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How To Distinguish Yourself From The Competition

Your personal brand is your unique combination of attributes that distinguishes you from the competition.

You Really Are Distinctive

As a real estate agent you are distinctive...no other agent has the same combination of skills and resources that you offer to clients.

Many factors contribute to your uniqueness.

These factors include:

your combination of personal traits and characteristics
your interests and values
how you serve clients differently than anyone else
the value that you deliver to clients
the benefits that you deliver to clients
what you do better than anyone else.

'Me-Too' Marketing & Client Service

Unfortunately many agents sacrifice this distinctiveness choosing instead to copy the marketing and client service activities of others. real estate advertising

For reasons I fail to understand, when it comes to marketing and client service many fiercely independent agents adopt the 'me-too' approach.

While priding themselves on their uniqueness and individuality they follow the same approaches...or standard formulas...of marketing their services and serving. As a result, their services become little more than a mere commodity.

Perhaps they believe that because everyone seems to be advertising in the same way...that is the right and only way of advertising.

Or they may mistakenly think that since every agent seems to follow identical procedures for servicing listings, nothing else works.

Certainly we can all learn a great deal from the activities of others...there is no reason that we have duplicate what they do and do things exactly the same way.

By all means, learn what works for other agents. But to distinguish yourself from the competition use your own uniqueness so that works well for other agents will work better for you.

Your Personal Brand Continues to Evolve

personal brand As your real estate experience grows, so will your knowledge and expertise.

As a result you will continue to distinguish yourself from other agents.

To develop a statement of your personal brand, start with your personal profile.

Then, add to your profile an outline of what distinguishes you from the other agents in your market.

Once you have revised, edited, reworked and word-smithed a statement of your you will have a critical element of virtually all of your marketing communications.

But remember, just as you and your market continue to grow and evolve as a person and real estate agent, so should your personal brand description.

Continue to update your personal brand so that it continues to reflect your distinctiveness as a real estate agent.

Posted by Larry Easto on 07/22/2009 06:44 AM

Comments (54)

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54 Comments on How To Distinguish Yourself From The Competition

JUL

2009

Shucks. I was planning on cleaning out the cargo area of my vehicle today.

After reading this post, I realize that I'm behind in updating profiles.

Get to work Lenn.

Im with Lenn. I had a pretty easy day today until I clicked on this post. I havent updated my profile in a year and I have changed.

Larry,

Wonderful information....thank you! I have to do some updating.

Great post - thanks for sharing - we need to stay updated ---- very important!

My brand is constantly evolving with the market. As my market changes I adapt and change with it, ie foreclosure to first time buyers.

Great information! What a gift today - thank you!

thanks again for an amazing post and some great tips.

Walking the update talk...I have just updated my ActiveRain profile.

Now I can get on with my planned work.

Very timely. My profile was on my to do list today. Thanks, Larry!

What you do, what you stand for, how you run your day to day real estate operation, your life is important. But how you present and get the word out is vastly different these days. You have the broker with bullet points of how much integrity they have, how hard working, etc. And then instead of reading the copy and paste same old same old blurb, there are brokers who give you videos of who they are, how they work, that talk one on one, not scripted with the viewer and potential buyer/seller. That delivery is as important as the subject matter.

I agree that as Ziglar says" that competence and confidence go up at the same time"

You hit the mark again Larry. What do you do, stay up all night and see where we are falling behind?

Larry -- You have addressed something very important and often overlooked. Looks like we all have some profile tweaking to do today!

Great information, I printed it to remind me of all that I am suppose to do even if I'm busy. Sometimes you let it slide. Have a great day!

Larry, two of my favorite web sites for great branding is www.duckin.com and www.come2az.com. The impressive thing to me is that these sites were doen orginally over ten years ago. I realize that web sites are not a must have in today's social media were done originally ten years ago. I realize that web sites are not an absolute must anymore in this era of social media but I still hold to them. Regardless, Rick Miner and Alice Held set the standard years ago.

Great post. Now I have some work to do.

Evelyn:

Thanks for your ongoing & enthusiastic support for my blog posts. The only thing better than having faithful readers is having faithful readers who offer positive feedback. I very much appreciate you...and other faithful readers taking the time to comment on my posts. I really appreciate all of the comments.

