Some real estate professionals may take offense at that statement, but I don’t say it to demean them in any way. I myself once had a “real estate coach” and I’ve been to a couple “superstar summits,” and the focus was always on prospecting and marketing and getting clients to hire you, not someone else.
In fact, I owe my facial appearance to one such coach, Tom Ferry, who said at his Palm Springs superstar event in 2003 that “people don’t trust agents with facial hair.” I didn’t believe him, but the next week I asked a seller why he chose another agent to list his home, and he said, “Frankly, I didn’t trust you.” My mustache was gone that evening!
It makes absolute sense that agents, especially new ones, need to be coached on how to sell themselves as the “right” agent for buyers and sellers. I don’t disagree. But for most agents, that’s 90% of their selling effort. Once hired, they really don’t “sell” real estate, they advise, consult and coach buyers on the relative merits of the homes they choose to see.
The buyer counts on us to share our expertise, to identify features or defects that they might not notice, and to construct a winning offer, coach them on inspection issues, and guide them through to a successful closing.
The agents at Golden Real Estate don’t expend their time or money on prospecting. Yes, we network when we’re at the gym or elsewhere, but we don’t do mailings, cold calling and such because most of our clients have been reading this column for a decade or longer and are pre-sold on hiring us.
It’s a luxury we relish — spending most of our time on developing expertise instead of on selling ourselves to people who haven’t heard of us.
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