Real Estate Training for Consultative Agents

ONE-DAY SALE - Ends Midnight (Eastern) Tonight!

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 22:58:29 -0800

The Procedures Manual for Agents With more than 150 pages of procedures, forms, sample letters, and more, this procedure manual is for experienced real estate agents who want to take their business to the next level by working smarter, not harder. It contains best practices for every aspect of your business - from the first meeting to the after-sale follow up. In just two minutes, you can start implementing the tools it took Kelle two years to perfect. Buy NowRegular Price: $209Sale Price: $159

First Time Home Buyer Seminar Prospect to many buyers all at once and build a pipeline of business at the same time. This seminar makes you the expert in the eyes of first time buyers and the detailed instructions, pre-written postcards, ads, and press release make it a snap to put together and run your own seminar in no time flat! Buy NowRegular Price: $209Sale Price: $159

Home Seller's Seminar Kit Get the jump on next year's listings with this Home Seller's Seminar Kit. Everything you need to run a successful seminar with hardly any effort on your part! Complete PowerPoint presentation, press release, sample ads, marketing materials and more! Buy NowRegular Price: $209Sale Price: $159

If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Why Incredibly Competent Women Fall Apart In Relationship

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:06:10 -0700

Are you horrified at how quickly your solid foundation can get rocked when you enter into a romantic relationship? It’s Not Your Fault! As a coach, I’ve worked with so many self-assured women over the years who are generally successes in life, but who just fall apart when it comes to dating. It’s frustrating how this one aspect of their life has eluded them. What they don’t realize is that it’s not their fault – it’s their programming. Cultural Programming Is Working Against You As children, we are bombarded with the messages that "Prince Charming" will come and save us from our fate. Do you need saving? I don’t. And yet we look for it. And then there's the "you complete me" message which is even worse, implying that we aren't complete on our own. This message sets up a dynamic that creates neediness and a constant fear that the only person in the world who completes us might leave - and then where would we be? Going “All In” Once in the relationship, we are encouraged to go "all in" and lose ourselves in the relationship. This is what happens when your best friend suddenly forgets your phone number because she's spending every waking moment with her new boyfriend; and what happens when every invitation you make to her suddenly includes him (or her – lesbians are not immune to this programming). Everything we say or do is now measured up against how it will impact the relationship. We change our self-definition to include our partner. The minute we think something might be going somewhere, the mindset shifts and suddenly we're in "The We Zone". If you've ever found yourself behaving like a crazy person around your relationships rather than the strong, independent woman you know yourself to be, it's because you've entered "The We Zone". Symptoms of "The We Zone"Reduced sense of self (because it is overshadowed by the other) A fear of loss (because this is the ONLY person who can complete you or the ONLY person who will ever love you in this way) Neediness (because you have given your power to the other person or the relationship, rather than holding it yourself) Panic and jealousy when your partner talks to other women Failing to speak your truth for fear of losing the relationship The severity of the symptoms vary from person to person, but unless you’ve done a lot of work on yourself around relationships, it’s likely that you have some form of this women’s dis-empowerment virus – we are culturally programmed for it. Do you want to know EXACTLY what is creating this situation for yourself again and again? If so, I would like to offer you a FREE 30 Minute Energy Scan. During this Energy Scan, you will know what it is inside of you that creates these symptoms and gain insight on what is needed to shift it permanently. http://www.kellesparta.com/free-energy-reading/ If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

It's a Money-Making Day

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 01:52:30 -0700

Let's make it a money-making day. What three things are you doing today to make you more money. Here are the rules:1) One thing has to be something intended to bring in money this week. 2) One thing has to be something intended to bring in money this month.3) One thing has to be something intended to bring in money in the next year.I'm working on mine and will post shortly. What are yours!??! If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Spinning Out of Control...

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 01:02:39 -0700

Have you ever felt like you're spinning out of control? It can feel like things are going too fast, or that there is this constant state of panic just under the surface, or that anxiety is your most prevalent emotion. It can also feel like massive overwhelm and shut down. All of these point to the energy of spinning.I say "the energy" because that's what it is. It's an energetic that you're engaging that causes you to spiral. It's just like panic in that it takes hold of you and keeps you in the cycle until you can jolt yourself out of it. The key is not to engage the energy. So if you're stressed about how much work you have to do - stop thinking about the big picture and focus only on what you have to do right now and then celebrate the completion of each item as you go. If you're worried about your relationship, stop playing out horrible scenarios or memories in your head and focus on what is actually real in front of you right now. If you're worried about your health, eat right, see your doctor (acupuncturist, chiropractor, dentist, etc.), and get some exercise. If your past is haunting you, stop tell yourself and everyone else the story. Refuse to give it space in your present world. If you can't do anything about whatever is bothering you, let it go and trust that it will be OK. If you can do something about it, stop sitting in dread and fear and go deal with it. But whatever you do, identify the source of the spin and stop it. If you're having a hard time identifying the source of your spin, sign up for one of my free 30-minute intuitive coaching sessions. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Where to Host and Make URL Purchases

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 23:14:03 -0700

After I did my webinar on “Turn Your Website Into a Lead Generation Machine!”, many of you have been asking me about some of the other details about getting your own website up and running. I realized that a blog would be the most efficient answer to that question. Where to Buy Your URLS – I prefer to buy my URLs from GoDaddy because I can almost always find a promo code online for them that will save me anywhere from 10-40% off the url I’m purchasing, plus they will email me to tell me when something is expiring and then when I go to renew I can find promo codes again. So I go there because they are cheaper. Plain and simple. BUT I DO NOT HOST WITH THEM!! I did host with them and they were constantly migrating my site from server to server and breaking my site in the process then insisting they didn’t do it. I requested that they notify me of any move to a new server BEFORE it happened (since they had just broken my site for the 4th time) and they repeatedly ignored that request. They forced my one-day sale to become a three day sale because they migrated my site in the middle of the sale and broke it so badly that I couldn’t make any changes to it for 48 hours while they tried to put the pieces back together again. In short – they suck. Don’t host there. Host Here Bluehost.com – I LOVE them. I’ve been working with them for over 5 years now and I’ve never (NOT ONCE) had a problem. In fact, just yesterday, I went to update my Wordpress site and broke my entire site. I thought I had an automatic backup on the site and it turns out that I hadn’t actually activated it – only installed it, so no backups! Uh-oh. Crap. So I contacted BlueHost and it turns out that they had a daily a weekly and a monthly backup for my site. In less than 12 hours, they had restored the site I broke. I love them. (And, yes, I’ve made sure the backup is active now.) If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Why I Became a Real Estate Trainer - It's Not What You Think

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 02:43:13 -0700

There are a lot of reasons that people get into training in real estate. They couldn't make it in sales and decided to train instead They wanted to be famous and get paid to tell people what to do They wanted to spend their lives on an airplane They thought that sitting at home and blogging all the time sounded like more fun than showing houses Obviously, I'm kidding. ;-) But seriously. There was a reason I did this. You see I was a training junkie - I loved to take trainings. I loved them because there was always a personal growth section in every training I attended. And so, when I realized that I was ready to teach, I knew that I wanted to talk to people about how to grow - themselves AND their businesses. And I figured that I would do that for real estate agents since: Growing as a person is the fastest way to grow your business Realtors are fun people to work with Realtors need to understand how people work in order to do their jobs well I knew the business So I decided to become a big-time real estate trainer. And I was successful. I got a book published, became a columnist for Realtor Magazine, and put out a bunch of products that agents snapped up and raved about. But here's the rubEvery time I put out a training for the stuff I wanted to teach - personal growth - no one signed up. I discovered that agents don't value growth. I had to tell them that it was a sales or prospecting class in order for them to come. But Personal Growth Is The SINGLE MOST POWERFUL Sales Tool You Can Learn! I had a coaching client once who asked me to show him how to get organized so that he could get more business. But what I determined when I looked at his business was that he had plenty of business if he would stop taking clients' comments personally and blowing them off. And with the extra money he would get from those transactions, he could hire an assistant to get him organized and get even more business. You see - it's not the stuff that you think it is that's keeping you from being successful. This is true for so many agents I work with. They think the issue is discipline or more marketing or working harder or getting someone to stand on their head and MAKE them do it, but that's rarely the case. It's almost always something else. And THIS is why I became a real estate trainer. To help agents figure out what that problem is and fix it. I want every agent on the planet to have a LIFE AND a Business they can love. If you'd like to identify why you're not making forward progress - or the progress that you want, sign up for a free 30 minute session with me below. https://www.timetrade.com/book/MY69L If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

ONE-DAY SALE - Sale Ends Midnight (Eastern) Tonight!

