This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

Hey everybody, Lindsey Smith here with your business tip this week.

I was walking down the street and I saw these new homes behind me and it reminded me of a business tip that I heard from two gurus named Chad Holmes and Harvey McKay.  And the tip is this, is that if you can’t be #1, make sure you secure your spot as #2.  And the way it works is this, I get questions all the time about how do I prospect builders or lawyers with divorce sales or perhaps it’s banks with foreclosures.  And the deal is this.  Is that you have to constantly be building relationships with these people.

Now, I’ve talked to people that said, “Oh, I can’t do it; they’re already working with someone.”  Well that is their number one pick because they made it and then chosen to  work with them.  But now think; if you could be #2 in these people’s eyes, and if they said, “Do you know what, if this relationship ever ended, we would give you a shot.”  Then that is almost more powerful because here’s the reason.

Imagine, you can be prospecting 50 of these types of clients, builders, banks, lawyers; and imagine that they switch who they do business with once every ten years.  That means on average, at every single year, this person; there would be five of these people that switched who they do business with.  And if you’re #2 in their eyes, then guess who they’re going to turn to for their business?  That’s up to five a year.  Now, some people aren’t going to switch as often.  Some people may switch more often.  But think about the power of that.  So if you ever can’t be first, make sure you maintain your relationships to ensure your spot as #2.

That’s the business tip this week.  All the best in doing a ton of business in 2009.

This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

Business has changed. The knowledge and expectation of consumers has increased dramatically. The average consumer has done their homework and now brings a lot more to the negotiating table. Unfortunately, outdated negotiating tactics are still rampant and most REALTORS® still have not adapted. Real estate training programs, with their origins in the 80’s, dominate today’s education for agents. Negotiations today remain stressful, heated and emotional. The tension between buyers and sellers has led to increases in law suits, retaliation and extreme dissatisfaction. Poor negotiating is a major flaw in the real estate industry.

Here are the biggest mistakes and the solutions to each:

1. Trying to “Win” the Negotiation

Through creativity you must insist on finding a win-win solution or you simply move on. The seller and buyer are working toward the same thing. If you try to “win” you will fail to bring transactions together on a regular basis, because no one wants to lose. By playing win-win, virtually every transaction has a good chance to come together. People will soon seek you out and thousands of opportunities will arise.

2. Focusing On Price

You can negotiate on two things: price and terms. Be creative. There is always something else that can be discussed. Maybe you can trade a service or a product. Perhaps you can give them a better possession date, or you can give better terms (vendor take back, etc). Creativity is the key to successful negotiation.

3. Giving Ultimatums

Telling someone they only have two options is a lie. There is always option 3. . .  “Hit the road” and the negotiation dies. A cornered dog will get angry and will attack. You may get the contract accepted, but expect the people to seek compensation in another way. This may lead to a very difficult closing, unethical actions or a lawsuit.

4. Getting Emotional

If you need a deal to come together and everyone knows it, you will be at a severe disadvantage. The key is to care about the negotiation, just not that much. You have to be willing to walk away. Write down 20 alternatives should this transaction not come together. You will relax and realize there are other options.

5. Reacting to the Offer

Never react to an offer without a plan first. You have to respond, and only respond once you have considered all the factors and have clarified all the terms. A reaction based off emotion can get you in a lot of trouble, if you say something that you didn’t intend to.

6. Being Worried About What They Will Think

Stop worrying about offending someone. Ask for exactly what you want and you will usually get exactly what you need. If you have a low ball offer, just bring your research, be friendly and imply flexibility. Tell them that is the best you can do, and see if they are willing to work with it. You never know, you just might get it.

7. “Never Leave Anything on the Table”

Everyone wants to get a deal, but this will paralyze you. If you find a home, that is well priced or you receive a good offer, don’t be greedy. If you always have to “grind” and get more, people will just stop working with you, and you will miss loads of opportunities. If the numbers work, do it. Check your ego at the door.

8. Not Being Prepared

Assuming you know what you are going to say when presenting an offer can be dangerous. You will forget key points, not effectively convey your message and may confuse the issue. Write down what you will say, practice, break everything down, and bring your notes. You will eliminate the chance of error.

9. Focusing on Your Needs

The only thing people care about is “what’s in it for me?” Spend the majority of your time determining what you can give the other side of a transaction. Find out a little bit about them, and use that knowledge to find common ground and meet their needs. If you give someone what they want, you will get anything else you desire.

