There’s a group of people perpetually defined by their constant focus on selling. They spend most every minute of every day thinking, “sell, sell, sell.” Their product is words and their audience is anyone with an ear. We in the business world should pay close attention.

Politicians wake up each morning on a crusade to convince anyone and everyone to let them have their way. It’s disciplined, transparent, wonderfully effective and built almost entirely on a razor sharp focus on “message”.

2012, of course, is an election year so the full menagerie of candidates is on display for all to see. Each one operates his or her campaign utilizing deeply researched and battle tested “Talking Points” to effectively manipulate the media and voters into accepting their message as the best option come Election Day. We in the business world could learn a thing or two about the power of effective Talking Points in improving our own market share.

Let’s take a look at five Talking Points every company or organization should script, define and communicate in order to compete effectively:

1. “I Pledge of Allegiance.” A “We Believe” statement that expresses exactly what your company or organization stands for, is motivated by or sees as its most passionate purpose or what it can be the best at. Something that inspires WHY, not how or what.
2. “The customer is always right”: Craft a specific response to each of the three most typical complaints you may hear in your industry or in your particular business. Build it with empathy and make it customer concentric; an explanation that doesn’t invoke excuses and never blames the customer. This is often listed as the number one rule in business along with the second most important rule: Read rule number one again!
3. “That guy’s a screw-up.” Every salesperson runs into the occasional client or prospect that has had a bad experience with one of their colleagues, and every organization needs a thoughtfully prepared, well-rehearsed auto-reply for this situation. Varied or inconsistent replies to complaints help only to antagonize the prospect and serve to extend the distaste to the entire organization.
4. “Our competition is….” You can name your competition in your sleep. You know what differentiates you and which advantages you enjoy and which area’s they hold an edge. Every organization needs an approved set of Talking Points for each of their three most direct competitors. These should never include negative comments. They should accentuate favorable distinctions on your behalf and speak to what the prospect might find important, not what you find important. It’s always best to highlight specific examples from people who have chosen you over the competition in the past.
5. “How much?” Every company charges money for its product or service but very few have prepared articulate explanations of how that price is determined. This is easier for some products and services than others but it still needs to be addressed. Trying to explain price as a function of cost is more effective than explaining it as a function of the market, but be careful not to make it a spreadsheet discussion or delve too heavily in your expenses. This one will take work but needs to be done.

Once these Talking Points are established you need to train your entire staff on them: role play, test, mix and do again. It’s also a nice idea to revisit the TP’s for each category every 90 days or so to make sure they’re tight and optimally efficient. No need to do this every three hours like some politicians, after all, you’re not looking to win votes, you’re looking to win relationships.

Seven unique comments and observations to kick off the week.

1. I recently asked two well-educated friends what they thought was the actual percentage of homes in foreclosure today in the US. One answered 60% and the other answered 10%. Once again proving that anything the media steadily focuses on becomes larger than life.  Incidentally the correct answer is under 3%.
2. The tragic suicide of NFL legend Junior Seau continues to create heavy dialogue about the  violent nature of professional football. Fair enough, but before the sport morphs into Flag Football shouldn’t there be some discussion about the systematic use of performance enhancing drugs in the league? PED’s are the proverbial elephant in the room when it comes to discussing everything from concussions and brain damage to post-career stress. I guess addressing the possible consequences of self-inflicted behavior so soon after someone’s death is considered off-limits – especially when the deceased is as beloved as Junior.
3. There’s either a bidding war with landlords or a bidding war with sellers. One or the other.  Many markets are beginning to see the latter eclipse the former and that‘s a positive sign of traction in the housing market.
4. “Don’t wish things were easier, wish you were better.” Yes, this applies to mortgage credit worthiness as well. Consumers can’t change lending guidelines (and heavens please, we don’t want politicians doing it again) but they can change their ability to qualify. Handle what’s within your control: work your credit score wisely, maintain good records, avoid job gaps and build a nest egg – no matter how big or small.
5. Taking action – some action, any action – is Kryptonite to Overwhelmed. We all like to remind ourselves that “time flies” but when it comes to handling problems we act like it stands still. It doesn’t. Chop away at small things daily and before you know it (time flies after all) you will have managed to literally smash Overwhelmed into tiny pieces.
6. As if I don’t embarrass myself enough  walking and talking most days (or writing), I’ll be one of the dozen participants in Woman’s Council of Realtors  2^nd annual Bra’s for a Cause event to benefit the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Foundation on June 1st at Twin Rivers in Lincoln, Rhode Island. Tickets are $30. I’m sure you can guess what they’ll have me wearing.
7. We hear this quite often and I think the sentiment is woefully math-deficient: “My house use to be worth $300K but now I can only get around $220K for it so it doesn’t make sense to sell it and try to move up.” OK, fine, sure BUT the house you would be moving up to use to sell for $600K and now it sells for only $450K so by my math you’re UP $70K! Never a better time for the move-up buyer if they can afford the higher priced home. You’re buying future wealth at a sale price.