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 23:10:19 -0700

If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Converting Internet Leads

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:45:26 -0700

Did you know that it really doesn't matter how many people land on your website? The average agent doesn't do diddly about converting them, so why would it matter? The key is how many leads you CONVERT. Conversion means, how many people you get to contact you in some form from your website. How many did you get last month? Last year? If you're like most agents, that number is pretty low. The key to internet conversions is giving them something that makes it worth their while to give you their contact information in return. That could be: A video teaching them about something they want to learn An ebook on a topic they care about An opt-in page that takes them to a list of providers (home inspectors, electricians, etc.) who you recommend Or something else specific to your target market (you DO have a target market that isn't "everyone who wants to buy or sell", don't you? If not, we need to talk.) It's all about instant gratification these days, so whatever you offer has to come to them immediately. Not in a day or two, not in an hour or two - NOW. Or else they will be off to the next real estate website and you will be left in the technodust. Free WebinarIf you'd like to know more about what it takes to turn your website into a Lead Generation Machine, sign up for my free webinar. In it, I'll take you through all of the steps it takes to make your website work for you. This content-rich webinar will teach you more about internet marketing in one hour than you could learn from taking many courses online - and even better yet - it's specifically targeted to real estate business. You won't find anything else like it! In it, we'll cover: Turn Your Website Into A Lead Generation Machine! Join me, Kelle Sparta, the expert on creating (and profiting from) relationships, as I teach you how to create relationships online - without ever having met the prospect. I've been practicing these techniques for years on my own website and now I'm going to teach you something I've never taught anyone before! You'll learn the art of: Separating Yourself From the Competition and How to Get People to Work With You Getting Leads To Your Site - And How to Make Them Stay! Converting Lurkers Into Leads - Making the Most of the Leads You Already Have Getting the Flow of Leads to Come in Consistently So That Your Pipeline of Business Is ALWAYS FULL. I've spent many years and countless thousands of dollars testing and refining these lead conversion techniques. Don't miss out on how you can get these tools to work for you! June 28 - 12PM-1PM Eastern (9-10AM Pacific) Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/155016630 Running AGAIN June 29 - 12PM-1PM Eastern (9-10AM Pacific) https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/498392550 And Another Free Webinar the Same Day Best Business Strategies to Win at the 2012 Finish Line For many more ideas to incorporate into your business plan, catch Carla Cross' webinar on the same day, June 28, at 2pm EDT (11 am Pacific). She's going to help you polish your business plan so you'll be sure to reach your goals. We'll take a magnifying glass to your business, to see how you're spending your time and your money, and She'll make recommendations to save you both. She also has the three best strategies to make 2012 your best year yet. For more information,click here. June 28 - 2PM-3PM Eastern (11AM-12PM Pacific) Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/280829102 Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker, writer, and coach, specializing in real estate management. A National Realtor Educator of the Year, Carla was recently named one of the 50 most influential women in real estate. Join her newsletter community, and receive Carla's new eBook, Getting to Yes: Ten Tools to Remove Barriers to a Decision. Contact Carla at 425-392-6914orhttp://www.carlacross.com. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Two Must-Haves for Internet Lead Generation

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:00:37 -0700

Why You're Missing the Boat Did you know that almost everyone these days starts their search on the web? I'm sure you did, but have you actually stopped to think about what this means for you? Most agents haven't - at least this is what I assume from looking at the websites that are out there. Most agents are relying on the IDX interface to convert their leads for them. The problem with this is that people sign up for the IDX on only one site and then they keep searching. If you don't happen to be the first person they saw, then they didn't sign up for your IDX and you have missed the lead because you're not offering anything different than what the other agents have. How Fast Are You?The other thing I see agents failing at on a regular basis is following up on those internet leads. It is an instant gratification world and if you are getting back to your leads 24-48 hours after the lead came in, you're missing the boat big time. People want an instant answer. And you can't always be there to offer it, but there are systems you can put in place to help you. The Secret to ConversionsIf you hope to convert your website lurkers into leads, then you had best have a plan in place to get them there. You need both lead conversion tools that offer people something of value to them in exchange for their contact info, and autoresponders that respond immediately when they ask for more information. If you don't have these two critical factor items, you can kiss your leads goodbye because someone else who has these tools will be converting them into clients - not you. This Is Just the Beginning...OK -so those are the technology pieces. And they are important. But more important is the content. The content is what actually gets them to bite. And then, it's all about the follow-up and consistently getting your message out there to draw more people in. It's a whole process. Free WebinarIf you'd like to know more about what it takes to turn your website into a Lead Generation Machine, sign up for my free webinar. In it, I'll take you through all of the steps it takes to make your website work for you. This content-rich webinar will teach you more about internet marketing in one hour than you could learn from taking many courses online - and even better yet - it's specifically targeted to real estate business. You won't find anything else like it! In it, we'll cover: Turn Your Website Into A Lead Generation Machine! Join me, Kelle Sparta, the expert on creating (and profiting from) relationships, as I teach you how to create relationships online - without ever having met the prospect. I've been practicing these techniques for years on my own website and now I'm going to teach you something I've never taught anyone before! You'll learn the art of: Separating Yourself From the Competition and How to Get People to Work With You Getting Leads To Your Site - And How to Make Them Stay! Converting Lurkers Into Leads - Making the Most of the Leads You Already Have Getting the Flow of Leads to Come in Consistently So That Your Pipeline of Business Is ALWAYS FULL. I've spent many years and countless thousands of dollars testing and refining these lead conversion techniques. Don't miss out on how you can get these tools to work for you! June 28 - 12PM-1PM Eastern (9-10AM Pacific) The Recording for this program didn't work, so we're running it again tomorrow! And Again June 29 - 12PM-1PM Eastern (9-10AM Pacific) Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/498392550 And Another Free Webinar the Same Day Complimentary Business Planning Webinar Coming Up For many more ideas to incorporate into your business plan, catch Carla Cross' webinar on the same day, June 28, at 2pm EDT (11 am Pacific). She's going to help you polish your business plan so you'll be sure to reach your goals. We'll take a magnifying glass to your business, to see how you're spending your time and your money, and She'll make recommendations to save you both. She also has the three best strategies to make 2012 your best year yet. For more information,click here. Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker, writer, and coach, specializing in real estate management. A National Realtor Educator of the Year, Carla was recently named one of the 50 most influential women in real estate. Join her newsletter community, and receive Carla's new eBook, Getting to Yes: Ten Tools to Remove Barriers to a Decision. Contact Carla at 425-392-6914 orhttp://www.carlacross.com. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

