#prospective clients

[pipcore]

well !!!! twitter is eating its own poop ass so....

[cold-neon-ocean]

short-ish vent/explanation as to why things have been so slow sobs

I don’t really feel the passage of time anymore but it’s crazy how much time I’ve lost just since February to just one after another dealing with the house pets. First our puppy’s neuter, then my sister bringing her cats into the house, her cats tearing things up and needing to be watched constantly (by me of course bc I’m the only one here), her cats then giving everyone ringworm which was a nearly 2 month ordeal that we’re still recovering from physically and financially, and now both puppies (one has seemed to recover now) are having some sort of intestinal issue the vets don’t know the cause of, but I’m just cleaning bloody diarrhea (its not parvo, the vet tested) and doing laundry all day.

I never really got the chance to recover from the introduction of the puppies back in September last year. I feel like my life has been overtaken by all these animals completely against my will and out of my control. Mom is just hemorrhaging money from all these obligations and vet bills she never planned/asked for, and I’m trying to help (despite none of these pets being mine) while also barely having the time to work that I used to. I used to be able to sit at my desk nearly all day without being interrupted but now dealing with all these animals by the time I get to sit at my desk I’m exhausted and it’s like 7pm but I gotta get up at 6am to give out medications and make breakfast for 5 pets.

Its starting to calm down but I’m just really upset over how all this affected my ability to work since these extended wait times reflects on my business very poorly and it’s just been killing me because this is not how I normally conduct things but I just had the rug completely snatched from under me and haven’t really been able to get back up. 

I also want to make clear that none of these animals are mine, nor did I have anything to do with the decision making to get them. I was told by my fam that it was expressly kept secret from me- literally until the animals came through the front door, because they knew I’d be upset because I’d have to watch them since I’m the only one home. The only pet that belongs to me is my leopard gecko who is a perfect angel boy who I’ve had not one issue with since getting him (he just turned 2 last month). 

Things are (hopefully) starting to stabilize, I’m praying that we can have just a little time without an animal having some sort of health crisis. I’m really sorry this has been such a long running thing, I never could have anticipated for any of it. I’m so grateful for the patience of my commissioners and am especially sorry to them, this isn’t normally how my business handles and I’m really ashamed of it.

[thelonesgroup]

Creating Connections with Community Pages

As brokers and agents, we are all tied to our communities and there are so many great ways to get involved too. Some of you reading this today volunteer at shelters, support boys-and-girls clubs, are part of a Rotary Group or community lodge, or maybe you care for aging pets or are a member of a local activity group. These are all great things you can do in person that build your presence within the community and expand your sphere of contacts – and help you feel good too! But how do you illustrate connections to your community to people outside of it, like to someone who is relocating from another part of your state?

One of the things that websites (and social media) do for us is expand our presence and message further than they could ever reach without them – and today I want to focus on how you can demonstrate community connections in a way that isn’t just about you, but that gives your website visitor something of value too.

The Evolution of the Community Page

Since my company has been building real estate websites for nearly two decades, I have seen a lot of changes. Back in the early aughts (2003/2004) a community page was, at its best, a brief gazetteer. A paragraph or two, half-a-dozen photos maybe. Ambitious agents would include some market stats, but there wasn’t any automation to keep them current, so they quickly became dated and for many agents it was just too much to maintain data like that.

As time went on, pages got more interesting. Companies like TrendGraphix would create tools to let agents add self-updating market charts to their websites. Social media like Instagram would emerge and give agents a way to stream current photos from their account. A website with an MLS connection could even show current local listings. It was better, but there was a lot of room for improvement.

Today, thanks to the work of IDX companies, huge data brokering services like Atom Data and Home Junction, local review sites like Yelp, Google Maps, Great Schools, artificial intelligence, and more, community pages are easier than ever to create, maintain, and can provide impressive value to website visitors.

Local Maps

This is crucial. Many people don’t have a great sense of where a place is, so whether you are detailing a county or a local neighborhood, include a map. I love interactive maps that let me zoom-in-and-out. Extra points if that map can show me where local schools, parks, and shopping areas are. This is extremely useful for buyers who want to know where they will be able to make a quick grocery stop, to identify the school their children may attend, determine commuting times and so much more. When we build websites, we always include these features!

