As a wise man once told me, there are no buyer’s agents, just agents without listings.

Listings are the most valuable asset a real estate brokerage or agent has. But generating new listings, while not exactly a complex science, requires that a home seller develops the confidence that you have what it takes to sell their property at the best price and in the shortest time possible. That’s not necessarily an easy accomplishment, especially if you are new to real estate or do not typically carry many listings of your own.

One of the most important opportunities to influence a home seller to list with you is the listing presentation. A listing presentation is an event that no agent should contemplate without careful and thorough preparation. Irrespective, and all else being equal, if the main takeaway the seller learns is that you have the knowledge, experience and ability to give their property optimal exposure to more buyers, you’ve just wildly increased your chances of success.

Given that the Web has become the consumer’s playground for real estate research, your marketing plan will need to incorporate and demonstrate powerful strategies you will implement to publicize your prospect’s property online. Particularly on websites known to attract online real estate buyers.

In a few short years, Listing Syndication has virtually become a de facto component of powerful property marketing online, and a key differentiator in any successful agent’s listing presentation kit. When deployed through a solid platform, listing information entered once in the MLS can be accessed by the listing agent and re-distributed to dozens of popular websites of their choice, within their syndication service provider’s network.

When discussing how you plan to market your prospect’s home, Listing Syndication can be one of your most important competitive advantages. Reinforce your pitch with statistics that show that over 90% of consumers today use the Web in one way or another in their home buying process. As well, share with your potential client data that shows that online buyers are highly fragmented. Hitwise.com clearly highlights that the top 10 real estate sites garner only 40% of all the targeted traffic out there, and that the top three sites don’t even account for 20% of that traffic.

Being on all the top ten sites suddenly becomes critical, but hardly sufficient as that too leaves out more than half of the market.

This is where the Syndication discussion comes in. Explain how your Syndication strategy can optimize exposure of the client’s property by advertising it on several dozen real estate websites. Produce handouts and diagrams to help your prospect visualize how syndication increases exposure on many sites, and show them print outs of online traffic reporting and monitoring charts. Discuss tools you can place in their hands for them to be able to dynamically check on traffic flow and views of their property listing, at their convenience.

More exposure to more buyers online means a higher chance of a sale, faster. Deeply integrating a solid web exposure strategy into your listing presentations, leveraging Listing Syndication, is easy to achieve, easy to explain and sets you apart. It can also easily be that extra clincher you need to close new listings.

Are you an engaging leader or is control more your style? While a strong leader uses both styles, the engagement approach normally generates the best results.

When it comes to leadership styles, the Control Model is the most common. The Control Model places the focus on the leader’s needs as opposed to focusing on participant needs.

The challenge with the control model is that it mirrors the traditional classroom lecture situation. Adults, and especially Gen Y’s, dislike lectures where they they’re expected to listen and defer to an expert’s superior wisdom. The shift from control to engagement is important because it lays the foundation for creating trust.

To illustrate this point, imagine that you are leading a meeting where you must announce a fee or dues increase. You know that there will be serious resistance.  What would you do to best handle the situation?

The person who uses the control model will take the position: “Just live with it. It’s raise the fees or close the doors.” This often creates resentment because most people want to have a say in this type of decision, even if they can’t change the decision.

In contrast, the engagement model allows the leader to surface concerns and alternative solutions.

“We had to make a difficult decision between making major cuts in our services or raising our fees by 10 percent. We are going with the ten percent fee increase. What are some ways that we could trim expenses or increase revenues so that we can avoid future fee increases?”

When participants engage in the process, they own it. Best of all, this approach may surface new ways to improve your organization’s effectiveness while reducing costs as well.

Need more tips on how to lead effective meetings? Visit www.LeadGreatMeetings.com for more ideas on how to improve your leadership skills.

1. Shift from being “I” or “me” focused to being “you” or “group focused”

This is a subtle, but very powerful shift. Eliminate as much “I” language as possible by focusing on your meeting participants and using the word “you.” The more you focus on engaging with your participants, the more effective your meetings will become.

2. Ask powerful questions

Do you open your meetings by saying, “What we will be covering today…” A better approach is to take your first agenda item and turn it into a powerful question: “What is one action step that you would recommend to improve the services we provide?” Simply put, questions rather than statements increase engagement.

3. Be willing to relinquish control

Here’s a simple exercise to try at your next meeting. Tell your participants that whenever anyone asks you a question, you’re going to respond by saying, “I don’t know. What’s your recommendation?” This is a great way to make your meetings more interactive and to have some fun along the way as well.

