Database Marketing Interview with Greg Harrelson

I just returned from a one-week conference in Las Vegas….

Vyral Client Greg Harrelson gave a powerful 45-minute presentation on how he segments his database to get 90-100 deals per year calling him – without a lot of money spent on ads.

Needless to say, everyone’s mouth in the room was ‘dropped’ with bewilderment in their eyes. Here’s a quick video interview with Greg that reveals the secrets he gave away:

SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR THE TRANSCRIPT

Here’s an overview:

You have 4 primary list segments (i.e. databases)

1.) Past Clients / Centers of Influence

2.) Seller Lead Database (documented property owners)

3.) Buyer Lead Database (everyone who has requested homes for sale)

4.) Misc (every email addresses you can get)

But here’s his most powerful secret...

He gets the homeowner’s association directory of every neighborhood and condo complex and then cold calls the owners asking for their email address to send them neighborhood market updates.

He shoots one video and puts that SAME video in 50+ different email templates branded specifically for each respective local neighborhood!

The response you get with your local marketplace is unparalleled with this technique.

It positions you as the super-niche local expert no one can compete with.

He still shoots 2 videos per month for his entire database, just as we teach here at Vyral. But Greg has taken his marketing to a whole new level – without breaking the bank, all by improved list segmentation.

It takes him about 2 hours each month to get it all done and 2 days of work by his assistant to pull it all off.

(We are the assistant to help you execute all this – starting with 2 videos out per month to your ENTIRE database on our program).

YOU CAN APPLY THIS TECHNIQUE NO MATTER WHAT BUSINESS YOU’RE IN.

What neighborhoods around your office would like messages that are specifically geared just for them?

So my question to you today – is your email database properly segmented?

Here’s how:

1. Export your database to a simple spreadsheet.
2. Create a new column called “Segment.”
3. Type ‘Customer’ next to people who have spent money with you.

You can do the same for prospects, partners, vendors, communities, etc.

This way instead of one GENERAL message to your GENERAL list, you can send a TARGETED message to a TARGETED list.

I’m curious to learn how you segment your database.

Leave a comment on the blog or reply back to my email with your list segmentation strategy and I’ll share it here.

Have a great week!

Frank

P.S. I’m flying out to Greg’s office in Myrtle Beach 8/1 – 8/4 for 2 days to set up all his marketing systems with his staff, including the implementation of Infusionsoft for superior list segmentation. If this is something you’re interested in, email me.

I’m also recording an office tour video I’ll be sharing with you that goes into DETAIL on how he runs his office of 20+ phone salespeople. Details to come…

------(TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO)-------

Frank: So Greg, tell me a little bit more about yourself and what you do.

Greg: Okay, well obviously I’ve been in the business for 17 years and started with The Mike Ferry Organization. I built my business based on generating leads, generating opportunities for making contacts. And 17 years later here I am, right here doing about 180 transactions in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and focusing on building database, and generating a lot of business out of my database, so I don’t have to actually make all those contacts anymore.

Frank: How many deals do you get out of your database?

Greg: You know, right now I should close on 180 transactions right now in this year. Anywhere from 90 to 100, somewhere in that range, will come as a direct result from my database, from people calling me.

Frank: Now tell me about that. Why are they calling you?

Greg: Well, let’s start with the beginning. At some point while I’m using generating strategies, prospecting, or anything else that I’m doing, and I’m talking to people. I get through a situation where there might be more people who tell me no than who will tell me yes.

Statistically speaking, if I were to contact 30 people, 29 people may tell me no and 1 person may tell me yes. Well, obviously that yes, I go ahead and list an appointment or do whatever I have to do. But those 29 people who right now have told me no that they don’t want to do anything, what I’ve done is, I’ve gone ahead and obtained their email address and dropped them into a database.

Then I’ve sent them some quality content two times a month in order to kind of educate them on what’s going on in the market. And what I’ve found over time is the people who were once no’s, things change in their life and all of a sudden, because they look at me as an authority, because I’ve been giving them the quality content, I seem to be the resource that they need that they’re calling back. And when they call me, just about 100% of the time a call will actually turn into a presentation.

Frank: So let’s talk content. You see a lot of people sending out content to their database, but what are some mistakes you see with the content people send out?

Greg: Here’s the mistake that I see. Number one is their intentions behind sending content is a little off track. There are too many people that their intention is, I’m going to send content to this database in hopes to get a listing or I’m going to send content in hopes to get a sale and make a quick commission. And I think mentally, they’re approaching it in the wrong way.

