It’s your biggest enemy to the building of your agency.
Similarly, if you’re finding prospective sellers constantly wanting to have appraisals from several agencies, or they’re wanting to haggle over your fees, or list at an unrealistic price level, then you need to be aware of the second most neglected factor in the marketing of real estate agency services…
The two most problematic factors to your marketing are:
Parity marketing
Lack of Credibility
Have you ever thought that from the point of view of homeowners, you all look and sound much the same?
You might have a different logo, be an independent operator, or within a franchise, but look at your business from an outsider’s perspective.
Your offices are generally much the same, your sales literature such as ‘Free appraisal offers’ is much the same, your listing material is much the same and in a listing presentation you say almost the same thing.
The fact is, you’re not standing out from your competitors in a way that distinguishes you as being the best agent to contact. So the question has to be asked: “Why should a prospective home seller contact you rather than any of the others?”
One of the most challenging factors to occur in ‘Parity Marketing’ is that it is very difficult to achieve status – or in other words credibility.
You see, when people haggle with you or fail to accept your recommendation on the correct listing price of their property, the problem is that you’re not being regarded as the ‘stand-out expert’ – someone of significance – an authority on your subject.
Look at it this way…
If you had a legal problem you would go to someone you regard as having expertise – a solicitor. And if there was a solicitor who specialised in your particular problem area, you would undoubtedly go to this one.
If you’re thinking of hiring this person to sort out your particular problem, would you haggle and ignore his/her advice?
You probably wouldn’t because this specialist is ‘positioned’ in your mind as the expert and what you’re wanting is an expert to handle your issue. In other words that person has ‘the credibility factor’.
So if you’re going to overcome the challenges of your competition, win more appraisal opportunities and win a greater share of the listings that arise in your area you have to …
“The more you get into their heads –the easier it is to get their business”!
One of the world’s marketing legends, Jay Abraham made this point when explaining that in today’s marketing there’s a far greater need to show prospective customers you’re keen to help and advise them.
This is because things have changedt. Most people nowadays are somewhat wary about being ‘sold’ to. They want to ‘buy,’ but claims like ‘we give the best service’ and other platitudes of that ilk don’t wash any more.
He says:
So think about it…
The answer is information that they want and need to know.
And the information that just about all homeowners are interested in whether they’re at the point of selling their home or not is..
If your agency provides this information on a consistent, regular basis, you will gradually be seen as the expert – the authority on the area’s property market.
Why? Because people who they regard as being the source of information that they want and need to know, are automatically seen with esteem – and regarded for their expertise.
What’s more, by giving people this information you gain ‘piece of mind’.
‘Piece of mind’ is marketing parlance for an automatic responsive thought. In other words just as you probably automatically think of Bunnings when you need hardware products, or Coca-Cola when you think of soft-drink, so you can gain ‘piece of mind’ when the residents of your area think of real estate and the selling of their property.
And when you gain ‘piece of mind’ you have a significantly greater chance of being asked to give an appraisal and to win the listing.
If effect, you gain a ‘pre-sold’ client and a definite competitive advantage over your competition.
We’re not talking about generic newsletters as produced by some franchise organisations. We could produce these ourselves, but we can tell you that research has proven they have very little value.
This is because:
People, when they’re not in the mode for selling their property do not have a high level of interest in real estate matters, so if you’re going to grab their interest, you have to provide them with what they’re interested in which is generally limited to…
If the publication doesn’t have local content, we can tell you now, you will not achieve much readership traction. In our opinion the generic newsletter produced by franchise organisations has been a blight on newsletters because newsletters can be of great value – if they’re created correctly!
Yes, we know online costs less to produce and it’s the ‘modern way to go’ – but, unfortunately if you want to register your agency in the minds’ of the homeowners in your area – you have to get into their minds before they’re ready to sell.
Offering an on-line newsletter to people when they’re keen to sell is generally trying to catch them when the horse has bolted.
When you promote to people at the point when they’ve decided to sell their home (they’re hot to buy a service) unless you’re known to them, your chances of getting in the door to give an appraisal are at the same level as every other agency’s in the area. Not much better than a raffle.
If you’re going to become the agency of first choice you have to be more pro-active than this – and that means becoming known, differentiating yourself and building the perception ( a ‘position’ in their minds) that you are their area property market expert.
Media Support Services specialises in producing Property Market Report newsletters for real estate agencies.
We’ve been producing them since 2002 for real estate agents in Perth, Sydney and Adelaide.
It’s a personalised service and it’s locality exclusive.
By ‘locality exclusive’ we mean that we have total loyalty to our client. We only serve one client in an area which means that our services are not available to everyone.
It’s a personalised service because our business writers discuss what’s happening in your area with you.
After meeting with you (if you’re in the metropolitan area) or discussing over the telephone (if you’re in a regional location), we write the copy, then design the publication.
We then email a copy for you to check that you’re happy with the material. It should be stressed that it is not a problem to alter the copy – it is your publication – it must be a good reflection of you – and you must be happy with it.
Once you’re pleased with it, the publication is sent to print with whatever number you require.
You need to see samples of publications and of course, you need to know the costings.
There are several variations to choose from to suit your budget, hence the best way is to have a chat with our Publications Director, Howard Wilcockson.
He’ll give you whatever detail you require and in fact, if at a later stage, you would like to speak with some of our clients so that you can be reassured of the quality of our work and our bonafides, you’re most welcome to do so.
So don’t delay in taking the next step towards making your agency stand out from the crowd… call 1300 557 660 or email: howard@mediasupportservices.com.au
