Investing in a Personal Brochure

I strongly encourage this as it has a number of uses the two most important being;

1) It is an essential component of your Pre Listing Pack

2) The same info is an essential component of your Area Blog

In the process of listing a property having a Personal Brochure serves to tell a person WHY they should feel comfortable choosing you as their agent.

When you are pitching to list a property you are asking to be employed. Would you seriously go to a job interview without a resumé?  Let me ask you the question this way, if you were employing and five people pitched for the job, would you think more or less of the one or two candidates that presented themselves with a resumé? Of those that did have a resumé would the quality matter?

I would make the case that even if the potential seller knows you quite well, you still owe it them to be professional and explain what it is you will do for them, and to remind them with your resumé why you are the best choice.  It is a lot more comfortable to refer to some items in the brochure and leave it for then to read than sitting their singing your own praises in detail!

This is a document that should contain relevant content to SUBSTANTIATE three things;

1) Who you are as a person (keep this short and sweet)

2) In a professional context (not only real estate) why are you the right person to
a) Represent the seller
b) Manage the marketing of their property
c) Negotiate in their best interests
3) Offer proof of the above through the testimonials of others that you can deliver results in a way that is pleasantly professional.The last part of this document should of course be your contact information.  In the contact information section you should stress that you understand the value of good communication and rapid response. ie this should not just be a section with your phone and email!  Also include such things as Skype and social media contact info if you are comfortable with that.  Show you are IN TOUCH and contactable!  You may also think of a personal slogan to use in this section that speaks directly to the issue of communication as it is one of the greatest concerns sellers have.

Please remember there is NO POINT repeating what your company has to offer!  This is NOT what a Personal Brochures / Personal Profiles / CV Sheet / Resumé is all about other that to comment about your ABILITY to MANAGE the marketing tools that your company provides you with.Your brochure (which I would recommend is professionally printed on a quality paper and has at least one fold in it) should have very little company branding on it – if any! It really is important that the brochure shows your confidence in yourself and your career as a professional.  Some flyer printed on the office printer is just not good enough.

A final comment on testimonials;
You do not need 20 testimonials – you need six to ten of the best that cover a variety of the above aspects of your service pledge.
In other words you do not want ten people saying you are good at communication or ten people saying you are good at negotiating or ten people saying you are pleasant to work with.  What you want is a  mixture of comments that ‘speak to’ what you have claimed.  The testimonials serve as proof to what you say and you should be aware that it is the testimonials that are always what most people read! You should also have permission to use the person’s comment and their full name.