I'm struck by the parallels between winning listings and sells and winning political office. Here are just of few of the similarities:
Name ID
The first thing most people notice about either activity are the lawn signs, newspaper ads, mailings and door-to-door visits. I come out of a campaign background, so flooding the community w/images of the politician is essential. Simply put--voters vote for the person they know--or think they know. The goal is to market your candidate in a way that results in your candidate gaining a higher level of name recognition than the opponent.
Geography specific
Realtors--like politicians--carve out a geographic area. While politicians are forced to because of the way political boundaries are set, Realtors do it because it maximizes their ability to raise their name ID--making it easier to identify and persuade prospects.
Winning the vote/sale
Politicians organize campaigns in order to win a party's endorsement and then to win a plurality of votes on election day. Realtors conduct campaigns in order to win listings and then to sell the homes.
Engaging and expanding their base
From day one in office, politicians look for ways to promote themselves to the voters. The idea is to stay in regular communications with your supporters and to expand the number of people that know and support you. Realtors also must work constantly to keep in touch w/clients--and to cultivate new clients.
Promises
Both professionals involve identify people's real needs and offering to fix them. But in both professions there are people who are better at promising than in delivering, and, of course, there are voters and sellers/buyers that expect the impossible. Trust is a vital commodity in both professions, but it's something that is so easily betrayed.
Bottom line is that both professions are essential to the health of market-based democracies. I believe that most politicians as well as most Realtors are honorable, accountable and conscientious people. But all it takes is a few rotten apples to ruin things for everyone.
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