What To Do When Your Lead Generating Sources Have Gone South

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:49:29 -0700

This week, I had my friend, Carla Cross, write an article for you about lead generation. She's awesome at it. She and I are doing a couple of free webinars at the end of this month on the subject of lead generation as well. See the end of the newsletter for more details on how you can get in on this amazing, cutting-edge information. But sign up quick! There's limited space and I wouldn't want you to miss out! And keep your eyes open - I'll be sending out some more info on lead generation for you too! Until then... - Kelle What To Do When Your Lead Generating Sources Have Dried Up Have your lead generating sources dried up? I was talking to Marc, a friend of mine, an agent who's been in the business a couple of decades. He was commiserating that his best lead generating source, former buyers and sellers, have 'disappeared'. Many are retiring, have downsized, and are going to live there as long as they can. Or, with the tight housing market, they just aren't moving. What should he do? Two Strategies to Get That Lead Generating Pipeline Filled Again Based on Marc's challenge, I decided to think through how you seasoned agents can get more business and stretch your career as long as you want. Here are two strategies you can put in your business plan right now to go get that business. Contact your 'old' clients and find out if their kids or their friends' kids want to buy or sell a home. Why would they want to refer you? Because they trust you! What will you say? Think it through in your head. Here's how to 'craft' any sales call: Think of the need (you know them, so you should be able to zero in on a specific need) Think of a question to open the conversation-and a benefit to them Think of the question you want to ask to get that lead Before you pick up that phone: Practice your dialogue with a colleague. Be sure it flows and it's natural. Alternate need: Do they have any friends who want to downsize? Move to a warmer (colder) climate? Be Ready to Appeal to the 'Kids' Those generations with the alphabet 'handles' don't want to be 'sold'. If you've relied on your wham, bam, answer those objections and hard-close people, you're going to have to polish your sales processes. Here's what you need: a social media presence and a plan a method to go from 'cold communication' (via the screen) to warm communication (phone or in-person contact) openness, and a willingness to share information (old-style salespeople attempt to hoard information) don't rely on creating respect with all those high-fallutin initials behind your name; those generations aren't impressed; they want 'lateral' relationships be sure your web presence has lots of wonderful testimonials. Check out these sites and programs. It's a huge trend for your potential clients to find you and check you out on the web! www.realestateratingz.com www.incredibleagents.com www.zillow.com www.RatedAgent.com www.VerifiedAgent.com If you're uncomfortable working with younger generations, find a younger agent in your office and work out some kind of partnership. But, Gen. X and Y Don't Want to Buy You're right, to some extent. The percent of first-time buyers has gone down recently. But, there are compelling reasons to buy instead of rent. Here's one of them: According to a Harvard study*: Wealth of home owners is 46 times the median for renters. *America's Rental Housing: Meeting Challenges, Building on Opportunities", The Joint Center for Housing Studies. Yes, I know you've read the studies that, if you take the difference between your rent and a house payment, and invest it, you will end up with more wealth. But, the Harvard study shows that people just don't invest that 'extra' money. Find the compelling reasons why home ownership is preferable to renting. Find out where those gen x, y'ers, and millenniums want to live, and serve their needs. Go back to those 'old' lead generating methods. What do I mean about those 'old' lead generating methods? Open house, knocking on doors, and floor time (if you have it). Why are they still viable? Because buyers and sellers want to work with someone they trust. You know trust isn't delivered long-distance. It's delivered by making a promise and keeping it. It's delivered by going face-to-face with the client, so the client can 'read' the non-verbal cues (voice, sight, feel) that they use to judge whether you're trustworthy. According to the latest National Association of Realtors' buyer/seller survey, buyers chose an agent based on Honesty and trustworthiness 30% Reputation 20% Friend/relative's recommendation 15% Other traits and skills buyers appreciated were integrity and responsiveness. That's what you have to prove through your actions, not your words. Optimizing Open Houses as a Source of Leads Here are the 5 most important questions to answer to assure you use your time in that open house wisely: Do you ask a provocative question when potential clients come in? A great one is, "Is this your first visit to the area?" Do you have follow-up questions ready? Do you avoid giving out those flyers? Do you expand your chances by visiting at least 50 neighbors prior to the open house to invite them and get leads? Do you follow up with all visitors within one day with a phone call and a note? The big principle for open house is If you give something, get something in return. The sales objective: You and I will hate to tell the seller this, but almost all the potential clients who visit an open house end up buying something else. So, what's your sales objective: Get an appointment. Checklists for You to Use Buyers and sellers want a predicable sales experience. Using checklists and processes (and promoting the fact you use them) increases your trust factor. For my checklists on preparing for and holding open houses, click here. (Editor's note: reminder - you got my checklists when you signed up for this newsletter, so combine the two for a jam-packed, can't-miss combo.) Armed with those two big lead generating ideas, you'll be able to regenerate your business-and your attitude toward it. Complimentary Business Planning Webinar Coming Up For many more ideas to incorporate into your business plan, catch my webinar onJune 28, at 2pm EDT (11 am Pacific). I'm going to help you polish your business plan so you'll be sure to reach your goals. We'll take a magnifying glass to your business, to see how you're spending your time and your money, and I'll make recommendations to save you both. I also have three best strategies to make 2012 your best year yet. For more information, click here. Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker, writer, and coach, specializing in real estate management. A National Realtor Educator of the Year, Carla was recently named one of the 50 most influential women in real estate. Join her newsletter community, and receive Carla's new eBook, Getting to Yes: Ten Tools to Remove Barriers to a Decision. Contact Carla at 425-392-6914 or http://www.carlacross.com. And Another Free Webinar the Same Day! Turn Your Website Into A Lead GenerationMachine! Join me, Kelle Sparta, the expert on creating (and profiting from) relationships, as I teach you how to create relationships online - without ever having met the prospect. I've been practicing these techniques for years on my own website and now I'm going to teach you something I've never taught anyone before! You'll learn the art of: Separating Yourself From the Competition and How to Get People to Work With You Getting Leads To Your Site - And How to Make Them Stay! Converting Lurkers Into Leads - Making the Most of the Leads You Already Have Getting the Flow of Leads to Come in Consistently So That Your Pipeline of Business Is ALWAYS FULL. I've spent many years and countless thousands of dollars testing and refining these lead conversion techniques. Don't miss out! June 28 - 12PM-1PM Eastern (9-10AM Pacific) Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/155016630 If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

June 28th is Your Day for Training

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:06:43 -0700

One Day - Two Free Webinars! June 28th 12PM -1PM (Eastern) & 2PM - 3PM (Eastern) (9AM and 11am Pacific)

The top agents in every marketplace are usually the ones who take the most training. Get the leg up on your competition by getting in on the free webinars by two of real estate's top trainers. Turn Your Website Into A Lead Generation Machine Join me, Kelle Sparta, the expert on creating (and profiting from) relationships, as I teach you how to create relationships online - without ever having met the prospect. I've been practicing these techniques for years on my own website and now I'm going to teach you something I've never taught anyone before! You'll learn the art of: Separating Yourself From the Competition and How to Get People to Work With You Getting Leads To Your Site - And How to Make Them Stay! Converting Lurkers Into Leads - Making the Most of the Leads You Already Have Getting the Flow of Leads to Come in Consistently So That Your Pipeline of Business Is ALWAYS FULL. I've spent many years and countless thousands of dollars testing and refining these lead conversion techniques. Don't miss out! June 28 - 12PM-1PM Eastern (9-10AM Pacific)

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System RequirementsPC-based attendeesRequired: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendeesRequired: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/155016630 Best Business Strategies to Win at the 2012 Finish Line Join the woman who literally wrote the book on business planning, Carla Cross, as she helps you look at your business to date, make adjustments to save time and money-and integrate 3 huge trends into your business for a great 2012 finish. You'll learn: Answers to 3 big questions to make your plan actually strategic to drive your business so you have a great focus for 2012 (not just wondering what to do each day) Three big trends and what they mean to your business plan next year What to look for in your business habits to save time, $$, and allocate your resources in your best interest The 3 best strategies to take advantage of this business climate-and the trends What buyers are looking for-and how you can capture more clients more easily Why clients aren't as loyal-and what you need to do to gain and keep client loyalty You'll be able to tune up your business plan (or get information to create one!), look at your business from a return on investment perspective, make adjustments, and have more time, more money, and more fun in your business. June 28 - 2PM-3PM Eastern (11AM-12PM Pacific)

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendeesRequired: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/280829102

If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Convert Your Internet Leads Into Sales - 7 Steps to Success

