Vendor Program Guide

Vendor Program Guide

Zero Cost based Marketing

Vendor

Program Guide

National Associations of Expert Advisors cutting edge Vendor Program is designed as a guide to help you cover up to 100% of your marketing expenses while staying RESPA compliant.

This program will walk you through step-by-step on how to create, operate, grow, measure and maintain a successful program with low vendor turnover.

We have the privilege of working with some of the best agents in the industry.

This guide is a compilation of the most successful vendor programs being used by these agents.

The Vendor Program was created to help you to zero-cost-base your marketing and advertising so you can invest more money into the things that are making you money.

Our goal is to help you become a more profitable business; you will then have more success investing more dollars in areas that continue to give you the best ROI.

It will take minimal time to design and implement your vendor program using this guide. With the help of the NAEA and your Strategic Business Advisor we can customize your program to your specific needs and market.

This program is broken down into the following parts:

1)  Customizing the Program:

2)  Presenting the Program

3)  Overcoming Objections

4)  How to keep vendors working with you long term

Customizing the program

Step 1:

Fill in the following completely to the best of your knowledge. This information will be the basis for your presentation to the prospective vendor, helping them see the benefit of investing in your vendor program.

How many years have you been in business:
How many career/yearly transactions have you made:
Where do you rank locally/nationally within your company or the market:
How much volume are you generating per month or year:
How many leads on average do you attract per month:
Your approximate monthly marketing dollars spent on marketing:
How many visitors are you attracting to your website each month:
How many different market avenues do you use:

Step 2:

Who else benefits when you sell a home? The list that you create when answering this question is your hit list for building a successful affilate marketing campaign. It’s very common in the real estate industry for real estate agents to collect a monthly marketing fee from vendors with whom they do business regularly. These relationships are completely RESPA compliant and meet all local, state and federal laws.

List service providers you are currently sending business who are not part of an affiliate program. In preperation of the setting up the affliliate program, answer the questions below. This information wil be used to present to vendors to help them see the value of working with you and to see if you want to work them.

1)  How many people do you refer to the other service providers every month: ______

2)  How much (in combined dollars per month) are those vendors giving you for the business you are sending them: ______

3)  Do your vendors truly appreciate all the business you have given them at no expense to them over the years: Yes ___ No ___

4)  Do your vendors believe in investing money into a project that will make them a 3 to 1 or better return on investment: Yes ___ No ___

5)  Do your vendors see the value in being affiliated with the top Realtor in your market: Yes ___ No ___

List vendors you are currently working with and the

business you have sent them in the past 12 months.

Vendor / # of clients you have referred to them in the past 12 months / $ amount one customer is worth to their business * / Total $ you have helped them achieve
Example: Lender / 50 / $4,000 / $200,000

* Example: $200,000 loan at 2% = $4,000

Step 3:

Create a list of vendors you would like to work with who deal with home buyers.

The top 3 vendors that should be at the top of your list are ::

1.  Lender

2.  Title Co.

3.  Insurance Company

People who Benefit during the Real Estate Transaction - Preferred Vendors:

Electricians / Fencing Specialists / Garage Door
Housekeeping / Landscaping / Locksmith
Photographer / Roofing / Air Conditioning / Furnace
Appliance service / Home Insurance / Interior design
Lawn Service / Pest control / Window Replacement
Alarm System / Attorney / Carpet care & cleaning
Painting / Plumbing / Storage
Home Inspector / Home Surveyor

People that you could also refer business too ::

Accountant / Animal boarding / Auto Insurance
Auto service / Bookkeeping / Cabinetry
Carpenter / Caterers / Catering
Chiropractor / Computer technician / Countertops
CPA / Deck Builders / Dentist
Drycleaner / Equipment rental / Family planning
Financial planning / Fitness center / Florist
Fountains / Full Service Salon / Furnace Service
Furniture / Garage doors / Hairdresser
Handyman services / Cable, Dish Network / Home theater specialist
Internet Service / Life Insurance / Manicurist
Mechanic / Medical Insurance / Network setup
Office Equipment / Office Furniture / Optician
Pavers / Patio / Pet grooming / Picture framing
Pond maintenance / Pool maintenance / Property management
Rubbish removal services / RV Storage / Spa maintenance
Sprinkler Install / Storage facilities / Upholstering
Veterinarians / Window Cleaning / Window Treatments

Getting vendors to invest in your vendor program is not as hard as you may think.

Many agents already have vendors knocking on their doors wanting to do business with them.

Agents often times sit behind closed doors with a gate keeper turning away all but the most persistent vendor. Don't turn them away invite them in and let them know your plan or at least make an appointment for a later date. They come to see you didn't they, so they must be interested in working with you.

Step 4:

Treat your vendor program as a stock offering: Your vendor's investment will help you invest money in marketing that will generate leads for you, which in turn will benefit them.

Determine the investment levelChoose areas that you are confident you can deliver and create value for each service. Information from step 1 on page 3 will be used in creating this presentation piece. Some agents prefer a more complex presentation/agreement others a more scaled down version.

Caution: The more you put into the agreement the more the problems can arise.

