In my previous post, I shared how I learned to obtain expert positioning with my prospects and clients. This change in positioning had a dramatic impact on my business. Included were several ideas on how you can obtain expert positioning in your business. One of the strategies detailed was to become a writer.

The obvious problem for real estate agents is – who has time to write?

It’s definitely a challenge to make time to write on a consistent basis. I struggle with it every day. However, there is a little secret you can use to quickly obtain expert positioning. And this secret is to buy “Private Label Rights” to other writer’s content. “Private Label Rights” (PLR) give you the ability to have immediate access to done-for-you content, which you can use as-is or modify for your business.

Believe it or not, you can buy license rights to books, reports, information products and more. Many times, these license rights give you the opportunity to present the content as your own. You can simply add your name and use it in your business. An example of this strategy can be found in my Ultimate Foreclosure Boom program. One of the bonuses included license rights to a Foreclosure Secrets book. Simply add your name and bingo – your the author of your own book.

Instant Expert Positioning

When some agents hear this strategy, they say things like, “This isn’t ethical. How can I put my name on your  book and say I wrote it?” However, when you stop and think about it, you’ll see that it happens every single day. Ever hear of a ghost writer? Many of the books written by celebrities or prominent CEOs of large companies were written by other people.

You can do the same and create instant expert positioning in your business.

I recently wrote an 10-page report for real estate investors and I’ve decided to offer “Private Label Rights” on this report as a marketing test. This simply means, you’ll be able add your name and contact information to the report and use it as if you wrote it yourself. You can use it as-is, or you can modify as you wish. This report with “PLR” is only $27.

This report was written to create instant expert positioning for you. More importantly, I’ve built-in two lead conversion tools for you.

The first lead conversion tool is to get the person reading this report to sign-up for your investment property buyer’s list. When you come across a great investment property, simply send an email to the investors on the list and you’ll set yourself up to sell investment properties at-will. The second lead conversion tool is to get the person reading the report to “apply” to become one of your investor clients. I’ve even included a client application for you!

You can decide with lead conversion tool to use! You’ll receive this special report in Word format, so you’ll be able to customize it for your business!

In addition to the report and “Private Label Rights”, I’ve included a little guide detailing how you can use this report in your business. Because this is a marketing test, I’m  only going to sell 50 copies of this new “Investor PLR Report.” If you’d like to get one of the 50 copies for just $27, click on this link:

“Private Label Rights” Investor Report – (Instant Expert Positioning & Automatic Lead Conversion)

Even if you don’t order my new “Investor PLR Report” or you’ve read this post after all 50 copies have sold, you should still consider using other PLR content in your business. It’s an easy way to leverage your time and create instant expert positioning.

The Video Sales Letter Video

Many people replied to my email asking if sales letters were really dead? In fact, here’s part of a question I received from one of my Master Marketing Club members:

“I guess the long and the short of it is that I was intrigued by the video sales letter and am wondering if this is the wave of the future and something I should be working on in addition to the written sales letter or something to work on to replace the written sales letter?  If the video sales letter actually draws three times better than a written letter it seems to me to make sense that it’s the way to go.  Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.”

This is a very good question and I thought I would answer for everyone. Let’s spend a minute on how you can use sales letters to get new clients or sell more homes. I’ve used sales letters for the following in my real estate business:

1.To get investors to join a membership I created to buy single-family homes.
2. To get foreclosure buyers and investors to “apply” to become a client.
3. To get short sale seller prospects to “apply” to have you list their home.
4. To sell a larger investment property.
5. To promote a special home tour to buyer and investor leads.
6. To promote a special class on how to buy foreclosed homes..

I don’t personally believe the written sales letter is dead. Yes, in some instances it’s not as effective as it used to be. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. I still use sales letters in almost every aspect of my business and will continue to do so going forward. Having said this, I do think it makes a lot of sense to test other lead conversion strategies, too. Testing is, and always be, a required part of your marketing.

If you see other marketers use video sales letters in their businesses, you should think about testing them in your business. I constantly study information marketers and watch how they generate and convert leads. When they repeat what they do over and over again, I feel confident that their strategy works. They measure what works very closely and can see very quickly if a marketing campaign is working or not. And guess what? They use video sales letters extensively.

