Snake Oil for Sale....

I freely admit that I know nothing about my car's engine. I probably should have paid attention in that Driver Ed class when they were showing us the parts of the engine, but chances are good the high school girl I was crushing on that week was paying me a modicum of attention and I shifted my focus. In hindsight I wish I had looked at the engine.

Now I find myself in the position that every time the mechanic tells me it is a blown this or a muffled that I just nod, stammer, and write the check to make it go away. I know my car is important - I know I pay good money for it every month - and as such I am willing to take the advice of someone else on how to make it work better.

The same holds true when it comes to internet marketing, and I saw it today. I met with a builder friend of our firm; he asked me if I would come to his place and let his "team" pick my brain. Wow, not sure which one of us came away more amazed.

They were amazed because I told them words they had never heard before: analytics, pay-per-click, twitter, etc. In fairness they had actually heard them before, but much as I hear about my exhaust manifold and my oil pump they really had little idea what they were. All they knew is that they had some marketing dollars to spend in 2010 and they didn't think that glossy magazine was going to cut it anymore. I was there to (in an hour or less) open up the world of the internet to them.

But what may have been more shocking is what they told me they had coming next. They were about to meet with some "internet expert" who was going to sell them a "search engine business maximizer" with "proprietary technology" that would get their name to the top of the Google results. Paid results, mind you...the ones any of us can get to the top of with the right amount of coin.

Yes, they were going to charge them a premium so that they could log into Google AdWords on their behalf and set up the account. The builder would chose the phrases (so much for value creation, eh) and this "expert" would set them up. To top it off, the proposal included "state of the art call monitoring" by which any calls that came to them would be [insert shock and awe here] tracked [exhale] because they would have a separate number assigned to each ad.

Hopefully as I type this they are telling this vendor they need more time to consider. They need another opinion; they need to find their mechanic friend who can tell them they that don't need those new tires just yet. Chances are good, however, they will end up just nodding, stammering, and writing the check.

Let's hope that doesn't happen...for their sake.

So I finally went to Triple Play...

I have been in the real estate business for a decade now and I have never participated in the state conference sponsored by our Realtor association. For some reason, few people around me really cared about it - and so there was no interest or pressure to go (sometimes I didn't even know when it was scheduled).

The almost 180-degree opposite is Stefanie Hahn, Maggie Pollich and others who I have met since we enlarged our firm last June. They are association "joiners" and the conference is one of their favorite events of the year (In this post, Stefanie called it her "happy place").

So I decided to go. Bought a ticket, a hotel reservation, the whole thing. Total financial investment was $110. I even volunteered to be a session moderator for one of the education sessions. Let me tell you that I wasn't disappointed. The education there is amazing; whether you are looking to sharpen your technology skills, become a better salesperson or bone up on the latest legal issues this conference had it all. I have already thanked Stef privately for pushing me; but here is my public admission that Triple Play is for real.

Next year I am going to push harder to see our agents there. I know there is a "we don't do that kind of stuff" in some of our offices (yes, Bucks County that means you) but as JFK reminds us "it's time for a new generation of leadership; for there is a new world to be won". Let us be the leaders, break out of the mold and take full advantage of what is available.

Oh and to our NJ folks - you're not off the hook either. The NJAR is a key participant in this conference too and some of the best agents I met this week make their home in the Garden State.

Be on the lookout for 2010 info - AND GO!

My interesting customer service situation

I can't believe I am posting two days in a row - that means I end up wasting the one New Year's resolution I could put before getting thin, darn. After my visit to the bank, however, I felt compelled to jot a few lines to share the experience.

I am not going to tell you where I bank...don't think the brand name is important. Just like our company, however, the brand is large enough to be recognized pretty quickly by a majority of folks. I rarely go into the bank and even less frequently go to the customer service folks who help you with your problems. But they were the ones who had the local knowledge (sound familiar) so away I went.

I always equate stopping at a bank CSR to real estate floor time. You walk in to the bank, and whichever person happens to be "up" handles your issue - even if that person has never dealt with a similar issue before and his/her deskmate is the company expert. This time around, I got the nice young guy with the pleasant demeanor who was very well spoken and well dressed, but apparently had never seen my issue before. Nor many other issues. Needless to say he worked hard at faking it (sound familiar) and even had me convinced when I left that he was going to call me later that day with a resolution. No such luck.

So five days later, with no resolution and no phone call, I had to walk back into the branch. This time I am met by a more effervescent woman with slightly less fashion sense than her predecessor. Not being judgmental, but FYI...when your top has suddenly grown that tight it is noticeable. So she listens to my plea and thankfully has the answer right away. Hooray. The only problem is that the bank's higher-ups require a special code to make this special solution work.

