We all know that as a business you need these two things:
- for customers to know you exist
- to have them trust you
Although there are other details of business that exist, I am not saying that the business owner shouldn’t think about it but what I am saying is that as business owners (or in your case, as investors) the tendency is to over complicate things and get upset trying to think about how to increase sales and growth. Instead of spending all your time searching for “2019 marketing hacks” or watching the latest guru show you what’s working this year, you’re focusing on the wrong things.
From my experience, I think that it is really important that your customers know that you exist (meaning, know you who are, and what you offer), because there’s no point to have a good product but nobody knows about you. Once you’ve established your presence then you need them to trust you.
Here’s what I mean, to simplify things, you need to understand this principle. Let’s start with the first.
1: Potential customers need to know you exist.
They can’t trust you (or sell to you) if they don’t know you. It’s really that simple. With so many competitors available with just one search away this process involves you to step back and ask questions, “where are motivated sellers paying attention to?”
Now there are a few ways to determine this.
If I would sell something to someone it would be better for me to first understand what their needs are and putting myself in their shoes. I would not recommend you to just go right up to a customer and ask them for a deal without first understanding the situation. If you were desperate to sell, where would you start? Would you pull out your phone and search for solutions? If so, maybe paying for ads on Google, Facebook or investing in getting your site a higher SEO ranking in search would be the place to be.
The other alternative would be to ask your past clients. Interview them, and ask them things like, “hey, when you were looking for solutions, where did you look at?. What I am trying to say is instead of going with whatever the current digital marketing gurus tell you, you’re thinking for yourself, about your specific audience, and asking, “where are they paying attention?” Then you’re on the right path. It is not wrong to listen to them but learn to wise, use what is necessary to get to your goals and not everything because that way you can’t control if things go wrong and doing too many things at once you decrease your efficiency. I would encourage you to work on one to two at once and master it before moving on to other strategies.
2: Potential customers need to trust you
Once you’ve done the previous step correctly, I would say that you are in a good shape but it’s not enough to have customers visiting your website, sending you emails and calling you if they don’t trust you enough to share their information. Putting yourself in their shoe and understanding what you should do so that they would ask you to come out and take a look at their property in order to make them an offer is the key.
So how do you build trust? Here are a few ways to do that:
I strongly encourage you to put testimonials and reviews on your site. (A Must)
Be ready to answer questions when they come to you. And remember honesty is the best policy. Always prepare yourself by anticipating what questions would they ask. Do not be afraid to tell them you might not be a good fit for them what they are looking for you are unable to offer. You can’t be a service for every homeowner (no one is). Another way to make yourself and your business more credible is to include videos on your website, introducing yourself, your team, and talking about the service. Be willing to go above and beyond for them. If they call you, bear with them and answer their questions. If you meet them: listen, ask questions, and most importantly show concern. Be compassionate in your communications and get to know them on a more personal level.
Now that I’ve put the two together for you. If you haven’t started down this road yet, your first step is to find where motivated sellers are paying attention to, so you can be there. Then, after that, you need to figure out a way to build trust.
These are a very simple concept. I don’t expect it to be super relevant for most of you. But what I do hope for, is that it simplifies the way you think about marketing, increasing leads, or growing your investment business.