Have a great week everyone and we’ll be back Thursday with the video blog.

Dean suggests we all stay as focused and determined as Olympic athletes and asks, what is your Olympic Games in business?

There comes a day in our lives when we go from riding a bike to driving a car, from attending class to punching a clock and from sipping Dells to sampling Cabernet. This Circle of Life is actually built upon steps, and our collective hope is that we not trip on any of them as we move along.

Unfortunately, a major violation of this design has been found in city upon city over the last five years with the rush to, gulp, rent. Here, the circle of life has become, in effect, a circle back to the dreaded role of tenant. Rental vacancy rates have plummeted faster than home values and the monthly price renters are willing to pay is finally giving the housing market something to smile about.  Moreover, low interest rates, an abundance of inventory and an historic Home Affordability Index have many prospective buyers giving the stink-eye to their landlord.

So let’s look at five unique reasons to fire your landlord:

1. “Whose playlist is that anyway?” Lawrence Welk and his orchestra may have died with polyester and shag rugs but through the magic of iTunes your landlady can bring him back – at full volume! – on a moment’s notice and leave you completely unprotected from losing every last vibe of cool you ever possessed. On the flip slide, your live version of “Right Now” could leave you in a battle of the bands a landlord never loses

2. “Bad Idea Jeans.” (Great clip explains) So, you thought you’d paint the walls, change those faucets, put in nice hardwoods and convert to solid core doors in the apartment, huh? Yup, looks great doesn’t it? You’re renting, right? Ah, yeah, we are. Good call, sport – nothing like investing in someone else’s property.

2. “Did your dog sign the lease?” Landlords love pets like empty nesters love kids: fine but not in my house. You couldn’t imagine the number of things Fido would eat until you introduced him to a house full of your landlords stuff. Your security deposit is merely a down payment on what your landlord will blame your pet for “destroying”.  Ultimately, it will always be your landlord’s pet.

3. “How much is parking around here?” A few years ago I had a large party threatened by a winter parking ban so we shoveled off my lawn and parked all the cars in the front yard. Try that with a landlord. In fact, some cities have banned all on-street parking! Owning a driveway or garage has never been worth more. When you need to sell a car to be in compliance with your apartment parking situation you have clearly put the horse under the cart.

4. Foreclosure or eviction, who you got?” Simple fact: evictions take days, foreclosures take months (sometimes years). The far safer place to be in a financial storm is under your own roof, not under some else’s.

So let’s step it up guys! Let’s restore the American Dream of homeownership and treat it like it was the celebration of turning 21, of having your first child or of landing your first job.

After all, everyone is paying someone’s mortgage……. might as well be your own.

Dean shows how “Baseball is Life” relates to business preparation and responsibility.

(My article from this week’s Banker and Tradesman)

In early 2007, after 18 years of successfully generating mortgages in an inside origination/direct marketing channel, it was time for our company, Shamrock Financial, to change. Dramatically! The banking crisis had dried up several of our product lines faster than a Red Sox bullpen can vacate a nine run lead. It was alarmingly clear that if we failed to establish a viable outside origination/referral partner platform the only thing we’d be originating was our own resumes.

We soon discovered that the best way to meet this new challenge was to better educate our prospective referral partners and consumers.  After all, we knew that 90% of people buy from those that know the most so it made sense to set out on a mission to literally Educate & Motivate our way to new channels of opportunity.

And here are the five simple methods we learned will quickly and efficiently reach new “friends”:

Seminars & Webinars: “People don’t buy what you sell, they buy what you do.” Makes sense, right?  A great way to get that point across to partners and clients is through educational seminars and webinars. At Shamrock, we partnered with a known brand in the community, Cardi’s Furniture, to create and promote our seminar series. This gave us instant brand recognition and credibility (at no cost). Remember, big retailers love hosting events like these because it increases foot-traffic in their stores. All you just need to ask.

Likewise, webinars allow you to engage an audience that feels more comfortable learning in private or who are simply too busy to attend events or seminars. Record and distribute them afterwards and eventually, they’ll click on you.

Blogs: Not sure there could be a worse sounding word for such an effective communication tool – but don’t let the word fool you; the concept is wonderful, inexpensive and productive. Reaching referral partners and clients through targeted articles is a tremendous weapon in the battle to distinguish your message. I use HubConnected to design and manage my blog. I’ve found there are two keys to success:  A definitive schedule for posting (don’t deviate) and informative content that matters to your audience, not just to you.

