Presentation is EVERYTHING!

When you get leads from any resource, what are you doing to make your service for them truly personalized? In my conversations with agents every day, I hear agents saying they give "personalized service."

Technology allows us to reach more people at one time than ever before, but if we're not careful our service can become as personalized as a letter addressed to "Mark Boyd or Current Resident."

I came across something today that is VERY easy to overlook in our efforts to be efficient. Many of you send a Market Snapshot to your entire database monthly or quarterly. This is a wonderful thing to do, as we all know this is information that is constantly changing. However, remember that it is not a substitute for a "free CMA."

Yes, I know. "Free CMA" is a request that many of you are tired of hearing, but it's something that means EVERYTHING to a potential client. Of course, it's truly an estimate and shouldn't take you more than about 5 minutes to do...a small investment to be sure.

In my conversation with an agent this morning about his follow-up with the leads he receives from the company I work for, I asked him "Did you give them all a free CMA?" He replied "Yes...I have a market snapshot I send to my database every month." I then said, "So you didn't give them free CMA's." to which he replied "They're the same thing."

I then explained that while the information is indeed the same, it's the presentation that matters.  A free CMA has only their name on it, as well as yours, and when the client looks at it they can say "He/She did this for ME." THAT'S personalized service. Think of it like that new Pizza Hut commercial promoting their new Tuscany Pasta dinners. These people thought they were eating the fancy recipe of a fancy chef because the presentation was just super, but in fact they were eating Pizza Hut pasta. Nothing at all wrong with that, especially since they all seemed to like the food...but it just goes to show that no matter what the substance, presentation can mean everything. Bon Appetit!