By advertising a listing for a Realtor with whom they have a strategic alliance, it causes a whole new world of opportunity to open up for the prospect.

The Marketing:

Buyers don't want a relationship with you. At least, not yet.

Proof: If they wanted a relationship with a lender, they would pick up the yellow pages and call you – or one of your competitors.

But they haven't, have they?

Instead, they're calling on ads and signs, or calling for anonymous rate quotes. In most cases they don't dare divulge their names or phone numbers because they don't want to fend off a sales pitch geared to "trapping" them and making them feel obligated.

We've all had that feeling of unpleasant "obligation" before, haven't we? And now we go out of our way to avoid it!

When consumers are in the early process of considering purchasing a home, they just want to collect as much information on homes and home loans as possible without a lot of hassle. Their current paradigm is that all real estate agents and many lenders are transaction oriented salespeople, not relationship based consultants.

Because they just want information, most callers will not open up to you if they do call you for rate information. They're too skeptical. They've been burned before. (Read Selling The Invisible by Harry Beckwith.)

Thus, many of your ad dollars are wasted. The prospect calls, obtains the information on your rates and programs, thanks you, says he will "get back to you." Then he goes on to call a bunch of other lenders. No matter how well you did personality-wise in your phone interview, by the end of a half-hour you're just a rate quote on a piece of paper with 6 to 10 other rate quotes.

The prospect has lost an opportunity to work with you – a By Referral Only consultant. You have lost the opportunity to help the prospect. A double loss.

Triple Duty Advertising

There is a way to end this waste of advertising and to make you ads pull three times the weight they're pulling now. You can advertise the listings of your Realtor clients, have the calls go to a hotline, and (1) show the callers the benefits of doing business with you so that they will want to call you for more information, (2) help your strategic alliance partner Realtors get more activity on their listings (so they're heroes with their sellers) and (3) help your Realtors sell twice to three times as many of their own listings (making you a huge hero, as well as getting you a ton of business).

The unconventional approach of advertising a listing can do this triple duty for you if your script is written so that it captures the attention and interest of the prospect even if he is not interested in the listing!

First, of course, you talk about the listing – but not too much. Prospects know that they cannot possibly look at all the listings out there, and they know that many of the listings are not right for them, so they're looking to eliminate the ones that aren't right for them.

This is precisely why so many Realtors have such a hard time getting anywhere with prospects who call on ads. The prospect asks a series of questions geared to eliminate the property (wrong area, wrong price, wrong bedroom numbers, wrong number of baths, wrong sized garage, etc). When the caller gets enough information to eliminate the listing, he thanks the Realtor and goes on to the next ad.

That's also why shorter ads often out-pull longer ads by a 5 to 1 margin. Put too much information in the ad about the listing and the prospect can eliminate it without even calling!

The chances that someone calling on the listing you advertise will actually be interested in that exact listing is one in 100, perhaps one in 200!

The key is to give the caller enough information about the listing in your hotline script so that if he is a "great" buyer that he will call you for more information, but at the same time to not to give him so much information that he can eliminate it.

Note how in the following script that callers on the Shadow Brook listing are first "tantalized" by your Home Loan Finder Service^sm and by your special home loans, then given just general information about the property.

After listening to the limited (but very interesting sounding and curiosity provoking) information about the listing, the prospect will now have his paradigm shifted – he will hear about services and programs that he never dreamed existed.

These services and programs can help improve his life – and he feels it – he believes it! It makes sense to him. It rings true. It "feels" right. Many of the "great" and "sometimes great" clients will listen, say "wow!" and call you for more information (and an appointment!)

Warning: You have only a split second to capture the attention and interest of the prospect. Bore him for one second and he is gone! The "great" clients will listen to your script– but only if you get right to it!

If you ramble on , and the caller determines that the listing is "not for me" he will hang up before he even hears about your unique services. That's why it is so vitally important to NOT babble on and on about the listing.

The Ad:

CASCADE – Lovely executive home. Quiet street. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 fireplaces. $329,000. Zero down payment. Free recorded message. 555-1212, ext 283.

CASCADE – Elegant, prestige home. Very quiet secluded street. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. $329,000. Zero down payment. Free recorded message. 555-1212, ext 283.

(Do not put your company name in the ad unless required to do so by law.)

Terry's R/x For Automatic Prospecting Success

Test, test, test:

You don't know what will work for you, in your target market, in your area. You must test variables, and track response. Sometimes the ads and scripts will work for you the first time you try them, exactly as shown. Other times the classifieds won't pull well. You don't know (and never will know) until you try.

Classifieds:

(__) Classified in your daily newspaper under homes for sale with price, ext 101

(__) Classified in your daily newspaper under homes for sale without price, ext 102

(__) Classified in your daily newspaper under homes for rent, ext 103

(__) Classified in your weekly shopper under homes for sale with price, ext 104

(__) Classified in your weekly shopper under homes for sale without price, ext 105

(__) Classified in your weekly shopper under homes for rent, ext 106

Display Ads:

Sometimes an editorial style display format works better than classifieds. You can test a small display style ad in a homes magazine or as a Money Mailer or Val-Pak "coupon" to be distributed in high rental communities. Or try it as a postcard mailed to tenants. Put a display ad in your client newsletter. Or pay the newspaper to put this inside the paper as an "insert"… this usually costs about six cents each for the paper to print and distribute to about 5,000 apartments. The key is to do something. Test different media. Track your results. Use Hotline To Hot Properties and you can track exactly which ad gets you the most calls.

