Today marketing is more important to your business than ever. In today’s ‘noisy world’, how are you going to cut through and stand out?
In a bit, I’ll share the three questions customers ask themselves when they are thinking of hiring you.
Because the world has changed so fast, you can’t ignore marketing anymore; IMO you can’t just ‘hire a company’ to do it for you either because if all you’re doing is:
- Telling people how you’re #1;
- You have the lowest price
- Your service is the best
YOU’RE DOING WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING!!
And that means…
Your competition is a click away.
In my world, primarily coaching real estate entrepreneurs, I find it very interesting that realtors still use a lot of old-school methods of “marketing” and advertising as their PRIMARY and sometimes ONLY source of lead generation.
ALL of my clients want more customers. I’ll bet you do too. But who doesn’t?
It’s kind of funny (not in a laughing ha-ha way) when a realtor client first comes to me; all they want is for me to help them with a new script or fancy way to make their postcard “stand out from the competition”.
Hmm, seems like a lot of ’em have been brainwashed about what marketing truly is.
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying “don’t put out a postcard” – I’m saying what ELSE are you doing? And, what does your marketing campaign look like?
And more importantly, WHO is your customer and HOW are you connecting with them?
For most realtors, they think their customer is ‘everyone’ and ‘marketing’ is a big ass newspaper advertisement or billboard they are paying through the nose to keep up.
Even if that works, most of them lose it when they sit down with their potential client anyway.
Why?
Because when it comes down to it, they are just another realtor trying to ‘convince’ a prospect to ‘choose’ them.
They try to ‘sell’ the customer on how great they are and why they should use them.
Biggest and best means nothing in marketing – avoid the hype and don’t “we-we” all over yourself. Tell customers what you’re going to do for THEM.
Let me share a secret:
If You Find Yourself Trying to Convince Anyone of Anything, You’ve Already Lost.
There’s no connection. From my experience, MOST of realtors are never asking:
“What can I do for you?” (I mean REALLY do for the customer)
“How can I make this transaction easier and more convenient for you?”
“Is there anything you would like me to take care of that would take some pressure off of you?”
(I’m just spitballin’ here, but you get the idea)
I’ve listened to many of my clients’ ‘sales’ pitches when they first come to me and I ask them:
“Where, in ANY part of that message did you identify their fears and help them understand that you get it? Where did you talk about solving their REAL problems other than you promising you will sell their house?” I continue “isn’t that what everyone else promises?”
Full disclosure: I’m no realtor, but I play one on TV (that’s a joke BTW) and I’ve helped many of ’em build their businesses because I can look at it from the outside. I am not ‘bound’ or ‘brainwashed’ by what the ‘industry has always done’.
I don’t know about you, but pounding on doors and spending my mornings calling 100s of people for a potential customer is not my idea of marketing or what I consider a ‘successful business’. I know this will piss off some realtors out there and that’s ok – I’m here to help you put your business on auto-pilot.
If your message is all about you, how you’re number one, how you have the best service then what is the story your potential clients tell themselves about you?
The argument I get back is: “it tells them I’m number one, so when they want the best, they’ll call me”
Great. They’ll call you and everyone else with that same message. Then it becomes a battleground.
Here’s an example:
When we wanted to sell our home ten years ago, we ‘chose’ a realtor team from a recommendation. Long story short, all I wanted was for BOTH of them to be at EVERY open house. ( I can see some realtor teams shaking their heads right now )
I didn’t want their ‘experienced staff’. That’s just me. If they couldn’t comply, then tell me and I’d make a decision to still use them, or move to someone else.
(The reason was mainly because I had a $100k music studio in my basement and THEY were recommended to me, NOT their staff)
But they did promise “no problem Joe”, they NEVER delivered. Yea, they ‘sold’ our house (after the ol’ “hey the first offer is the best offer…just take it” routine) but I would never recommend them to anyone. In fact, when we spoke to the new owner, he told me “I’m surprised you didn’t counter offer, we were willing to pay $10,000 over asking”.
They aren’t bad people…they just over-promised to get the listing and then wanted the transaction over as fast as possible.
When You Over-Promise , You Are Either a Workaholic or a Liar.
Read that again and let it sink in.
I’m calling it like it is – and I’m guilty of it too. I’ve worked around the clock for MOST of my business career just to live up to what I said.
I sacrificed more than you can imagine and if you know my story, you know what I’m talking about. Today I see realtors, investors and entrepreneurs doing the same thing – sacrificing their lives, their family and friends JUST for ‘business’.
They are either working 24 hours, their phone never shuts off or they are complaining about “how much the client wants”.
Hey, YOU over-promised, remember???
But I digress…
I’ll end this rant with the three questions customers ask themselves when they see or hear your message:
Your Customers Are Asking These Three Questions:
- Why should I ‘buy’ this over everything else offered? (how are you different from Joe-blow realtor?)
- What does this mean to me? (do you have a unique selling proposition?)
- Why should I buy from YOU? (how do you CONNECT with them?)
Bottom line: they should have an ’emotional connection’ to you because you’ve identified their worst pains and frustrations and you’ve told them how you’re going to solve them.
What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear from you below.