Dear Agent,
In case you don’t already know this, you don’t actually sell houses as a real estate agent. You might think that you do, and you might have been told that your entire life, but it’s not true even in the slightest.
What you sell is you. You sell yourself.
First of all, houses are inanimate. They can’t speak, they don’t respond, and will never let you know whether or not they’d like to even be sold in the first place. They may be the primary object involved in a real estate transaction, but again, you don’t actually sell them. You sell you.
It was the sellers that you convinced, whether it was hard or not, to work with you. And, it was the buyers who said yes, they’d love to utilize your expertise and guidance to help them purchase their next home. So if this is the case, why do agents still think they sell houses?
I don’t know. And, it certainly wasn’t presented to me this way whenever I started my real estate career.
The key takeaway here is this: if you don’t sell houses but in fact sell yourself, who’s going to “buy” you? And, what are you even selling in the first place considering we know it’s not your actual self that’s for sale? The answers to these questions are very straightforward, and become very clear when we take even just a moment to figure them out.
What do you sell? Expertise. Guidance. Knowledge. Wisdom. Process. And, most importantly: Experience.
Realizing this shakes things up a bit, doesn’t it. Agents throughout the world are told they sell homes so it’s not their fault that they don’t know what they don’t know. But the truth is, they just don’t know, which is something that you, now that you do know, should actually (and unashamedly) take advantage of.
Imagine showing up to a potential seller’s home, and instead of dragging on and on about how you’re going to sell their home with this and that, you instead share with enthusiasm and passion all of the ways in which you’re going to give them the best selling experience possible, from start to finish. Your knowledge and insight will tell them exactly what they need to do in order to get their home ready for the market, but it’s the house itself, especially its location, and the current state of the market that will actually sell their property. When you show up with a presentation that looks like this, you’re sure to stand out and more often than not, beat the competition. This might be a controversial way of looking at it, but I challenge you to consider my take.
So what, or who, rather, does that leave you selling your expertise, guidance, knowledge, wisdom, process, and experience to? People, that’s who. Namely, buyers and sellers. And you’re going to need them - lots of them - in order to succeed, not just their houses.
As you continually share with those you know (and don’t know) what it is you do and how you do it, remember that it’s not homes you’re selling, it’s you. It’s a different conversation, and one that consumers are dying to have.
Now go share,
- Darren Von Britton
Do Today:
Don’t overthink it: all you need is a buyer or a seller, and changing up the conversations you have with potential clients to reflect the fact that you sell guidance and expertise, not houses will immediately help you stand out from the competition. Work on your specific way of conveying what you do, and how it will benefit those who work with you.