10. Taking Control

Taking control will make the other side feel weak. Remain weak and let them control the situation. This will give them confidence and add weight to the final decision. Ask them what they would do in your shoes? Most of the time, people will not take advantage of this situation and the final decision will be very fair.

This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

Hey everybody, it’s Lindsey Smith here with your business tip this week. I want to give you guys a really quick tip about your office or your work space. Now this could be at home or this could be in an actual office environment.

The tip is this. Whatever you do, make sure that your office is always comfortable, is organized, and is extremely functional. Because what happens is, is if our own workspace is not conducive to working on a regular basis or if there’s little nagging to-do’s that we wanted to get down but haven’t got done yet, then we will build up resistance to working there.

Now, think about this is – if your filing cabinets are broken or if they’re too far away then chances are you’ll have papers and files that are literally building up because of your resistance to filing. Now this isn’t just filing cabinets and filing; this could be anything. If you have something in your office that’s incomplete or is difficult to manage, then you will build up a resistance to doing it and as a result, it might just get pushed to the side burner and eventually your to-do list or different activities will build up or you’ll become unorganized and things will start to get missed.

Here’s a few tips about getting your office organized. Our first tip is have a dedicated workspace. This means that you should have a space that only you work at. Not your kids, not your spouse, not the family computer because what’s going to happen is that you’re going to have their stuff that’s always in your way and you’re going to have to sort it through in order to find your own and in order to be as productive as you can possibly be, make sure you have your own workspace.

Another tip is make sure that your equipment and your hardware is in working order. Now, it doesn’t mean you have to be up-to-date with the latest technology but make sure that your printers have ink in them. Make sure that if it’s broken, you immediately throw it out or get it replaced and you do that immediately. Also, if you have cabinets or drawers that aren’t working properly, get that stuff fixed; otherwise, it’s going to be difficult for you to do things and things won’t get done.

Another tip about filing cabinets is make sure they are within reach. This means that you can easily access your filing cabinets on a regular basis. There’s nothing worse than having papers building up and not getting filed because it just becomes a mess. So make sure that you can easily turn to your left or turn to your right and access your files.

The final thing I want to mention is keep your pens, sticky notes, papers, file folders everything in good supply. Running out of these things is a huge pain. Make sure on a regular basis, you’re swinging by the local store or stationery store, Staples, whatever and picking up these items and make sure, again, just like the filing cabinets that they’re close by so you can grab them readily. This means that your information will be processed and kept organized a lot easier. And it’s going to help you build up a lot less resistance to getting some of the more mundane tasks done, especially administrative work with paperwork and other such things.

Those are four simple tips. Simply keep your equipment in good working order. Make sure things are easily accessible, and make sure your equipment is in good supply. If you’re not doing this right now, literally book off tomorrow morning and rearrange your office and buy the supplies that you need. You’ll find you’ll have a lot less resistance to getting stuff done and you’d be much more productive on a daily basis.

So that’s the tip this week. All the best and do a ton of business in 2009.

This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

Hey everybody, Lindsey Smith here with your business tip this week.  Today’s tip is all about making your marketing pay off huge for you and this is what you’re going to do.  You’re going to invest a little bit of money in testing ideas, in testing different marketing concepts and then once you figure out what works, you’re going to scale up the marketing dollars that you spend from there.  So this is what it might look like.

Let’s say you were going to test out a new flier.  What you would do is rather than testing it on 10,000 homes, try it on a 100 homes or 300 homes and find out what your response rate is like.  Now imagine if you lost all $10,000 and got no response.  I mean, that would tell you that you’d have to change up your marketing piece.  But why not figure it out on the 300 homes and then scale that up to 600 homes, 1200, 5000, and then to 10,000 only when you know what works.

I read a book recently by Jim Collins called How the Mighty Fall:  And Why Some Companies Never Give In. And he gives a great example.  He uses the example of a boat and he talks about a boat on the water and so here’s the water level and he talks about this in terms of testing your business.  And when you invest dollars in your business and you lose, you can get a hole in your boat.  Now, where is the hole going to be?  Well, if you’re investing a small amount of money, chances are you get a hole above the water line and you can patch it and your business survives.  But if you get a big hole below the water line, your boat is going to fill up with water and you’re going to eventually sink.  So what you want to do is constantly be testing a small amount of money into different marketing campaigns and then once you figure out what works, scale it up so that you win big in your marketing and when you lose, you only lose a little bit.  That’s the tip this week.

