{"id":4785,"date":"2008-10-02T17:12:40","date_gmt":"2008-10-03T00:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=4785"},"modified":"2008-10-02T17:45:25","modified_gmt":"2008-10-03T00:45:25","slug":"making-the-riccelli-bet-to-take-away-the-fear-of-trying-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4785\/making-the-riccelli-bet-to-take-away-the-fear-of-trying-something-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Riccelli bet to take away the fear of trying something new"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Riccelli<\/a> doesn’t write here very much, but, when he does, it’s pure gold. I’ve been writing in BloodhoundBlog about Richard since the blog was young<\/a>, as have others<\/a>, and Richard has been writing with us for as long as we’ve been a group blog<\/a>. I can’t sing his praises enough. I’m sure I can’t even see nine-tenths of his genius, but I am forevermore enthralled by what I can see.<\/p>\n

A peculiar aspect of Richard’s brilliance is his uncanny ability to identify and excise the deal-killing objection. In his own marketing business, his fees can run dauntingly high. Don’t want to pay? No problem. If he loves the project, Richard will work for a cut of the take instead. This is unheard of in direct marketing, and the shear audacity of it can silence every other objection he might hear from his clients. How can you argue with free?<\/p>\n

For months now I’ve been playing with Riccelli-style direct marketing ideas at ABetterListing.com<\/a>. The site’s not done yet. Taking account of testing, it will never be done. But it takes on its first big market test tomorrow.<\/p>\n

This is the back of an open house invitation card for a house we’ll be listing next Friday:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Cathleen and her crew of energetic teenagers will be distributing 2,500 of those cards this weekend, with another 2,500 going out next weekend. The whole launch is a Very Big Deal since the house we’re listing falls into the Jumbo Zone — where desire is unlimited and loans are unavailable.<\/p>\n

But ABetterListing.com was built for this kind of door-to-door direct marketing promotion, and the promotion itself is built around a Riccelli bet: We’re betting that we’re better than anyone else you’ll talk to, and we’ll pay off on the bet if you don’t agree.<\/p>\n

An even better Riccelli bet would be this: “If we don’t get you a contract within 30 days, we’ll sell it for free!” Unfortunately, in the neighborhood we’re working in, homes are selling in 267 days — on average — when they sell at all. We’ll save that offer for a better market.<\/p>\n

I’ll talk more about ABetterListing.com another Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Riccelli doesn’t write here very much, but, when he does, it’s pure gold. I’ve been writing in BloodhoundBlog about Richard since the blog was young, as have others, and Richard has been writing with us for as long as we’ve been a group blog. I can’t sing his praises enough. I’m sure I can’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","8":"category-technology","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1840,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1840\/flashed-cards-how-direct-marketer-richard-riccelli-turned-his-business-card-into-a-demo-direct-marketing-piece\/","url_meta":{"origin":4785,"position":0},"title":"Flashed cards: How direct marketer Richard Riccelli turned his business card into a demo direct marketing piece","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Richard Riccelli is a direct marketing creative genius. Where better to express that genius than on his business card? Says Richard:A website preview and a free offer all on a business card... Each card features a common contact front with a different info back that makes a free offer --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":171,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/171\/my-friend-richard-riccelli-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4785,"position":1},"title":"My friend, Richard Riccelli . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend and esteemed colleague Richard Riccelli called tonight to talk about the custom yard signs -- among many hundreds of millions of other things. 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Some cards are better than others as this recent article from Inc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Innovation"","block_context":{"text":"Innovation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/innovation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/before%2Bafter_biz_card-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2859,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2859\/why-chicks-dig-laand-dallas-and-phoenix-and-denver-and\/","url_meta":{"origin":4785,"position":4},"title":"Why chicks dig LA…and Dallas and Phoenix and Denver and…","author":"Richard Riccelli","date":"March 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Depending upon where you sell homes, you now have one powerful reason (of two) to target single, out-of-town buyers (as if Miami realtors need another reason to attract Minneapolis men). Me, I'm staying put in Charleston. But while the numbers may look good, I am furiously mining the data for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3031,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3031\/inside-the-liars-loan-how-the-mortgage-industry-nutured-deceit\/","url_meta":{"origin":4785,"position":5},"title":"Inside the Liar’s Loan – How the Mortgage Industry Nutured Deceit","author":"Richard Riccelli","date":"April 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Well-written piece by Mark Gimein in Slate this morning asks an interesting and important question: In ordinary circumstances, the people and institutions you deal with reinforce social norms. They say it's not OK to lie. But what happens when the structures and institutions break down and start telling you the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4785"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4786,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions\/4786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}