*** Today is the last day of this series: Over the last 30 days, I’ve been giving you “big ideas” to solve REAL-life marketing challenges sent in by subscribers.  If you like what you’re reading, let me know by forwarding this information around to a few of your friends and associates ***

The final question in this series comes foam Vivian Baxter out of Kentucky.  She says, “Hi Craig, I am an investor in Northern Kentucky.  I consistently have a list of over 200 local subscribers who are looking for a home to lease and option to buy.

My biggest challenge is getting them to take action.  People are so busy they have difficulty taking action.

Just the other day I ran two emails concerning two homes – short version – The Realtor has buyers looking at these homes and if she has a buyer the opportunity to lease and own will be gone.

This brought out two individuals.

They say things like “I am so sorry, I have been so busy at work.”  Or, “Hi, I was going to respond to your email but I forgot about it.”  And I think you get the point here.

I ran a Memorial Day Special on all of my homes for 4 days that was intended only “to take action”.

For the most part everyone waits until they are down to two weeks or so to move out of their current home and then they are in a rampage trying to find some place to live.

And as sure as I send an email out that a home has been sold I receive floods of phone calls and emails of people who were interested in the home. (Taking action to late)

My biggest marketing and copy writing challenge is getting my customers to take immediate action.  Thanks!  Vivian”

OK Vivian, first things first… you’re asking me for advice about taking action yet… I had my assistant run some files and I don’t see you on my customer list.  So you have to ask yourself why you haven’t taken action, and yet… you’re wanting me to answer your question for free.

I’m sure your knee-jerk reaction to this will probably be something like, “I’m sorry but I’ve just been so busy at work.”  Or… “I was going to respond to your e-mail and order, but I simply forgot about it.”

Yet… you didn’t forget to respond to the request to answer your question for free… and you weren’t too busy at work, either.

Right?

I’m not picking on you, so don’t take it like that.  But truth is, the answer to your own question lies in these same answers when I turn the tables around.

The truth is, people do what THEY want to do, not what anyone else wants them to do.  People have money for the things THEY want, not the things other people want them to want.

And people value things only to the extent of the amount of skin they have in the game.  Not the amount of skin you want them to have in the game.

That’s just how life works, and if you’re going to try and re-structure how life works to fit your business, you’re going to have a terrible time of it.  You might as well spend your time trying to reverse the growth of weeds in your lawn.

In this particular case, your marketplace has consistently told you two things:

1. This is an 11th hour type of business.  There’s no long-term planning and foresight here.

Which makes perfect sense if you think about it.  Those folks who are interested in long-term planning, are going to go out and start looking for a home to rent, several months or more, before their current lease expires.  They may not need someone like you, because they’re doing this on their own, proactively.

In fact, these people may not even know someone like you exists.

Which is really, another issue to consider – where are you getting your leads from?  The quality of your leads is 100% dependent on the source of your leads.  Keep this in mind.

Anyway, back to your marketplace.  It sounds like you’re going to be much better off finding out when people need a property by, and then marketing it only to these people, one to three weeks before they need it.

Also, I’d have ONE time for everyone to go and look at the property, NOT separate visits.

If everyone is there at the same time, this is going to increase the demand dramatically, because the scarcity of the property will be right there in everyone’s face.  I’ve sold a couple of cars like this – having only ONE showing time – and this REALLY works very well.

The last time I did this, I literally had people cashing after me, flailing their arms in front of them with a wad of cash in between their fingers.

2.  The second thing you can do, is charge a nominal monthly fee for the information you’re providing.  Doesn’t have to be something huge, and frankly, it’s not even supposed to be a profit center for you.

The purpose of this fee is simply to qualify your leads better.  Trust me, if someone’s paying for this information, they’re going to pay a lot closer attention to what you’re saying, then if they’re not paying for it.

Even something like 19.95 a month, or… $49 for an unlimited flat fee — just something so they are on board with you and not wasting their time.

Again, that’s just how life works.

The people who own my products – and especially the people who subscribe to my monthly newsletter, are FAR more successful than the people who merely sit and read these e-mails.

This might sound like self-promotion, but I will look you dead in the eye and tell you it’s not.  It’s just the truth, whether you like it or not.

And that’s because you HAVE to make an investment, before you can get a return on that investment.  You simply can’t get a return on “zero” – work the math on this, if you don’t believe me.

Hope this helps – let me know which of these strategies you wind up using, and how it works.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S.  Discover how to create continuous streams of monthly income – no matter what business you’re in (in Chapter 4)!  This is the fastest and easiest way of creating financial stability and bringing predictability to your business… and therefore to your life!

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