(Here’s a post from November, 2009 that’s still very relevant. The point is: since there is not one iota of difference in the consumer experiences at Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Keller-Willams, Re/Max, and every other ordinary real estate company, since they are all selling exactly the same thing, their ‘pitch’ ends up being smoke, mirrors and begging. You have to have something different that works before your ‘pitch’ can be educational, meaningful and powerful. )
It dawned on me 20 years ago when I was working as a Business Consultant for one of the other large national real estate franchises: In the ordinary real estate world, we were all beggars.
Agents made listing presentations where they begged sellers to work with them. Then they begged them to reduce the price and relist. They begged their buyers to be loyal.
Brokers begged agents to come work in their offices. They begged them not to leave, too.
The Franchises begged (really: begged) people to join them. Then they begged them to use the tools, begged them to do the thngs that would help them succeed and begged them to renew at the end of their term.
It was all very degrading, all this begging.
In a universe where everyone is on their own and everyone has the same set of tools, where all the players are just alike — making a convincing argument for your service becomes sophisticated begging. It’s no longer a matter of educating the customer about the benefits your particular way of doing business can bring to bear on their situation. It’s about having enough flair to make the ordinary seem special, enough personality to be convincing when you say, ‘Trust me.’
When I came to Help-U-Sell, I noticed something different. I saw agents and brokers who had more then their personalities to distinguish them from the pack. They had systems that worked. They had a specific way of marketing a listing that got it sold. They had a unique way of starting a new agent in the business that made them productive. They had a carefully structured method of working with buyers that not only resulted in loyalty, but also produced such customer satisfaction that testimonials were a cinch. Everyone — brokers, agents, even the franchisor — was coming from a position of strength because they were backed by a unique business model that worked.
The Help-U-Sell Listing Consultation is not about trying to convince the seller that you’re the best. It’s about showing the seller enough of your program that they want it, and then deciding if this is a listing you want to take, a seller you can work with.
We don’t chase buyers. We capture them with a carefully constructed intake system (the Buyer Data Sheet), and then do a consultation that ends in a loyalty commitment.
When we recruit (and we only do this when our program has created more business than we can handle with current staff), we don’t try to convince every agent who walks through the door to join us. We look for the few who recognize the value of being able to focus on a single, managable aspect of the business. Then we put them through Science 2 Sales training and hold them to a reasonable production standard.
It’s all about having systems that produce results. That’s what puts you in a position of strength so that you don’t have to beg for business.