All the best in doing a ton of business in 2009.

This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

Unfortunately, one of the toughest obstacles faced by most first time home-buyers is the dreaded down payment, and until just recently, the two options for those facing this issue were:

1. A select few lenders offering 100% financing with extremely strict qualifying guidelines. This option generally lead into a conversation as to why the client didn’t meet the lending requirements and brought them back to square one; being option two.

2. Come up with the traditional 5% down which can be extremely daunting with your average home sale in Calgary being $400,000 and a required down payment of $20,000.

This is why our good friends at National Bank (the sixth largest bank in Canada) came up with a product that they call the “Cashback/Flexdown”, which enables a client to purchase a property with a down payment from 0-5% down. They are looking for applicants with a solid work history who are just lacking the ability to come up with the full down payment. The highlights of this option are:

1. As stated above, a client can purchase a home with a down payment ranging from 0-5%.

2. The interest rates are very reasonable and decrease by the amount a client has to put down; this is excellent for someone who has been saving but needs a boost.

3. This option is not as beacon score (credit) driven as other traditional alternatives.

With the recovery of our market place leading to a steady increase in property values, and the growing concern that the Canadian Government might tighten up in the mortgage lending requirements, this might just be the stepping stone your client needs to fulfill their home-ownership dreams.

This article has been provided by Josh Higgelke at Square One Mortgage. Please feel free to contact him at josh@square1mortgage.ca for more information.

This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

Trade shows are an excellent way to attract new clients and to re-connect with existing clients by marketing new products and services while continuing to develop personal relationships.

 Here are some strategies and ideas that will help you and your business get the most value out of our mini-trade show event!

 Know what you want

1. Know what you want to achieve at your tradeshow booth. Be aware of who your target demographic is and have the information and appropriate materials to sell to them. For example, do you want to:

• Increase market share with existing users?
• Introduce new products/services into existing markets?           
• Introduce new products/services into new markets?

Attract visitors to your booth

The purpose of your exhibit is to attract visitors to your booth first over someone else’s. Use things like:

• Images,
• Banner,
• Demonstrations

This will tell your visitors what is usually said on company brochures and websites. People may be walking by your booth in a hurry and not have time to read about your business, but will be able to gather enough information about it to decide if it is worth stopping for by the images they see.

1. Retractable, or “pop-up” banner stands are great for trade shows and traveling events because they assemble in a matter of seconds and are visually captivating because of their size and upright position.

***Don’t have this type of signage but wish you did? We can help you get it! CIR REALTY has recently negotiated great rates with Corona Digital Imaging. Contact the Marketing Department at (403) 247-7770 for more information. ***

4.         Have an eye-catching exhibit by using a display board or a shelving unit to show off products or images of your company at customer eye-level to draw them into your show. Having information merely set up on the table might make it hard for visitors to see what is going on at your booth if there are visitors standing in front of it.

5.         People like to know what your services are and what you charge for them. Have visible signs that display your most important or most used services with the associated minimum cost so that visitors can get key product information even if you are busy with another client.

6.         Use presentations and demonstrations to show visitors what your business is capable of – bring images and video clips of work you have done.

7.         Promotional give-a ways such as pens, note-pads or magnets are an excellent way to bring visitors to your booth. If possible, it is best to brand these items with a company logo or contact information so that your name and business is seen over and over again by the user even months after the event is over.

Get contact information through interactive displays and demonstrations

8.         By getting your visitors to take part in interactive displays such as games and contests, not only will you attract a crowd to your booth, but you will also generate an extensive contact database. Encourage visitors to drop their business card into a box for a chance to win one of your products or services and at the end of the event, you will have access to hundreds of names and phone numbers in your target market!

Use the right people

9.         The people working your booth are your brand’s ambassadors and most effective marketing tool. Make sure that the people you choose to work your booth know your key objectives and have a clear understanding of your business and what it has to offer. They should be professional and give your business a professional image. Someone has to be there to greet browsers, engage them in conversation and take their questions during the entire event; therefore, it is best to have more than one person working your booth so that visitors can promptly receive the information they are looking for.

One of the primary reasons for working a tradeshow is to make relationships, and it is important that the people representing your business have the time to do this effectively.