Example- if you say you are going to o 100 things for the vendor you are liable for those 100 things. Say you are going to do less you'll still get the same amount without the increased liability.

The key is to over deliver on your promise.

Tips from the NAEA ::

·  What gets tracked and measured gets improved so tracking business is critical. If your business increased you can raise the cost for a vendor to be a part of your program because of their increased exposure and business.

·  Change agreement every 6 months or yearly to justify the cost and growth of the business and market value.

·  Your ranking in the market nationally or locally can add value to your vendor program. You have more sales and listings therefore you add more value to a vendor.

·  RESPA concerns with vendor advertising: If marketing/advertising is limited to just the web site or just one venue no matter what it is there could be a problem. The exposure should be equal to what the vendor is giving.

Example- if vendor is giving $1,000 toward your marketing then that amount of exposure needs to be reflected in your marketing.

·  Find ways to add more value to the vendor.

-  Monitor and track business sent to them. Send them a report each month so they can see firsthand what they are getting

-  Refer them to Boomtown and Tiger Leads agents in your area

-  Let them see where overall business will come from not just one aspect.

-  Buy annual buyers list in your market and give names to vendors.

-  Create a news letter to be sent to your clients and list your vendor partners.

-  Create a testimonial for each vendor with each newsletter.

Presenting the Program

Step 1:

First off don't complicate it!

Approach—this is an interview process—interview them for being a preferred vendor for your business—layout strategic plan for your business—questions should be in alignment with your positioning:

1.  Define what your best/ideal customer looks like?

2.  What would be the biggest benefit that I could bring to the table for you?

The owner or team leader is the best person to with the vendor. No one sells the program better than you. This is your business you are the name that business is being driven to. You are the one that can reassure the vendor that you will personally make sure your team send business to them and they are happy with their ROI.

Step 2: Cold call script

Let them know that you are looking to find a lender/vendor that you are looking to do business with/partner with exclusively, you need to look for someone who is wants to grow their business and willing to invest into the process

"Hello this is Jay Kinder with Jay Kinder Real Estate Experts. We are currently adding to our vendor program and are looking for a lender (vendor) that we can trust to add to our program. I was wondering if we could meet up sometime this week to discuss the opportunity. Would Wednesday at 10am work for you?"

The goal of the call is to book the appointment don't try and close them over the phone.

Step 3: Meeting the vendor

Have a brief presentation explaining the company goals and plans for expansion. Use the statistics outlined in part 1 questions 1-5 listed below.

How many years have you been in business?
How many career/yearly transactions have you made?
Where do you rank locally/nationally within your company or the market?
How much volume are you generating per month or year?
Your approximate monthly marketing dollars spent on marketing?

Questions to ask the vendor ::

1.  What’s going in their business?

2.  Where is their business coming from?

3.  Who handles their referrals?

4.  What is the process for each deal they go through?

5.  How many deals are they doing?
If you are not the bulk of their business, they won’t be as invested

6.  What is their best/ideal customer?

7.  What are their top 3 sources of business?

8.  Set your expectations of the preferred lender & discuss tracking/managing referrals::

9.  How many deals they could close with XXX number of leads?

10.  What would they be willing to invest to be your partner?
Let them give you a number

Step 4: Script:

"Hello. Thanks for meeting with me today. First off I wanted to explain to you our goal as a company. Right now we are ranked #_____ in the region/country. Last year we closed X_____ units and did $X_____ in volume. We spend $X_____ monthly on marketing and receive over X_____ leads from various sources including radio every month."

"We are looking for a vendor we can trust to add to our vendor program."

"Let me ask you, would you spend $3,000 to make $10,000?"

When they say "Yes"

Ask: "What do you think you are spending on marketing to get each deal?

(Multiply that by 3 or 4 or whatever you can realistically deliver on a monthly basis.)

"Based on our marketing program we believe that we can bring you at least X_____ deals per month. Would that work for you?"

"Not only are we going to bring you direct business we're also going to market you on..."

At this point show them your vendor program presentation/agreement. Explain what they will receive for their investment in the Partnership Opportunity portion of the presentation.

At close:

"Does this make sense?"

If they say "no" ask: "What parts don't you understand?"

Let them point out the area they are having difficulty understanding.

After explaining ask: "Does that make sense? Do you have any other questions?"

"I wanted to give you the first opportunity - fair enough?"

Sign the agreement!

Tips from the NAEA ::

·  On interviews with potential vendors, ask what their system is to track business that is sent to them. If they do not have a system in place questions will likely arise later on regarding how much business they are being sent or why they are being charged so much to be a part of your marketing/vendor program. If they don't have a tracking program in place it may be best to find another vendor.

·  Do not waste time on small money vendors. The push back is the same on $50 as it is with $2,000.

·  Make it clear what is expected and what they are getting. Just as you would not walk out of a listing appointment without a signed contract then put a sign in the yard assuming you got the listing, do not close your vendor appointment with just a hand shake you need a sign agreement by both parties. You are setting up to fail if this is not clear.

·  A vendor manager only works if that person carries weight in the company and has authority to make decisions for you and your company.

·  Bring them to your next team meeting so they can meet the people they are giving their business to.

·  Let vendor know he will need to get involved with each agent on the team.