In response to your question, "What do you do, stay up all night and see where we are falling behind?"...my answers are no and no.

Since you raised the question, I thought that you and other readers might be interested in how I come up with the posts. At the end I will explain the relevance my explanation.

I thought that youAlthough I am a strong advocate of planning, my blog posts tend to be more spontaneous. I am now writing 2 posts each weekday. One is intended to be more thought-provoking...like today's post about cover letters and the other is intended to be more practical...like this one.

The thought-provoking one is based on what is happening in my life or my work. Yesterday, I added a new page about cover letters to my website...so it made sense to write about that today. Interestingly, the idea for this page arose last week when I was messing around with a new tool for identifying keywords.

During this messing around I learned that the demand (online searches) for 'cover letter' was abut twice as much as the supply (online use of the word). This being the case, I thought that if I could find a way to build a page about cover letter, it would probably do well with the search engines. My challenge was to think of a marketing application of cover letters. Bingo...all I had to do was build the page.

The practical post is ususally recycled...which means that I have used it some where once before. I clean it up and reuse it as a blog post.

So..why is this relevant?

It seems that so many people find themselves getting caught up in the busy-ness of their work...especially real estate agents...that not only do they miss much of what is happening around them...they lose the opportunity to reflect on what is happening right before their eyes.

And not surprisingly, they are often so busy that they forget what happened in the past.As a result, instead of reusing something from the past...they work hard at reinventing the wheel.

I enjoy the luxury that I have...to notice what is happening around me and also to reflect on it. What makes this even better, is sharing my reflections with you, knowing that quite often my thoughts are helpful.

Thanks for asking the question Evelyn...the answer allowed me to sneak in a free blog. LOL

I have been tweaking my profiles on ActiveRain and Zillow for a few weeks now, and still have some more tweaking to do. Thanks for the reminder.

Larry, I have copied all my profiles and put them in a notebook preparing to do just that - update and improve them. Actually, to make them all pretty much the same. That's an idea for a post too - Are you a Profile Schizophrenic? or something like that lol! I'm going to check out your links relating to this, as I'm sure they will be very helpful. Thanks for writing this :)

Sharon

Larry, I can't keep up. There's so much to do and just as I was going to take your advice...I know it's behind, I need to do it, but a former client walked in and asked if I can fit her in today. She really wants a beachside condo. Gosh darn, I'll have to put off updating my profiles yet again.

Life is good!

I actually updated my AR profile this morning before I saw your tweet about this post. Im really glad I did. :-)

Dear Larry:

As a branding and marketing professional in the luxury real estate arena, we applaud your blog post. It is well put and simply stated. Updating and refreshing one's brand is the key to staying on the leading edge.

Thanks for this post

Larry,

Excellent post. Your ideas are ones I have used for years and they have truly set me apart from other local agents and most of what I do is simple, common sense stuff (it usually is, huh?).

I think we, as consumers ourselves tend to be drawn towards those who stand out in a crowd. We ourselves do not want the "same ole same ole" way of doing things and maybe that is what inspires us to be different, or unique!

Good stuff!

BEST BLOG OF THE DAY! :)

Differentiate or die. And there are so many ways!

Ha, good post today. There's always something to update, something to do. It's constant isn't it.

Patricia Aulson/portsmouth nh real estate

Shakespeare was always right! "To thine own self be true". Too many get lost trying to be another successful Realtor. You are not them, go with your own strengths. Great writing once again, Larry. Congrats on the well deserved feature! I change and add to my profiles weekly. Thank you.

Larry, personal branding is so important in standing out as YOU. We should always be ME, Inc. and not try to just cookie cut others approaches.

Great advice, we all need our own brand.

Gosh Larry this is wonderful intel you've shared. And your response to Evelyn was a great blog in itself. Thanks so much!

Larry,

I went to a 2 days class in Austin, Texas last fall taught by a formr real estate agent who started a marketing company just for real estate agents. Yesterday there was a 2 hour class in my office taught by another former real estate agent who is now in marketing. They disagree on what you should do to market yourself.

I think the bottom line is you have to do what works for you and makes you comfortable.

Ann:

I TOTALLY agree with your bottom line!!