I believe video sales letters are very powerful and should be used in addition to regular written sales letters. In fact, I believe you can increase your lead conversion dramatically using both in your business. Here’s an idea of how this might look with a hypothetical marketing funnel on short sale seller leads:

By overlapping the written sales letter and the video sales letter, you’ll ultimately convert more leads. As an example, let’s assume you generate 100 seller leads. Here’s what your conversion might look like using both strategies:

-8 sellers apply to have you list their home from the first written sales letter.
-4 sellers apply to have you list their home from the second follow-up sales letter.
-10 sellers apply to have you list their home from the video sales letter.

The video sales letter might help you convert twice as many leads into listing than the written sales letter on its own. Please understand that you’ll need to test video sales letters in your business. It’s not too complicated, but you need to follow certain rules with your video sales letter. These rules are in place because they’ve been proven to increase conversions.

You can learn more about creating video sales letters in this video (click on it to play):

As you watch this video, understand it’s a video sales letter. See if you think it’s compelling. Also as you watch it, think about how you might use this strategy in your business. Could you turn your written sales letter into video sales letter simply by recording a PowerPoint Presentation? Could you create a short video sales letter for one of your listings? Could you create a short video sales letter highlighting a special foreclosure home tour you’ll be hosting? Could you create a short video sales letter promoting a great deal you’ve found on the market to your database?

You’ll see in the video that video sales letters:

1. They only take minutes to create
2. Your face is NEVER on the video
3. You don’t have to use your own voice
4. May REPLACE old websites
5. They sell 300% BETTER than sales letters

I absolutely love Seinfeld and made a point to watch this interview. I was blown away by how Jerry thinks about his work. Here’s a 51 second video from the interview you might find very helpful in your business. (Note: The video seems to hang for a few seconds, but the audio works fine and it’s the most important part!)

Jerry specifically said he didn’t want a TV show that required him to be there all of the time like Oprah’s show does of Oprah. He wanted a TV show where he could work when he wanted to work and not be required to work night and day like Oprah does for her show.

I found this fascinating and thought about real estate agents and our businesses.

Our businesses are exactly like Oprah’s business, because we have to be the lead sled dog. Nothing happens in our businesses unless we do it ourselves, right? What would happen if we could re-engineer our businesses so that they were more like Jerry’s new TV show where we didn’t have to participate in every single aspect of our businesses?

The reason Jerry’s comments hit home to me was because I’ve been working on a new program designed to help real estate agents automate short sales so they don’t have to be the lead sled dog or paddle a one man canoe! This program includes strategies to automate seller lead generation, listing appointment lead conversion and the negotiation and processing of short sale transactions.

Yes, I wrote “short sales!”

I believe short sales represent a great opportunity for your business for many reasons. However, you have to set things up properly so that you can handle dozens of short sale deals at the same time by automating as much of the process as possible.

I’ll be sharing the details of how to automate short sales and more information on my new program in a special teleseminar I’ll be hosting on Thursday, March 18th at 3pm EST. You can register to attend this telesminar at:

http://www.AutomatedShortSaleMachine.com

In the teleseminar, I’ll be covering the following:

- a secret I learned in a closed door mastermind meeting to drive sales and revenues through the roof. I’ll also show you how I used this secret in my business with massive success.
- business building lessons of Henry Ford and how you can apply them to short sales.
- 3 ways you can automate short sales in your business.

During the call, I’ll be releasing my new short sale program, which includes many “Done-For-You” marketing tools you can use to automate the entire short sale process. However, I’m only going to release 100 copies of my new program and they’ll be available on a first come, first served basis! If you’d like to learn how to automate short sales in your business and would like to have access to my new program, register to attend now at this link:

http://www.AutomatedShortSaleMachine.com

There are four main strategies for you to use video in your real estate business.

1. To generate new leads: You have unlimited options to use video for lead generation. You could post a video on YouTube and use this video to move prospects to your lead generation website. Or you could create a video and offer it in your marketing for free. The free video should be targeted to your desired prospect. If you were looking for luxury home buyers, create a video summarizing the three biggest mistakes luxury home buyers make when buying a home. In order to watch the video, a prospect would have to give you their contact information.

2. To systematically convert prospects into clients: Let's assume your goal is to get new listings. You could turn your listing presentation into a video and market this video to your database. At the end of the video, include a special offer that draws prospects to you. A special offer might be a 14-day Listing Test Drive where the seller can see your listing plan in action for two weeks before committing to a longer-term listing agreement. This video could be leveraged over and over again to systematically generate new listings.

