Website Design

Author: Joy Gendusa
Author’s Email Address: karla_jo[at]postcardmania.com (replace
[at] with @)

You’re an independent loan officer that works from home, but
you still want to sell like you’re backed up by the Big Dogs.
That is not so hard when you know how to market. Sure, if you
could market with XYZ’s big-time budget, then you could get
more leads and close more loans. But, what if you don’t have
that kind of marketing budget? There is still a way to get
those leads; you just have to get smart about it – like the Big
Dogs.

It all comes down to RESEARCH. The hardest part is figuring out
what to sell to whom. A one-man band with 30 different products
to sell needs to know HOW to promote, WHAT to promote and WHO
to promote to.

1) Research which product you need to market.

When you start researching, you cannot go off of assumptions
because you know what they say about
a-s-s-u-m-e (makes an ass out of ‘u’ and ‘me’). What you have
to do is go through your client list and tabulate what product
you sell the most of. First calculate what product you sell
the most of and then calculate what product you make the most
money on. Those are the two products that you start with.
However, if what you sell the most of is what you make the most
amount of money on, then that is pretty fantastic – but not
likely. You’ll probably find two products. Usually, you really
have to do a sincere survey. You are looking to market the
product that makes you the most income the quickest FIRST.
“Thinking” it is a particular product rather than “doing” an
empirical study is not marketing smart – because you may be
wrong – believe it or not. When you are working from home, you
need to be twice as smart when it comes to your marketing.

How you do it?

Make a spreadsheet and go through all of your past closes over
the last few years. List them out: Product A, B, C, D – get
every close you made over the past few years and mark down what
the product was and what you earned off of it.

Example:

Product A earned 1%
Product B earned $900
Product C earned ½%
Product D earned 1500.00

You will be able to “see” exactly what product you are selling
the most of and what product you are making the most money on.
Then you can start marketing to your bread and butter first.
Once you have consistently marketed that product for a while,
then you can supplement your marketing strategy and market the
other product, the one paying the biggest commission – while
keeping the campaign continuing on your bread and butter.
Marketing smart means marketing first what you sell the most
of, the fastest. That is an important datum – it sums it all
up.

Now that you know which product to start with, you have to know
who is going to buy it, which comes to our next step.

2) Research to find who the audience is that you are going to
sell to.

Not all audiences are the same. Take for example the Will and
Grace Show. Not everyone would want to watch that. Just like
there is a totally different target audience for The Lawrence
Welk Show. (If you never heard of these, then more than likely
you aren’t their audience.) Case in point: you have to
determine who your audience is, which is called a “market”. A
“market” is a type of audience, a type of user. So, figure out
everything you can about that particular market that buys your
bread-and-butter product. And you already have access to all
their data – age ranges, credit scores, credit rating, income,
etc. Tip: do another spread sheet.

Once you have the demographics of the people that buy your
“easiest-to-sell” product, then get a list of that particular
type of audience. You can go to a list company that you feel
good about and have gotten recommendations for, and buy a list
of people within that criteria.

The reason you want to do such a thorough job of finding out
who you are selling to is that 40% of your marketing campaign’s
success (success meaning whether or not you get a good response)
is dependent on your list. Besides, it is your list and the
postage that are going to be the most expensive parts of your
direct mail campaign. I cannot stress enough the importance of
a good list – it makes all the difference between marketing
smart and.well, if you are not targeting your public, you
aren’t really marketing at all.

After you research out who your target market is,

3) Figure out what to say to them.

The thing about people in a certain profession or a certain
industry is that they have been in their industry for so long
and know so much about their profession that they start to
think that people know as much as they do – or should know as
much as they do. Most people are not educated in your
particular product. Most people do not know there are all types
of rates and products that are available to them depending on
their credit, income, etc. And these people are not necessarily
illiterate hicks from Country-Bumpkinville! They are educated
people, but they have lots of other things they deal with
everyday that take up all their time, e.g., picking up the kids
from school, dealing with the boss at work, etc. Not everyone is
watching Alan Greenspan every day!

Another thing you need to know, before you decide what it is
you need to say in your message, is that it is very hard to
educate people – they don’t want to be educated necessarily.
You need to find out what the “button” is that people will
respond to, that will get them to come to you for loans or
refinancing or what-have-you. A “button” is a word, phrase,
picture, etc. that elicits emotional response. People may not
understand “No PMI”, but they understand “fast cash”. What is
it about them that would make your message mean something?

It is all analysis. To figure out what you want to say, you
have to figure out what people will respond to. You don’t
really want to say, “I’m the best broker ever that can match up
any product with any customer!” although that may seem like a
good idea. First of all, a lot of people don’t even know what a
mortgage broker does!! So don’t say that. You have to market
differently to different types of people.

People have different agreements and fixed ideas and
experiences. For example: Someone that has bought several homes
has more experience on that line than someone who has never
bought a home. If you found the product you sold the most of
was to first-time home buyers , then you know they have little
or no experience with mortgages. But everybody wants to own
their own home; so what you want to say to them is “You CAN own
your own home – it’s EASY!”, or something of the sort. Look at
it from a different angle. One person, who is really into boats
and is reading Nova Online – Speed Machines, would understand a
jet hydroplane with a lightweight composite hull and a jet
engine that could deliver 5,500 horsepower with the afterburner
lit. But another guy, who has never owned a boat before, may
just think it is just another fast boat and all he’s looking to
buy is a fast boat – without all the engineering details. You
have to get your message across to your target market that is
going to communicate to them. In other words, they are going to
understand it and RESPOND.

Working out of your home, you don’t have access to the Big
Mortgage Bank’s Marketing Department. When you don’t have a
marketing expert telling you what to do, you may still need
that expert’s help. So here again, do research to get that help
or assistance. Go on the internet to find the biggest lenders
web sites. Get on their mailing list. Look at their marketing
materials so you can see what they send you – not “you” as
broker, but “you” as a potential customer. Not only are you
researching how you are making the most money, but also
research how the Big Dogs are bringing in the clients. What are
the materials they are sending to the end-user? There is no need
to reinvent the wheel. Find out what is working and do that. A
lot of those Big Dogs are doing postcards.

Here’s your assignment:

Now that you know, 1) which product you sell the most of, 2)
which product you make the most money on and 3) what the
successful big lenders are doing; start by mailing postcards
(repetitively) to the first audience that buys “Product (1)”.
And you will start generating the kind of leads that buy the
product that sells the easiest. Then, while still marketing
“Product (1)”, start mailing postcards (repetitively) for
“Product (2)” and you will start getting leads that will buy
the product that will pay you the highest commission. You will
first get leads from the most-volume product and then while you
are still getting those and closing them fast, you will get
leads that pay the highest commission. Make sense?

To recap:

. Research

. Pick your marketing media – I recommend postcards. You will
get a lot of “bang for your buck” with that type of media.

. Find a resource for mailing lists.

. Get inside that public’s mind and BE them and figure out what
they would want to know. This, by the way, is a trade secret. If
you can get inside your public’s head and look at it from their
viewpoint, then you can be a genius in your message. It is
actually BEING them and looking at things from their viewpoint.
Take Joe Blow who has never refinanced. Someone with average
credit would probably be interested in a low cost equity line
of credit so he can get money out of his house. “Getting money”
communicates to people.

. Send out postcards repeatedly getting a specific message
across to your target audience that communicates their button.

If you want to sell like the Big Dogs, then learn some
marketing; get yourself educated. Actually, this will make you
stand out instead of running with the pack of inexperienced,
uneducated marketers (you’re competition). Good Luck!

About The Author: Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998,
her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2005 the company did
over $12 million in sales, employed over 100 people and made
Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc 500 List as the one of the 500
fastest growing companies in the nation. Visit
http://www.postcardmania.com for more free marketing advice.

Article Title: Ten Simple Things That Helped Make Me Millions
Author: Matt DeAngelis

I’ve had my own business since I was 9 years old. I’ve started,
bought, sold and helped out in many different kinds of
businesses over the thirty some odd years since then.

I’ve done everything I’ve always wanted to do, and I’ve had a
lot of fun. Some of the highlights: I worked on Wall Street, I
helped take a company public and I threw one of the biggest VC
names in the country out of my office. I’ve worked with some of
the biggest names in the online and offline space, and I’ve seen
the insides of a lot of the biggest companies in the US.

I made my first million the old fashioned way – I worked my
butt off. And I’ve got a lot to show for it, for which I am
both humble and grateful. Understand this – I am a successful
entrpreneur and I am proud of it.

Why am I sharing all of this with you? I’m getting there.

People always ask me if I have any advice for being successful.
They ask if I could name the things I think have contributed the
most to my success. I’d like to share my observations from
thirty years of business experience. They are applicable both
online and offline.
Here are my top ten tips for success:

1. Always make sure all of your emails and phone calls get
returned. I make a lot of contacts and requests via email,
phone or even in person. I am absolutely shocked at the number
of people who don’t bother to return the request. It is
classless and disrespectful to ignore someone’s request, and it
makes them angry. Angry people tell other people how you have
wronged them. The fewer people out there talking ill about you
the better.

When I was at Modem Media I got between 1000 – 3000 emails a
day. I was buried in emails. My assistant went in and cleared
out emails when she could, forwarding the ones she knew she or
one of my underlings could handle. But she left the rest for
me. I would spend at least an hour a day returning them.
Sometimes all I said was Call so-and-so or Thanks for the
heads-up, but most of them got answered. The priority was
clients, then managers then normal people. If you’re not going
to answer correspondence from clients or peers, don’t give
anyone your email address. Funny thing about most of us.if you
have an email address and invite us to use it, we expect an
answer. I’ve written three emails to Darren Rouse at
ProBlogger.net. He has not answered a single one. While I think
some of his stuff is pretty good, I find his unresponsiveness
disappointing and I don’t find him as authoritative as I used
to.

I sent an email to the President of Staples (the office supply
chain) on a Saturday afternoon a few years ago. I got a
personal response from him the next day (Sunday), and we
resolved my problem with the help of one of his EVPs. If he can
respond to one of my emails, so can Darren Rouse.

