Download MP3

Dear Friend,

Welcome back to another MarketingMonday.com Live podcast and newsletter.

Last week we talked about the concept of setting aside time every week for working on your business…specifically on your marketing.

I suggested Marketing Monday might be a good idea.

What you’re going to find when you set this time aside is that you’re going to feel like you have a pause button for your life.

You’ve got your time blocked off. You’ve got an optimal environment, and you’re all set to work ON your business for the next 3 to 4 hours uninterrupted.

You’re going to sit down and really examine your business and your goals to see where the big opportunity is.

Know what you’re probably going to find when you sit down to think about it?

Your business is too complicated.

I know this because I hear it, and see evidence of it when I talk to Realtors and Lenders from all over the country.

Almost without exception, you’re trying to do too much.

Spreading yourself too thin.

When you try to do too much, cover too wide an area, serve too many markets, and be all things to all people, it’s hard to juggle
all that complexity.

It’s all that variety that causes you to feel like you’re spinning too many plates in the air at the same time.

I know why you do it.

You want to grow your business (which is the socially acceptable way for us to say we want to make more money), and it seems to make perfect sense that if you have a little piece of a lot of markets you should be ok.

I mean if you just work with one first time buyer, one move up buyer, one relocating buyer, one luxury home buyer, and one investor a month – in each of the three towns in your county. things would be great.

Trying to keep up with all that variation is complex. You have to juggle all the knowledge of those markets in your head, all the inventory, and all the needs of those individual clients.

What I’m going to suggest for you today, is to do something radically different than you’re doing right now.

What if, just for the next few months, you tried something different.

What if, instead of working ALL markets in all areas, you focused on only working with one single target market.

I know this sounds difficult, and the longer you’ve been a complexity driven business the harder it is to think of changing, but if you’re doing less than 2 or 3 transactions a month, this change will be easier and it will be the easiest way to double or triple your business.

If you’re not doing 2 or 3 transactions a month regularly and consistently, getting THERE has got to be your primary focus…and narrowing your target market is the most predictable way to do it.

“But I’d starve if I only worked with townhouse buyers!”

Really?

Some of the most successful companies in the country right now, are serving very specific markets and doing very well.

Have you ever heard of a company called Sunglass Hut?

They only sell sunglasses between $50 and $200. Not the $10 sunglasses you find at the drug store, but the name brand sunglasses like Oakley, Ray Ban and Maui Jim.

They don’t sell anything else, they have little stand alone stores and kiosks in high traffic malls, and when dot coms and traditional retailers are dropping like crazy, their earnings were up 39%.

They have a sister company called “Watch Station” that uses the same operating model, and sells only watches between $50 and $250.

They have similar stores and kiosks in malls.

Now, here’s the interesting thing. Why don’t they mix the stores?

I mean they’re both going after that $50 to $150 price range.

Well, they have some stores (as a test) that do just that, but on average they do something like 50% LESS business than the stand alone stores!

It’s about FOCUS!

In the stand alone stores, there is no confusion (am I looking for a watch or sunglasses?)

The staff only have to know everything about a single product line, and the customers feel like this MUST be the place for me to get my sunglasses – it’s all they sell.

Confidence!

That focus means only one thing — increased sales.

Sunglass Hut isn’t the only business like this.

Have you ever heard of Jennifer Leathers? All they sell is Leather sofas.

Their sister company, Jennifer Convertibles, sells only sofa beds.

Never together. Two separate stores. Very profitable.

Now, how does this apply to you?

I like to use examples from other businesses for you because we all tend to get very closely attached to our business, and all of our influences come from what other people are doing in OUR business. so we should do it too, and pretty soon everyone is doing the same thing.

When you take a look at what’s going on in other industries, you can learn fresh lessons to apply to your business. (Or you can take the shortcut and just read my articles where I do it for you!)

What if just for the fall, you decided you were only going to work with people who wanted to buy homes between $150,000 and $250,000 in ONE of the three towns in your county?

