Most of us don't give a lot of thought to Toilet paper unless we visit a foreign country. We see it advertised on television, in magazines in fact just about everywhere. You can buy it at the market, the drug store, even some gas stations..just about any place. It used to be something that only the rich could afford but over the years it has become a staple in just about every home and public restroom in the country.
Here is an interesting thing about toilet paper.. it all looks alike but the difference in quality is huge. I found this out a week ago when I picked up a package at a local store. There was a big aisle of the stuff.. all sizes and brands. I only needed a 4 roll package .. no one makes small packages anymore..so after looking I picked up a valuepack of the store brand because it was smallest available. It looked really good and it said I should compare the price to brand XXYY as they were the same.... WRONG..
When I opened the package the first thing I noticed was that the roll was squishy.. not soft .. squishy.. that was because it was rolled to appear large but really wasn't.. My Mother was visiting .. she is 85 and grew up during the Depression.. she is thrifty and frugal.. I don't believe she has the first dime she ever earned but I know for sure she has the third and fourth... and boy was she ticked about the quality of this stuff. When she makes statements about you get what you pay for... you know you made a big error..
Oh.. did I mention this was on Sunday night when 60 Minutes presented their quality report on scum sucking REALTORS® with their sacrosanct 6% vs the Splendid folks from Redfin who give the same quality for less.... I was particularly impressed by the top notch agent who had gone to work for Redfin because she couldn't justify making so much money for 5 hours of work. I believe she has made a good choice in Redfin.. she won't have to work so many hours now..
Naturally after watching the program my first thought .. was about the toilet paper. I wondered how many people were like the ones on 60 Minutes.. who didn't care about quality.. just cost. I wondered if people really look at an aisle full of agents and think they all look alike so pick the smallest or cheapest. I was curious about how many agents seem to look like a full service agent but are really just squishy inside because they don't have the content of a professional agent.
So I guess my real question is.. how are you projecting yourself so you look different from the rest of the rolls in the aisle. There has been a lot of talk about transparency but do clients really care about transparency or do they just want cheap. Brian Brady has an interesting take on Transparency in Lending.. that addresses the issue. Reading the comments made on the CBS site about that story I was amazed at the consumers who defended us.. intrigued by those who didn't care about whether or not anything said was true about agents .. they hated all agents across the board and sadly.. embarrassed by how some of the agents who responded conducted themselves.
I think that I am of the opinion that transparency is probably not the answer. I don't think most people are interested in what we do to earn our money. They want results not justification. I think the ones who rant against agents are much like the Bubble bloggers.. they have an agenda and nothing will change that agenda. The ones who want the Redfin model will use them and never admit it didn't work so well.. as for the rest of the people who may use our services.. they will expect to receive good value for the money they spend.. and will not choose just any roll from the aisle. How you prove your worth will be the determining factor in how well you do in our business.
If you do a great job for your clients.. they won't question your worth.. and who knows you might even get a stunning bouquet of Spring flowers with a lovely note from a client who appreciates your value..... just like I did today...
All content copyright © 2007 Kaye Thomas
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Kaye - loved this analogy - it's late here i gotta come back and read more tomorrow - really loved it thought!!! Great job!!