Home Staging Training, Business & Home Staging Tips, FREE Staging Marketing Videos and Home Stager Certification with Karen Schaefer Founder APSD

Two new locations just announced!

Buffalo, NY - November 11th and 12th, 2011 and Vancouver, BC - November 29th and 30th

Join us for the only Home Staging Training Event that focuses on the BUSINESS of Home Staging, the Effective and Copelling Marketing to Attract all the Clients you need and Money Making Strategies so you can build a great business and have a great life.

Visit www.apsdmembers.com/stage/ for more details!

Keep watching my blog as I announce further details!!

So far in this series, we have talked about creating curiosity with Press Releases and announcements as well as giving your potential clients what they really, really, really want in order to build celebrity for your home staging business.

This week, we are going to venture into the idea of limited availability.  Immediately, you will default to thinking  “I have to be available all the time for my clients otherwise they won’t want me.” Actually they want you more when they can’t have you all the time. 

Think back to your dating days, did you ever play ‘coy’ to get someone’s attention.  Really, business is no different.  Jordan McAuley of ‘Celebrity Leverage’ talks about  Magnolia Bakery and how they put ‘cupcakes’ on the map by offering limited access and controlled quantities…of cupcakes!

Magnolia Bakery literally has stanchions around their entrance so people have to ‘wait in line’ to get cupcakes.  Then, their VIP’s can only get up to 12 at one time.  They also have limited releases on new flavors and the list goes on and on.

How does this translate to your home staging (or real estate) business?  Easy.  When you have a home staging client that wants to book your home staging services, tell them the two days and times that you have available each week.  Don’t just say ‘when do you want to do this,’ put up your own stanchions so they know how truly in demand you really are.  Let them know that you have Wednesday at 9am or Friday at 11am and ask which works best for them.

Next make sure that you make them feel like a celebrity by customizing everything you do for them.  Leave your promotional information and edit it so it says “This home was prepared for Kelly Smith of ReMax Properties by Simple Appeal Home Staging.”  You may even want to take a photo of you and Kelly and place it in a small frame next to your promotional information.   Don’t forget to leave your business cards or flyers, along with Kelly’s so people can contact you both.

This not only celebritizes Kelly, but also your services and guess what else…that’s right!  Every single agent that sees that is going to want it as well (just another way to ‘give them what they want’) and take your card and give you a call! 

By the way, most agents that you work with will also let you follow up with other agents that have viewed your home staging job. When you do this, make sure you treat them as a ‘celebrity’ by commenting on their expertise in showing such a great property.

Then you can send them a follow up ‘press kit’ that includes Happy Client Comments, Information on how home staging can help their business, a small bit about you and why your business is different, your contact information, a special offer and some kind of piece that makes your business appear as a celebrity such as a newspaper clipping that was written about you that you frame. 

The point to all of this is to not be 100% available and accessible because then people know you are not busy and possibly desperate which will make them question your quality of work.

By having “limited availability” in your schedule, you will begin to celebritize your business so people will want you even more than if you were constantly available.

I know that I will receive flack from some of you telling me this is poor customer service, but that is not what I have said at all.  The best customer service is delivered when you manage your client’s expectations and by telling them exactly what they will receive, how and when, you will service them far better than if you keep the door open for question.

Today, put up those stanchions, systemize that business and begin to run the only celebrity driven home staging business in your town!

Karen Schaefer
Founder, APSD The Association of Property Scene Designers
The World Leader in Home Staging Training and Certification

For more information on Karen Schaefer and APSD and to receive a free home staging CD go to www.APSDmembers.com

Last week we talked about creating curiosity and leveraging your home staging business celebrity by sending out press releases and announcements.  This week, we will talk about the fine art of making your customer want what you have, often by not giving away too much too soon.

When you first release press statements, you want to make sure that you make bold statements.  You need the reader or listener to sit back and say “Yes, I feel that pain” or “Wow, that is exactly what I need” or even “Can they do that for me?”  When they say things like this, they are telling you that they want what you have.

So, the question is “How do I get them to say those things?” In copywriting they always say to appeal to someone’s pain or greed.  

What this means is you have to determine their problem; what keeps them up at night. Many of you are thinking this sounds harsh but sometimes, you have to take drastic measures to achieve drastic results.