Market Information

No modern community page is complete without up-to-date market information. Buyers and sellers both appreciate this info. It helps you, the real estate agent, start the process of setting expectations even before you have met. It helps potential referring agents from out of the area identify potential neighborhoods (and you) as viable for their moving clients. Information about recent sales, average price, and home ownership rates are a great starting point. If you want to really provide something of value, offer the option of downloading a full market report. Our websites can generate these on demand, which is a great way to capture potential leads from your website, for a quick handout to mail, or to take to a listing presentation.

Community Description

Of course, every community page should have a description. These days, a short one is just fine since we are going to include a lot more visual info, but if you are talking about a small community then a little more detail can go a long way too. If you use AI to generate your community description, don’t forget to fact check it! We like to include some statistics in our community descriptions, but you have to be careful that they don’t go stale. To keep ours fresh, we use the same data sources that automatically update our market information.

Schools

For well over a decade, we have been able to include school information with websites and without undue effort. Great Schools has made this easy, whether you go-it-alone or have a professional build your website. It’s just as relevant as it has ever been and every great community page should have it.

Demographics

Buyers want to know if a community is the right fit for them. Sellers are curious how their community has changed. For you, the agent, having a reliable source of demographics makes for endless, easy content for sharing online, and adds something to your website that most other agents just don’t have at all.

Local Businesses

Beyond supporting local businesses, which can often use all the help they can get, showcasing local stores and services really integrates you into the community. Locals love seeing their favorite spots featured. Potential clients from further away can get a taste of what is available in your area and maybe even try something out on a visit. We connect our client’s real estate websites to Yelp’s services to showcase popular dining, bars and coffee shops, shopping centers, gyms and self-care, and pet care services.

Other Details

Slideshows or connecting an Instagram stream of local photos have huge visual value. Including a connection to your MLS where visitors can browse inventory is a must – yes, it’s not what brought them to your website, but they will stay longer and search engines love it too. It’s also important to have lots of opportunities for people to connect with you. Season your community page with these opportunities so that as your visitors look around it is easy for them to reach you with a question. If you are blogging about your area, include a section on your community page of recent blog posts. I would put blogs towards the bottom to give visitors something easy to move on to after they have engaged with your community info.

Closing Thoughts

If you have been reading through this and thinking, "I have no idea how I would even start to add some of these ideas," then stop thinking and take action by giving us a call, emailing us at solutions@thelonesgroup.com or by visiting us online and scheduling a free consult. For examples of actual community pages, try here, here, or here. Your community pages are a powerful, critical part of connecting with new clients online and illustrating your local connections and knowledge.

By Denise Lones CSP, M.I.R.M., CDEI - The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones, brings nearly three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.

[scramboi]

[searching and looking at art commission prices because i wanna try opening comms soon]

[sees a professional, clean looking one]

"10$ per headshot?? on art this good?? huh?!?"

[scrolls to the bottom]

[sees "600K IDR" (40 USD) for a character sheet]

"hah org indo???

...well ig that makes sense"

[soon-palestine]

