Gabriel Duque's Blog

If you use email as a form of advertisement it is important that you adhere to the new CAn-spam laws.
The most important change is that there should be an opt out in your email that does not require the person to send any additional information than their email address that should be removed following the 10-day opt-out rule.

Sometimes you are offering incentives for those thaqt forward the message in this case you are required by law to be in full compliance. Full compliance means you must scrub outbound forwards that were induced or incented against your suppression list before delivering the forward. It means that an opt-out link and physical address must be included, and the "From" line should probably be the marketer rather than the individual that wants to forward the message.

In general the FTC's position is aligned with the prevailing philosophy in the business. Therfore follow the best practices regulations, and you may have nothing to worry about.

If you have any doubts about the use of the Internet in the areas of Miami bEach, Miami, Miami Dade or Broward counties please contact us at (305) 331 8960 or through the Internet at www.virtualfloridarealtours.com, and Virtual florida Tours will help you out.

According to Darryl Davis you need to remove the words buy and sell from your vocabulary and introduce in the process the idea of coaching. In other words we want to coach our prospects into doing business with us.

In this "coaching process" we help our prospects into making the decision that is best for them. To be a good coach you need to make them understand that you care for their business. You need to really connect to people, avoiding that little devil in your conscience telling you to close the deal as soon as possible. It is important that you listen so you can become aware and really focus on your customers needs.

When your client starts seeing you as a human being who is committed on making a difference in the way they are doing the advertising of their business, helping them to move into this digital era. Most of the time, you only need to hear them and after a while they will be telling you what their real needs are.

You need to make your customer understand that he is hiring your service because of your ability to give them what they really need. Let your prospect know how much you are able to give them due to your expertise in the field and the technology that yo have at your disposal.

If they understand about "panoriders," webpage addresses, return on investment and the level of exposure you are offering them they will give you their business. Not because of how you look or because of the price, but just because it is the best thing for them to do.

Once you build rapport, it is important to understand what they really want? The only way to do this is to listen carefully and offer them what is possible given their expectations

Always try to negotiate with your prospect an offer them the real solutions available for their tour. You need to understand the commitment of your customer and try to make it come through I your work.

So once you coach the prospect to understand what is possible you need to market their home or business in the best way possible.

Last invite your prospect to move forward and allow us to present their home/business to the world using Real Tour Vision Software.

If yo are looking to advertise your home or business in Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Dade and Broward counties [lease contact us at (305) 331 8960 or through the Internet at http://www.virtualfloridarealtours.com

Reference: Davis, Darryl; "The Listing Conversation - Techniques to Win More Listings, Part I" retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-06-26/the-listing-conversation-techniques-to-win-more-listings-part-i/

Every now and then someone tell us that we should have a business plan, and if you are like me you will probably be thinking: "as if I have time for this nonsense"

Recently I was reading an article from Tom Ninness and he was going a little further on how to develop this plan and since Cheryl is always telling us when are we going to start doing it I decide that it was a good time to dedicate one or two thoughts to it.

In the first place I will like to make a plan that could be revisited and revised but that could be the compass of my business for the foreseeable future. This plan has to bring as many referrals as possible, will have to describe systems and operations as much as possible. Of course I will like it to run in a way that it continuously produces referral generated business to the point that anyone will be willing to buy our business.

If the plan that covers these four topics you will have a steady business flow, leads and referrals, that will allow you to become a leader in your industry. Nice, but how can you do this?

Let us think really far away like two, four even ten years from now and start writing down your expectations in those time frames. So what should be considered: from hourly rate, month income and year income, to number of transactions in a week, month and year. Think in your family since time has to be devoted to extracurricular activities, exercise, personal health, family reunions, charitable causes, political activities and of course taking care of yourself. You need to put time apart for reading for pleasure and for business. You need to consider all areas of your life if you want to be able to follow it.

Then come the daily plan that covers all the major issues of sales and business building, from handling possible clients, increase the number of leads, referrals and repeat clients, and scouting the opportunities to create new business.

To handle your clients you should divide them in those that are all ready looking forward to do business with you and those that could be doing business with you in two or three months.

The most important thing is to create a net of referrals and clients that keeps growing all the time and for this you need to follow up consistently and continually. Review with your clients a week after the service is done and share with them to ensure that everything went well, their expectations were met and give the client the opportunity to offer you suggestions for creating a better experience.  At this time, you have the privilege of asking for future business, referrals from their colleagues and insight into their sphere of influence.

You need to create a list of not less than 250 possible prospects.  How many of these people could be possible referral sources?  Anyone could become an invaluable resource for leads. Reciprocation is important, so you should give referrals to as well.

