Know-How Exchange : Strategy

(Temporarily) Redecorate the boardroom using your products! Create a vignette of a living/dining room, and show your products - not in a catalog - but physically.

For dessert, create a cookie bag, and put your materials in with the cookies. Or, create your own fortune cookies. Or, have the cookies baked in the shape of your logo, etc.

What you're offering isn't a value added service to their business - it's a thank you gift. You're not making it easier for them to sell homes, find buyers, or find sellers. The after-gift can be nice, but it's the treatment during the home transaction that their clients remember. If you can show statistics showing that people remember their agents more favorably, give better referrals, etc. because of your gift - you've got something very strong to offer.

It would be a sad realtor who is only interested in a free lunch and would sit thru a presentation knowing they are wasting an hour.

Having said that-- I have done lunch and learns where they came in, took lunch and didn't sit thru the presentation. Its frustrating, but part of the game.

The value you add to the realtors business is what I call TOMA-- Top of Mind Attitude. The key to referral and repeat business is being on the top of someone's mind when they need that product or service. You won't get itif you don't continually market. I have a slide that I use from an old marketing book (1800's) that is a classic-- how many times someone has to see something before it finally clicks.

that is why Guerrilla Marketers spend the majority of their time on their existing clients--2nd is marketing to a targeted group and only about 10% of their time marketing to the masses. It takes infinitely less money to keep a customer (and gain their referrals) than developing a brand new customer. I would be happy to share some of my powerpoint slides for you.

That is the value you add. You give the realtors an opportunity to develop those existing clients. I assume your products are memorable-- and their inclusion in a marketing program makes the realtor memorable.

Make your lunch & learn a learning experience vs an infomercial.

I would suggest in my lunch & learns that they should go beyond a one time welcome gift. I would suggest them capturing birthday and other major events with follow up gifts. Joe Girard-- in the Guinness Book as the Worlds Greatest Salesperson-- would send monthly cards to every one of his clients. When he retired it was in the 10's of thousands. The cards were creative and memorable-- and while I think a lot of Joe's techniques are dated, they were looked forward too. He had TOMA. When the time came-- there was only one place that client went to buy a new car.

How to justify the cost-- I would help the realtor compute the lifetime value of a satisfied client. they have one commissioned sale. Now, they get two referrals-- and each of those gives 2 referrals-- you can build a value statement easily over several hundred $K. And several years later-- they are buying a new home-- as are each of the referrals.

Carol
Sell Well and Prosper tm