If their thought is, I need to get a listing so I’m going to go ahead and create some content based on that, then the content they create has a lot of sales talk in it and it’s,hey, this is the perfect time to list, and list right now and I can probably sell it in 30 days, or list and I can get you multiple offers. It’s all just a bunch of selling.

What I believe we need to do is, we need to kind of go into this with the intention of being a valuable resource, a preferred resource, or being an authority for all things real estate in my market and educate the consumer. That’s the way that I add value.

So every piece of content that I send out, I’m going to put it to a test. I’m going to say, does this look like it’s coming from a resourceful person? Does it look like it’s coming from someone who is an authority in the local market. And does it look like somebody who is educating them? If I actually say yes to all three of those, then I know I’ve added value to this consumer. And in time, that value will just kind of fester and build and build and when those people are ready, they’re going to look at me.

Frank: Well, that seems pretty straightforward. Why aren’t more people doing this?

Greg: You know, that’s a great question and when I look at it, I think a lot of people fear coming up with their own ideas on what kind of content that they can send. I think that’s kind of the disconnect. I tell people, all you’ve got to do is meet somebody new, get their email address, put them in the database, create two valuable pieces of content per month, and send those two pieces out every month.

When I have that conversation with people, I see a lot of people resisting at the time we start talking about creating content. And most systems out there where you can buy content, what I’m seeing is, those systems are still outdated. They’re still creating content that they can sell to real estate professionals, but it’s all sales content. It’s all sales-y talk. And there hasn’t been a lot of people that have created good quality educational content.

I think if somebody does create that kind of information, then what you’ll find is that you’ll have more people will actually start really jumping into these systems and reap the benefits. But right now, agents don’t know how to create the content and they haven’t had really a great source in order to get that content that’s non-sales-y.

Frank: So you started this how long ago?

Greg: I’ve really been focusing on building my databases for 3 to 4 years now.

Frank: And what type of results have you seen from implementing this database marketing?

Greg: In the beginning when I first did this, I really didn’t know if I was going to get a result. I really didn’t know what I was doing. I was like, you know what? I am going to be a resource for the community. This is a media that I can really hit, a vehicle that I can take to put me in that position, to give me – not publicity – but allow me to touch the biggest amount of people and give them whatever message I want in hopes that I would create advocacy, or create an energy around me that people would say, that person knows what he’s talking about. That guy, he knows his real estate knowledge and he has that real estate knowledge.

So that’s where I started with, and it wasn’t about 90 days to 6 months when I started seeing people respond to my emails. And it started like, hey, I don’t know how you got my email address, (because maybe they don’t remember talking to me in the past) but I really appreciate the emails you’re sending. Please keep me on your list.It kind of started like that.

Once I started getting that feedback after 90 days to 6 months, then I kept building the database, and within the next year I started seeing there was a measurable amount of business that came to me from that database market. I can’t recall what it was; it might have been 30 transactions after 12 months that I was getting just from this database.

Frank: And this was all from just 2 emails a month.

Greg: Yep.

Frank: That’s fantastic.

Greg: That’s it.

Frank: So how much time do you invest in all this?

Greg: It takes me an hour to an hour and a half to create the content that I’m sending out every month. That’s about it. I do have some staff that are managing the database system. I’m not too technical so they put the emails into the system and they put them in the right databases, make sure that my content gets dropped into a template and then they email it out. I have very large databases, I have thousands of people, so they may be spending a half of a day or three-quarters of their day in managing my system once per month. But I’m only spending an hour to an hour and a half, maximum two hours a month.

Frank: Is there anything else you can share on how they can grow their business with database marketing?

Greg: The two things I would share; number one is in order to grow a database you’ve got to be talking to people. So whatever ways you’re talking to people, no matter if you’re a prospector or you have other means of generating conversations or generating a lead, you have to do that. Now what you want to do is, you want to take all of the people who are not ready to do something, and put them in that database. That’s simple. But the key is, you’ve got to be out there, proactively meeting new people or else you’re not going to be building a database. That’s number one.

Number two is, I think more agents need to get present to the value of their database. The value of their database represents the value of their business, and any real estate professional right now that does not have a database has no value as a businessperson. As soon as they stop taking listings and stop working buyers, their business stops. If they have a database, they’ve got something that’s saleable, and they’ve got something that continues to generate even when they’ve stopped selling real estate themselves.

Frank: Great. Greg thanks for your time.

Greg: You’re welcome.