Author: Jeff Patterson, owner of Residential Appraisals - For the past 25 years, Jeff has been providing residential appraisals for most of southern and central Maine. Jeff's clients range from private appraisals to working with brokers, banks, litigation support and expert court testimony.
Marketing and Advertising are topics that receive very little attention in blogs. Most of us hold on to any marketing idea that we might have tight to our chest in hopes that our competition will not use our ideas and take our business away. Client list are extremely important, and it takes time to market, money to advertise, and the net results can sometimes feel insurmountable to the gain we receive.
Let me first say I don’t want to work for AMC’s. That is to say I don’t direct marketing towards them. I do not typically respond to their request that I provide appraisals for less than my normal fee. However as the demand for appraisals declines, the number of existing clients have dwindled to 20% of what I had, and my volume became 50% of what I expected to do. I wondered if I was going to need to take on AMC work to survive.
Yet, as I sat there depressed about my current situation, I realized that not only had I been here before and survived, I also remember what I trained to do. Originally I was trained as a salesman, insurance primarily, and it was during that training that I learn some basic principles.
My principles of Marketing are:
- 101 it’s all about numbers
- 102 Profit is all about effective marketing
- 103 Recording what works and what does not work
- 104 it is all about your plan
I put my plan into action, and within three months I was back at figures similar to last year. I would like to share them with you, and with sharing hope that you see a way to break the paradigm of working for AMC’s.
Marketing 104 was developing a plan, and my plan was to ask as many people for their business that I could to reach. My goal was to increase my appraisal volume 100%. My main focus would be on attracting:
- Local work
- Work in my expanded territory
- FHA/HUD work
- Attorney work
In addition, it was my desire not to sell good, fast and cheap product, but to sell a higher quality product, reasonably prices, reasonable turn around time, and what I felt was very important . . good communication.
Dividing this up in my QuickBooks I could see that some things were on the rise and others were lagging behind. This is the reason for Marketing 103. To see what is selling and what is not selling. From these figures I was seeing a higher demand for FHA/HUD work and a higher demand for work in my expanded areas (which were in less populated areas).
I also noted that the source of my business was coming from a lot of different clients and that many of my existing clients were marketing not only in their traditional area but they were also marketing in other areas and even other states.
Let me digress for a minute and say: That I use a la mode because I believe that it is important that my marketing program works or integrates with my appraisal software. I think it is important that the marketing program integrate with my client based. In part because I don’t want to be using two systems for efficiency reason and the other due to there client logging in and a few other bells and whistles. However I have used several other marketing programs and you can be as successful with them as the one a la mode provides.
[Editor's Note: XSellerate can be purchased as a standalone application and does not require the use of other a la mode products]
Marketing 102 I determined that demand for FHA/HUD appraisals is increasing, I have decided to promote this aspect of what I do to larger out of state companies. For one reason primarily, which is I typically get paid more and since there was an increasing demand. It seem to me a no brainer.
So I set up my new campaign in a la mode's XSellerate program to start promoting that I am an FHA appraiser. Standard stuff, just used what they have.
Marketing 101 it is all about numbers. I knew from past experience that I was going to have to have 1,000 if not 2,000 names. Every morning and sometimes for an entire day I would put names and contacts in the database. It is not for the timid, it's hard work, and it takes a long time. I've been primarily adding in lenders that do FHA lending and attorneys
I started to increase the quality of my report, putting in graphs and more detail, additional listings, more comparables, trends and graphs, and developed new ways to present the information.
Now in my third month I have 1,769 names in the system my e-mails and post cards go out on a regular basis. My appraisal volume has doubled and I have actually started to increase my fees. I no longer have time to put names in each day, but set a goal of 50 to 100 more each week.
Again marketing is something we normally don’t talk about. Appraisers don’t discuss their ideas and methods. What works and what does not work. However I am certainly willing to share mine if people are interested in part 2.
I guess the only way to judge if people are interested is to comment on this blog or send me an e-mail and tell me what works and does not work for you.
Click Here for Part Two: Say Goodbye To AMCs
Author: Jeff Patterson, owner of Residential Appraisals - Has been providing residential appraisals for most of southern and central Maine for the past 25 years. Jeff's clients range from private appraisals to working with brokers, banks, litigation support and expert court testimony.
477 Mouse Lane
Alfred, ME 04002
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