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:17:19 -0700

You spend a lot of time and effort on your social media campaign, your blog posts and your tweets. You invest a lot of money in sites that promise good leads. And yet, the conversion rates on the leads you get still aren’t great. This is because you haven’t optimized your web presence to create relationships with your prospects. They simply don’t care about you by the time you contact them. In fact, they never really cared about you at all – they just cared about the information you had to offer. And that’s not their fault – it’s yours. The next seven tips are going to show you how to program your internet leads to care about getting in contact with you. The tips below will increase your conversion rates dramatically and help you close more of the leads you’ve already got coming in, rather than you trying to bring in more leads that don’t do anything. Lead Conversion Tip #1 – Set Yourself Apart From The Competition You need to find something about you and your business that is unique – a reason why they would really want to work with you over working with any other agent. It might be that you’re a great negotiator or that you have a background in finance or that you specialize in working with their type of market. It might be that you’ve got something in common with them. It doesn’t matter what it is, just find SOMETHING and then highlight that differentiator in ALL of your communications. (Let me just say one thing here – please read other agents’ marketing materials before you settle on something. If I see another agent who thinks that “your real estate agent for life” is a differentiator or that “I’ll help you find your dream home” is valid marketing, I think I’m going to scream. If you’ve seen it anywhere in real estate before – DON’T USE IT!) Lead Conversion Tip #2 –Build a Relationship Once you’ve got your differentiator identified, then it’s time to start building a relationship. On the internet this means that you need to do things to get people to know who you are. These days, visuals are just as important (if not more important) than words. In fact, with the rise of Pinterest and the redesign of Facebook to include Timeline, you need good visuals more than ever before. Plan out your next three months’ worth of blog posts and then get some interesting photos taken related to them – have a sense of humor about them if it fits your personality. Have you standing on top of other agents, or swooping in on a rope to get the buyer for the home, or signing the deal for the house with a big grin and the sparkle on your teeth (like in the Orbitz commercials). Feel free to spoof other fun commercials of the moment – you can ride on their good feelings. Whatever you do, it should reflect YOUR personality – because you’re using these photos to attract people to you. Then include these photos as you write your blog posts. No blog post should be without a photo – whether it’s one of you or one you got online. The reason for this is that Pinterest won’t pin an article without a photo to attach it to – which means you don’t get the traffic from people sharing it. You want to spark people’s desire to pin your stuff – especially since more than 80% of Pinterest’s 11million (and counting) users are women and women make 95% of the real estate buying decisions. The purpose of all of this is to give people an idea of who you are. This is one example. You could also create a podcast (FYI this is a lot of work) or a video to get people to know you better. Be creative and let people in behind the scenes into who you really are – not some “professional” mask you’re wearing to look cool. This keeps people at a distance. They want to know you’re a real person – show them you are! Lead Conversion Tip #3 – Give Something of Value Now offer them something of value to them. For buyers, this is easy. Offer for them to sign up to have listings sent to them according to their criteria, so that they don’t have to go looking for them. You’ll need to explain how the MLS works and that you will have the listings from all the companies, but it’s something they want, so offer it. If everyone in your marketplace is offering this then come up with a free report or training program on “6 ways to save money on your home purchase” or “5 unexpected ways to ruin your chances of buying” or something of that nature. For sellers, you’ll need to be more creative (remember, you still have to differentiate yourself). Everyone offers a free CMA. Most sellers have already gone on Zillow, so they think they already have what that offers anyway. Instead, offer something they don’t know. A free report on “the 10 simple repairs that make the most money on resale” or “7 ways to get your house sold faster” or something similar. In short, offer them something that no one else has. The offer of a valuable item gives you the opportunity to turn someone from a lurker (where you don’t know who they are) into a lead (where you know who they are). So make it worth their while to identify themselves. You’ll have to test your marketplace to determine whether you can get away with asking for phone numbers or not. Ideally, you’ll run a split test (look up Google Website Optimizer to learn more about these) to determine which gives more conversions AND better leads. After all, if you have a choice between getting 15 people to give you only an email and you convert only one of them into a client or you can get three only people to give you their phone number but all three become clients , clearly asking for phone numbers is the better choice even though it is fewer overall leads. Lead Conversion Tip #4 – Have a Follow-Up System In Place When you get the lead’s contact information, you don’t want it to get cold (and internet leads go cold within an hour or less). Since you know you won’t always be able to respond in that timeframe, make sure your computer does it for you. Use an auto responder program to launch a whole email campaign to your prospects from the moment they sign up for one of your value services. You will want to customize the program to the offer that you made so that it looks consistent with what they asked to receive. AND you’ll want to make sure that they know that they’ll hear from you again – both by email and by phone. Lead Conversion Tip #5 – Find Something That They Didn’t Know They Didn’t Know Other than first time buyers, most buyers and sellers think they know everything they need to and that an agent is merely a convenience to get the job done. If you can find something to tell them about the pitfalls of a transaction that they didn’t even know to worry about, then you have proven that they don’t know everything and that therefore, they need you. This sort of thing is great for a Facebook status update or a tweet as a “Did you know…” comment. It can be expanded into a blog post if it’s more complicated. Don’t forget a photo to make it pinnable! Lead Conversion Tip #6 – Educate and Stay Open Hard sells are a turn-off. So staying in an education mode when you are wooing your prospects is the best recipe for success. But beware – if you educate too much, then they will think they don’t need you anymore. So you should have a set amount of education that you offer – either in an auto responder or as a podcast or as blog posts and then if they want to know more, they need to talk to you in person. The key phrase when doing an educational piece is “whether you work with me or somebody else, here is what you need to know”. Continue using this phrase in your listing or buyer presentation and you’ll immediately associate all of that knowledge they got online with you – and you’ll really come out smelling like a rose. Lead Conversion Tip #7 – Tell Them That The Next Step Is A Meeting With You People need direction – especially when they are in a new situation. If you don’t tell them what the steps are, then they don’t know. If you don’t say that they should meet with you, then they think that they are fine still wandering about on their own. When you get to a certain stage in your marketing and you’ve played out all of your education that you’re offering, tell them it’s time for them to make a phone call to you. Even if they aren’t ready to buy or sell now, they will want to put their name on your preferred buyer/seller list so that when they are ready, they’ll get to be first in line to work with you over other buyers and sellers. (Scarcity marketing – we love it!) Remember that your communications are a pathway that you are walking your leads down. Don’t allow them to stray from the path until they have reached the final destination of talking with you face to face and allowing you to close the deal. Keep distractions to a minimum and keep the momentum moving them forward and you’ll find that your ability to convert your internet leads increases dramatically. Happy hunting! The Information Above Can Only Scratch the Surface. If You Want To Learn More About How To Convert Your Internet Leads, Then Check Out My 3-Day Real Estate Lead Machine Course! If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Kick Start Your Real Estate Speaking/Training Career! Apprenticeship Available NOW!

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:30:22 -0800

I've had many trainers over the years approach me about how I got my training practice off the ground, made the contacts I needed, developed the products that I sell, got my website ranked and my book published. It's not something I can sit down and teach someone in a conversation over dinner, it's a process - and a long one. But I've become convinced that there is a need for people to have help in developing their training businesses. So I've decided - on a VERY small scale - to help a few people on an apprentice-style basis. I will take on up to three apprentices in the coming year. I say "up to" because I'm not willing to work with everyone. THE REQUIREMENTS There are so many people who say that they want to be trainers but when I ask them how many houses they've sold, they tell me a number somewhere between 2-10. That's insane. You can't train if you've never done it. My requirement is that you have sold at least 50 houses before I will help you become a trainer. It takes that many to have enough stories and experience to keep you from getting eaten alive by your audiences. Also, you have to be willing to put a minimum of 20 hours a week into building your training business - preferably full-time if possible. You MUST have decent writing skills and be able to write a blog. You must NOT be technology-phobic because we will be dealing with aLOT of technology. You MUST be willing to pick up the phone and call people you've never met. You'll never get anywhere in this business if you don't make contacts. You MUST be disciplined at follow-up. MY STORY I started working on getting known in the national real estate scene in 2004. I had trained locally and state-wide, but never done anything on a national scale. Within a year, I had a book about to be published and a national training business with affiliates across the country. Within two years, I was a columnist for Realtor Magazine and my book was published. If anyone can tell you how to get known in this business, it's me. THE BENEFITS Below are the list of things you'll get from working with me. Create and market your own, signature training programs Personal support in helping you craft and market your own line of real estate training products. Help in Designing and Development of a website that sells Identify and connect with key partners to help you get the word out about your training and products Cross-marketing with other trainer(s) How to build a following on Twitter - including access to a list of over 2500 followers already in place How to identify the "Hot Topics" that different events want trainers to talk about Access to Important Contacts in the industry Focused coaching on improving your presentation skills and developing your signature style and seminar culture Support in writing YOUR real estate book THE DETAILS This is a year-long mentoring program. I will work with you to get your business up and running on all levels. I will help you make your contacts and develop your signature brand. I will help you to understand how to rank on Google and how to get traffic to your website. I will help you find the affiliate partners you need to help market yourself effectively. This is a one-on-one mentorship designed around your needs. It is not a precreated program where you are shoe-horned into someone else's agenda and passed off to a "trained coach" who isn't the person you thought you were hiring. You will have regular phone and email access to me directly. I will personally show you how I got known in the real estate training world. I will help you with personal introductions, guest blogs, and more. In this, you will be my protege - which is why I can only take on three people. THE COST I have been in the real estate world since 1993 and I have NEVER seen a trainer offer this kind of mentored training. To my knowledge, no one has done it. This is a unique opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the real estate training world from someone on the inside who knows. Plus, you have the added benefit of working with someone who has been an internet entrepreneur - selling products over the web since 2004. Add to this my background in brand creation and marketing and you are in a unique position to acquire a HUGE amount of knowledge in a very short time frame. The secrets I'm going to teach you in the next year took me NINE YEARS to amass. If you're someone who likes to figure it out for yourself, then this is not the program for you. But if you're someone who can see the value in learning the ropes from someone who has mapped the course and knows where all of the pitfalls are, then you're in the right place. I would have KILLED to have someone willing to mentor me when I started. It would have saved me several years of struggling and countless thousands of dollars in costly mistakes. To learn about internet marketing alone would take you countless hours in classes and somewhere between $10,000-$15,000 – and then you'd still have information that is mostly outdated since the internet morphs how it works every 18 months or so, such that all the training programs you would buy are normally obsolete by the time they hit the market. If you were to hire an expert in internet marketing to give you real-time, customized advice like you're going to get from me, it would easily cost you over $25,000 – and it wouldn't be real estate specific! Then there's the public speaking training you'll get. If you were to take one of these programs (none of which are NOT specifically going to teach you about talking to Realtors – a unique breed), it would cost you another $5,000 -$10,000 – and it wouldn't be as good as what I'll teach you since I bring not only my public speaking experience to the table, but also my theater and energy work backgrounds. And then there's the product development and branding that we'll do together – which would cost you another $3,000 - $20,000 (depending on how many products you develop and who you hired) and again – that advice would not be real estate specific. Add to this the connections I'll make for you which no one else can make and you've got something that is simply priceless. So you could spend upwards of $55,000 and many years learning what I will teach you in one year with a targeted approach that doesn't require you to learn anything more than you need to make your business a success. This unprecendented access into the back halls of the real estate training world with targeted, industry-specific advice and personalized help in getting your real estate training practice off the ground isn't going to cost you $55,000 or even $30,000 – not even $20,000. This program, with everything you need to be successful will cost you only $15,000 for a full year apprenticeship. This isn't once a week or three times a month for 30 minutes - this is an apprenticeship, which means I'm working alongside you. We'll schedule the time you need - whether it's 15 minutes or three hours to get you up to speed. Together, we'll set the schedule that works for your business needs. FYI - I don't expect to ever offer this mentorship again. Because of the way my business is structured this year, it works for me to offer it, but next year at this time - if things go as planned - I expect my business schedule will look very different. I don't expect to have the time to do this again - ever. So don't hesitate. HOW TO APPLY As I said - I'm not taking on just anyone. After all, I'm going to be using my name to get you access to resources. I want to make sure you're someone I'm willing to bet on. So there is no link to a payment page here. Only this invitation to have a conversation with me. Write me an email. Include the following information (and please be careful to include it all - I'm testing your ability to listen and follow directions with this request - I can't help you if you can't listen): Your Name, address, phone number and email address (yes, even though it's on the email) The number of houses you have sold in your career How long you have been in the business and what companies you have worked for in that time Your experience (agent, broker, mortgage lender, buyer's agent, listing agent, specialties, etc.) Your designations What experience you have (if any) in training Do you have any courses you've written - if so, please list the courses and include promotional materials you've used to market them in the past as well as how many times you've presented them and whether you've gotten paid for those presentations or not Are you a certified trainer in your state? Do you have any products you've created? If so, list the products and promotional copy for selling them. Have you sold any of the products? If so, were those sales online or in person? Have you published any articles in the major real estate magazines? List articles and links to articles. Do you have a blog? Include link. If you have a video or audio of your presentations, please include a link to it. Is there anything else I need to know about your training business that I haven't asked? Why do you want to be part of this apprenticeship? And why should I choose you over other applicants? Please don't take it personally, if I don't select you to be part of this process. I'm looking for the right people with the right fit and if I don't find them, then I won't do it. But I have the feeling that those three special people are out there. Maybe one of them is you. I won't know until you get in contact with me. Send your email to ksparta at Sparta Success dot com. If your email makes me feel like you'd be good for the program, then we'll schedule a call to see if it's a good fit personality-wise and take it from there. I look forward to hearing from you. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Solving the Housing Crisis

