Are you a marketer or a salesman?

Typically, Realtors were salesmen. They did everything a traditional salesman would - cold call, knock on doors, talk incessantly about their product and how wonderfully experienced they and their company was. They wouldn’t take no for an answer and could overcome any objection. Many Realtors spent a good 80-90% of their time finding and converting prospects and very little time actually servicing them. They live job to job, never knowing where their next client will come from and never differentiating themselves from competitors. The message they send - ‘please pick me because I really want your business and I’ll do a good job’ or ‘I’m #1′ or ‘I have lots of designations.’

Nowadays, however, people are more resistant to salespeople. They don’t have time to sit through a sales pitch. They don’t care about you or your services. They don’t want to be interrupted with a sales call or have someone knock on their door. If they wanted information, they’d do an internet search or call up a friend who just bought or sold a house.

Transitioning from Sales to Marketing

The real estate industry is experiencing a transition - one from sales to marketing. And Realtors that can’t make the switch will miss the boat, so to speak. Marketing is about providing superior customer service to clients and then leveraging their satisfaction to bring in new business. Marketing is about getting prospects to come to you - they will call you first! Marketing is about spending less time finding and converting prospects and more time servicing clients.

The best way to do this is through direct response - offer prospects something of value and get them to contact you. Don’t hound them to death - that only looks like you’re begging for their business. Give them a reason to call you. Show them that you understand their wants and needs and address them in your marketing materials.

Why don’t most Realtors do this? I recently asked a friend what he thought of some of his neighborhood Realtor’s marketing materials. He laughed and told me that he could easily photocopy a picture of his house and stick it in people’s doors. That would never persuade him to use a Realtor to sell his house - why should he pay the 5% commission fee when he could do it himself? It seems that many Realtors can’t make the transition. They continue to struggle with their old salesmanship ways, always looking for their next paycheck.

With the wide variety of information available on the internet, Realtors who base their services around their knowledge of the MLS listings are losing their footing to marketers who provide excellent customer service. Marketers understand the emotional stress their clients are going through when they buy and sell a house and pride themselves on making the process as easy as they can for their clients. They go above and beyond traditional methods to provide 100% satisfaction. Anything less is not good enough. And because they do this, their clients happily pay their fees, believing they got the best value for their money. And they get valuable client testimonials and referrals to build future business.

If you’re interested in how you can leave behind sales techniques for more effective marketing, download our free Realtor marketing guide.