Or, maybe you’ll specialize in the 2000 townhomes in your marketplace.

Just think for a minute what your business would be like if all
you did was one simple thing?

You might immediately be thinking that focusing on such a small target market isn’t a very big opportunity.

But let’s take a closer look.

Let’s say there are 2000 townhomes in your area…and they have a 10% turnover rate overall.

That means that there will be 200 townhomes that come on the market in the next 12 months.

If you make an average commission of say $5000 for each side of a townhouse sale, that means there would be a Million dollars for the listing side.

Someone is going to buy those 200 townhouses…so there will be another million dollars in commissions paid to the buyer side agents.

Let’s say HALF those townhouse sellers buy a bigger house in the same area…and let’s just say that those transactions will only pay another $5000 each…that’s another half a million.

So, we’re up to $2.5 Million in available commissions JUST from focusing exclusively on 2000 townhomes.

Can you imagine what your business would look like if all you were focused on was townhomes?

It would be a whole lot simpler than it is now.

Sometimes there is as much freedom in knowing what you DON”T do, as there is in knowing what you DO do.

Suddenly, you don’t have to run around all over your county on Caravan to get a general sense of the entire market. You can focus all of your attention on the townhouse market, and know intimately everything about every townhouse on the market.

It’s easier to find buyers when you narrow your focus on a very specific market.

It’s much more likely that if you have a proven system for getting Listings for townhomes that you will find more townhouse buyers.

This may sound radical, but I truly believe Simplicity is the real key to growing your business exponentially.

It’s about Focus not Variety.

The real purpose of this week is to get you to think a new thought, even if just for a few minutes. Look at your business and see if simplifying fits for you.

What kind of target markets are available for YOU to focus on?

If you’re searching to find a way to make your business more profitable and consistent, this may be the answer for you.

Just think about it this week and let me know what happens…and I’ll be back here with more thoughts for you and another MarketingMonday.

{top}

Getting Listings: A turnkey system to get all the listings you want, in any area you want – more at GettingListings.com

If you’re going to focus your efforts on a single target market, the best way to start taking over that market is by getting listings in that area.

So – I’ve developed a completely turn-key way for you to get all the listings you want…without cold-calling or spending a fortune on personal promotion to “get your name out there”

It’s the perfect way for you to take over a neighborhood – even if someone else has been farming the area for years.

It’s a brand new teleseminar series called “The Art Of Finding, Getting, and Selling Listings”.

There’s a new class starting very soon, so go to GettingListings.com and we’ll see if we can’t get you some more listings.

{top}

Make My Life Better Day
A simple strategy for pushing the RESET Button on your life

I’d like to introduce you to a new segment this week – and a new concept I call Make My Life Better day.

Just like we’re talking about – and making time to work on your business and your marketing,

I’ve discovered you can take that same approach to making you life better.

So, each week – I’m going to share an idea that may stimulate your thinking – and may encourage you to try it for yourself.

Here’s how I started.  About 10 years ago before I was married I lived in a condo at Riverlake in Winter Haven Florida – and I started noticing how my clothes and dishes had a tendency to start piling up.

My fridge was almost always empty – and I wanted to do something about it.

I can look back in my journals from that time and see the development of a more than 10 year tradition now called Make My Life Better day.

I wrote a simple question in my journal that asked, “What can I do to make my life better”?

At first, I had a long list – and that list evolved into the creation of what I called my “Reset Button”.

My original list contained things like:

Someone to do laundry

Fridge full of food

Clean apartment

and all kinds of other things.

I thought, wouldn’t it be great if every Monday I could push the reset button, and have everything set to perfect?

Then I started looking for someone to do those things.

I found Mandy – who also lived in Riverlake and did housecleaning.

Mandy became my very first “Reset Button”. Every Monday morning for the next couple of years – Mandy would come to my condo and she would take my laundry to the Fluff-and-Fold and drop off or pick up my dry cleaning.

She’d swing by the grocery store and stock up on my standard weekly list.

