Selling Your Listings – Existing Listing Strategic Planning

You’ve committed to be successful in 2012.  You know the definition of insanity and you know you have to make better choices on where you focus your time, energy, and effort.  There’s no better place to start than your existing listings.  You’ve already spent a good deal of time and money on generating the listing prospects, building a rapport with them, and in professional representation of the listing.

1. Strategic Plan – Take a blank sheet of paper and put the sellers name at the top and develop a strategic plan to sell the listing.  The plan will include the following:
   1. What steps have you already taken to sell their home?
   2. Why hasn’t it sold? What are the obstacles?
   3. What’s the next step you plan on taking to overcome the obstacle
   4. Document or track your results and identify how the next step works.
   5. Each week repeat the above process by tracking your results and coming up with a new next step.  Using blank sheets of paper, be sure to develop a separate strategic plan for each seller.
   6. Listing Management –  At the end of each month prepare a written recap of every step that you took to sell the listing, including advertising, open houses, internet exposure, parties, mailings, etc. Whenever possible, be sure to include the results and be aware of listing expiration dates.
   7. Using Listing Marketing as a Prospecting Tool – Don’t forget that one of the best ways to prospect for hot buyers and more sellers is by marketing your existing listings.  Holding open houses is  a great way to meet neighbors and potential buyers.  Some of the best buyers also come from listing-sign calls, internet calls, and advertising mediums such as just listed and just sold post card mailings.

If you haven’t already begun a strategic plan for each and every listing, do so immediately.  It should be the first step you take to generate income in 2012.