"How to get property sales in

a market when people would

prefer to say just looking."

By Peter Gianoli Sales & Marketing Strategist

Over the last 30 years I've generated more than three billion

dollars in property sales from people who mostly told me "not now

just looking".

Here are six ways I've learned to turn "no, just looking" into sales.

1.

Most people say "no". Know why?

Because they're supposed to.

Starting from childhood, we’re taught to be wary of people we don’t

know …and to never make a fast decision when it comes to buying

something.

So, to expect your prospect to go against the very habits and beliefs

that are ingrained in childhood is foolish.

That's why you should always ...

2.

Get the email address first. If you know that most people aren't going to buy at first, then offer

them something valuable and free in exchange for their email address.

This way, you can build a relationship based on trust and value first

...and then make the sale.

You've heard that before, but it's not what you think.

This has nothing to do with creating a "conversion funnel" based on

email marketing.

In fact, ...

3.

"Funnels" as most people use them

are worthless.

Most Marketing “experts” will tell you to send traffic to a landing page,

get a prospect to opt in, and then put them into a “funnel” designed to

get the sale as quickly as possible.

And that “funnel” is usually a series of emails - sent by an

autoresponder - with each one directing the prospect back to the sales

page or in Real Estate to a sales person.

The reason this approach will fail you is because most people who

opt in to any “funnel” simply will not buy initially …no matter how

persuasive your email copy is.

The reason why is the simple human nature I just told you about.

People aren't supposed to buy at first. We're taught not to do it.

But this is exactly what the “funnel” as most people use it attempts to

do.

It’s exclusively designed to focus on the tiny percentage of “prospects”

who defy human nature and buy quickly.

…And it ignores (and usually irritates) everyone else.

The real money and property buyers is in the people who say

“no”.

Here’s how to get it:

Instead of building a "conversion funnel", ...

4.

Build multi-phased and targeted campaigns, all centred around pre-determined “response indicators.”

Here’s what this means:

In every target market sales situation, there’s always an action or

series of actions a prospect typically takes before they buy.

We call these actions “response indicators”, and they are the key to

your success.

Example: In a car-buying scenario, people rarely buy a car without

first taking it out for a test drive.

Therefore, the test drive is the response indicator.

This is why when you go to a car dealership, the salesman’s first

priority is to get you to take the test drive.

Here’s how this applies to property sales.

Let’s say you’re sending investment traffic to a page that advertises a

free investment analysis of your project in exchange for the prospect’s

email.

And let’s assume that in order for the prospect to trust you enough to

buy, they need to read the very report they have opted in for.

The act of them reading your report is the “response indicator” in this

example.

Eye Opening Statistics Reveal Major Opportunity

Research shows that over 50% of prospects never go and access the

information they opt in for.

They’re basically saying “no” to the very thing they just requested

from you.

And this means your chances of making the sale are immediately

cut in half because statistically speaking, half of your prospects never

made it through the first “response indicator”.

The way we cure this is by creating sequences in your campaigns

with the sole purpose to simply move your prospect from one

response indicator to the next …until they buy.

And the way you do that is to …

5.

Use Behavioural Dynamic Response in

everything you do.

Behavioural Dynamic Response is truly the “holy grail” of

Property Marketing.

It works by tracking what your prospects are doing in your campaign,

and then dynamically sending them customized marketing

messages or sales person intervention based on their behaviour.

Here’s an example.

I recently created a 35-minute walkthrough video outlining why the

apartment floor plans in a property development had been designed

to satisfy clients who were interested in this development that the

offerings would suit them.

The video walked people through exactly what the architects had

considered when planning the development, and offered them the

ability to apply to speak with an apartment specialist at the end.

Here were the initial response indicators for the campaign:

1. To begin the video.

2. To finish the video. (So they would therefore see the offer).

3. Apply to speak with us about becoming an owner.

And with this in mind, I knew the campaign had to be designed to

simply get as many people through those response indicators as

possible.

So the first thing I did was to track how many people were

beginning the video.

If they didn’t begin the video, I would send them email reminders to

go and watch it.

But there was a twist.

I made it so their access to the video would only be available for three

days.

If they didn’t begin the video they opted in for, they would get email

reminders telling them their access was about to expire.

I was even able to dynamically calculate the date their access would

expire, and merge that date into the reminder emails for added

response.

So instead of saying, “your access expires in three days”, the

email would say, “your access expires on Tuesday the 23rd.”