She’d clean my condo from top to bottom, then stop back at the Fluff-and-Fold to pick up my clothes and put them all away in their proper place back at the condo.

When I came home from golfing – I’d have a spick and span condo – all my clothes were clean and back in place – my fridge was full of my favorite foods… it was like having a Reset Button for my life.

… and since that time I’ve been on a constant quest to make my life better and better.

Now, I’d like to share that quest with you every Monday.

I’d like you to join me and see if we can’t do one thing each week to make our lives better.

I’ll share with you some ideas to stimulate your thinking – and hopefully you’ll stop by MarkingMonday.com and share on the message board some of the ideas you’re implementing.

So, the first step is to plant that question in your consciousness.

“What could I do to make my life better?”

Try carrying a little notebook and pay attention to the things that bug you during the week.

The first few weeks of doing this – you’ll have lots of ideas – because there are probably la lot of little things that you’ve been tolerating – or putting up with – that you’d just like to fix, complete or get rid of.

These are the things you’ve been carrying around as tolerations for weeks or months because they’re never made it to the top of your to do list – and you’ve never had a time specifically set aside to make your life better.

Until Now!

So, if you want to play along at home – here’s how you get started.

Two things…

#1 – Sit down for 10-15 minutes out of the time you’ve already got blocked off to work on your business – and turn the focus to your life.

At the top of a page in your journal write the question.

“What could I do to make my life better?”

And then just let it flow, write it all down on a list – just get it out on paper.

You’ll be surprised, at first, how much stuff you can think of.

There’ll be things  you need to fix…

there’ll be things you need to replace… and

there’ll be things you wish you wave a magic wand over and be done with.

Make that list – take all the time you need – and then – just like we’re setting aside time each week to work on your business, you can set aside some time to work on your life.

Making your life better.

You may even find that some of the things on your life take so little time, you could work them into your regular day.

When you’re planning your schedule for the day – take a quick look at your list and ask

What could I do to make my life better, today?

You’ll feel great when you start scratching things off your list.

One more thing –

Try keeping a little notebook – or an index card with you this week – and as soon as you spot something that would make your life better – write it down and add it to your list.

Can you just imagine what your life is going to be like after a year of conscious effort like this?

It’s a great thought.

That’s enough for this week – I’ll share more next week.

{top}

Calamity Proofing Your Life
An ounce of prevention that’s worth a pound of cure

Here’s another thought.

I like to think of this as Calamity Proofing your life.

Have you ever heard the saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”?

You’ve probably had things happen in your life that could have been avoided or at least lessened with just an ounce of preventative measure.

Calamity Proofing your life is a perfect Yin to the Yang of Making Your Life Better.

This is something I’ve been working on myself for a while now – but I want to ramp up my efforts over the next year – so I’m creating this environment for both of us to work together on lessening the effect of small and potentially big calamities.

The idea is that we’ll pick one thing each week to consider the consequences of – and set up Calamity Proofing measures.

Most of the time – taking just one preventative or preparatory action toady – when we don’t really need to – can save us hours of time and hassle undoing or fixing something after the fact.

So – here’s a simple one to start.

What would happen if you lost your wallet today?

It’s a simple little thing – that could result in hours of hassle – but if you were to take a few minutes this week to prepare for it – it would minimize the hassle and time it takes to fix.

Here’s how to prepare for it.

First of all – take a few minutes to photocopy both sides of every card in your wallet.  Credit cards, membership cards, calling cards, driver’s license, insurance card – all of them.  Make sure you can read the phone numbers for your credit card customer service lines – and take a minute to look up the phone number of the DMV so you know who to call to replace your driver’s license.  Do the same thing for anything else you’ll need to replace.

Get a file and lable it – “Lost Wallet” – put it in the place you keep all your important files.

Now – if you ever lose your wallet – you’re going to be upset – but then you’ll sort of smile to yourself – because what could have been hours of tracking down everything and figuring out who to call, is only going to take a minute because it will all be at your fingertips.