From my experience, people like the instructors in Austin and your office promote techniques and approaches that work for them.

This would make a great deal of sense if everyone in their audiences were exactly like them...but guess what...we are all different.

Each of us has to find what works best for us individually...and then continue to get better at doing it.

I think I am very available. May not sound special but think about all the people you can never reach.

I have been successful mainly due to the fact that I never do what everyone else does! Set yourself apart from the pack.

Great points Larry...If everyone incorporated these into their business we'd all be a lot more successful!

Best,
Dan

It is amazing how so many agents take the exact same approach and use many of the exact same materials. You can pick up a real estate book in any town in America and see duplication. I'm in agreement with you - be yourself - an original.

Hi Larry -- I agree that not re-inventing the wheel is important as there is always a finite amount of time.

I have to update my profile? But I looked so much better four years ago!:) Seriously, though, now is a great time to do just that, update the profile and the picture also, if needed. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while. Time to get to it!

This gives me food for thought again Larry. After just over a week here on AR I'm feeling that I'm learning so much already! I have so many new ideas that I hardly know where to start...(Fortunately my profile is only a week old, so I don't need to update that yet.:-)

I am surprised by my branding every day. I was out the other day at an industry function and had several people point me out as "the car guy Realtor"... I love that.

I agree, you have to stand out from the crowd. If you dont than you will lose your clients to any agent that comes along

This was a thought-provoking post. I am NOT going to get to any updating today - "why do today what you can put off to tomorrow?"

JUL

2009

Yes and if using a template website, please update the canned "about me" page with your unique content...Cathy Chaudemanche

Great Stuff Larry! With 80% or more of home buyers looking online for their next (or first) home, it is vitally important to have a current, fresh, compelling profile that demonstrates our knowledge, wisdom and capabilities. I'm guilty of needing to refresh mine also. Anther thing on my long list of social networking things to do. Thanks for the reminder!

Great post! Agents MAY even want to take it a bit farther. Many agents have left the industry and many have cut back on their marketing expenses...now is the time to shine...not only in getting your name out there, but taking that leap to specialize. As the market gets stronger (and it will) so will you. By specializing in one or two segments of the market, you simplify your life and end up speaking more clearly to an audience rather than blending in as an "I-specialize-in-everything-" agent.

Your biggest obstacle to this will be fear...fear of losing all that OTHER business (that you don't have anway). However, you will find just the contrary happening. By speaking more directly to a specific market, you will stand out, more consumers will pay attention to what you have to say, and not only will home buyers come to you because you are perceived as the expert...but the home SELLERS of those properties will perceive you as the expert as well and you will increase your inventory.

Marketing is all about speaking to the consumer, and so few real estate agents really understand how to do that effectively. Overcoming that fear and secialize in something you truly belive in and can become passionate about, and I promise you that everything will fall into place.

It is a personal business and we need to meet our clients with our best skills and traits.

Many salespeople or agents are scared to "not" follow the pack. Like you said nothing wrong with watching what works and getting ideas but duplication should be left to the copy machines and not agents. Good points!

JUL

2009

I update annually in Dec....I'll do it more often. Thanks for the reminder.

Great post, thanks for the reminder that updating and customizing your profile for your unique qualities is the best thing to do. What do you bring to the table? What can you offer clients? Better than the me, me, I, I approach of others.

I like the Zig Zigglar quote from someone above. I love that guy!

JUL

2009

You always inspire me. I am new to AR, so hopefully profile is up to date. Wait....I better go check! Thanks so much for the support you offer the industry!

Caro Riley, Albuquerque,NM, Huntington Real Estate

JUL

2009

I couldn't agree more. I think branding is the cruciao and it must be uniquely you. I happen to use humor on all my mailed contacts and my database actually look forward to my mail. Thanks for your thoughts.

JUL

2009

Larry: What a great reminder. Especially as we gather experience in the business, we've only been doing this for three 1/2 years now, there is so much we could update and add. Thanks.

AUG

2009

Good post Larry,

Every body needs to stay updated. I try.

AUG

2009

Very true Larry. Every person is terrific and amazing in their own way. So let yourself shine!

OCT

2009

You always give great advise, I definitely need a change up and always seem to put it on the back bunner.

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Larry Easto

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