Need more tips on how to lead effective meetings? Visit www.LeadGreatMeetings.com for more ideas on how to improve your leadership skills.
This has been a guest-post by contributors Bernice Ross and Bryon Van Arsdale

In short, “hosts” are companies that sell space on a server they own or lease, for use by their clients in addition to providing Internet connectivity to that server. They run these servers 24/7 to ensure that your website is always accessible and your e-mail is always directed to your Inbox.  Some charge by the type of service, others by space, and others by the amount of bandwidth you and your site use up over a certain period of time.

Your Internet service provider (otherwise known as an ISP) is probably not your “host”; they provide your connection to the Internet.  In many cases they also provide other services like cable TV and telephone (some example being Time Warner, Shaw, or Cox).  That being said, many ISPs do provide a free e-mail account—which they do host for you.  This is usually an address ending with their domain, however, not yours.  If you use an e-mail address that ends in @AOL.com or @Cox.net or @?.rr.com, you are using an account hosted by your provider.  The upside is that it is usually free.  The downside is that if you change ISPs for one reason or another, move to another area or you decide on another type of service, you will likely lose your e-mail address and all e-mails sent to that account, after you’ve changed providers.

By itself, a domain name has almost nothing to do with hosting

So you own IAmTheVeryBestAgentEver.com. But what does that really mean?  Without any services attached, you own just the domain, just the name, just the title.  You have secured this domain and no one other than you is able to use it without your permission (and probably help).  You own the right to add e-mail services or a website to the domain, but you don’t necessarily have these services already.  Think of it as buying an empty lot. You don’t have a house or a mailbox, but you now have an address and a place to build a home.

E-mail hosting can be attached to your domain name, providing branding opportunities

Once you own a domain, you can add an e-mail hosting service.  This can be a forwarding service which simply takes any e-mail sent to You@IAmTheVeryBestAgentEver.com (You@YourDomain.com) and redirects it to an Inbox you already use like your ISP Inbox or your broker Inbox.  This allows you to brand yourself and own that brand.  If you change ISPs or Brokers, they probably won’t let you take that Inbox with you, but you can take your domain and redirect that e-mail address to another Inbox. For example, a free Web based account like Gmail or Yahoo!, or even your new ISP or Broker address.

There are other types of e-mail hosting.  Some e-mail hosts provide POP or IMAP accounts which stand on their own and don’t require you to have another Inbox in order to access your e-mail.  With this type of hosting, your e-mail is stored directly on your web host’s server.  They offer you a set amount of space, and you can access your e-mail either by logging into a Web mail interface, or using a third party e-mail client to connect to their server and download your e-mail onto your hard drive.

Website Hosting is for… you guessed it, your website

You can have someone build you a custom website from scratch and give you the files.  You can then put these files on the server of a Web host, and attach that website to your domain.  This method will usually require you to pay two different fees. One to the person who created the website, and another, usually recurring fee to the host, so they can make your website accessible to the world.  If you ever need to make changes to a custom website, you will likely need to pay someone an hourly fee to make the updates (unless you know how to make them yourself).

The more common route is getting both services through one provider.  More often than not, this type of website is given to you in “template form,” where you can make the text/image/color updates on your own via an easy to use interface that the provider offers.

They will usually charge you monthly or annually for the website and include the hosting.  This type of website is generally easier and cheaper to manage, however you usually can’t take the website with you to another hosting provider.

Note that it is possible to have a domain with one provider, e-mail hosting from another, and a website through a third provider.  Most people don’t like to separate their services so they only have one host to call on and remember. But it is good to know that the flexibility is there in case you need it.

Having a domain is a great start to branding and marketing yourself on the web, but on its own, it doesn’t help you much.  Once you own your own domain, start using it.  Direct that domain to pull up your website or listings.  Acquire an e-mail account with the domain, and let people get to know your brand.

With your computer being part of your livelihood, there are certain issues you can avoid that can dramatically affect your productivity and performance. Sometimes for several days!

When someone comes to me with computer issues they need help with, it is often that their computer “runs very slow” or won’t let them open certain programs like their virus scanner or web browser.  This is usually caused by unwanted files— such as malware, viruses, or bloat-ware.  Most of this junk was installed as the result of the user clicking something they didn’t mean to click, or okaying unnecessary software installations.

Point2 Agent and Point2 Site Builder are very robust real estate marketing platforms. So our 20+ Customer Care crew mainly works with users to help them optimize their business results and get them to more efficiently leverage their system.

But we also get the odd desperate victims of malware on the phones. Since viruses and computer ailments can happen to anyone, regardless of their level of computer expertise, here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years that might save you some headaches (not to mention money) down the road:

• If you go to a web page and pop-ups open up, they are either ads or worse.  Don’t click them, close them, and ignore them.  If you did not intend for that specific window to open, you probably don’t need it.