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 05:51:15 -0700

Dear President Obama, I recently received an email from my friend, Carol Johnson at the Recruiting Pipeline. She sent me the letter as part of a mailing to the leadership in the real estate industry asking us to consider how to solve the problems of the current housing crisis. How To Solve The Current Housing CrisisI spent several weeks chewing on the thought. What would I say to you if you were to ask me how to solve this current crisis? I had mixed feelings on it. What it came down to for me is this: it’s not about saving the banks from bad investments, and it’s not about digging borrowers out of holes that they got themselves into. As a benevolent parent, the governments’ job is to stave off the catastrophic results the housing downturn is having on the economy as a whole and bring it down to just enough pain that we don’t do something this stupid again. At the same time, the government has to remember that not everyone is in the same situation and you have to be responsible to those who were not caught up in this buying frenzy as well. So, with that in mind, here is my thought. Buy The Land Under The HousesIn most markets, we have fee simple land ownership that conveys with the house. On every street card, there is a value placed on the land and one on the building. If we’re going to bail people out and make things more affordable, then let’s do it by reducing the principle owed on the property without asking the bank to take a hard hit and without the owners losing their houses. The deal works like this: The banks would have to forgive all late fees and rewrite the loans at no cost (after all, they are getting the benefit of not having to foreclose on a bad loan). They also have to agree to continue to collect the taxes on the land from the homeowner and pay them with the taxes on the home. The government issues bonds to investors to raise the capital and then buys the land at current appraised market value. The homeowner gets a deeded option to repurchase the land at a later date at the original price paid by the government or current market value – whichever is greater. The money paid by the government would go to the bank to pay down the principal balance of the loan, allowing the bank to convert an impaired asset into a performing asset which boosts the bank’s asset rate and lessens reserve requirements, strengthening its balance sheet. This makes the bank more stable, reduces the stress on government resources, and ultimately increases the availability of funds for consumer loans. The homeowners would then get a new loan issued by the bank for the lower principal amount and have to pay a reasonable monthly lease (1% per year) on the land. The homeowner would also still be responsible for paying the taxes on both the land and the home. The bonds issued by the government for the purchase of the land would be backed by the land with dividends provided by the lease payments. Here’s how it would work in an example case:Harry Homeowner has a house that he is behind on his payments on. He is in danger of foreclosure. The bank has charged him hundreds of dollars in late fees and there is no way he’s going to get on top of things again. What he needs is a fresh start. Harry’s loan is for $300,000, but the property is only valued at $225,000 in the current market and he can’t sell it. The government offers to buy the land under Harry’s house. The land is valued at $85,000. Harry sells the land to the government and pays down his loan to the bank, leaving a balance of $215,000. The bank agrees to forgive the late fees and rewrite the note. It issues a new loan to Harry on the house only in the amount of $215,000 at a lower interest rate taking Harry’s principle and interest payment from his previous payment of $1871.61 at 6.375% down to a new payment amount of $1073.46 at 4.375%. Harry pays an additional $70.84 per month (1% per year of the purchase price of the land) in addition to his mortgage to cover the lease costs on the land. This makes Harry’s total monthly payment (not including taxes and insurance) $1143.51, saving him $728.81 per month. This savings allows Harry to keep his home and the bank to avoid foreclosure. Ten years pass and Harry wants to sell his home. He puts the house on the market and finds a buyer who agrees to pay $350,000. Harry then exercises his option to repurchase the land from the government. Current appraised value for the land is $110,000. Harry’s attorney does a simultaneous closing on the property, with Harry purchasing the land back from the government for $110,000 and conveying the house and the land to the new owner for $350,000. The bank gets its loan of $215,000 paid off, the government gets the $110,000 and Harry Homeowner gets the balance of $25,000 (less closing costs). The ResultsWin: The bank didn’t foreclose and got the full amount of its loan repaid. Win: Harry didn’t lose his house to foreclosure, saved his credit and came out the other end with a little money in his pocket. Win: As an investment for the taxpayers and bond holders, the $85,000 has matured into $110,000, for a $25,000 increase. In addition, the government has also received interest in the form of lease payments on the land in the amount of 1% or $850 per year. Over ten years, this totals an additional return of $8500 for a total profit of $33,500, an ROI of 3.38% per year which is a better return than the 10 year Treasury Bond rate which was 2.77 as of close of business Friday last week. (Obviously, this is a little more complicated than this, but you get the idea.) What Happens If Harry Homeowner Still Forecloses?In many areas, affordable housing is a big issue. It's all local towns and municipalities can do to get developers to include affordable units in their developments. Those towns could change their local regulations to state that the affordable housing unit doesn't have to be in the development itself - it can be provided in the same town but in a different location within that town. This would make developers tremendously motivated to buy any of the properties served under this plan that go to foreclosure since they would cost the homeowner up to a third less than the local area prices. Even if the builder had to take a loss on the purchase and resale of the home to get the monthly payments into the "affordable" level, it will likely be less than the gain of an extra new unit selling for full price. It's a good trade. This Plan Has Several Benefits It will reduce the principle of the loans for the current homeowners allowing them a payment level they can afford to sustain. Banks only have to eat the cost of refinancing the loans at a lower interest rate and forgiving the late fees, not the cost of foreclosing and reselling. The payments from the land purchases to the banks would allow them to convert impaired assets into performing assets. This boosts the banks' asset rates and lessens their reserve requirements, strengthening their balance sheets. This makes the banks more stable, reduces the stress on government resources, and ultimately increases the availability of funds for consumer loans. Freeing up additional funds for new loans and opening up credit lines for new spending would be a boon for the economy overall. Property values won’t suffer as a result of the plan since any subsequent purchase of the property would be made including the land when the current seller exercises his/her option to purchase the land back prior to conveying it with the property. It’s a purchase backed by real estate, which means it’s not going to contribute to the deflation of the dollar. It provides a stable investment for older investors who need some way to hedge their bets in this uncertain economy. For the purchases that don't get paid for by bonds, the tax payers will see a return on their investment as the economy recovers and property values improve. At the very least, we are guaranteed to get our money back with the land lease payments as interest. At the best, the appreciation and the land lease costs will provide a tidy profit for the use of taxpayer monies. It’s not a free ride for anyone. The banks lose out on the refinance and late fees as well as taking only a slightly more than break-even interest rate. The homeowners lose out on the appreciation of their land and have to pay conveyance taxes and closing costs on the land multiple times. In short – those who made bad decisions get a chance to pay for those bad decisions without being destroyed by them. So, that’s the crux of the idea, Mr. President. It seems to me that it would work. I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss it with you. I also have some ideas on how to make it easier to be self-employed if you’re interested. Sincerely, Kelle SpartaAuthor of The Consultative Real Estate Agent National Speaker, Trainer and Coach for the Real Estate Industry (If you'd like to help spread the word to get this to President Obama, please Digg, Stumble Upon, etc. this article and post a comment about it on your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter with a link back to it. Thanks!) If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Prospecting on Facebook