With one home staging job, you can change someone’s life by helping them to sell their home quickly so don’t you think they deserve to find you? 

One way you can appeal to their pain or greed is by telling them your current results.  You can do this by stating your DOM, how fast you sold a home in their neighborhood or by telling the story of a home that did not sell until you provided your home staging services and then it sold.

This appeals to someone’s pain that may be in a distressed situation and with you and your home staging services they see the light at the end of the tunnel and it may appeal to another person’s greed in that they see a way to make more money on the sale of their home and pay less holding costs.

Once you create curiosity, you immediately begin to build the desire.  Before you know it, your home staging company will be  the biggest celebrity business ever seen by your local market place. 

I’ll talk to you next week! 

Karen Schaefer
Founder, APSD The Association of Property Scene Designers
The World Leader in Home Staging Training and Certification

**For more information on Karen Schaefer and APSD and to receive a free home staging CD go to www.APSDmembers.com

What does an effective Home Staging and Real Estate Referral Program look like?

The better question may be, “What do I want it to look like to best serve my home staging and real estate clients?”

Let’s talk about both.

When I show my APSD Certified Home Stager Property Scene Designers referral programs, we do them to serve a variety of clients and situations.  Following are an example of three programs:
1)    Use a referral program to offer a thank you gift
2)    Build a ‘Frequent Referral Program’ which can offer discounts on future services
3)    Creating a “Bankable Referral System” to give free gifts and services of your clients choosing

Using a Referral Program to offer a Thank You Gift:

Because I know many of you are immediately going to call RESPA on me, I will say upfront, make sure that what you offer and how you offer it does not in any way violate any laws, restrictions or ethics.  There you go, now let me tell you how this program works.

When someone sends you a referral, or what I like to say is ‘a new client’ because that way there is no ambiguity about the fact that the referral needs to do business with you, you send a gift.

I am going to back track for a moment. Each time you receive a referral, you should first send a thank you note to the person that referred you a new home staging or real estate client.  Next, you should put them into your marketing referral cycle which we discussed last week, and now, you can implement  the referral system once you have confirmed  the referral as a new client.

When that happens, you should again contact the referral source and thank them and then send them a standard gift or give the a choice of a gift.  I normally recommend at this level, to send them a standard gift. Usually, the gift can equal 5%- 10% of the total dollar amount of work that you booked.   So, if you are sending a Visa gift card and you booked a $1500 home staging job, you should send a $75-$150 thank you gift card.  This may seem like a great deal, but look at your profit margin!  You can of course, send any amount you deem appropriate.

A few other good gifts for this category are: boxes of good chocolate such as Godiva, a basket of coffees or a coffee gift card or flowers.  

Just so you know, when they receive the gift, you can probably expect another referral.  Remember the law of reciprocity?

Building a ‘Frequent Referral Program’ which can offer discounts on future services

I wish I had more room to expand on these ideas, but I think you understand the process.  It is like the frequent user card you get at your favorite coffee shop or a frequent flyer card from the airlines.  When building a ‘Frequent Referral Program,’ you want to  incentivize your clients to work with you on a more consistent basis so you offer them discounts based upon the number of referrals they give to you.

Again, when I say ‘referral,’ what I really mean is ‘client’ but part of YOUR job is to be educated enough to convert them from a home staging or real estate referral to a new home staging or listing client.

You might want to do this with a punch card or keep track of it on your computer with an Excel spreadsheet or customer service software.  It all works.  When one home staging or real estate client sends you a new client, you give them a ‘referral bonus.’  For each new client they send to you, they receive a discount on their next home staging service.  So, if they send you one client, they might receive a  5-10% discount.  You can also calculate this into dollars if it sounds better.  For example on the $1500 home staging job we mentioned earlier, you might give your existing client a $75-$150 credit off their next home staging booking (again, I hope you can see how this works in ANY business).  You might find a flat $100 discount works best.   If they send you 2 clients, you can give them $100 off of two services or $200 off of one.  I prefer the former since that gives me two home staging jobs instead of just one.

Creating a “Bankable Referral System” to give free gifts and services of your clients choosing

This referral program is really a combination of the other two mentioned above.  In this program, which is far and away my favorite, but also a little more complicated, we allow the client to choose what they would like to receive upon referral of new clients.  Clients can also ‘bank’ their referral credits in order to build up to a big gift.