• If you get an e-mail with just a link in it, delete it.  Don’t open it, don’t load images, just delete it.  If it is from a friend, they probably got a similar e-mail and clicked the link, causing these e-mails to be sent to you.  If you aren’t expecting a link from them, don’t click it.  If you really can’t help yourself, check to see where it goes before clicking by hovering over the link and look for text in the bottom left corner of your browser.  Chances are the link will go to a different location than stated in the visible URL. A tactic that is also commonly used to bait people into clicking nefarious links is to make the link appear if it is about them. For example: “Oh my gosh! Did you see this picture of you: <link>”

• If you get a call from a stranger telling you to do something on your computer, hang up on them.  Tech support centers generally do not preform outbound calls unless of course they are returning a call (the Point2 Customer Care team does this all the time).

• If you get a call or e-mail saying that someone is in some other country without their passport or money, or they need to be bailed out of jail, it is most definitely a scam.  Verify their story.  Don’t give strangers money. The phrase “Nigerian Prince” hasn’t entered our cultural lexicon without reason

• If you won or inherited money from some fund or some unknown relative, it is highly unlikely that you would be notified via e-mail, especially from some Yahoo! (or AOL or non-branded) e-mail address.  Delete those e-mails.  You are probably not a princess, you probably can’t save someone by wiring money, and people with money don’t need your money to gain access to theirs,

• Don’t download anything you didn’t mean to download.  Newer versions of Windows will ask if you trust the software provider before installing, so before installing new software, ask yourself the same question: Do you trust this software provider, or know what it is installing? It won’t hurt to search for some reviews about the manufacturer or the product before you pay for or install it.

• When in doubt, run a search.  If you aren’t sure if the e-mail you received is a scam, do some research.  Paste some lines of text into Google, or try looking it up Snopes.com – one of the best resources on the net.

Some of these may seem like common sense, but I know people who are pretty decent with computers who have a lot of unnecessary junk installed—even I get fooled once in a while.  Try to keep your computer neat and clean.  If you are comfortable doing it, look at the programs installed on your computer and uninstall anything you don’t need any more or things you’ve never used.  Set your virus scanner to run regularly to avoid having a bigger virus issue later.  Read the screen before clicking the “Okay” button—Make sure you know what is about to happen when you blindly click that “Okay” button.  You can even leave the window open while you run a search about the message if needed.

When presenting an idea to a group or individual, or services to a prospect, failure to deliver the message effectively impacts your goals, credibility and potentially, reputation.

Several things should be done ahead of any presentation to maximize success. Unfortunately, many business professionals still tend to miss out on a few simple but critical items. Eventually everyone learns, but one short cut is to apply proven techniques – consistently.

Two things you can think about are rehearsing your presentations, and communicating clearly. Sounds basic right? And yes, I am referring to how we speak. You would be surprised at how many times professionals shoot themselves in the foot for not applying the simplest of techniques.

In Part 1 of this article series, we discussed non-words or fillers, and how they negatively impact a speaker’s effectiveness. Another speech related issue that is rising to an epidemic scale today is the question mark impediment. 

Take note. Many rising professionals have developed a speech problem they must address before they can take on the world. It’s becoming a disease. Teenagers and adolescents have it down pat so well it’s scary. It’s the dysfunctional speech habit of turning virtually every single statement into a question.

You’ve surely spoken with someone who sounded as if they were asking you a question, only to move on to the next sentence, leaving you hanging even if for a second, until your realized that the question was actually a statement. This kind of speech is popular amongst teenagers and is making its way into the business arena as new generations enter the professional world. It is extremely distracting and anything that distracts an audience also affects comprehension. You won’t want that when you’re trying to convey an important point or sell a service. What would have been ‘cool’ at high school goes out the door in business. So try to listen to yourself talk over the next few days and check that box if it applies.

Another issue is insufficient preparation ahead of presentations. Who’s the most guilty? Surprisingly not those who are new to the business world. This group, once professionally trained, typically does all it can to prove itself. It’s also normally not the extremely experienced and seasoned executive. It’s the layers in between including middle and upper management levels. While this is surprising, the fact that these groups know their product or subject inside out gives them a false sense of confidence that tends to backfire during prime time.

Rehearsing ahead of a major meeting or presentation is critical. Do NOT leave it to the last day as most people do. Rehearse alone several times, have a friend or colleague listen to your pitch once or twice, fine-tune your approach and rehearse again in front of a mirror. The difference between rehearsing loudly or internally is also huge. Just try it both ways and you’ll see. If you rehearsed internally at first and went to normal speech voice later, it would be as if someone just tripped you. I’ve been there.

And a couple of the typical excuses some use so they don’t rehearse?

“Why do I need to? I’ve done this presentation a dozen times before,” or, “I can present this, no problem. I’ve got these other things I have to do.”

While your standard presentation may be the same, your key messages and nuances may have shifted. This changes things.

And remember, you are only as good as your next meeting.