To triple response, your ad must look exactly like the editorial copy in the publication. The fonts of the headline and the body copy must match the publication's format exactly, or your ad will look like an ad and be screened out and ignored by hundreds of prospects.

(__) In daily newspaper , ext 107

(__) In weekly shopper, ext 108

(__) In neighborhood newsletter, ext 109

(__) In one "slot" of a Homes Magazine, ext 121

(__) Blow up to 8 X 11 yellow flyer and send or deliver to apartments, ext 110

(__) Blow up to 8 X 11 yellow flyer and send or deliver to market area comprised of individuals who would love to "move up" to your target market, ext 111

(__) Blow up to 8 X 11 yellow flyer and place on bulletin boards in grocery stores (ext 112), libraries (ext 113), community centers (ext 114), at offices (ext 115), on telephone poles near bus stops, wherever they may be seen.

The Script:

Main Greeting

Hello, this is the ABC Mortgage Company hotline. Please enter the extension number you wish to reach, now.

(The caller has seen the Shadow Brook listing on a sign
or in an ad, and presses box 283.)

(Box 283)

Thanks for calling about the home at 5680 Shadow Brook, a quiet, heavily wooded cul-de-sac street of $280,000 to $450,000 executive homes in Cascade. We have 3 types of zero down payment home loans – as well as several 5 1/2% home loans – available for this home and other executive homes. More details on these zero down and other unusual home loans in a moment.

5680 Shadow Brook is a lovely 4 bedroom, 3 bath home surrounded by more than an acre of beautifully landscaped, private grounds – nestled in among huge maples and evergreens, and flower gardens.

This elegant executive home is decorated in the best of taste – and is "like new" in every respect. Features include two fireplaces, a main floor family room, and a 3-car garage.

5680 Shadow Brook is listed for only $329,000. It's an exceptional value in that many homes in the area have sold for well over $400,000 and into the $450,000 range.

We have arranged for several different special home loans for 5680 Shadow Brook. We have 3 loans that allow you to buy for zero down payment, 4 loans that enable you to buy for 2-5% down payment, 2 loans where the lender will pay all of your closing costs and 4 loans with interest rates of less than 6 percent. These loans are also available to you for other homes in the $250,000 to $500,000 price ranges.

For more details about how you can qualify for a zero down payment home loan of up to $500,000, press star-2-8-4 now.

For more information and showing times for 5680 Shadow Brook, call John Breidenfield at US Home and Realty at 456-1010. John can supply you with computer printouts of 17 homes that have recently sold in the Shadow Brook area, a computer printout of 12 homes presently for sale in the area, printed details about all the zero and low down payment home loans that we have available for prestige homes, and a copy of his weekly Hotlist of the 12 best executive home buys in the Cascade and Ada area in the $250,000 to $500,000 price ranges.

Press star-2-8-4 now for more information on home loans. Thanks for calling, and best wishes in your home search.

Box 284

This is Bob Adams with ABC Mortgage Company. I started this Consumer Home Loan Hotline because many people are told by banks and real estate agents that they need thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to buy a nice home these days.

In fact, you may have talked with your bank or a real estate agent who told you that you need $30,000, $40,000 or even $50,000 to buy an executive home in the $250,000 to $500,000 price ranges.

This just simply isn't true.

In reality, there are always at least five to ten types of home loans available for zero and very low down payments. The reason you don't know about these home loans is because most banks hope you never hear about them.

You see, in the home loan business, home lenders earn large fees on some home loans, and small fees on other home loans. Since many banks like to earn the biggest fees they possibly can, they never tell you about all the loans that are available – instead they just give you a choice of 3 or 4 "conventional" loans, all with fairly high down payments.

Here at ABC, we offer you more than 200 choices of home loans. Right now, 10 of these loans stand out as being particularly attractive:

For example, we presently have home 3 loans that allow you to buy executive homes for zero down payment, 4 loans that enable you to buy for 2-5% down payment, 2 loans where the lender will pay all of your closing costs and 4 loans with interest rates of less than 6 percent. These loans are also available to you for other homes in the $250,000 to $500,000 price ranges.

Here at ABC Mortgage Company, we specialize in searching out the very best home loans and making them available to consumers. We call this free service our Home Loan Finder Service, and it searches through 237 different home loan programs and matches them exactly to your needs.

To qualify for these super low down payment loans, you, or you and your spouse combined, need to earn a total of at least $??,000 per year, and have a record of paying your bills and rent "on time" for at least the last 18 months. You must have a regular, full time job and receive a regular paycheck. If you have no credit, that is OK, so long as you pay your rent on time. However, if you have bad credit, unpaid judgements, or a history of not paying your rent on time, we will not be able to help you.

As you can well imagine, there's just too much to tell you about on this brief recorded message, but it's easy for you to get more information. Just give me, Bob Adams, a call at ABC Home Loan Company at 555-1234.

Thanks for calling my Home Loan Finder Hotline, and best wishes in your home loan search.

Copyright 2001 By Referral Only, Inc. This document is protected by international copyright laws. All rights reserved. "By Referral Only" is a registered trademark of By Referral Only, Inc. "By Referral Only Community," "Community Resource Center" and "Member Only Resource Exchange" are servicemarks and trademarks of By Referral Only, Inc. The use of this material is licensed only to members of the By Referral Only Community. Brokers: You may not distribute this material to your agents unless they are members of the By Referral Only Community.