices just like I do.  Okay, well, maybe not every single week, but most of them, right?  Anyway, I was glad I read the email newsletter this week, as it contained some great news that I’ll add to my marketing and presentation arsenal right away.  In case you didn’t read it this week, here’s the great news.

First, J. D. Power and Associates announced that the Prudential Real Estate brand ranked highest for customer satisfaction in three out of four segments they include in their annual survey of home buyers and sellers.  We were ranked first in the categories of REPEAT HOME BUYER, FIRST TIME HOME BUYER, and FIRST TIME HOME SELLER satisfaction.  Wow, what a fabulous selling point—actually three of them—for us to use, especially in those market areas where some competitor may tout having more signs in the yards.  Quality should always trump quantity in our business!

Second, Barron’s magazine announced that Berkshire Hathaway beat out Apple and Disney and, in fact, EVERY other company—yes, EVERY—for the top spot on their list of the Barron’s 2013 World’s Most Respected Companies.  Yep, you read that correctly, our parent company is THE most respected company in the world. 

Sure, real estate has a significant component of the local and the personal, but no other professional in our business can point to being part of the world’s most respected company, as well being recognized—in three out of four segments—for the highest level of customer satisfaction by J. D. Power, the primary authority on those criteria.  So, put those four new arrows into your marketing and presentation quiver to help you position yourself even more strongly as part of the highest quality professional team in the business.

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

Creating Connection, PART TWO: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How

I’ve written about Michael Port’s excellent Book Yourself Solid and wanted to share another of his thoughts on turning strangers into friends and friends into clients.  The basis of his approach is that we can improve our business if we stop interrupting people with our marketing messages and instead add value so we can offer them our services as friends.

A few Playbooks ago we covered the first three of Port’s plan for creating connection, the Who, What, and Where, so now it’s time to think about the When, Why, and How of that plan.

Once you’ve determined your target market (the Who), you need to consider When. When might those folks or institutions might be looking for your services?  Keep in mind that many people sell and buy homes when there is a personal life change like a new job or a transfer, a marriage or divorce, the list can go on.  While we rely to a great extent on referrals and repeat business, most folks don’t buy a new house every few years the way we buy cars—or we used to, anyway!  So how can your marketing efforts consider the When aspect and target potential clients based on those situations?

Next, probably the key ingredient in creating connection, the Why question.  Why should your potential client choose you?  What makes you the best choice to provide real estate services for them?  Port recommends putting modesty aside, and letting folks know “The best thing for you is ME!”  Here’s where that mastering our stats can come in handy, of course.  It’s far easier for most of us to point to a great stat that demonstrates our success rather than crowing in general terms about how great we are.  Find those stats that show the potential client your power so you don’t have to just tell them about it.

Finally, we come to the How of creating connection.  Here, Port recommends we consider how we want our potential clients to interact and/or engage with us.  By that, he doesn’t just mean a question of telephone or postcard, but how we will take an initial contact and turn it into a relationship that leads to a transaction, whether that’s in a month or three years.  How often do we remember to follow up on the hits on our website?  How often do we provide useful and engaging information to our potential clients?  How often do we push our communication up Michael Mayer’s communication pyramid to that face-to-face level to truly cement that connection? 

Make sure your marketing plan includes all six of the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How elements, and see how far your business can go!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

Remember the Roman God Janus

In ancient Roman religion and myths, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, passages, endings and time. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. The Romans named the month of January in his honor.

Well, it’s not January, but July 1 does mark the half way point in the year and that means it’s a good time to remember Janus and look to the past and to the future.  The stats—and our busy daily schedules—tell us the market is definitely on the rebound, so the time is right to take a look at what has worked and where we could improve, and then to set expectations and goals for a strong second half of 2013.  Remember, the first thing we need to do is to Master our Stats for not only 2012, but to look at the trends over the last few years to find areas for differentiation and for improvement.  Did you sell more homes in Sunnyside Acres than any other agent?  Was your “Days on the Market” a bit longer than the average?  Only by digging into your stats will you be able to note these details and take action to correct them—or take advantage of them in your marketing.

Once you’ve Mastered your Stats, then you can Create your Roadmap for the second half of 2013 so you’ll have a clear, detailed path for your activities to help you reach your goals for the year. 

Remember, your coach will be there to help you dig into Mastering your Stats and Creating—and fine tuning—your Roadmap.  Our coaches have some great new tools to assist you in your analysis and your planning—along with all Five Keys to a Strong 2013—so you can make more money per hour this year!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching