From the very first day you get involved in selling real estate, you’re told you need to get your name out there – get known in the local market – become the authority for real estate buying & selling.
Without doing this, nobody will know they can contact YOU for their real estate needs, and you’ll have no sellers or buyers to work with and make no commissions.
And, if you make no sales, and earn no commissions, at some stage you’ll end up out of the industry due to non-performance.
Now, all of this is true. No arguments from me on this point.
So, how do MOST agents and agencies become an authority in their market?
Well, they do all sorts of things:
- Cold call prospects,
- Call your warm list of family, friends and past colleagues,
- Advertise on portal websites like realestate.com.au, domain.com.au and so forth,
- Print advertising, including letterbox drops, magazines, newspapers, etc,
- Other media advertising such as TV, Radio, Google, etc.
And here’s where most of them go down the wrong path and cost themselves money (specifically from lost sales opportunities)…
You see, everyone thinks the best way to promote yourself is to “brand” yourself, your agency name, talk about your years of experience in the industry, and other such options.
MANY years ago, when I first got into sales (back in the early 1990s), I was told by my mentors back then that customers & prospects don’t give a damn about you – all they care about is themselves.
Perhaps you’ve run across the acronym WIIFM before?
It stands for “What’s In It For Me?” and refers to the fact that EVERY buyer cares about what they’ll get out of the deal long before they give a damn about anything else.
Now, WIIFM makes complete sense when you think about it, and I doubt there would be one real estate sales professional out there who wouldn’t understand why…
Yet, time and time again, I see marketing & promotion from individuals and agencies within the real estate industry that are focussed on themselves INSTEAD of the prospective customer.
They say things like:
- We’re the #1 agency in <xyz location>
- We’ve been in business since 1954
- I’m the top rated/selling agent in <location>
- We’re the biggest real estate franchise in Australia, with x offices in y cities
- Million Dollar Club Member
- <Agent> prides himself on his relationship with clients and personable approach and you can be sure you are dealing with someone of the utmost integrity and professionalism in every capacity. [Note: copied word-for-word directly off an agent’s profile on realestate.com.au]
- <Agency> is a dynamic business with great people. We relentlessly pursue best outcomes for clients, each other and our culture. This means we are committed to living by our values. [Note: This was copied word-for-word off an agency’s own website]
Now, let’s assume for just 10 seconds you are in the market to buy a new car or an expensive overseas holiday.
How would you – as a real estate sales professional – view or respond to statements like this if they were made by the car dealer or travel agency you were considering buying from?
I’m confident that the most common response is going to be “So What!” or “What a load of *@%#”
That’s certainly how MOST buyers and sellers view these kinds of self-promotional (often called self aggrandizing) statements made in most real estate advertising & marketing.
The buying public Don’t. Give. A. Sh*t AND – even worse – they don’t believe it either!
How on earth does a statement like “<Agency> is a dynamic business with great people. We relentlessly pursue best outcomes for clients, each other and our culture. This means we are committed to living by our values” inspire a vendor to trust you, let alone want to do business with you?
Sure – the INTENT behind the statement is to say “We care about our clients and want the best outcome for them” – but the way it lands with the reader is “We like making bold statements about ourselves that have no value to you”…
Given the very low levels of trust the vast majority of the Australian buying public have for real estate salespeople (only slightly better than used car salespeople, which is nothing to brag about!), why on earth would you raise their defences by making statements like the above – statements that NO ONE believes for one second?
Yet, this is how most real estate marketing and promotion runs – because it’s been done that way for DECADES (not just days, weeks or years) and everyone has been sucked into thinking that this is how you have to promote and market – “brand” – yourself.
If you don’t believe me, go look at 20 of your competitors websites, ads and profile descriptions, and everytime you see them say “I” or “we” or “us”, also take careful note of how the statement or claim talks about them and not the prospect. I think you’ll be lucky to find more than one who doesn’t do this.
Why Ditching “Branding” Wins More Clients
Now, don’t get me wrong…
When properly positioned, all of the previous statements CAN be made into POWERFUL marketing messages that successfully influence customers to consider doing business with you.
The problem is in the POSITIONING of these statements – this is where almost everyone gets it wrong.
Remember WIIFM?
How can you reposition your marketing to fulfil on the promise of WIIFM and still get people to trust you and buy from you?
It’s simple really…
You ONLY talk about the direct and measurable benefits customers will get buying from you.
I call this the WTPW principle: “What The Prospect Wants”
Famous US Marketer and copywriter Jay Abraham says the key to writing great copy is empathy – having a heartfelt need to understanding the prospect’s deepest fears, needs and wants – and fulfilling on those fears, concerns, needs and wants with your offer.
So, if a prospective new vendor is looking to sell their house and wants to find an agent to list with, what do THEY want?
They usually want:
- Professional service
- Transparency around fees, charges and current market pricing for their house
- A fast sale
- As much money as possible from the sale
- Little or no hassles
Note: We already know that every vendor wants as much money as possible from the sale – it goes without saying – BUT they also tend to want the other items as well and if you can deliver on as many of them as possible, you’ve got the best chance of getting the listing out of all your competitors.
So, how do you effectively position these WTPW factors?
Well, how about some of these variations:
- As the #1 agency in <xyz location>, we GUARANTEE to sell your home quicker than the local average time-on-market. If we can’t deliver on this promise, we’ll refund your fees in full.
- As the top selling agent in <location>, my average final sale price is 1.12% above the original listing price for similar properties in this area. Not only can I provide the sales figures to prove this, but I also guarantee in writing that your property will be sold for more, or we will reduce our selling commission by 0.5%.
- As the biggest real estate franchise in Australia (with x offices in y cities), we have the largest database of prospective buyers on our books in the country. This means we can sell your home faster than our competition because we have MORE prospective clients to promote your home to. In fact, if we can’t sell your home in less than 60 days, we’ll compensate you with a $500 cash rebate to apologise for not delivering on our promise.
- We pride ourselves on the quality and professionalism of our customer service. If you list a property with us and are not satisfied that our agent has given satisfactory effort on your behalf, our fees are negotiable DOWNWARDS prior to acceptance of the offer by you.
- lf your property sells below the minimum price we quoted you (in writing), you will be released from any obligation to pay any commission. If you feel there is a valid reason for the property selling below the minimum quoted price, you can still elect to pay our agency; however the amount of commission payable to our agency will be at your sole discretion.
Now, I can GUARANTEE that many of you reading the above suggestions nearly had a heart attack and/or instantly decided I was an idiot for suggesting any of these variations…
HOWEVER, just putting aside your concerns about your commissions being at risk for one minute, stop and think how POWERFUL any of these offers would appear to any prospective vendors?
Notice how every single example I wrote above powerfully allays their fears, concerns, wants and desires. They all offer a STRONG guarantee that you are SERIOUS about how they will benefit from doing business with you. Any advertising making strong offers like this has real ‘skin in the game’ rather than just repeating the same B.S. that everyone else does.
Offers with a strong guarantee take away the RISK that vendors feel they face in choosing you as their agent/agency, which makes it so much easier to gain their trust AND get them to list with you instead of your low-priced competitor.
By the way, if you’ve ever complained about the cowboys in your market undercutting commissions to get a deal, now you have a strong alternative offer to fight back against them with.
You can even charge HIGHER commissions and still get the deal if your guarantee is strong and you can deliver on it, because vendors will go for the low risk option ahead of the low cost option more times than not.
And, lack of trust from buyers/sellers costs you more deals than you not being the cheapest does.
By adjusting all your marketing messaging to include WTPW & WIIFM factors, your marketing suddenly becomes turbo-charged.
Free Real Estate Client Attraction Blueprint
If you’re spending $500+/month on real estate advertising (this can include your portal listings, letterbox drops, etc.) and you’d like to dramatically increase your leads, sales & ROI, then you’ll want to take advantage of one of my FREE 30-minute strategy sessions to help you improve the results from your marketing.
Whether you’re an agent or principal, I’ll work with you to design a custom Client Attraction blueprint, help you identify the perfect target market for prospective buyers, and show you how to maximise your marketing results.
My promise to you is that by the time we get done with this fast-paced session, you will walk away with 3 actionable strategies for you to get more listings and more buyers… without the need to spend a fortune on wasteful advertising.
There are two ways to success in the real estate market. Outspend the competition or be smarter than the competition. In this call, I will share with you how to be smarter.
Plus, if you’re not thoroughly convinced the custom marketing blueprint I’ll provide will significantly improve your current advertising results – even if you NEVER choose to work with me to implement it – just let me know before we finish our call and I’ll happily donate $30 to the charity of your choice! (Of course, you’ll get a copy of the receipt)
By the way, there’s no cost to you for this strategy call.
Obviously I provide online Marketing services for real estate businesses, and if you see some value in the free help I give you, there’s a good possibility you might want to work with me to improve your lead generation results. And if you choose not to, that’s equally fine.
But… before you go any further, you need to know that I can’t help everybody.
I can only be of benefit to agents or agencies that currently advertise or market online or offline. You need to already be spending at least $500+ a month in advertising costs and – ideally – have your own operational website that can be updated with new content as needed.
If you don’t do much or any advertising, I won’t be able to help you.
So, if you meet my criteria AND would like to take advantage of a free 30 minute Strategy Call, simply click the link below. You’ll see a form with a few questions about your current marketing program and what you are looking to accomplish, as well as some contact details. Choose a day and time from my calendar to speak with me, and we’ll get together on a skype call to go over your situation and goals.
Lastly, when my schedule fills up, that’s it! So, if you meet the criteria AND are serious about wanting to take what you’ve learned from my blog post and develop a blueprint to increase the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing, then get started by clicking the link below.
Click here to request a FREE 30 Minute Marketing Strategy Call