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:05:42 -0700

Have you ever considered growing your mailing list? I'm sure you have. However, finding people interested in buying a home now or in the near future can be challenging. But what if you could grow a list of people who wanted to hear from you? People who may not be looking right now, but who could fill your pipeline for years to come? Would you be willing to invest time and a little cash into that option? Home Life PerksHave you heard of Home Life Perks? It's a relatively new (about a couple years old) tool that helps agents reach out to their clients in ways that are relevant to the clients - even when they aren't quite ready to buy or sell. It's a system that uses social media to offer your clients discounts on a variety services, products and restaurants in your area - all courtesy of you - their favorite Realtor, of course! And best of all - you don't have to DO anything to get these deals (although if you do get some deals, you can really leverage that as well, but more on that in another article). Home Life Perks actually negotiates with national retailers to get the discounts and you come out looking like the good guy! Expand Your InfluenceBut here's where it gets good. Yes, using this tool will help you keep in touch with your current clients in a more relevant way - awesome. But it can also help you grow your mailing list of potential clients really quickly. Here's how. Using your Home Life Perks account, you can expand your sphere of influence pretty easily – and all within your target market area. Rather than running another open house or ad in the local paper (does anyone do this anymore, really?) why not consider running a Facebook ad about your Home Life Perks? Getting Opt-insIt's not practical to advertise your listings on Facebook or Google – there just aren't enough buyers looking right now to make that worthwhile - but your Home Life Perks? That's worth advertising. It's something that a lot of people will want to opt into and the more they see you, the more you will be top of mind when they are ready to buy and sell. Facebook AdsThe benefit of using Facebook over Google Adwords is that Facebook is far more targeted. You can specify age range, location, gender, and even specific keywords in Facebook. This allows you to really target your ads to the right population. So if you know that your market is generally technology workers in the town of Springfield who are already homeowners, you can target that market in your ads. You can have your ad show up only to that marketplace, so you only pay for the clicks from those people. And, even better, the cost per click is generally really low – much lower than Google Adwords. BudgetingIf you've never done pay-per-click marketing, you might be surprised to know that it is both really cheap and easy to budget. Cost per click is usually between $0.01 - $0.25. To avoid spending too much, you can set a daily or monthly budget amount for your marketing and the system automatically turns itself off when it reaches the limit. No fuss, no muss, nothing to remember. Landing PageThe key to making sure that your marketing is most effective is in creating a great landing page that encourages people to opt-in and share the information with their friends – which is why I recommend setting up your landing page on Facebook. When you do this, you can not only get your opt-ins, but you can also ask them to "Like" the page which makes it show up on their feeds and spreads your offer – free of charge this time - to a wider audience with an implied endorsement from the person who "liked" you. This is really leveraging the value of social media marketing. Don't Clutter It UpNow you may be tempted to include marketing materials about yourself – don't. The more information you offer people on a page about multiple things, the less likely it is that they will sign up for anything. If you already have a page on Facebook you can use that to set up this offer, but put it on its own page and make sure that the ad you place clicks through to that page – not your Facebook homepage. In fact, consider setting up the Home Life Perks signup AS your homepage. You may be pleasantly surprised to see your conversion rate improving as a result. Write InIf you decide to write ads, don't forget to try out different wording, offers, and (most importantly) pictures. Then let Home Life Perks know which ones worked the best for you. Send in your results to Paul Golec at Home Life Perks (he just started a blog here, so be sure to go over and comment for him to welcome him to the Active Rain community too!) here: http://activerain.com/paulgolec. He'll compile a list of the best ones and share the results on his blog. Oh, yeah, and they've got some free webinars coming up that you can check out too! Cool, huh? - I thought so! If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Saving Cash on Your Business Cards

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:24:07 -0700

Today ONLY Living Social is doing a special deal -$10 to get $50 worth of printing - postcards, business cards, note pads, etc. You buy the voucher and then you use it $50 credit when you need it. Here's the link to the deal - but don't delay - it only works for today. Tomorrow it's gone! I got mine!!! https://livingsocial.com/deals/34322?ref=personalized-link-box-8979952&rpi=8979952 If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Panic!

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:07:33 -0800

When Running Is Worse Than Standing StillI know that these articles haven't been coming at their normal pace. The reason for this is that I have been waiting for inspiration. Most days, she's sitting on my shoulder whispering sweet ideas into my head all day every day. But for the last few months, she has been mostly silent. Perhaps it's the exhaustion I was feeling from the last year and the loss of my mother. Perhaps it was the inner work I've been doing on myself. Whatever the reason, she was silent. And my feeling is that if I don't have anything valuable to say, I should keep silent. Your time is far too precious for me to waste it with drivel. And so you've guessed it, since you are now receiving this article, I feel like I once more have something important to talk to you about. Thanks for reading. Where Are You, Right Now?I think one of the reasons why inspiration eluded me for so long is that I was running so much. With all of the details to handle from my mother's estate plus my normal workload and launching a new women's empowerment program (if you want to know more about that, just ask me), I've been busy. But what happens when you get busy is that you often forget that there is anything more to life than the details of the work in front of you. You spend most of your day mentally in the next part of your day thinking about what you need to do next rather than being where you are now. It's really no wonder that we can't seem to find peace. It could be sitting at our feet and we wouldn't see it because mentally, we've already left the room. The Adrenaline RushThe other thing that comes with running all the time is the adrenaline rush and a vague sense of panic. The former can be a issue since it is easy for some people to become addicted to the rush of the adrenaline surge and so they put themselves in situations over and over again that give them that feeling. The problem with this is that it will eventually wear out your adrenals causing fatigue like you've never experienced in your life. In other words, it's a short and perilous road. A Vague Sense of PanicThe panic, on the other hand is even more insidious. It gnaws at you in a non-specific way that is kind of easy to ignore in the beginning. If you're really good at ignoring it, it can sit, undermining your confidence and draining you of your convictions for a good long time. But eventually, it will amp up and start to overwhelm you. This is when people get panic attacks or get depressed or have huge feelings of being totally, crushingly, horribly overwhelmed. It's not the overwhelm that's getting you – it's the panic. We Can't Stop RunningThe solution is to stop running. Take a break. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. But when you're panicked, it's hard to think to do this. You don't want to admit you're panicked because, really what is there to be panicked about. Your rational mind doesn't want to accept it. Your reptilian brain on the other hand is screaming – oh no! I'm panicked, it must be time to RUN!!!! (Or, if those around you are really unlucky, then your brain believes it's time to fight and you're getting angry about everything.) So we keep running because our physiology is demanding it. And the worse part is – we did it to ourselves. A Vicious CycleYou see, our programming is such that our bodies and brains know that these two things go together. It doesn't matter which one comes first, your body or brain will supply the other one – they don't exist in separation. So if you are running in a flurry and you're worried, your brain will happily provide both the adrenaline and the panic to go along with it. Or, if you're panicked with your adrenaline running, then your body will immediately want to flee (or fight). These are hardwired responses from millennium-old instinct patterns. We can't change them. Break the Cycle - BreatheWhat we can do is utilize other hardwired responses to break the cycle. For instance, it is physically impossible to panic and breathe deeply at the same time. So if you focus on your breathing and you keep it deep and steady, then eventually, the adrenaline has to give way and allow you to relax. Drink water too, it helps clear the adrenaline from your system faster and it slows your breathing at the same time. Do slow, stretching movements to loosen your muscles – relaxed muscles are another way that the body knows it is out of danger. Make sure you've turned off your phone and your email and don't let anyone barge in – it's important not to train the body to think that just as you get to relax something else goes horribly wrong. If you train it into that pattern, it will never relax. Keep It Down To A Dull RoarAnd then, once you get things under control again, you'll need to keep on top of things. If you find yourself worrying or thinking forward too much, come back to breathing. If you find that you are rushing, take a couple of minutes and breathe. If you are being pulled in too many directions, close your door, turn your phone off and take a 5 minute vacation – and DON'T think about anything you have to do. Light a candle if it helps and stare at the flame. For so long as the candle is burning, you don't need to think about anything else. If you really do only have 5 minutes – set a timer to go off so that you don't have to keep checking the time. You can sneak in a vacation from your stress anytime you like. It's just a matter of changing your attitude to change your latitude. More Effective When We're CalmAnd if you're thinking that you don't have time for all of this stuff (and, who are we kidding here – those people have stopped reading long ago, but you can share it with them), then consider this. We make better decisions when we stop long enough to consider all of the consequences. We communicate more effectively and create less drama that we'll have to clean up later when we take a breath before we open our mouths. And, when we are mentally in the room, we notice little details that could turn into big problems later while we still have time to head them off at the pass. In short, we are more effective when we are calm. Go figure. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

