Go Beyond MLS » Lead Generating

The Basics Again: USP

Matt — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:23:22 +0000

I’d like to kick off what I hope will be a short series on the basics of selling anything at all. Of course this applies to selling real estate but it equally applies to selling cakes, CDs or cars.

I am going to start with USP – Unique Selling Point. Now if you know even 1% of what you need to succeed online this should be like teaching grandmother how to suck eggs. However, we all, even me, need to be reminded of the basics.

What is it about the real estate (or necklaces, watches, computer cases or greeting cards) that you are promoting that no one else offers? Why would Mr Joe Public choose you over the other six or seven thousand people in the country offering the same or similar services?

If you don’t know the answer to this question then your business in in trouble.

Let me illustrate this with a story of real estate in the UK. In a small corner of the UK there are three towns. The area they are in has about 120,000 people in it. One real estate agency that has been doing very well opened a branch less than five miles away in a second of the towns. It did not do very well.

Why?

Well, for starters they did not advertise the business but also they offered the same commission rate as everyone else. They did offer a slightly more comprehensive service than many competitors but without something exciting to cause word of this service to be spread the slightly better service was a well kept secret.

So what did they do?

They dropped the commission rate to make it the lowest in the town, they started to offer not just a better set of reports but a guarantee of specific actions at no cost if the property fails to sell within a time period,. They did not tie people into an exclusive contract and they offered free professional photo shoots. All that in a down turn economy.

What they did was change the USP so no the question is not why would Joe Public use this agency but why would Joe Public want to use any other agency.

When the economy is grey then a USP that is a shade of grey different tot he next guys does not stand out.

What will you offer to make your services stand out?

It does not need to be the lowest price (although if you can afford to compete like that good luck to you). Offer the customer more bang for his or her buck and suddenly you have a reason to be chosen.

Stand out. Go further. Be seen.Similar Posts:

LeadPress: Ultimate Lead Generating Solution For Mortgage Professionals

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:36:27 +0000

A while back, hen I’ve heard about development of LeadPress, I was both happy and skeptical about the final product. Happy because a dear friend of mine was the mastermind behind the project. Skeptical because I knew very little how the final product will look like. All I knew is that LeadPress will be based on WordPress, my favorite blogging and content management software. Of course the question I had about the future LeadPress was how can it benefit mortgage professionals versus just using your own WordPress installation.

Now that LeadPress is live, I am certain it will become an ultimate solution for lead generation for mortgage professionals. LeadPress is far from just another WordPress. While it uses the flexibility and power of WordPress it is specifically designed to meet the needs of mortgage professionals.

Video Tour of LeadPress

Watch the video tour of some key features of LeadPress.

With LeadPress you are in control of your website’s lead generating capabilities and no third part lead generating companies get a piece of the action.

Disclosure: I am an active affiliate with LeadPress. If you sign up with LeadPress using the links in the above portion of this post, I will receive a commission for referring you to LeadPress. If for some reason you would not want me to earn this commission, here is direct link to LeadPress: http://leadpress.com/Similar Posts:

What Do ePerks and Reply.com Have In Common?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:56:44 +0000

Plenty. But do not take my word for it. Mashable, a popular social networking news blog, reveals following information:

ePerks is a site that offers consumers cash-back incentives, and businesses with a way to get their products in front of potential customers.

Launched by Ben Behrouzi, who also founded Reply.com, ePerks was funded with his own venture fund.

I have to admit. Every time I read the above two sentences I can’t help but wonder if the coward who posted on Yahoo! Answers was paid and who paid him? I may never find answer… But then again, I may just get lucky. There are a lot of good people out there.

But the venture capital and the founder are not only things these to company have in common. They both shared good amount of criticism. One round of criticism took place on my blog. Which, as many of you know, lead to cease and desist notice which eventually misfired- my blog ranks #2 on Google for the term “eperks”.

Reply.com received a share of negative reviews as well. But it was almost two years ago. Reply.com just underwent a major “face lift”, and even embraced the new social media element into their new website- a blog, even though my comments did not stand a chance to survive there. But I don’t blame them. I might have deleted many comments by the “fans” leaving suspiciously positive comments on one of my posts. It this respect I can call it “fair enough”.

I have spoken, if you have anything “juicy” on either company- be my guest help yourself to the comment form below. Positive (if there is any) feedback is also welcomed.

UPDATE: I have had a pleasure of speaking with Mr. Payam Zamani, the Chairman and CEO of Relpy.com. Mr. Zamani had clarified to me that Reply.com has nothing to do with ePerks and that Benham Behrouzi had left the Reply.com back in 2006. I appreciate Mr. Zamani’s transparency, and felt it was my duty to update this post for my readers.

Disclosure: I do not pretend to be fair nor objective when I write about either company- they don’t deserve it as far as I am concerned. Everything written above is my sole opinion. Everything written above is for my own amusement and your entertainment- please don’t take me too seriously. Neither of the company had paid me to write this post- I made that mistake once. I fully reserve the right to pursue legal actions against either of the companies….. blah blah blah blah. You get the picture.

Similar Posts:

New Website Claims To Bring Real Estate Industry Into 21st Century

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:33:31 +0000

BidEup, a newly launched website, claims to bring innovation to real estate industry, through “patent-pending methodology” (or did they mean technology?). Only real estate agents are welcomed to list properties on the website- at a minimum rate of $120 per 30 day listing. If you would like to list your property with all possible bells and whistles, it will set you back by about $300.

The innovation apparently lies in, as claimed by the website, being “first legally binding virtual market place”. However it is not clear what exactly this “legally binding virtual marketplace” is.

It may very well be that bidEup.com has some outstanding marketing plan in place. However, from a quick glimpse it looks like another “lead generating” website.Similar Posts:

Are All Lead Generating Companies Full Of It?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:19:23 +0000

One thing is clear, a crappy lead generating company will not be able to survive in the face of new social media. One day one blogger will write about your services and his blog will open a can of warms.

I can’t help myself but wonder if there is any good lead generating company out there. Or all they all full of it? Again, I am not talking about the crappy companies that promise to give you hundreds of leads each month, just to scam you out of your money without delivering on their promise.

What I have in mind are the companies that would not charge you a penny unless they provide you with a lead that eventually converts into sale. No sale would mean a not qualified lead and therefore you don’t have to pay a penny for it.

Many of my readers here are familiar that I am an affiliate marketer. While there are different business models within affiliate marketing, at the end of the day my pay is based on my performance. If I send a visitor to Amazon.com and he or she does not by anything, I do not get paid. If I send a visitor to Lending Tree and he or she does not fill out a certain form, I do not get pain. In other words in order for me to get paid, I need to perform- not just promise. What do you think would happen if I asked Amazon: “I promise to send 100 byers each month to your website. Would you pay me $10 per each buyer?” Well Amzon may agree to pay me $1000 the first month around, but I doubt they would go along with my crap month after month, unless I have sent them 100 buyers each month. Well, people at Amazon and other companies were smarter. You can make money with Amazon, but only if you deliver the goods.

I have heard plenty about one crappy lead generating company. But I also believe that not every lead generating company is worthless. If you have come across a good lead generating company, please share it in the comments. I would be more than happy to write about such companies.Similar Posts: