Originally Posted By: Nick Gromicko
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Sorry,
I know many of you think I read every thread but I don't. I only read about 2% of all posts on the board. I don't visit the members-only section at all. If you need me to address a thread, email me and direct me to it. That is exactly what brought me here now. I think you asked about 3 promotions:
1. The REALTOR email promotional tool will not be updated will nilly. It has to be an article that REALTORs respond positively to. We can check this by watching the "remove" ratio. It is better to send them an article that works each month, than to send them different ones that don't. If you have an article you think will work, email it to me and I'll trial run it.
2. I'm not involved with the calendar thingie.
3. The mousepads go out to REALTORs with a note explaining you arranged for the gift. They are shipped out in the order they are received. Eventually all REALTORs will get one. We asked members to give us the agents names and addresses so as not to just send them out willy nilly. The speed at which they go out has more to do with our non-profit status than anything else. They are a high-ticket item when you add in our shipping and handling costs, and provides us a method to unload cash while doing some promotion that benefits all members.
http://www.nachi.org/thankyou.htm
You cannot rely solely on NACHI promotions to carry your marketing. Furthermore, your second post in this thread is much like your first in that indicate that you are marketing NACHI, not yourself. Did you take advantage of the free marketing help in
http://www.nachi.org/success_tips.htm ? Have I seen your brochures/flyers?
You also indicate that agents are not letting you "break-in." I've been a REALTOR for 13 years. I'll bet that in the "rural area" you describe, the agents use short lists (a flyer they give to buyers that says "We don't recommend any one inspector but here are 3 we've used before and found satisfactory"). You have to get on those short lists.
1. Go to the top producing agent (just ask who is the top producer) and tell them you want to do a job for them. Do one for free for one of their cash poor buyers or offer to inspect their own home.
2. Do the inspection of the century with a report written to the grace of God (oops, sorry Russel)... you know what I mean.
3. Then revisit that agent. She'll feel a debt of gratitude to you. Cash in on it. Ask her (I say "her" because most top producers are female) for her short list. Don't bash you competitors. Just ask her if you can be added as #4. Trust me, if you did even a mediocre inspection, she'll say OK.
4. Then take her short list home and retype it on her letterhead or form or however the original was. Only this time add your contact information as #4. Don't move yourself to #1 or type your contact info in bold or anything.
5. Make 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 copies. Well maybe just 1,000 copies.
6. Revisit the agent again carrying your big stack of her new short list form. Say "I did what we agreed to and added myself as #4. I made you new copies."
7. Ask for her old copies (the ones that did not have you listed). Destroy them in front of her and throw them in her garbage can. If you do it with a smile, she'll laugh a little.
Getting her business is NOT THE GOAL! Getting on the top producer's short list is! Being on the top producer's short list is your seal of approval for every other agent in that office, especially new agents (they come and go like stray dogs) who have no list at all.
Nick
PS If you are the 4th best inspector in town and the REALTORs have 3 names on their short lists, you might as well be the worst inspector in town or #73.