Last you need to create a team  that runs smoothly by delegating and giving your associate freedom within a clear set of guidelines. While you do not have an assistant you are the assistant develop the guidelines that allow you to prospect, follow up do the paper work and cover all the appointments. Set apart a certain time of the day to return call and emails.  The plan should be viable in the practice that makes someone to be willing to buy the business.

Your vision for the future will put you in command of your business plan. You will need a team that will support you, insist on customer service that makes your company shine as the leader in your area. Write your plan down and check it frequently. As a professional you will have to keep yourself focused, be diligent, invest time and money into your business making it the building stones of your success.

Remember for all your virtual tours needs in Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Dade and Broward counties to contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or through the Interent at http://www.virtualfloridaraltours.com

Reference: Ninness, Tom; "Creating a Business Plan Like the Pros"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1425

I was reading an article from Sandy Geroux and I could not agree more with her opinion on how to market your service to your customers.

In reality when you are shopping for a service provider you want to check a group of different characteristics of the service provided by that company and only after you are satisfied with all of them is that you will be looking at the price.

The first thing you will be looking is the knowledge an expertise their customer service, if the provider is capable of an honest, ethical and fair treatment and its reputation for excellence, reliability, and that they can provide  consistently a extremely high quality of the end product

After that you will like that the company is able to provide you with a complete line of valuable service offerings, options or products from which to choose, and only then you will be comparing the price with their competition.

So you have to be careful that even though a reasonable price could bring the customer towards your company at the end the most important thing the prospects are looking for is to receive the value of perceived and received value of your services.

You need to make your customers aware of the quality of your service by understanding their needs so you can provide them with what they expect you to deliver. You need to explain the customer on how to use your product in such a way that it will increase their economy.

Remember you need to understand the needs of the customer and Sandy Recommends the following list of questions:

• When they need your services?
• What is the most important thing they are looking with your product?
• What they have done in the past that did not worked that has to be changed in order to obtain the expected results?
• What are they expecting from your service?

Only when you know these important needs of your customer you will be able to explain which features of your service are tailored to his/her needs. To do this you need to master your business to the last point.

Never forget to maintain a complete follow through, return phone calls and emails in a timely manner, maintain consistent contact through the transaction. Offer to your customer a unique technology that separates you from your competition. For example in the real estate business you can offer virtual tours to your sellers and in that way you will separate yourself from the competition and increase the number of your listings.

If you want that your webpage attract customers you need to place reviews and testimonials in a very prominent place in your web page since 71 % of online shoppers read those and 42% said that the reviews were the decisive factor in their decision

Your page should contain information that could be down-loadable on the different kind of services provided, tips on how to prepare their home or business to make it more appealing to the buyer, etc.

If you cannot provide a solution for the real needs of your customer, it is time to realize that they are not your target customer so no matter what price you offer they will never be satisfied.

Price will only matter when your prospect perceives that the services and offerings of all companies are identical. So to make your business prosper you need to be able to explain to your customer that you are the best quality service provider in the market.

If your customer is looking for something you are not offering start looking for those that seek what you do offer. Then show them that you are not only the best fit to work with but also the superior choice available in the market.

If you have any virtual tour needs rememeber Virtual Floirda Tours is your best selection in Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Dade And Broward Couties. Please contact us at 305 331 8960 or through the Internet at http://www.virtualfloridarealtours.com

Reference: Geroux, Sandy: "Do You Focus On Price, While Your Customers Focus On Performance?"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1423

Most people think that if their company is not growing it is because it is going out of business. Undoubtedly a steady growth is essential to the life line of any company, so to grow a healthy business needs everyday essentials.

Companies can grow by merger or recruiting and both methods have their own downfalls.

In merging you need to be able to maintain the personnel that was hired in the company working and producing at a pace that compensate for the big payment you are incurring when you buy a business. Recruiting will require extra space, equipment and staff.

Companies can go bankrupt because they tried to grow too fast. If your cost precedes your increase in production your ability to pay your costs can carry down into bankruptcy. On the other hand if you wait too long to acquire all the resources needed for the expansion the effect of recruiting personnel will be lost.

The bottom line is that whatever is the way you are looking to make your company grow you will need enough capital to be able to endure expansion costs.

When you purchase another company risks that the personnel Independent contractors)  in the newly acquired company leave, as a result of this situation you were throwing away your money. To try mitigating this the buyer should include conditions in the  purchase agreement that protects him/her from personnel moving out of the company or diminish productivity of the business.

If you try to grow by recruiting unless your company starts with a strong core of productive agents, it might never grow.