3. To sell homes: "Showing" is 10 times better than "telling." You can create an awesome video showing prospects one of your listings. I've created a sample video for you here to give you an idea of what's possible:

Believe it or not, I created this video for free in about five minutes using pictures from my MLS and free video software. You don't have to be a computer geek to create these videos. You could create a new video like this one and email a link to your database. Oh, and if you don't have any listings, you could create similar videos on other agents' listings and market these videos to your buyer's list. Go find a fantastic home and turn the pictures into a cool little video!

4. As a client retention tool: Real estate sales is a relationship business. This means that we must constantly focus on building relationships with our clients. You could create short videos highlighting what's going on in your life or summarizing what's going on in your real estate market. You could talk about the average days on market, how quickly homes are selling or what the average selling prices are for different cities in your marketplace. Think "video newsletter."

Videos have become one of the best marketing tools available, and real estate agents don't seem to be using this opportunity to their advantage. Sure agents use visual tours, but there are many additional strategies for videos in your marketing.

The good news is that every video you create becomes a "Sales Asset" for your business.Once the video is created, you can use it over and over again. Imagine having your listing presentation turned into a video. You could send this video to new leads generated using email auto-responders and systematically convert new prospects into clients. Priceless.

If you'd like to learn the details of how create videos for your business, I highly recommend Renegade Traffic, which is available for instant download. This program was originally priced at $77, but was recently reduced to just $14.95. More information is available at http://www.RenegadeTraffic.com

Most real estate agents do not focus on creating assets within their businesses. They simply focus their time and attention on trying to sell homes to generate income. This is fine, but it's not the best long-term strategy for your business because it forces you to continually sell, month after month. You have zero leverage.

A better strategy to consider would be to focus your time and attention on creating what I refer to as "Sales Assets." I define a “Sales Asset” as a sales tool that can be used to generate sales without your day-to-day physical involvement.

My very first “Sales Asset” was a sales letter that compelled prospects to apply to become one of my clients. Once the sales letter was written and tested, it could be relied upon to deliver a certain number of new clients each and every month. This sales letter transformed my business. The best part about the sales letter was that it wasn’t dependent upon me or didn't require any of my time. I simply hired a part-time high school student for a few hours a day to mail the sales letters and client applications magically appeared in our fax machine. These client applications were given to my agents, who then met with the prospect, signed them to an exclusive agreement and then sold them a home.

The next “Sales Asset” I created for my business was a free class presentation that compelled attendees to become our clients. This included all the marketing to get a prospect to register and attend the class, as well as the actual presentation for the class. The class presentation was designed to motivate the attendees to become our clients. In other words, it was a tool to convert prospects into signed clients.

This was a lot of work, but the work had a large payoff because once perfected, it was another “Sales Asset” for my business. I personally taught the first few classes and worked the bugs out of the system. Then after the “Sales Asset” was providing predictable results, I delegated the class to one my agents.

At this point, my business had two powerful “Sales Assets” that could be significantly leveraged. As an example, if I wanted more clients, I could simply run more lead-generation advertisements that would put more compelling sales letters into play. Or I could schedule and market additional free classes
that would be taught by my agents.

Both of these assets operated without my direct involvement. My responsibility was to generate leads and then make sure the "Sales Assets" delivered the expected results. I was able to work from home in a T-shirt and shorts. My agents worked with our clients and I was able to enjoy complete control over my schedule.

The reason is because I focused on creating "Sales Assets" instead of selling homes. Your role shouldn't be to sign clients or sell homes. Your role should be focused on creating and leveraging "Sales Assets" for your business.

It’s far more profitable to build “Sales Assets” for your business than it is for you to sell homes yourself.

These assets give you the ability to create new clients (income) at will. They can be engineered to provide a consistent flow of new clients from week-to-week, eliminating the roller coaster income we’ve all experienced. More importantly, “Sales Assets” give you complete control over your time
because they don’t require your manual labor after they are created, tested and in place.

Here are two questions for you to ponder:

1.    What “Sales Assets” are you using in your business right now?
2.    What “Sales Assets” are you testing or experimenting with for your business for the future?