Radio: “Video killed the radio star” may have been MTV’s wish 25 years ago but it didn’t quite happen. Hosting and promoting your own radio show is an excellent way to attract key referral partners (as guests) and to influence your target audience in the listening area. People will think you’ve earned some fame when all you’ve really done is buy some fame! (All fame is created equal.) You can buy one-hour blocks of time from local radio stations to host your own show (they’ll throw in plenty of free ad time as well.) Make sure you have each show recorded and loaded to your web site, email (delete: distribution) list and blog page.

Social Media: “I’m not really a Facebook or Social Media person.” Well then, you must also be the type to turn down free lunches and all-expenses paid vacations, too! These new media tools are great ways to meet and influence people without the heavy lifting of conferences, parties and client events. Social Media is the new cocktail party. Embrace it. Hint: do more replying to people than posting your own stuff – that’s social media etiquette for doing more listening than talking.

The Telephone: Yes, the telephone. That old archaic contraption has now become so passé that it’s actually become incredibly effective. And the infamous DNC list? That’s neatly cleared out all the people who wanted to hang up on you anyway. How cool is that? Consider: So few professionals today are willing to pick up the phone and make the call that doing so now dramatically separates you from the competition. At Shamrock we frequently conduct webinars on basic phone skills. Phone skills! Imagine?

As you can guess, there are as many different ways to reach your audience as there are different types of people in your audience; and these five tools (especially when combined with video) have given us excellent results.

Dean reminds us that what you DO is far more important than what you SAY.

The late great housing boom that breezed through the first decade of the new century needs no biography. Its obituary has been written and the memorial services for its victims are held daily by auctioneers (no clergy here) on the front lawns of “properties” that used to be called houses, “investments” that used to be called homes.

Many lost their way in the now infamous decade of prices, values, equity and souls. Wide-eyed buyers, thirsty sellers, ambitious lenders and zealous bureaucrats all conspired to author a perfect tragedy out of the American Dream.

For those of us in the real estate and mortgage banking profession the decade did wondrous things for our balance sheets but at a substantial cost to our perspective, our grace and our humility.

When you suddenly find yourself confronted with an abundance of business in your day-to-day operation it requires you to focus on internal processes, efficiencies and execution. To handle the increased volume you had to develop and maintain high quality systems that eventually demanded your constant attention – at a great cost I’m afraid.

When your aim becomes how to efficiently handle the greater sales, bigger approvals, lower rates, faster closings and huger, huge you lose your WHY! Now, to be fair, much of this was a consequence of demand. Lose out on bids, approvals, rates and closings due to a lacking infrastructure and your client simply became someone else’s client. While we were trading mortgages, rates and qualification guidelines, consumers were trading agents, lenders and attorneys just as quickly. The whole thing became a moving commodity and our true WHY got erased.

The new decade has awakened many of us from the “nightmare” of the lost WHY only to rediscover the true reason we got into this profession originally: To be an active partner with those pursuing the American Dream.

So we now set out each day trying to reclaim that inspiration; to retool our vision. We want to be part of the fantastic celebration of buying your first home, your next home, and your vacation home; of owning your own piece of freedom.

The lost decade taught us that the American Dream isn’t a process, a system or a clever loan program. The American Dream is a home and those of us in this profession promise to never lose sight of that again.

Dean suggests that the power of a strategic thinking committee should be used in all areas our life.

There’s a pretty solid belief that the difference in success between a college baseball player, a minor league baseball player and a major league baseball player is found in each one’s ability to make adjustments. Of course, the difference between these levels of play can often be physical in nature (size, speed, coordination etc.) but there’s just too many smallish, slow, or ordinary looking athletes in the major leagues  (and too many big, fast athletic specimens who never got past college ball) to say it’s all just physical.

Common baseball logic shows that a college hitter makes adjustments every week to compensate for things that aren’t working. In minor league baseball these adjustments are not made weekly, but day-to-day instead.

At the higher levels of minor league play the adjustments are made between each at bat and at the highest level possible – the major league itself – the adjustments are made pitch to pitch! Every pitch instead of every week. Yikes!

This incredible arch of behavioral variation is unrecognizable to the novice eye but don’t be fooled: The ability to make adjustments is the single most powerful tool of separation in performance. And not just in baseball, but in life and business as well.

The greatest companies, the best business people and the most accomplished professionals in  all fields learn to identify when things need to be changed and then act on those findings immediately. They adjust day-by-day, hour-by-hour if needed. The “major league” business pro “tweaks” or “adjusts” as soon as the actions indicate a lack of results. Meanwhile, their competition remains intractably committed to a particular action by ego, comfort or fear.

The major leagues are within the reach of us all – just as long as we stop adjusting things like a minor leaguer and learn to live pitch to pitch!