This one little tweak alone caused just over 75% of the people who

opted in for the video to actually go and watch it …which is head and

shoulders better than the typical 50%.

That’s an immediate 25% increase over the

“norm”.

…All because we identified the first response indicator and created a

specialized sequence that tracked their behaviour and responded

accordingly.

If all other factors in the campaign remained constant, we’d just

achieved a 25% increase in sales from this one small tweak.

But this was only the beginning.

The next response indicator was to get them to finish the entire video

and therefore see the call to action.

And That’s Where The HUGE Problem Was.

This was a 35-minute video of me taking people through floorplans.

No special effects, no animation, nothing.

It takes a special sort of masochist to endure 35 minutes of such

torture.

And that’s why I’m pointing this out to you.

As you know, video is quickly becoming the primary way people

consume content online and in off the plan sales with little to show

and decreasing budgets for display suites – video should be the go to

tool.

If you’re using it to sell, your viewers need to watch the whole video so

you can make your entire case.

That’s obvious. But here’s a real eye opener:

According to Wistia (an online video specialty service), less than half

of video viewers make it through videos that are only two minutes

long.

Two Minutes.

Go longer than two minutes and it gets even worse.

I don’t think they even have research on videos as long as mine

because they are so uncommon.

Anyway, getting people to watch that entire 35-minute video was a

huge challenge.

But it had to be done because If they didn’t watch it they were not

going to see the call to action.

(This was strategically deliberate, by the way. I wanted to display

massive authority up front …before asking them to do anything. This

has always worked well for me.)

Here’s how I accomplished the impossible, and

how you can model my approach.

Always track what your prospects are doing and respond accordingly.

In this campaign, I kept track of how much of the video they actually

watched.

If they left before finishing, I’d send them emails telling them what

they were missing …and sending them back to go watch the rest.

In other words, I tracked their behaviour …and then dynamically

responded by sending them customized messages to get them through

to the next step in the campaign.

I had special follow-up sequences built to go out if they left before the

5-minute mark, the 15- minute mark the 25-minute mark, and the end.

Each sequence was a little different …referencing what’d they’d seen

and telling them what they’d missed …based on how far along they’d

gotten in the video …and telling them to go finish it.

By doing this, I was able to get 38% of them to actually finish the

entire 35-minute video, which is literally un-heard of.

The Biggest Breakthrough Yet

Remember, our three response indicators were to get them to:

A: Begin the video.

B: Watch the entire video.

C: Apply to speak with us about becoming an owner.

And we’d done a great job of getting through the first two steps.

They were starting the video, watching the whole thing, and the

feedback was amazing.

But there was still a problem.

Even though they loved the video, only 2% of them who finished it

were applying to talk to us about becoming an owner.

Now, at first glance, this is acceptable because these apartments were

priced at a premium and certainly were not for everybody.

And I was very forthcoming about pricing indication in the video.

So most developers would be thrilled at a 2% “conversion rate” at our

price point.

But that wasn’t nearly enough.

We don’t settle for “acceptable” or even “good”. We insist on

exceptional.

Here's How We Got A 400% Increase In Paid Deposits

(And The Secret To Increasing Your Response).

If the video got a 2% conversion, that means 98% of the people who

saw it said “NO” to the call to action at the end.

But they didn’t say “no” because they weren’t interested, and they

didn’t say “no” because they didn’t want an apartment.

If that were the case, they wouldn’t have stayed for the entire 35-minute

video.

So, in a situation where you’ve got prospects who have been through

your campaign, read your messages, seen your videos, and still say

“no” it’s almost always for one of these reasons:

First, there’s plain old fashioned laziness.

Many of your prospects won’t say yes because they don’t feel like

getting up, finding their mobile, or filling out an enquiry form and

typing in all that information.

Next, there’s procrastination.

They’re interested and they want the outcome, but they’re distracted

by something and tell themselves they’ll get to it later.

And finally, there’s fear and the need for more information.

They could almost buy but something is holding them back, they just

need some extra push. They’ve got a question, or a concern, or might

just need a little more time to make a decision.

These Are The People Who Will Make You The

Most Money.

Think about it for a minute.

In this example, they opted in and watched an entire 35-minute

floorplan video about the exact thing we were offering to them.

You know they’re interested because they’ve behaviourally

demonstrated it!

This is the same as having a clothing store and being with a prospect

who saw your ads, drove to the store, came in, and tried on a suit.

As far as prospects go, they don’t make ‘em any better.

So, these are the people you want to focus the majority of your efforts

on.

And the way you turn them into customers is to …

6.

