Author: Special Contributor

Stand out in any market

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by Krista Mashore

The real estate industry is beyond crowded — it seems like agents are popping up everywhere and taking aim at your clients. So, how can you cut through all that noise to stand out? You’ve got to become an expert marketer.

Marketing equals attraction

Wondering how you can stop chasing leads and start attracting them? The answer: with a strategic plan and commitment to taking imperfect action. It’s scary but will give you so much momentum … compared to thousands of leftover promotional magnets and sitting idle at open houses. Here are some strategies I used to sell over 2,400-plus homes in my career.

Become the authority

When you’re looking for a service, don’t you want the expert? Don’t you want the top surgeon or the financial planner who wrote the book on financial planning? What you’re looking for is the recognized authority.

First, be recognized. It doesn’t matter how amazing you are if no one knows about you. You need your whole market to know you! Next, be an authority. Many agents slide by with the minimum knowledge they need to get the job done. An authority not only becomes an expert, they also share their expertise.

How? Through strategic video marketing, sharing binge-worthy real estate and community-related information, getting it in front of your ideal audience and positioning yourself as the local expert.

I’ve written four bestselling books, spoken on stages and shared my knowledge by answering questions my audience didn’t realize they had. I became my community’s expert.
Serve, don’t sell

Stop “selling” yourself to people and focus on serving them. Stop convincing, start contributing. When you provide valuable information, they’ll see and understand just how terrific (and different) you really are. When you serve them without asking for anything in return, they’ll trust you, like you and choose to do business with you.

Serve through the valuable information you share. Serve by giving back to your community. Serve by helping promote other businesses in your community. You can do all of this without sacrificing your business. And you’ll end up with local fans that will stop you in the middle of the street asking, “Hey … aren’t you THAT real estate agent!?”

Be unique

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to do things differently. Part of branding is about who you are. Are you funny? A local coffee shop or brewery supporter? Want to save local shelter animals? You’re discovering your niche …

You might be wondering, “If I niche, will I lose out on other business?” Not at all. With every video or marketing piece you develop, you will continue to grow your brand as the local real estate authority. Your niche will help you save money, stand out and develop specialized knowledge.

Get started by choosing what you want to focus on. Rural properties or condos? Vacation properties or fixer-uppers? Then starting thinking about who you want to work with. First-time buyers? Retirees? Investors? All of these unique qualities should show up in everything you do, from your business cards to your website to your marketing brochures.

But always be ready to adapt. During the recession from 2007 to 2009, I made myself known as the “Foreclosure Queen.” When the market got back to normal, that identity no longer served my brand — it actually hurt me. I lost luxury listings because no one wanted to list their seven-figure home with the foreclosure expert. So, I adapted. I rebranded myself by using technology to market higher-end homes and became the “Digital Marketing Queen.”

Give awesome service

Doing the bare minimum will never escalate you to top producer. Constantly ask yourself, “How much more value can I give?” Think about all areas of your real estate business. I teach my students to infuse expert marketing throughout the complete sales cycle of their business; which includes areas like branding, lead generation, lead nurturing, conversion, fulfillment, delivery, re-listing and referrals.

Do you have a strategic plan for outstanding and differentiated service in each of these areas?

I’ve seen my students leverage these strategies and achieve incredible results. And guess what … You can dominate your market, too, by becoming your local authority who is unique, gives awesome service and focuses on serving, not selling.

Krista Mashore is a best-selling author and the founder and CEO of Krista Mashore Coaching.

Are you stepping on the field without your playbook?

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By Kathleen Black

This is the moment. The game is down to the wire with both teams tied for the win.

You look to the left for a signal of the play that will take your team to the top. You look to the left again, then to the right.

You start to come to the frantic realization that you have no clue what play will save the day, no clue what the plays are and no clue that you even needed them.

Finally, you come to the realization that a win will be fate or luck at best. You ease your stance to assess the opposition; they must be in the same predicament, right?

Wrong. They are standing tall and confident. They look to the sidelines and are signaled to play. Not only do they have a play, but they have a full book of the best strategies to win in the quickest amount of time.

They have someone overseeing the game and signaling only after assessing the bigger picture of everyone in play … They have the playbook. You don’t. It doesn’t matter that you made the finals. You just lost the game and your top players for next season.

When was the last time you saw a pro sports team allow any athlete on the field without learning the playbook? Exactly! Welcome to real estate.

We create our business before we start DOING business: We start our business or teams before we meet our first client and before we hire our first assistant, buyer’s agent or partner.

The business does not evolve from an action. It evolves from a thought, a plan and then your perception of that plan put into action.

Perspectives are an endless sea: Trust me … I’m a coach … green isn’t green when only I see it. Until then you may argue it is black, and for you it is. At least until I am successful in adjusting the lighting.

This is why some companies give away their playbooks for free. They know the likelihood of you reading them in the spirit intended is pretty slim. The perspective dictates the way you view the content. The way you view the content dictates your results. This is true with a script, a presentation, interview questions or how you present a contract. The content gives you structure, but the delivery gives you results.

Broken plan = broken business: Most people stick with their plans for a while even when they are broken.

Most of us seem to have a natural strength in criticizing new opportunities even though they have tried, tested and true track records; but we promptly pick up our trusty rose-colored glasses when assessing our own methods. I know they are comfortable, but how comfortable is a kitchen table without dinner?

You can create reasons OR you can focus on results: A great playbook considers several things, including predictability, odds, averages and costs. This is all for one reason: to create an environment with the highest likelihood of success!

Don’t get me wrong; great results with predictability always have reasons. That is what makes them valuable and predictable. However, reasons do not always have results. In fact, without results, reasons are the enemy of progress. The best reasons get us results.

The myth: All lessons lead to great feats: Have you ever heard a story about all the lessons someone learned on the way to the top?

Sure, we all have. It goes sideways because you can choose to learn how to create a wheel, and I am sure we would all learn something from that, and even do it better the next time, or you could learn to create the most aerodynamic high-performance wheel the world has ever seen — a wheel best in class and worthy of duplication.

The myth is that all lessons lead to large feats. Mastery requires us to go beyond our mentors and idols by building upon the work they devoted their lives to. We all have the choice to bend time by learning and investing in what already works.
This is why salespeople join the industry. They have talent. They have ambition.  They seek growth. They need a system to achieve their potential, in a tenth of the time, compared to the average agent.

Average is VERY average, in a growing industry where many are throwing dirt against the wall and hoping something will stick. We wonder why there is a muddy mess of our industry’s reputation.

Kathleen Black is one of the world’s leading holistic performance coaches. She was given the Iconic Leaders Creating a Better World for All award. She is a two-time bestselling author and lives in Oshawa, Canada, with her two independent, free-spirited children, Ethan and Ella.