Promotional literature, material and take-a-ways

10.       It is vital that you have enough promotional literature, such as company brochures, business cards, newsletters, etc. to give to every visitor that stops at your booth.  People will research you and make business decisions long after the event is over, so it’s important that they have enough information about your business on hand to do so. Running out of promotional material will hurt your future sales as well as your image of being professional and organized.

Be ready to conduct business

11.       If your business is able to attract new clients on the spot, make sure that you have order forms, pens, credit card slips or anything you normally need to close a sale at your booth.

Follow-up

12.       Make sure you follow up with any new contacts or any old contacts that you have given new information about your products or services too. The same visitors that were at your booth were also at your competitor or another supplier’s booth. Youwant to make sure that it is your business that stays fresh in their mind. A simple email or phone call thanking them for their interest shows your potential client that you care about their business and their relationship.

This blog article is powered by CIR Realty, adding value to you and your business by bringing you innovation and experience. To find out more about us, visit www.cirrealty.ca.

As many of you know, CIR Realty sent almost the entire CIR Management Team down to NAR to learn new ways to better serve you. I wanted to share with you my favorite speaker and I have also included some notes if they are of interest to you. CIR Realty has ordered the audio tapes and they will be posted soon so you will be able to listen and learn from the talented speakers in the comfort of your own home.

Did you know the first 30 seconds of a meeting sets the tone? How do you do in the first 30 seconds? Tips below will ensure you make the most out of every valuable second. These valuable seconds lead to positive negotiations and money in your pocket.

A little about the speaker I loved……

Daniel Shapiro, Ph.D. Dealing with Emotions in Negotiation: Five Practical Tools

Emotions are the other half of all negotiations! Attendees learned how to deal effectively with the five core emotional concerns that significantly impact negotiating success. Drawing on years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Shapiro described how appreciation, autonomy, affiliation, status, and role affect negotiations – and how they can be used for mutual benefit – whether a presenter, recipient, or influencer. Dr. Shapiro is co-author of Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as you Negotiate.

How to chart a winning course in negotiation.

2 major goals to excel at negotiating:

1. Maximize substance (price)
2. Relationship (seen as trusted advisor)

You need the following 2 tools to negotiate efficiently:

Reason – assess the value of the specific home. Study house values and comparables.
Emotion - How do you deal with your emotions, your clients emotions and the sellers emotions? Did you ever stop to think that you actually need to pay attention to everyone in your transactions? Think about the last time you were in a negotiation? Did you pay close attention to the emotions of everyone involved?

So how do you deal with emotions?

Here are some common suggestions we often hear when having to deal with emotions:

- “Don’t get emotional”
- “Don’t let your emotions get the better of you”
- “Deal directly with emotions”

You are not a robot! You can not ignore emotions!

What are the causes of emotion? What do you do with emotions? Sometimes, emotions are overwhelming to deal with.

In order to better understand and deal with emotions, you must focus on the 5 core concerns because they trigger many emotions!

Five Core Concerns

Appreciation

- Appreciation is powerful. No one likes to feel devalued or unheard. It has a BIG impact on emotions.
- When a client is upset, understanding the other’s point of view in not enough. Find merit in what they think, feel or do.
- Make sure you have communicated that you understand.

Autonomy

- The freedom to make decisions without impositions from others. For example: If someone went to your house this afternoon and rearranged all your furniture you might be upset and you would probably change it back. However, the other person may have felt they had the freedom to do that for you. Remember, it is not about the content, it is about the process. Remember the unwritten rule: ABCD “Always consult before deciding”.

Affiliation

- Emotional connection between you and another. Affiliation has a powerful impact on emotions. Fact: The same part of your brain responds to physical hurt but also hurt caused by rejection. That is how powerful emotions can be.

Role

- We play pre-established roles. Shape your roles and the roles of others. How can I make my role more fulfilling? How can I make my clients roles more fulfilling?

Status

- Your status in relation to another. We all have areas of particular status.

Understanding these five core concerns will help:

- Understand your clients emotions
- Stimulate helpful emotions in others and yourself

Build structural connections. Reduce personal distance. Structural connections hold us to our clients. Be sure to build a personal connection. How does a porcupine stay warm? By getting just close enough! So ask yourself ….Am I getting too close or not close enough to my clients?

Wishing you successful negotiating as you use the power of emotions to get the results you want!

Sincerely,

Anne Clarke
Marketing Manager

CIR Realty
anneclarke@cirrealty.ca