Are you a brand or hiding behind one?

If you are with an agency that is not your own, the brand you are affiliated to is of course very important; it should be credible, recognisable and associated with good things and I am not detracting from that in any way, but too many agents are not sufficiently aware of the importance of their own brand and they do not invest sufficiently in it.Your brand identity must be established, nurtured and protected and you must invest in it through consistent awareness, appropriate action and some relevant creativity.

If you have decided on a real estate career you are making a long term decision or you are wasting your time. To plan to sell real estate ‘for a few years’ indicates you know very little about what this business is all about.  Having made the long term decision to go into real estate begin with the end in mindand get some advice sooner rather than later on a brand identity that you can invest in, and take with you throughout your real estate career, no matter what company you are with.

Here are some key questions to think about;

• Do people associate you with a specific area?
  Do people associate you with a specific property type?
  Do people associate you with you a particular good cause or community benefit?
  Is your social commitment relevant to the community where earn your income?
  Do you have and consistently use a personal slogan that links to the above and actually means something?
  Do you have a Personal Marketing Plan that you are following?
  Is your personal marketing consistent and packaged or actually just random things you do?
  Do you invest in any promotional items that are about YOU?
  Do you have any way to measure the success of your Personal Marketing Plan?
  Are you using a contact management system to create maintain and sustain relationships?
  Without bluffing yourself with vague terms, what three things REALLY makes you a better “obvious” choice than another agent in your area?
  What five things do you do differently to other agents?
  Do you consistently use a Pre Listing Pack?
  Do you “own” a unique selling feature of your own!
  Looking at the answers to the last question if you called 100 people randomly in you area how many would mention any of these three things?
• So here is the most important question of all.
  In a business where we all have the same 24 hours a day and where agents results within your own company typically vary by a staggering 434% from lowest performer to the top performer (and this excludes all agents with less than two years experience), what are you planning to do about it?

If you think the solutions to the above is your company’s responsibility, you really have a lot to learn about the nature of the real estate business.  In my opinion your real real estate career starts when you REALLY comprehend and accept that YOU are a brand and that you need to take responsibility for being your own marketing director.

Email Andre de Villiers about personal coaching