Hostages tortured to death. Parents executed in front of their children. Doctors beaten. Babies murdered. Sexual assault weaponised. No, not Hamas crimes. This is part of an ever-growing list of documented atrocities committed by Israel in the five months since 7 October – quite separate from the carpet bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and a famine induced by Israel’s obstruction of aid. And yet while the western establishment media has been chock full of the most lurid allegations of savagery directed against Hamas, sometimes with little or no supporting evidence, Israeli atrocities are excused or quickly forgotten. Accusations against Hamas are endlessly reheated to paint a picture of a supremely dangerous and bestial militant group, in turn rationalising the slaughter and starvation of Gaza’s population to “eradicate” it as a terrorist organisation. But equally barbarous atrocities committed by Israel – not in the heat of battle, but in cold blood – are treated as unfortunate, isolated incidents that cannot be connected, that paint no picture, that reveal nothing of import about the military that carried them out. If Hamas’ crimes were so savage and sadistic they still need to be reported months after they took place, why does the establishment media never feel the need to express equal horror and indignation at equivalent or worse acts of cruelty and sadism being inflicted by Israel on Gaza – not five months ago, but right now? Israel's torture of doctors, its sexual assaults of Palestinian women, it's leaving premature babies to die after its forces stormed a hospital. Where is the outrage? This is part of a pattern of behaviour by the western media that leads to only one possible deduction: Israel’s five-month-long attack on Gaza is not being reported. Rather, it is being selectively narrated – and for the most obscene of purposes. Through consistent and glaring failures in their coverage, establishment media – including supposedly liberal outlets, from the BBC and CNN to the Guardian and New York Times – have smoothed the way for Israel to carry out mass slaughter in Gaza, what the World Court has assessed as plausibly a genocide. The role of the media has not been to keep us, their audiences, informed about one of the greatest crimes in living memory. It has been to buy time for US President Joe Biden to keep arming his most useful of client states in the oil-rich Middle East, and to do so without damaging his prospects for re-election in November’s US presidential vote. If Russian President Vladimir Putin was a madman and a barbarous war criminal for invading Ukraine, as every western media outlet agrees, what does that make Israeli officials, when every one of them supports far worse atrocities in Gaza, directed overwhelmingly at civilians? And more to the point, what does that make Biden and the US political class for materially backing Israel to the hilt: sending bombs, vetoing demands for a ceasefire at the United Nations, and freezing desperately needed aid? Worrying about the optics, the president expresses his discomfort, but he carries on helping Israel regardless. While western politicians and commentators worry about some imaginary existential threat those brief events of five months ago pose to the nuclear-armed state of Israel, Israel is quite literally wiping Gaza off the map day by day, quite undisturbed.

[neganium]

Internet has been... behaving, kind of. ig it will do that if there's not as much drain on the resources.

I'm sort of wondering if other devices have a hard time discovering my computer on the network, even when it's connected; that could explain why internet doesn't come through sometimes even when a connection is made. I still want to ask her about a reset, tho- tho it's a bother due to the layout of the room that the router and modem are in.

if it's a discovery issue then maybe new antennae will fix that, after all. failing that, a new card/adapter might be in order, which will be harder to accomplish for sure. I'm sort of managing just fine so far, tho; let's hope that my fortune holds out long enough to save myself.

[likeabxrdinflight]

it probably wasn't the best idea to google my fellow interns since the vast majority of them look like the grown up version of girls who would have bullied me in middle school...

[petermot]

Looking for clients

As a freelance translator there is one thing I’m not good at: looking for clients. It might seem to be easy. After all, everybody has to do it. But there is a difference with employees: a freelancer does not really have a curriculum vitae. Well, you have, of course, but it’s not as easy to describe your past jobs. Usually I work for agencies, and those people don’t want me to mention the end…

[darwin-bloger]

Buch Spotlight: “Call & Close - Kaltakquise auf dem nächsten Level”

Cold calling – a term that often evokes mixed feelings among sales professionals. Yet, the book “Call & Close” promises to change that perspective and elevate the art of cold calling to a new level.

The Art of First Contact

“Call & Close” teaches us that the first contact doesn’t have to be cold. With the right techniques and an understanding of potential customers’ needs, every call can become a warm and inviting experience.

Strategies That Convince

The book offers a wealth of strategies aimed at building trust and sparking interest. It’s about creating value that goes beyond the product or service.

Stories That Sell

One of the strongest techniques in the book is the use of storytelling. “Call & Close” demonstrates how to establish emotional connections through storytelling, enhancing the persuasive power of each call.

Conclusion

“Call & Close - Cold Calling at the Next Level” is more than just a guide; it’s a beacon for all those in sales looking to improve their skills. It’s time to redefine cold calling and write success stories.

[theinstagrahame]

Feeling salty today because I'm realizing that my last job really screwed my "Work Portfolio" over by never giving me bylines on anything. I did a ton of work on a variety of public and customer-facing projects, but as an Editor, I never took any credit.

Which means now, after they've laid me off (and then asked me back as a freelance contractor for like 10 hours a week while they develop an AI based on all my old work), I don't have anything I can show prospective employers with my name on it.

So my embittered advice is: if you work on *anything* public facing, no matter how small the actual audience, if it's your work and your company's name on it, insist that your name be in the credits or acknowledgements.

You did the work. Your bosses will shitcan you the second you're more expensive than they're willing to pay. That work should help you find a new job.

