Introduction
By far, the No. 1 question I get from my appraiser coaching clients is…
How can I diversify away from bank and lender clients?
Well, in this morning’s Founder Coffee Break newsletter, I’m going to roll up my sleeves and share five areas in their marketing and sales efforts appraisers should try to focus more on.
1. What are some basics that 90% of appraisers are getting wrong?
Most don’t have a professional website. Every professional services website should have the following pages at a minimum: Home, About, Services, Blog, Contact, and Testimonials.
Most don’t have a good LinkedIn Profile. Hire a good LinkedIn expert to help you write a compelling headline, choose the right profile photo, and create an engaging background banner.
Leverage the Featured section with links to your website landing pages to sign up for your newsletter and/or a free consult call, and your website’s testimonials page.
Make sure your email signature is complete with name, title, company, address, phone, email, URL and links to your newsletter, LinkedIn profile, and Testimonials page.
Bonus: Create a compelling one-page corporate flyer and leverage it to the max!
2. Why isn’t your appraisal website working? And what to do about it.
The number one reason your website isn’t working is because you’re doing it yourself. You wouldn’t try and perform brain surgery on yourself. Your website is just about as complex!
Hire a real website expert to create a standout website for you and your company. I use Kajabi for my website and hired a Kajabi expert, Hannah Fehr at TruNorthCreative.co. Tell Hannah I sent you.
The second reason is because it isn’t leveraging search engine optimization (SEO). Not all webmasters are SEO experts. If yours isn’t, find a good SEO expert to help you with this.
Have your webmaster design an opt-in page for your clients and prospects to sign up for your weekly newsletter and capture their email addresses in an integrated CRM.
Your weekly newsletter or blog posts will help tremendously with SEO rankings.
3. What are the two best social media platforms to be on?
There aren’t two, there are five! Monthly active users: Facebook (3.0 Billion), YouTube (2.5 Billion), Instagram (2.0 Billion), X (666 Million), and LinkedIn (310 Million). Don't limit yourself to just LinkedIn!
Implement a social media strategy including (1) repurposing blog posts or newsletters to LinkedIn, X, and Facebook, and (2) repurposing expert YouTube videos to Facebook and Instagram reels.
Don’t try and do all this yourself! Hire an offshore social media manager and have them use a social media management tool like Publer to do the heavy lifting for you both.
4. What is the No. 1 sales strategy you MUST master if you want to turn cold leads into strong recurring clients?
You must differentiate yourself. The problem is, all professional service firms are competing on the trifecta of (1) team experience, (2) unique process, and (3) work quality.
How can you differentiate yourself from the competitive pack? The best way is to become a visible expert. Learn how to write and speak well publicly.
Develop a visible expert mentality. Reward team members who write and speak about high-value topics. Seek out opportunities to become a more visible expert in your field.
- Speak at professional networking organizations like ProVisors or Rotary.
- Speak at industry conferences.
- Write high-value posts in Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
- Write regular blog posts.
- Publish a weekly newsletter.
- Create podcast interview opportunities.
Again, become a visible professional expert by writing and speaking publicly on high-value topics.
5. What is the No. 1 tool that appraisers must have for a chance to diversify?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software. A CRM is a set of integrated, data-driven software solutions that help businesses manage, track, and store data related to their leads, clients, and sales.
Some of the best CRMs for small business include ActiveCampaign, Bigin, Capsule, ClickUp, Folk, Freshsales, HoneyBook, Hubspot, Keap, Monday, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.
I used Keap to scale my appraisal business and now use Folk CRM, as it integrates beautifully with LinkedIn. One of my new appraisal business coaching clients uses Salesforce.
The key is to find a CRM you’re comfortable with and start tracking your leads, clients, and sales.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it.
Five areas you should focus more of your marketing and sales efforts on.
- Creating a professional website, LinkedIn profile, and email signature.
- Have web/SEO experts build your website and start a weekly newsletter.
- Learn how to efficiently leverage FB, YT, IG, X, and LI with a VA and Publer.
- Differentiate yourself by becoming a high-value writing and speaking expert.
- Pick a good starter CRM and start tracking leads, clients & sales.
- Bonus: Create a one-page corporate flyer and leverage it to the max!
But, remember – none of these tips matter if you don’t take action.
Pick one and get started next week!
Good luck out there.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
- Go to CalvinCummings.com and Sign Up for our Weekly Founder Coffee Break Newsletter. Every Saturday morning, I share strategies, tips and tricks to help appraisers and small business owners grow and improve their practices so they can be more successful.
- While you’re there on my website, Go to the Coaching page and Book a Free Consult Call to see if our Founder Coaching Program is a good fit for you.
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