When was the last time you thought about what you were actually saying to potential clients? Are you closing the deal more often than not? Or maybe it’s time to revamp your elevator speech or introduction.

Remember potential clients do not want to hear statistics about you and your company; they want to know how your product or service will benefit them and make their life easier.

Here are some guidelines to inspire a winning introduction.

1. Do your homework. What is important to your potential clients? What do they value, what are their struggles, what stresses them out and keeps them up at night?

2. I have taken countless writing and grammar seminars, the one thing that they say is to write at an 8th grade level–the TV Guide is written at a 3rd grade level. You want everyone to understand what you are trying to sell them. Jargon will only impress other people in your field

3. Keep it short and simple-less than 50 words.

4. Start with a question that you know the answer will be ‘yes’. For example, “You know how business owners spend so much time doing their paperwork that they do not have time to do their actual work? I take care of your administrative tasks so you can focus on your billable hours.” This gives them something to relate to.

Remember the person on the other end of this conversation is either your ideal client or knows someone who is. Giving them a clear picture of what you do so they think of you when they run into someone looking for particular talents.

Running your business takes a lot of time.  Everyone has the same amount of time each day, so why do some people achieve more?

Successful business owners realize what their time is worth and spend their valuable time adding to their bottom line.  Figure out what your time is worth, and then decide ‘what is the most productive way to spend my time?’  The little things can sometimes take up a good portion of your day.

Do you actively seek out new clients, and what about your current clients?  Do you take the time each day or week to prospect new clients and keep in touch with current clients? Or are you getting caught up in busy work?

Think of all the things that you do throughout your business day.  Can someone else be handling the things you don’t have time to learn or the things you don’t like to do?  Successful business owners delegate certain activities so they are able to focus on what they do best and they are able to achieve greater success.

Now days, you have no excuse for not working efficiently.  There are a host of programs and web sites that offer ways to streamline your business.  Take a look or hire someone to look for ways to automate some of your procedures.

When you take the time to make changes to your business, you will be more successful.

Instead of You Running Your Business?

Between your clients, lenders, title companies, and trying to actually have a life; do you find that there isn’t enough time in the day? Do you worry that important issues will slip through the cracks? Save yourself a lot of time and money by hiring a Virtual Assistant.

What is a Virtual Assistant? A Virtual Assistant is an independent business owner who provides administrative support from her own fully equipped office. Virtual Assisting is a profession born from the advancement of technology. The concept is to enter into a long-term partnership with entrepreneurs and small businesses, to provide administrative and personal support. VAs are worldwide and networked. When you hire a VA you’ve actually hired a knowledgebase you can’t get by hiring a traditional employee.

What does this have to do with real estate? Today’s consumers expect to be kept in the loop and to receive immediate answers regarding their affairs. Realtors are busy people and, when available to talk, don’t always have the answer on hand.

Working with a Virtual Assistant can take your business to the next level. Having someone dedicated solely to the transaction process releases you of administrative responsibilities and allows greater productivity. Your listing presentation can contain the fact that your client can access his or her transaction 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They don’t get frustrated trying to track you down for the answer to a simple question; they log on and see the status of their transaction. Your cell phone is not attached to your ear all day long because the lender and title company have access to the transaction on-line too. And you don’t have to purchase any additional software!

With the number of people involved in a single transaction, from inception to closing, information is being disseminated multiple times, to multiple parties. Keep a common platform in control of the critical communications. How many hours do you spent on a single transaction? 10? 20? Utilizing a Virtual Assistant can save you a lot of time and make you money.

Just imagine all parties communicate and retrieve data from one centralized location via the web and your Virtual Assistant takes care of all the administration.

As a small business owner, you are grateful for all of your clients or customers. But did you know that small business lose over 62% of sales because they don’t follow up? You are caught up in the business of running your business you don’t take the time to follow up with your clients.

After moving to a new city recently I’ve been, of course, searching out a new hair salon. The first place I tried was what seemed to be a very upscale salon that offered everything from hair cuts to nails to a massage. At this place I received on of my least favorite hair cuts. I tried two other places that gave a pretty good cut. The big surprise is that I’ve not received so much as a post card from any of the stylists requesting my return for my next cut.
How much business are these places missing out on? Tons if they don’t follow up with their clients. I had the same experience with a masseuse I found here also. Wow, imagine what would happen if they mailed out a monthly postcard; a quarterly newsletter; a monthly e-zine?
Whether you have a brick and mortar or an on-line business, you don’t want to miss out on all that business because you are not following up with your customers. It’s never too late to start.

1. Buy a reliable customer database system and track more than just your clients name and phone number. You should track their birthday, anniversary, and other important dates about their business, interests, etc.
2. Establish a routine to take at least an hour a week to update and maintain your database. Review it each week to prepare for any upcoming events for your client.
3. Implement a system to send an email, a personal, note, and thank you notes.
4. Develop a monthly newsletter if you currently don’t have one. It can be delivered via email.
5. If you come across an article, product, or service that will benefit a client, pass it along with no strings attached.
6. Remember your clients with holiday gifts between November and January.

If you don’t have the time or expertise to develop a follow up system, hire a pro to do it for you.