How Out of State Sellers Pick an Agent

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:46:51 -0800

Speaking from ExperienceI'm in a unique position right now to speak from experience about how an out-of-state-seller picks an agent since I just had to do it twice. My mother passed away last year and I hired an agent while I was in the height of my grief. I picked someone who seemed to be successful from his approach and demeanor, but honestly, I didn't do any homework on him. I was just too tired. I did do one thing smart, I refused to give him a year listing. I wasn't willing to have the house on the market that long. I did sign a 6-month listing but I told him I wanted it sold in two and he should make that happen. I gave him the price he asked for and two months later, I insisted on a price reduction. At the end of 6 months, nothing had happened and I had heard from my agent a total of about 6 times. I was a very motivated seller since the house costs me $2K per month to maintain. The Search for a Good Listing AgentSo I was faced with picking new agent. I went into the marketplace online since this is how most buyers will find their house. I searched for houses in the area that my mother's house was in and I started pulling up listings. I found a few agents in the area with listings that might cross-promote nicely with my mom's house. So I started making calls. Not one of them answered their phones. In fact, not one of them went to a cell phone. They all went to office answering machines. (Can you tell my mom lived in a rural area?) So I went back to the computer again. And I did another search based on the lake that my mother lived near. This time I got better results. The top items in the search were from Homes.com. So I started digging through and the strangest thing happened. No Profiles Filled OutAlmost every listing that I looked at had information about the house on it, but very little or nothing about the agent. So I checked to see if the lack of a profile was price related and discovered that you can actually fill out a profile for free on Homes.com. It costs you monthly to post your listings. Which means that the agents whose listings I was perusing had paid (likely $29 per month - their base fee) to post their listings, but had completely failed to fill out information that was free to enter and which made it easier for me to find them as a seller. Can you say "missed the boat?" The Stand-Out ChoiceAnd then I found one where the profile was not only filled out, but the listing was an enhanced listing as well. The agent also had several other listings in the same area. He also had an 888 phone number that I knew would follow him to wherever he was. There were signs that this was a professional agent! The TestAnd so I decided to call and see how he was on the phone with potential buyers. Because we know that if you can't convert a buyer call, you're not likely to make the sale yourself. He answered the phone himself. He answered questions about his listing (although he did have to look some stuff up - he had 30 listings after all). He was professional. So I came clean and told him that I wasn't a buyer, but a seller and I needed some help. Quick ResponseDespite the fact that we had a couple of weeks before my last listing expired, he got right on the job of providing me with a new market analysis and staying in contact. Given that my last agent barely spoke to me, I found this to be refreshing. He works with a partner and he told me about her. Introducing the PartnerIf there is one thing that I would have liked to have had happen that hasn't yet, it's that I would have liked to have gotten a phone call from his partner to introduce herself. This way when he's not around and she needs to talk to me, she won't be coming in cold to the relationship. Off And Running AgainSo here we are, off and running again. The house is up on the market with another (this time dramatic) price reduction. We'll see how good of a choice I made this time. It certainly feels different. Wanna Buy A House?Oh - and in case you're interested (or have some investors or buyers who are), the house is listed here. I am a VERY motivated seller. http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/8422-402nd-Avenue_Town-Of-Genoa-City_WI_53128_M74845-61841 If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

What I Do

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:56:32 -0800

My assistant got a request today for information about what I do as a coach. I liked the response so much, I thought I'd share it with you. Here it is: Let me tell you a bit more about what Kelle does. Kelle is not an accountability coach like most coaches are. In other words, she’s not going to assign you homework and then check in to make sure you did your homework and that you’re on track. What she does is the strategic level coaching and helping you bring that plan into form at the tactical level. For instance, she’ll help you create and build a brand and then put in place all of the procedures, staff and training that will support that brand image. She’ll help you develop a comprehensive marketing plan and then find the best ways to implement that plan. She’ll help you achieve a work/life balance with skills, training and staff that will keep you at your peak performance level. She’ll help you develop and hone a team to grow your business to the next level. Right now, for you, she’d be best at helping you to develop your business plan with a focus on the goals that you have in mind. This would include a complete marketing plan. She can help you pick the right brokerage for your business goals, evaluate and negotiate your contract with your broker, and build a brand image that you can transfer to your own brokerage when you leave. When you’re ready to open your brokerage, she’ll help you get focused on your core market, decide what kind of agents to recruit and get a package in place that will encourage them to come to you. Once you have the strategic level work done, Kelle will refer you to an accountability coach to keep you on track if you want that. Because Kelle isn’t a standard accountability coach, she doesn’t sell her packages in a traditional monthly coaching format. Instead, you purchase blocks of hours which you can use as-needed. Many of her clients will use a block of 2-4 hours at a time doing the comprehensive strategic conference, an hour the following week to ask questions and clarify plans and then not use any time for several months and then do another block of time again. Each person’s usage is uniquely theirs and this is the benefit of working with Kelle. If this intrigues you, please let me know. I'd be happy to chat with you about how I can help you. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Great Gift Ideas for the Holidays

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:02:00 -0800

Do you have a Secret Santa Gift In Your Future?It's one of those things - the dreaded Secret Santa gift. Or even more difficult, the Yankee Swap. What do you get for the person you hardly know or for someone random? I'm a big believer in gifts that give back. So I try to give a gift of knowledge and education. After all, how many holiday mugs can one person own? Below Is a List of My Recommended Buys for Your Gift Giving Purposes Becoming a Self-Centered Woman - eBook - Deborah RothDon't let the title of this one fool you. If you have a woman in your life (or you are one) who needs to learn a little more about putting herself first to make her life more fulfilling, then this book is for her. It's a spiritual journey into the art of becoming whole as a woman. It's written by a very wise friend of mine and I can tell you, it's well worth the price. It would be a great gift for your Secret Santa person - or for yourself. Web Copy That Sells - Maria VelosoThis is a fabulous book for teaching you the art of online persuasion and relationship building. She is the top person in her field talking about this and you should really listen. Content Rules - Ann Handy and C.C. ChapmanWritten by one of the smarted, most connected and talented guys I know and a chick he believes is equally awesome, this book teaches you the dos and don'ts of social media relationship building. C.C. Chapman has been a giant of the social media world for years. I was lucky enough to meet him when social media was in its infancy and I can tell you that when I need social media advice, he's my first call. His book will blow your mind. The Wealthy Spirit - Daily Affirmations for Financial Stress Reduction - Chellie CampbellIf you've ever heard me speak or listened to my podcast, then you've probably heard me quote from this book. I love it. Chellie has managed to create a beautifully written, inspiring and focused look at how we look at money and how we can improve our outlook. My favorite page is Day 3. I can't recommend this book highly enough. That's a wide variety of gifts of education. I'll give you one more gift. And this one's from me to you. I'll give you a link that will take you to a web page that will give you $20 off my Expired Listing Postcards product. This is the cheapest I have ever sold it - EVER. In fact, they are so cheap that you might even be able to give one to a colleague for Secret Santa without exceeding the $ limit. Happy Holidays! Get Your Expired Listings Postcards If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Start a Movement

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:45:00 -0800

Bear With Me I'm going to have a moment of seeing the negative right now. I know, it's not like me, but sometimes you have to engage the darkness to find the light again. Right now, we're standing in the midst of a country that has been demoralized. It's been tough for everyone. And we are some of the few people left in an industry that has been decimated. Having come into the business at the end of the last decimation cycle, I can tell you two things. No matter how hard you've tried to keep a positive attitude, the energy of the negative nellies around you HAS affected you. The best way to release the pent up anxiety of worry that has seeped into you over these last few years is to find new purpose in what you do. Even in the best of times, being labeled "just another real estate agent" is tough. It's hard to overcome the "you're a used car salesman" attitude that many people have. You can spend the rest of your career trying to convince people that their first impressions are wrong, or you can change the game entirely. Changing The Game You're an experienced agent. You know what it's like to play the game in the traditional fashion. You know the ups and downs and, at this point, you could probably do it in your sleep. Why not change it up. Give yourself and your clients something to believe in. Step out of the role of "just another agent" – no matter how good you are at that role – and step into a new paradigm as being the leader of your own personal movement. What Is Your Mission?You got into real estate for a reason, and it probably had nothing to do with fulfilling your mission on the planet. But what if you could take this opportunity to build your mission into your business? What kind of mission, you ask? Good question! For some people, their mission is about saving the environment, for others it's about connecting deeply with everyone around them and facilitating movement forward, still others are destined to bring large groups of people into consciousness about themselves. Each person has a mission uniquely their own. Finding Your Mission We can find clues to our missions by looking at the past. What it is that we do whether we are being paid for it or not. Who it is that we have manifested ourselves to be. Your mission is at the core essence of who you are. It permeates everything you do. Take a history of your life. Write down all of the things you are most proud of, all of the ways in which you regularly look at and interact with the world. All the services that you provide to everyone around you – whether they are paying you or not. These are all clues to your underlying mission. Energy and Excitement - Guaranteed I'll tell you a secret about missions – when you uncover them, they come with a boatload of passion attached to them. And passion comes with a ton of energy. So finding and embracing your mission with automatically give you all the energy and passion you need to move forward with it. So if you're getting old like me and you're thinking that you don't have the energy to start something new, think again. It's waiting right there for you. Wouldn't it be nice to be truly excited about something again? Turn Your Mission Into a MovementOnce you have identified your mission, it's time to turn it into a movement. A movement is created by a leader and their followers. It's a way to get people engaged in a process or a goal at such a personal, core level that they are also filled with passion for the cause. You can go about this process by a variety of means and each mission is suited to different approaches, but the key is to get yourself on the track to a more empassioned tomorrow and to take everyone around you with you on that ride. I'm reading a great book right now on the subject of creating movements that I think you'll love. It's called Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements. If anything I've said has resonated with you, you may want to get a copy. Also, I've given you an idea for a movement that might just fit your personal mission in my latest article on Realtor Magazine. Check it out. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Please Explain This To Me - Women Unite!