[brownrice03]

Gauging Prospects on the First Phone Call for Cold Calling Lead Generation

Mastering this skill enables sales professionals to tailor their approach, build rapport, and swiftly identify promising leads. Ultimately, proficiency in prospect evaluation lays the foundation for productive and fruitful interactions in the dynamic landscape of cold-calling lead generation.

[shawtysdelirium]

Why do some ppl ask shit like “should I make fanart of x? Should I make a playlist of y? Should I write a fanfic of z? Would u guys like that? Would u guys read it? Lemme know who does and then I’ll do it” THIS AINT CATHOLICISM. THIS AINT UR STRICT PARENTS. THIS AINT A FUCKING DICTATORIAL GOVERNMENT. DO WHATEVER THE FUCK U WANT. U HAVE FREE WILL SO U BETTER FUCKING USE IT.

[noughticalcrossings]

Shallow Scarlet Graves

Inktober day 24. Shallow

You make your own ghosts to carry with you

[thelonesgroup]

Consistent Action Creates Results

I've worked with thousands of agents over the past three decades and every agent experiences a market or a time in their career where business isn’t coming in at the pace that would keep them comfortable. When agents don’t have enough business in their hands, it’s usually because they aren’t consistently investing effort into paths for growth.

Today's message is about creating that consistency. It's about having faith that your actions will lead to result. It's about moving your business story forward whether that's through mailing campaigns, staying in touch with past clients, or by daily keeping in touch with the market so that you can take advantage of it. Let's look at examples of all three of these situations.

Example 1: Geographical Farming

For our first example, imagine that you are running a geographical farm and it has been up-and-running for about six months now. For all your efforts, you haven't yet heard one thing from your farming. Not one response. Now, traditionally, if you look at all agents who have started farms, how long does it usually take for a reply or a response. I've been an expert on farming for over 30 years and helped many agents create geographical farming success in their business and I'll tell you the one thing I know for sure.

I don't think that people receive a piece of mail and say, "Oh today I'm going to call that person." What they do instead is they wait and watch. They want to see what your message is, how consistent you are, what your style is, they want to get to know your "voice" in the market, and they become familiar with the issues that you talk about and report on. That helps them to get to know you better before they pick up the phone.

Smart Tip: Struggling with consistency in your marketing efforts? Our LeadMagnet team can do the research, create, and execute your campaign for you! Save a ton of time while getting a professional result. Learn How

Example 2: Past Client Marketing

Let's say you have past clients, but those past clients are not referring or returning any business to you. Why is this happening? A past client is a relationship that needs attention. Past clients are a big investment, you need to keep in touch with past clients by tracking how their home investment is going and be their investment detective by letting them know when median sales prices go up or when something happens in their area that could affect them.

For example, earlier this year in Washington State there were some really big house bills that made all of certain areas capable of supporting ADUs and DADUs. That is great information for your past client homeowners and for you to say, "Your investment just went up in value because your lot was just rezoned and guess what you could do now?"

Again, it's about keeping that relationship moving and not giving up on it.

Example 3: Creating New Opportunities

So, we've covered farming and past clients in our two previous examples, but what about current clients? Let's imagine you've done everything you can with the first two, but you need business today. You either need to get out there in-person and if you can't be in-person then you need to be out there in paper. What I mean by that is this: let's say you would like to be in person at an open house, that would be an in-person opportunity, but if there aren't any open houses available for you to be at then you need to consider other options. That means finding opportunities in the market and being in front of people in print, like a mailing campaign to a neighborhood or area that there is an advantage in. What's the best way to be aware enough of the market to identify opportunity? Consistently study it every day.

I'll give you a classic example. I was in the MLS the other day and I noticed that - for whatever reason - there's a particular area around where I live where property is moving both quickly and for top dollar. What a great opportunity to pick 100 homes in that area and say, "Hey, big news! Your area right now is bringing in top-dollar. Homes are getting listed and selling above list price because of demand for your type of home and I would love to meet with you to help you understand this opportunity in the market."

Again, it's about finding opportunities and having faith that what you are doing will pay off. The trick here is that you have to take action and continue taking action! Inaction creates stress. Don't be inactive. Actually sit down and decide what you are going to do this week to connect with past clients, to make sure that your geographical farming mailers get in front of your audience, and to decide what you are going to do to cultivate some new business.

It's all about taking consistent action.

By Denise Lones CSP, CMP, M.I.R.M. The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones has over three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development and more, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.