Use Multiple Conversion Points.

This is another major breakthrough.

A conversion point is any point in your campaign where you ask

for the order.

This can be your sales letter, your webinar, your demonstration

appointment …whatever.

Most campaigns have only one conversion point.

Here’s a secret.

In any campaign,

More Conversion Points = More Money

Period.

So, in this example, only 2% of the people who completed my video

were applying to talk to a specialist.

I wanted more, so here’s what I did.

I wrote a PDF sales pack outlining the offer I’d made at the end of the

video.

The pack was thorough.

Detailed.

And had a strong call to action at the end.

Then I emailed an offer to deliver it to just the people who’d

completed the video …but hadn’t yet applied.

But I didn’t stop there.

Like I told you earlier, Behavioural Dynamic Response is the holy grail

of modern day marketing and you should use it in everything you do.

So, in this case, I tracked whether or not they clicked to view the

delivery offer.

If they didn’t fulfil it, I had an email series that would remind them to

go and do it.

But I took it one step further.

I made it so the offer of delivery itself would only be available for a

limited time …and I let the prospect know when their access was

expiring.

I was able to dynamically determine the expiration date and merge it

into the emails they were getting so they’d say, “This letter is only

available until Wednesday the 19th” and so on …with each user

seeing a different date depending on when they’d finished the video.

The result was a

95.89% Conversion Rate!

95.89% of the people who watched the entire video responded to my

email sequence about the offer and received a delivery.

This is literally unheard of in Real Estate Marketing.

And it has nothing to do with the copy in the emails.

Instead, it’s working because Behavioural Dynamic Response is being

used to filter out who the most interested prospects are (those who

finish the entire video) …and then putting the most energy

towards them.

Incidentally, just adding this one step …

Immediately Doubled Sales!

But remember …your sales are directly proportional to the amount of

conversion points in a campaign.

So I decided to double sales again by adding more conversion

points.

Here's How I Doubled Sales Again. First - I shifted my focus from “people who finished the video” to

“people who also accepted the Delivery”.

Remember - you always want to be analyzing your prospects'

behaviour and focusing all of your energy on the ones who

demonstrate they’re the most interested.

So here’s what I did.

I created 3 x three-part video series (1 for investors, 1 for down sizers

and 1 for first home buyers) that literally showed them exactly what

they would hear if they came in for an appointment with a specialist.

At the end of each video, I created another conversion point by asking

them to apply for a consult with a specialist.

And I used the same “countdown” techniques to get them to watch

each new video as I’d used to get them to accept their delivery.

Naturally, the majority of them watched the videos and I got even

more applications.

The Net Result. The Good Part: First, and most importantly, this campaign created

massive goodwill with all the people who went through it.

They felt like they were receiving very valuable and helpful content

…not just a barrage of sales pitches.

This is critical because it increases our chances of getting positive

word of mouth and referrals from them later on.

Plus it helped build the brand and positioned my client as an

innovative and good company to deal with. (And it’s just a cool way

to do business.)

The “Bad” Part:

It worked so well, we got too many applications. So we had to stop

running it.

This approach yielded 44 pre-sales in a market that was meant to be

tough.

Construction could commence on schedule and we didn’t get a chance

to use a lot of our planned traditional marketing to build our database

for subsequent projects.

Here's The Bottom Line. It’s true.

The fortune really is in the follow up.

Just not in the way you’re used to.

You can’t bludgeon people with pitches and offers and expect it to

work.

But if you have a truly dynamic campaign that is segmented to be

specific to your targets and tracks user behaviour and responds

accordingly …you can see your sales grow like nothing before.

So this is what this campaign is designed to do,

The Great News.

I have been using versions of Behavioural Dynamic Response

marketing regularly during the current tough market conditions and

have achieved similar results across the board. With each

development project that I have deployed these techniques I have

refined, modified and tailored the approach. I now have an even more

effective technique that I term the…

“nine-word email”

But that is the topic for a follow up discussion we could have.

I trust you have found this report helpful, and you now could pick this

up and go do it yourself.

Obviously, I would love to proceed to the next step and do this for you.

As we speak I do not have any conflicts precluding me from your

project but as you know this may not be so in the foreseeable future.

If you would like me to present this proposal in person or to discuss it

further – and even tell you about the “nine-word email” please reach

out.

My contact details are overleaf:

Peter Gianoli – Sales & Marketing Strategist

Mobile: 0413 777 224

Email: peter@dmanagement.com.au

Website: PeterGianoli.com