Grow your business with these 10 marketing actions

 Author: Zan Monroe

To succeed in real estate, “you must become the proactive, trusted real estate advisor for 200 people,” says Zan Monroe, motivational speaker, author and North Carolina-based real estate professional. Moreover, Monroe says you can achieve this goal by relying more on inexpensive personal marketing than on expensive advertising.

Here are Zan Monroe’s 10 action steps for successful personal marketing:

1. Adopt an attitude of gratitude.

Give thanks generously.

2. Real estate is a business.

Get up, get dressed and act like it. Set regular office hours and stick to them. Work on your business in the morning by contacting people in your database, and work in your business in the afternoon by showing, listing, writing offers and closing.

 3. Write two personal notes daily.

 Worried about what to write? Start with “Thank you,” “Congratulations” or “I was just thinking about you.”

 4. Focus on your hot list every day.

 That’s a list of all the people who are ready to buy or sell immediately.

 5. Focus on your warm list every day.

 These are the people who probably want to buy or sell, so contact them to update their status (e.g., change in work) and invite them to discuss real estate.

 6. Schedule two real estate reviews every week.

 A real estate review is a simple look at the market, not a market analysis. It could be the current absorption rate or odds of selling.

 7. Listen twice as much as you talk.

 Questions are the fishhooks of sales, so ask more of them and then listen.

8. Call your active sellers and buyers once a week.

 Give a quick update and ask about F.O.R.D. (Family and Friends, Occupation, Recreation and Dreams). Keep the call brief—two to three minutes maximum.

9. Review your entire database for property matches every week.

 Send those matches to your prospective buyers. Contact your database with a real estate newsletter monthly.

 10. Educate yourself.

 Real estate is a knowledge-based service, so the more you learn, the more you can earn!