As always the situation will be affected by the quality of advertising, That includes the ranking of their web page, if the new company uses already a virtual tour provider that allows yor business to show its listings with the qualkity require to attract prospects. Also the conditions of the market, the competition, and all the company related conditions from leadership, to training will be affecting your expansion. It is wise to seek counsel before taking any decision.

The fastest and costliest way of expansion is to acquire a established business. Many buyers do not have access to the cash needed for the acquisition, or the costs of maintaining the new business running.

Remember that if you have any needs of virtual tours in Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Dade or Broward counties Virtual Florida Tours is your best selection. Please contact us at (305) 331 8960 or through the internet at http://www.virtualfloridaraltours.com

Reference: Barlow, George; "What to Consider When Developing a Plan for Growth and Expansion"; retrieved from the Internet at:  http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-07-10/what-to-consider-when-developing-a-plan-for-growth-and-expansion

After reading the article "True Internet Success Requires Mastery of 4 Areas" by Jack Lindberg I decided to write some comments on its content to share it with my colleagues

It is very important when you are trying to get Internet exposure to use traditional ways of attracting prospects to your web site. One of the cheapest ways is to add your website unified reference link (URL) to all of your adds. This will bring quality traffic to your web site without any additional cost.

There are also many new tools online that can enhance your exposure. In addition, making a habit of collecting email addresses every time you interact with prospects will enable you to utilize some great email campaign tools that are available.

 Your web page needs a decent design and good content. Remember that you have to get away of Flash in your webpage since web spiders are designed not to track web sites that contain this kind of material. Most agent's web sites in average do not have the minimum requirements needed to retain the prospect, they lack vitual tours and other ways to make the prospect interested in seeing what you can offer them. The key is to keep it simple and make your content simple but relevant. You can address your own specialty in your market (your niche). Capture your prospect with good content and design, make the prospects inquire about something that actually means something to them. Do not include unnecessary cold data since home hunting is an emotional process.

 It is extremely important to respond as quickly as possible to the prospect in the way the prospect asks for information do not call them on the phone unless they give you their phone number upfront. Using phones such as the TREO or Blackberry will allow you to identify and respond to the best leads before they inquire to your competition. Try to reduce the respond time as much as possible. They will impress the prospect  which makes it easier to close for the appointment.

 Good closing skills are extremely important. Do not "give away" the information they are asking for without closing for the appointment. You need to be able to convince your prospect to have a face-to-face appointment where you can get the sale.

If you need help with getting your web page ranked or virtual tour service in Miami Beach, Miami Dade or Broward counties do not hesitate to contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or through our web site at www.virtualfloridarealtours.com

 Reference Lindberg, Jack; "True Internet Success Requires Mastery of 4 Areas" retrieved from: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1408

As the owner of Virtual Florida Tours I was reflectioning on the reason I selected Real Tour Vison as the company that supports all of our virtual tours.

We were selecting within the different tour support companies and all of them had different characterisitcs that I did not like, so after trying the different softwares we realized that the one provided by Real Tour Vision was undoubtedly the best.

Then I started dealing with the support personnel and they are simply the best. So I decided I should share this experience with other virtual tour dealers and made a little video that was uploade to Utube.

If you will like to see it Just click on the following link http://youtube.com/watch?v=qTlNhU8NwtM

 Remember to contact us for any web related need in Miami Dade and Broward counties (305) 331 8960

or through the Internet at www.virtualfloridarealtours.com

Start thinking that you are a magnet to money that everything you try goes in the right direction and allows you to make more money. Remember that work is not the same thing as struggle, so when you start entertaining ideas that put you down, you need to start thinking positively.

A good idea is to start thinking of yourself as the one that creates financial success for everyone that is related to your business.

In days of difficulties most companies start cutting in advertising since this is apparently a place where costs can be reduced without much suffering for the economic revenue of the enterprise. In reality this is exactly the speedway to failure. What needs to be done is spend in those places that get you and your company exposed in a better way.

A newspaper add costs you around 200 dollars and has a shelf life of approximately two days and only around 4% of the readers will ever visit the real estate page. A virtual tour on the other hand allows you to track how many people are seeing it from which link on the Internet are they seeing you, and will stay active for a whole year. All this will help to increase your return on investment.

If you need help to increase the SEO of your webpage, so you can fight for the 5% of the visitors that are just ready to buy but are trapped by other companies or realtors that have a better ranked web page or need a virtual tour in Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Dade County or Broward County do not hesitate to contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or visit our webpage at www.virtalfloridaraltours.com.