Now the phone calls begin. First is to a friend at another branch. While waiting for an answer to the problem, the chit-chat begins about how this branch is losing staff and "how can we work like this" and segues into the reason for needing this code in the first place ("at xx we used to just be able to xx").

I have no problem with chit-chat; surprisingly I am pretty good at it when I want to be. My challenge (and the whole reason for this post) is to let you know how I felt about it and to remind you how making chit-chat about the brand (or the industry, or your colleagues) while your unsuspecting customer is sitting in front of you is not only good for the strength of the brand, but also leaves folks with a bad impression of you as a professional. Even though this girl is going to solve my problem (which is supposedly how we measure the effectiveness of a professional and the likelihood of re-use) I have more affinity to the guy who never called me back...at least I can chalk that up to a possible oversight.

Whether it is floor time, at the grocery store, or in your email communications remember that how you act is often more important than the knowledge that you bring.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Are you sharing all the tax credit info?

Let's face it...you're not sure you understand all the details of the tax credit extension that was signed by President Obama earlier this week. I know I find myself fumbling over the details of the changes when I talk to folks.

Take advantage of the easy resources available to you - the ones placed online by Coldwell Banker and the ones available from the White House itself.



This is a video available on YouTube that you can send as a link to prospects who ask or you can imbed into your social media. Jim is a great presenter and he does a good job (maybe it's his midwest roots or his school teacher pedigree) making the information seem less complicated than it is.

Also be sure to share the data provided on the Coldwell Banker Learn Center.

The "On Location" Contest Continues

Hopefully by now you have all read the info I posted on the video contest we have going. If not, here it is again

Just to show you we are good sports, Stefanie and I created a video of our own. While it is not an area video, it shows you how easy it is to put a two-minute piece together.

Click here to watch the video

Some "behind the scenes" on this video...it took all of three hours to script, shoot and edit. If I can find that much time, you can find it too. Just grab a sheet of paper, draw some boxes and stick figures and plan what each "shot" in your movie will display. Then go shoot the shot just like you drew it up. Download the stuff into your computer, touch it up and get it online. This is not the Godfather we are making here...it can be rough around the edges (as we have just demonstrated).

Some additional "behind the scenes" on this video...we used a camera that cost less than $100. Don't hide behind the need for fancy equipment.

OK, plenty more on this to come. Trust me when I tell you though that everyone is shooting video. I actually saw an agent who competes with us launch a video today showing listings in a neighborhood one of our agents thinks he "dominates". When sellers see this movie, our agent may not "dominate" anymore.

I'm GaGa for GOOG!

I remember when I was a college student there was this guy who had a special mug he carried around at parties. This mug was HUGE...really....and of course he liked it because it held enough to get him where he wanted to be pretty quickly.

I have that mug now and it is filled with Google kool-aid. Let me tell you, it is pretty yummy stuff.

If you haven't already, check out Stefanie Hahn's post on the NAR YPN blog titled "Google-tastic Goodness" where she defines the different programs Google has created for the general public and for agents who use them. There is so much that Google has created that people don't even know exists - so much that can make agents more productive.

But I knew these things existed, so why today am I so crazy for Google? Honestly, it was my new phone. On Friday our friends at Verizon Wireless introduced the Droid, a new phone that runs on the (Google) Android operating system. I bought one. When I did it became apparent that I was going to move all my mail to GMail in order to maximize the impact of my new phone. Doing so was so easy, and now (for the first time in a decade) I only look in one place for all my email, for my calendar, and for my contacts.

If you are reading this, I want you to start thinking about creating a Google account. I'm going to be writing more down the road (especially about my new phone) and I am already looking at ways we can enhance our own company email systems with the help of the Google crew.

Did we see the start of the National MLS?

I am a pretty religious reader of the work done by Brian Boero, Mark Davidson and the crew at 1000Watt Consulting. If you're planning to stay in the business a few years their blog should definitely be one to add to your RSS Reader.

In one of their most recent posts, Brian highlighted the move Google made to start including real estate information on their Google Maps service. I don't think it really surprised anyone that Google made the move, they've been collecting real estate data (including all of yours) through their GoogleBase service for years now.

So now a consumer can go to a Google Map and by searching for "real estate" they will not only get results but will also get them placed on the map. This is a big deal. Consumers will love it. Realtor.com will hate it. Agents who get on board now will benefit - especially when Google takes the next logical step and ties the listing to the property's YouTube video. Wow.

The question has arose (arisen?) whether this makes MLS services unnecessary. I don't think we are there just yet (although there is plenty of evidence on both sides of the argument) but it does prove to me that anything is possible.

Agents - pay attention to what is on Google. Learn how to maximize what is on Google. At the end of the day it may become your MLS.