So if my existing home staging client sends me a new client that books me for a home staging or curb appeal service, really any APSD or other home staging service (and as I keep saying, this will work for any business) they will get a credit.  They can use this credit to get an immediate gift card, box of chocolates or coffee basket.

If they decide to ‘bank the credit’ they can build them up in order to cash them in for a bigger gift card, a designer purse, jewelry or a variety of other higher end items.  The best way to choose your items is to really look at who your clients are and ask yourself “what would they really want?”    And of course, you can also offer additional home staging or real estate services.  Some of my clients prefer to refer 10 clients to me and get their next home staging service for no charge.  Others, prefer quick, smaller rewards, but the point is, they can choose a gift or they can choose to ‘bank.’

Now it is up to you to decide which system works best for you and your clients.  I would recommend that you begin with the easiest system for you to immediately implement and fulfill and then you can build from there.  

Next, week, will be our 5th and final article in this series so it is there where I want to discuss the most powerful referral resource, your ‘Centers of Influence.’

To your Abundant Success,
Karen Schaefer
Founder, APSD; The Association of Property Scene Designers
The World Leader in Home Staging Training and Certification
www.APSDmembers.com – Get your free Home Staging Training CD Today!

PS- If you are serious about building your Real Estate and Home Staging Business this year, join me at our Home Staging and Marketing Training event this June.  And, right now, we have a ‘Refer a Friend’ 2 for 1 special.  www.APSDmembers.com/STAGE

Wow, are we ever getting great feedback from this series of articles….thanks for all the ‘referrals!’ Get it? Oh, some days I have to entertain myself as well!

Last week, I promised that we would discuss the best cycle of communication when requesting referrals and that is exactly what I am going to do right now.

Many of you that are already APSD Certified Home Stagers, some of my small business and marketing clients and other followers are familiar with my 1/7/30 marketing cycle of communication.

Briefly, it means that you will communicate with a potential client within one day of meeting them, then within 7 and then within 30 days forevermore.

There is a similar process for requesting home staging, client and business referrals.  Last week, we learned that the first time you request a referral is the moment your client (which may be a seller, a real estate agent, a real estate investor or another home stager with whom you are doing business) is ecstatic with your work or results. 

If you receive referrals at that point, that is wonderful but the mistake that many real estate professionals make is that they stop there.  Why would you stop oiling your referral engine? 

The next time to request a referral, whether or not you have already received them, is within 7 days of the completion of your services.  This serves as a gentle reminder, without being intrusive and generally they will send you another referral or two because they realize they had forgotten to do so as previously promised.

A great way to approach this is simply by asking them out to coffee.  You can discuss the home staging job or real estate listing, any future jobs or listings, how the curb appeal is working and so on.  Be there to help and service your client.  At the end of the conversation, it is okay to professionally ask once again for any referrals.  You might approach this in such a way as “By the way, have you had time to think of anyone else that I might be able to help?  Also, last time I asked, I could not remember if I told you about our referral program.”  Then you can go on to explain your referral program.  With our APSD Certified Home Stager Property Scene Designers, I give them a very specific home stager referral program and a multi-client referral program, but you can use anyone that works…just make sure you are working it properly.

Finally, the next time you will request referrals are at the moment the desired result was achieved.  Usually, for Certified Home Stagers, Real Estate Investors, Sellers and Real Estate Agents, it is when the home goes under contract.  It may also be at the closing table depending upon your clients.

Remember, they want to help you and they want to refer you, so give them every opportunity to do so and don’t forget to reciprocate in the process.

Next, week, we will delve further into ‘rewarding for referrals’ and show you how to build an effective referral and reward home staging and real estate model.

To your Abundant Success,

Karen Schaefer
Founder, APSD; The Association of Property Scene Designers
The World Leader in Home Staging Training and Certification
www.APSDmembers.com – Get your free Home Staging Training CD Today!

PS- If you are serious about building your Real Estate and Home Staging Business this year, join me at our Home Staging and Marketing Training event this June.  And, right now, we have a ‘Refer a Friend’ 2 for 1 special.  www.APSDmembers.com/STAGE