Reference: Dr. Maya Bailey; "5 Tips to Boost Your Beliefs, Create Your Reality" retrieved from http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-07-04/ask-dr-maya-5-tips-to-boost-your-beliefs-create-your-reality/

If you really love to see your photo portraiyed in your church magazine you can run an ad there and recive absolutely no returns and a lot of requests for donations to individuals with hardships and handicaps.

You can spend hundreds of dollars on printed advertisements that take weeks to come into print and have at its best one to teo months in a shelf for people to look at.

If it is in the Herald despite they will charge you for the whole group of people subscribed to it only 4% of the readers will ever get to the Real Estate section of the paper. Maybe that is the reason why you pay around 200 dollars for a weekend add and get no calls from any prospect.

You might be spending a big amount of your hard earned money every month, in classifieds, homes magazines, yellow pages, and business directories with absolutely no return on investment (ROI). In the actual market around 87% of the buyers start their search on the Internet and frequently they get stuck with the realtor that is able to manage to get her/his webpage in the first page of the search and give them the information they were looking for. Printed advertising is diminishing its ROI year after year.

I will recommend that you start keeping records of the sources of your business. If there is no return in a six-month period, its is time to try another ad. Some people will tell you that everyone is placing their ads in those places, that doesn't make it right or profitable. 

Once this is clear where to invest the money in a more profitable way in todays market. Obviously you will have to invest in your web page. You have to get your web page well ranked and you have to make it attractive.

The Intenet customers want answers fast and they are looking for a realtor that will save them time and money. so How can you accomplish both?  A virtual assistant or a blacberry can help in fast answers, but to make your web page more attractive you should include virtual tours. Virtual tours are an excellent promotion tool since it saves you advertising money (they will be on the Internet for at least a year). also oposite to printed ads that take weeks to come out the tours will be on in 24 to 48 hours. Remember that a house chances to sell are at it s peak in the first weeks it comes to the market. Virtual tours are also an excellent way to attract sellers since they will notice that you are willing to go the extra mile for them and provide them with possibilities that other realtors are not willing to provide.

If you have any virtual tour needs on Miami Beach, Miami Dade or Borward counties rememember to contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or through the Intenet at http://www.virtualfloridarealtours.com

Residential real estate professionals need to get back to the basics of your business or you will certainly lose your customer base.  The industry is dealing with the continuing impact of subprime and mortgage liquidity problems in the housing market.

Some realtors complain of the conditions of the market, but if their home is priced right, buyers will buy. You need to inform your buyers that our local market is simply phenomenal because prices are down and interest rates are historically low.

The realtor needs to research the market so he could list the house just one hair below the competition. You will need to go back to the basics-from sending out ‘Just Listed' and ‘Just Sold' postcards to holding buyer seminars and staying in touch with former clients and prospects. It is important to increase your visibility in your community and your marketplace. Knock on doors; reintroduce yourself. Do not forget to place in the contract an agreement with the seller that if the property is not sold in a certain time span, the listing price will be revisited for a possible reduction you need to be aggressive and realistic in pricing homes for sale. In this market is a good idea to target market your prospecting to homeowners who have to sell for whatever reason, such as deaths, divorces, company relocations and downsizing.

The simple solution to the actual situation in the marketplace is to spend your time increasing the number of your listing inventory. You need to spend 100 percent of your time focused on getting your product in front of the consumer

Even though the according to NAR 87% of buyers are starting their search in the Internet , only 5% of them is ready to buy in that moment. So as a realtor you need to educate your customers on the realities of the local marketplace. Also if you get a prospect to contact you through the Internet it is important that they receive immediate response. You can have an automated system in place or a personal assistant for customer follow-up a Blackberry can help also these are critical components to establishing and maintaining a good relationship with both clients and prospects.

Get yourself consider as the expert in your local marketplace, the easiest way to do this is by offering current housing data to the local media.

Most real estate companies are obtaining good results by using virtual tours and sending the tours and slide shows of properties on discs, using panoriders (this are riders with a panoramic tour of the property and a URL containing the address of the property that is attached to the virtual tour) thereby creating detailed exposure of the property for their prospects. This gives them more information than sending the standard photos and listing data.

You need to change your approach to fit today's changing marketplace. Do something different to rebuild your productivity or you may find yourself doing something different tomorrow to make a living.

Right now there are some signs indicating that Miami's real estate housing market is showing some signs of recovery. If you check you will see fewer foreclosure signs, that home prices are stabilizing and less time required for listings to sell. Maybe the most important of all is that the media is becoming more positive.

for any of your virtual tours needs in Miami Beach, Miami Dade or Broward counties remember to contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or www.virtualfloridaraltours.com.

Reference: Monte Helme; "Say ‘Yes' to Results - A Dozen Ways to Say ‘No' to Negativity"; retrieved from  realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com