It's time for us to fight the good fight and stand up against the negative media who's only real motivation in what they report is pushing their product!
The flap surrounding the '60 Minutes' story on real estate in May stirred many in our industry to take pen in hand and vent frustration at what seemed to be the ultimate assault on the traditional real estate brokerage model. From the burnished town of CBC News, the media once again took aim at full-service brokers with an inflammatory headline and slanted editorial.
In the time that has passed, that one story has been replaced by numerous others. The news cycle continues to churn, and we should expect no significant change to the tone of headlines that are designed to fetch the widest audiences and the highest advertising dollar.
So, what's next? Beyond writing a letter, venting on a blog (would we do that?), or complaining to our spouses, what can we do to counter this assault? The answer lies with a common-sense approach of winning mind-share one customer at a time. In a sustained and concerted effort, it is imperative that the residential real estate industry promotes our value and successes, educates our professionals, and informs the public about important real estate issues. We need to take these actions in each and every community we serve if we ever expect to win the hearts and minds of our customers, which is all that really matters.
Trite but true, everybody loves a winner. The first thing we do is promote our successes by letting people know that houses are selling and that our customers are enjoying great service. If every brokerage firm in the U.S. dedicated at least 20% of their online and offline advertising to promote recently sold listings, we could communicate in a very graphic fashion the clear fact that the housing market is healthy and that our customers have achieved their success through our efforts on their behalf.
The next thing we have to do is educate our sales professionals on how to effectively articulate our value proposition. As a routine part of any marketing presentation, associates should be able to share a number of performance-related facts with the consumer regarding average time on market, list-to-sale price ratios, and other data that clearly illustrate the tangible benefits of conducting business with our firms. In addition, we should be able to easily outline the value of the human service element that cannot be replicated by some kind of mapping mash-up alone.
And finally, we need to stay abreast of the industry issues and become a resource to our local media and sphere of influence regarding real estate issues that surface in the national media. All real estate is local and all real estate news is local, too. When the Wall Street Journal runs a headline that at first glance would herald doom and gloom for every homeowner in America, when, in fact, it only describes a single local market, we need to approach this as an opportunity to inform the public. Armed wit the facts as they pertain to our own markets, the national story becomes our opening to reach out to the local media and our customers to provide relevant context and meaning regarding the local impact of the issue. In doing so, we can become the expert resource for the local media while building credibility with our customer base.
It won't be long before the next inflammatory real estate story invites rebuttal from myself and any number of professionals from our industry. Rather than sitting idly by waiting for that day, a proactive approach to communicating our value proposition and demonstrating service excellence will do far more to keep our industry strong, our professionals well compensated, and our customers well satisfied.
Simply put, actions speak louder than words and now is the time to act!
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