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Calling all real estate agents: Why should anyone do business with you?
If you're a real estate agent or mortgage broker, then I have a simple question for you:
Why should anyone do business with you?
I call this: "Reason Why Marketing".
If you don't give the client at least one good "reason why", then you are losing a lot of potential business.
I find the real estate industry very interesting. No other industry has these many independent contractors all in business for themselves. And the vast majority of them are also tasked with the assignment of branding themselves.
When I say branding you might think I am talking about slogans. No, I am not going to dig up agent slogans for this entry. Let's just say there are good ones and maybe not so good ones.
Instead you need to start thinking about what separates you from your competition.
What do you bring to the client that no-one else does? Or if you don't have anything special, maybe you do something better than the rest of the agents in your market? It's all about educating the prospect.
In a buyers market two different positioning ideas comes to mind:
1. If you're working with buyers a reward that locks them in and give them an easy to understand "reason why" is very powerful. It could be a rebate or gift at closing. The 1% cash back at closing is becoming increasingly popular throughout the country among agents.
2. If you're focused on listings then marketing and negotiation skills are great for positioning. Be sure to be able to quantify and explain very clearly why you're better than the other agents. Can you make a guarantee that provides value to the client? Can you show marketing skills that other agents don't?
Service levels are also great. Explain very clearly why your service level is so exceptional. If you have testimonials to back it up it will create a powerful message.
This is a great time to start refining your message for 2007. And the basic process is simple.
Answer this question: Why should anyone do business with you?
Write down your answer. Read it out loud.
Then ask yourself this follow up question: So what? Continue questioning yourself until
you feel you have something that you truly believe in.
I would love if you would be so kind to post your answer to the question as a comment to this post.
Thanks in advance!
All the best.
-Ola
Comments
Ola,
Wow, this is really great post. You should syndicate this one on Real Estate Voices.
Posted by: REBlogGirl | December 5, 2006 02:04 PM
Hi REBlogGirl,
Thank you so much for the nice comment. :-)
I just posted the story on Real Estate Voices. Thanks for the tip!
http://www.realestatevoices.com/story/Calling-all-real-estate-agents-Why-should-anyone-do-business-with-you/
Best,
Ola
Posted by: Ola Edvardsson | December 5, 2006 03:38 PM
There are those who shop at JC Penney because of the low prices and they don't care that the customer service is mediocre and bland. Then there are those who shop at Nordstrom and pay more for a similar product because they feel that the higher level of service is worth the extra money.
One approach is figuring out which demogrpahic you wish to cater to and focus on that. Once you get going, you'll start getting referals of people in the same demogrpahic. Birds of a feather...
Another approach is to offer your clients a choice of service levels. If they want the entire spectrum of services including open houses and print media, then the cost is "X". If they do not wish to have open houses or print media, then the cost is "Y", etc. You may end up attracting a broad demogrpahic of clientele and diversifying a bit.
I'm sure that every geographic area has different practices and therefore, a certain approach may work better than another. But try thinking outside of the box and see what happens.
Very good and helpful post!
Posted by: Danilo Bogdanovic | December 5, 2006 04:45 PM
Ola -
Indeed an excellent post. Found you via the Carnival of Real Estate. Love what you've got here. Looks like I get to add yet another blog to my blog reader...
Posted by: Jay | December 5, 2006 07:03 PM
Danilo - you're absolutely right. Focusing on a niche and have a clear positioning is very rewarding. Thanks for sharing.
Jay - Thanks for stopping by. Same to you... Phoenix Real Estate guy is a must read! Keep up your great work!
Posted by: Ola Edvardsson | December 5, 2006 08:45 PM
Good blog and good question for each of us to ask of ourselves. Gives us a focus and reason to better ourselves.
Posted by: Cyndi Sloop | December 6, 2006 10:29 PM
Hi Ola
No need to ask the question of yourself because you bet your bippee the customer will have already asked it. Best to have a convincing answer and proof to back it up, especially in this down market.
Good post!
Posted by: Nicki Conway | December 10, 2006 12:22 PM
Hi Ola,
Thanks for blog rolling me. I like what you are doing and I'll do the same.
Posted by: Maureen Francis | December 13, 2006 08:58 AM