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 02:12:48 -0700

Shopping for Bathing Suits - How SadI have been shopping for a bathing suit this morning thinking that there might be a hot tub at my hotel in New Orleans for the NAR Convention this weekend. Happily, there is no hot tub, because I have found no swim suit. What I have found is a whole lot of body hating websites. Every site is talking about slimming this (sounds uncomfortable to me) and minimizing that and hiding the other thing. For heaven's sake - why is it not OK to love your body just as it is?!!!?? Body Hate EverywhereI had the most terrible time on these sites. Not because I have issues with how my body looks, I love my body, thank you. I had troubles because it seems that the websites have a problem with how my body (or anyone my size) looks. I put in the search term "Plus Sized Bathing Suit" and the links consistently landed me on pages that were supposedly the plus sized suits, but all of the models in the suits were skinny. Now how am I supposed to tell how a suit will look on my plus-sized body when I'm looking at a model who at her heaviest never passed a size 8? Is it so terrible to see a plus-sized body in the suit? Am I supposed to be so ashamed of my own body that I can't even bear to look at a model who is of the appropriate size to ACTUALLY model the suit? What's wrong with our culture that this is true?! One Shining ExceptionThe one site that I visited that didn't do this to me was SwimSuitsForAll.com They did a fabulous job of showing real-sized models in the suits. They also did something that the other sites didn't . They told me how much the bust cups would carry. Sadly, they only had three suits that would fit both my cup size and my suit size and I didn't like any of them. Honorable MentionThere was one other site I found that wasn't too high on the self-hate scale and had a few photos of a real plus-sized model and this was SwimSuitsJustForUs.com. This one seems to be a one-woman operation and she is the primary model. But she's only in a small fraction of the suits and the rest are just empty suits - no way to tell what they will look like. But she does offer shopping by body type and that's a bonus. Outside Judgment Needs to StopI have to tell you that I've rarely felt discriminated against because I was a woman. But I feel discriminated against all the time as a person of size. Somehow, in our incredibly PC world, it's still not OK to be large. In fact, for two years in a row, one of my readers has sent me a birthday card with a lovely message on the top and a heap of judgment on the bottom that says "Remember, no matter how good the cake tastes, thin feels a whole lot better - party responsibly". On My Birthday! The one day that we are supposed to be able to eat cake without guilt and he wants me to make him feel better about my size by not eating my birthday cake! It's not OK for us to pick on people for their gender or the color of their skin - how about we extend that to how big or small people are. In fact, what if we gave up judgment altogether? How would that be? What would the world be like if you could walk around knowing that no one was judging you? Pretty awesome, huh? What's Wrong With Loving Your Body the Way it Is?So here's where I put on my wise woman hat and say that the fastest way to eliminate judgment in the world around you is to eliminate it from within you. Your body is the way it is. It's the only body you have and if you are functional and relatively healthy, then it's doing a great job for you - especially given how most people treat their bodies. Appreciate it, love it, revel in it. Then, when you can truly love your body, you can do what I did when I got that birthday card and when I went onto those websites. I didn't feel bad about me, I thought - wow, our culture has a long way to go! If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Warning - Mega Vitamin D and Calcium Don't Mix

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 04:23:48 -0700

Are you on one of those loading doses of vitamin D that doctors seem to be giving out like candy these days? I was too. But what I didn't count on was the side effects. Oh, I read the package insert (although how many people would when we're talking about a vitamin here - I don't know.) The package insert was really poorly worded and unclear about the fact that you should not, under any circumstances, mix mega vitamin D doses with extra calcium doses. I was using Calcium Lactate to help with my muscles for the plantar fasciitis that I have. I had been advised to try it at a once a day level and if that worked, to up the dosage to two a day. Now, my mother passed away in June, so I didn't think much about it when I started to get depressed - I'm grieving. I'm supposed to be depressed. And when it progressed to being barely functional, I thought, well I'm having a hard year (moving, IRS tax audit, my mother's passing) and I deserve a little downtime. And the further I slipped into my depression, the harder it became to reach out and ask for help. The harder it became to think about my situation long enough to realize I had a real problem. And then I decided to up the dosage on the Calcium Lactate to twice a day. Suddenly I was having fleeting thoughts of suicide. This was a real wakeup call for me. I've had some really bad times in my life (high school comes to mind), but never, no matter how miserable I was, did I ever consider suicide. I immediately (two weeks later in depression land) got a therapist. Thank God for My Tooth ImplantNow in the meantime, I had scheduled to get a tooth implant done. When it was finished, the doctor gave me a couple of prescriptions. At the same time, it was time to refill my vitamin D mega dose for my third and final month. I read the inserts for each of my prescriptions and while I was at it, I re-read the one for the vitamin D. There, buried in the middle of the description was a list of possible interactions with other drugs followed by a list of possible side effects. Calcium was mentioned as a potential interaction. And there, in black and white, in the middle of things like upset stomach and the like, was "mental and/or emotional shifts". Even in my brain-fuzzed state, I could see that going from being exhausted and sad (a normal grieving response) to being crushingly stuck in depression and marginally suicidal would count as as "mental and/or emotional shift". I immediately stopped taking the calcium.And, go figure, the next day, once the calcium had a chance to clear my system, the fog started to lift. I didn't take the next loading dose of the vitamin D, just in case it was the D doing it as well. I've taken a week off of both and I'm feeling back to my old self. Sure, I'm still grieving, but I'm functional again. I'm excited about my new projects, I'm calling people and getting out and being social again. The future's so bright I've gotta wear shades and all that. It's a night and day difference in my experience of the world. Test ItNow I will go back and take the last four vitamin D doses - after I have a chance to remember what it's like to be me again. And I'll take one and watch my mood like a hawk. I will NOT ever again mix the vitamin D with Calcium. And this is the crux of my message. Don't you do it either. Talk to your doctor about possible side effects. Read the package insert EVERY TIME to take a dose. And PAY ATTENTION to how your body is responding. This is my public service message for the day. I hope you're enjoying your weekend. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

It's Official! I'm Presenting at NAR

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:59:38 -0700

Are you going to the NAR conference in New Orleans this year? Then don't forget to look me up! I'll be presenting on Saturday, 11/6 at 11am - 12pm. I'll be taking you through the process of creating your marketing plan for next year including: Blog posts Newsletters Social Media Updates and Interactions Offline Marketing Networking Referral Mining And Yes, As Always With Me, You'll Be Learning More About How To Deepen Your Relationships With Your Clients As of now, I don't have any plans other than the event itself. So if you're going to be at the convention and would like to grab a meal together, let me know - I hate to eat alone. Would love to connect. If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist

Free Seminar Starts in 30 Minutes

Kelle Sparta, Real Estate Trainer and Coach (Sparta Success Systems) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:32:57 -0700

Business the Easy Way! Managing Relationships Beyond the Transaction Are you looking for a great way to spend your afternoon where you can learn some new ideas and buff up your ability to get referrals? Then this is the best way for you to spend your next hour. Here's the Description and the Link for You To Login - FREEReal estate is all about relationships. From your first contact, you’ve got to provide the right combination of openness, engagement, and awareness of clients and customers’ needs. And that's critical even after the transaction ends. To keep a steady stream of repeat and referral business, you’ll need to continue managing those relationships long after closing. In this free webinar — sponsored by the REALTOR® Content Resource, powered by HouseLogic — marketing expert Kelle Sparta [that's me!] offer fresh ideas to keep business rolling in. Topics we’ll cover: • How to have meaningful interactions with consumers after a purchase or sale. • How to reach former clients and customers through the channels they favor most: social media, blogs and e-newsletters, a personalized mailings. • Keep valuable how-to information about homeownership in front of your past customers. Plus, get a look at new features of the REALTOR® Content Resource that'll let you quickly share useful content with people on your contact list. Don't Miss Out - Sign Up Now to Attend for FREE! If you enjoy my posts, you'll love my products at www.SpartaSuccess.com. Thanks for reading! Kelle SpartaThought Alchemist