Is More Really Better?

I haven’t posted a blog in over 2.5 years. I’ve been busy building my brand and my business and it’s been going pretty well.

One thing I was originally challenged with was – How do I compete with the BIG BOYS? After all – they advertise homes on radio, they have billboards all over town, etc. That’s A LOT of money that I simply don’t have.

I thought about it long and hard… and I asked myself this one very powerful question: Is having MORE marketing tools the answer? I mean.. what if there are a key 3-5 things that a Realtor does to effectively sell homes, and everything else was just show and bragging rights?

For example.. if I have a 5 point marketing plan, and the other guy has a 10 point marketing plan – what’s the difference if those extra 5 things don’t cause the home to sell? Wouldn’t that even mean that a Realtor’s resources are being diverted into marketing avenues that are distracting and robbing the focus of what really matters?

I believed it did.

So I looked into it.

I started meeting with some of the most respected Realtors in my neighbourhood, reading all about marketing strategies and tactics etc.. and I asked the TOUGH questions – “How often does X marketing tactic sell a house?” You know what I found? BY FAR.. all the extra marketing strategies were just ‘Listing Tools’. In other words – things that made you look good an impressed a seller so it helped you get the listing. That’s it!

This didn’t make sense.

So what did?

Well – there’s been another school of thought lately. It’s been one that says the Realtor that does the best job should get the job – not the one with the largest marketing plan. This school of thought is complemented (at least now in my business it is) by another that believes a large marketing plan is proof that a Realtor DOESN’T have buyers since they are investing so much into finding them.

So we’ve done a few things. First – we tracked out results and our numbers and compared that to the average agent in our marketplace. We’ve been able to compare our performance against the average Realtor and have relied on that information to prove our worth. After all – if you were to get some serious work done.. let’s say knee surgery, you would want to know how often the surgeon performs the operation and what the recover rate is, right? I would think that’s a good place to start.

The other thing we did is invest in marketing 2 ways. First – Targeted Marketing ( a real no-brainer for anyone with a marketing background). Marketing 101 is ‘Know your Target Market”, and everything flows from there. So for every listing we identify who the target market is, and we sell the home to that specific demographic. We put our marketing materials in places they go and where they will see it.

The next thing we did is market FOR BUYERS. In other words – marketing that offered what they wanted: Access to the best deals before others could get to them. You know what? THEY LOVE THIS. People thinking of buying homes just want that – homes. They don’t want a Realtor. Think of it this way: If you were going to buy a car, do you immediately ask yourself where you can find a car salesman and start evaluating which is the best? Of course not! You want CARS. So our mentality is the same with Real Estate. The vast majority of people- 99% of them, couldn’t care less who I am.. they want what I have – access to the best deals in Real Estate – so I provide it for FREE and with NO Obligation. IT’s only natural that through the course of interested buyers getting these homes that they learn that the best way to ACQUIRE these deals is also through me, and the vast majority then ask me to do that for them. What this does it allows my team to have a HUGE queue of buyers just waiting for good deals. Quite often they will sit and wait for months and months for the right house.

Think of that… we get to go to a Sellers home and tell them that we have hundreds of people in our database looking for homes, and IN THE EVENT that our targeted marketing can’t get that perfect buyer for you asap, there is a good chance we have someone looking to be in your neighbourhood in a home like yours.

Let’s see how quick we can put 2 and 2 together.

Oh – and here is what our results look like time and time again, with testimonials, references etc.

(sarcastic) Small side note: If we can’t sell it, we will buy it as well (see evanselattar.com for terms and conditions).

Makes sense right?

🙂