2. Help anyone who asks. It doesn’t matter what it is – if
someone asks you to help them and you can do it, do it. Whether
it entails rolling up your sleeves, writing a check, giving some
valuable time or just answering a question from someone who
doesn’t know as much as you, suck it up and do it.

3. Always know more than most people about your industry or
business. I’ve always been a technologist, so this has been
engrained in me since I was 16. Read about things in your field
every day. Go to a seminar or trade show every now and then.
Participate in discussions or forums, on or off-line. It will
keep you connected to the people in your industry and make you
a guru. The Internet is an amazing tool for getting this done.

4. Treat your employees like gold, because they are. In my own
businesses my employees get away with a lot. They are well
paid, get surprise perks all the time and can come and go as
they please. Some take advantage, but they don’t last long.
Being a jerk to your employees will always come back to bite
you. It will also mean that you’ll get hosed a few times, but
you probably would have anyway.

Make the workplace fun, comfortable and as casual as you can.
Show your employees by example how you want them to treat
customers and co-workers. They are going to follow your lead.
If they hate coming to work it will show in what you produce.

At Modem Media I organized a yearly barbeque in the front
parking lot. We had pork, BBQ sauce from Texas and lots of
other stuff I’m not going to get into here. It was a small
gesture but it went a long way.

5. Acknowledge everyone who helps you advance, especially those
who did not gain from it. This is another thing that I am
shocked more people haven’t caught on to. I said in an earlier
post that I regularly comb my log files for people who have
social bookmarks pointing to this blog site and send them a
quick email thanking them. I stopped counting the number of
people who email me back shocked that I would take the time to
thank them. Why shouldn’t I? They took time out to help promote
my blog, and got nothing in return. A thank you acknowledges
their time and effort and solidifies them as an ally. Trust
me.you need all the allies you can get.

6. Befriend your competitors. This is another one that should
be second nature. Yes, you are all competing for customers, but
you’re all frogs in the same pot of boiling water. I own the
biggest wine shop in my hometown. If we don’t have something
that a customer wants we will call another shop and see if the
customer can get it there. It was a shock to both customers and
competitors that I would send customers to another store. It say
it’s good for the customer, so it’s good business.

7. Keep your sense of humor.it’s huge. My second day at Modem
Media I was sent to John Hancock’s Boston HQ. Modem had been
working on Hancock’s online/offline strategy for months. It
wasn’t finished and there was a lot of tension. After two days
me and the head marketing weenie were called on the carpet by a
screaming middle manager.

She said You have been disappointing me for two months! and
continued reaming us. I waited a few beats and said Excuse me.I
have only been disappointng you for a couple of days. Color
drained from the marketing weenie’s face, but I could tell the
client was trying hard to keep from bursting out in laughter.

8. Overdeliver to your customers, let them know you are
watching out for their business, and treat them like friends. I
spent a lot of time on the Compaq campus in Houston. We were
competing with Price Waterhouse for Compaq Direct’s technical
business and PW had the ear of Compaq’s CTO or CFO or some such
person.

But I had the trust of the person directly under that exec, and
he was the one doing the work. My team was on top of everything,
and we covered his back. He knew he could count on us, and he
knew that we could help him navigate the jungle. We lost the
account for a while, but we still had a retainer for me to fly
in once a month to help out. I would fly out there, we would
have lunch and I would fly back. Sometimes the conversation was
technical, sometimes it was marketing-related and sometimes it
was purely personal.

We eventually got the contract back because my guy knew we were
part of his success, and he knew he could count on us.

9. Get a hobby, hot tub, motorcycle, drag race car, whatever.
You need a transition away from business to something else.
Make sure you have one. It will give your mind an opportunity
to disengage and allow you to background process all of the
stuff you are thinking about. Moving stuff from the conscious
mind to the subconscious mind is like exercising using
different muscles – it will help get results. I can’t tell you
how many times I have resolved problems while riding on my
motorcycle.

10. Be very careful who you choose to advise you, but have a
go-to team, and always defer to someone smarter than you.
People mean well, but it takes far less courage to poke holes
in someone’s idea than it does to accentuate the positive. Keep
some solid advisors around you. I have a team of all-stars that
includes my wife (very practical), my attorney (one of the best
business attorneys in the US), my other attorney (one of my good
friends and another practical guy), and my accountant (very
serious but very financially adept).

I think I know everything and I will defend my positions
viciously. All of my advisors are smarter than me about
something, and often they can convince me to go to their side
because I remember that.

One last observation – don’t give up.

Regardless of the crap you read about getting rich quick, it
doesn’t happen that way most of the time. Some of us make it
look easy, but it isn’t. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it.

About The Author: Matt DeAngelis runs
http://www.AffiliateBlog.com. Matt is the former CTO of Modem
Media, a pioneer in the Internet ad space. As a foot soldier in
the Internet revolution, Matt devised the technology behind many
of the most successful ad campaigns of the time. Affiliate Blog
offers insights on Marketing and the top Affiliate Programs on
the Net.

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