Marketing 101 for Real Estate Agents

Being a Real Estate agent means you are marketing and selling a professional service - your service. The profession of real estate is much more about the provision of consulting services than than the sale of a tangible product - such as a vehicle.

When selling professional services we always have to remember that we are dealing with something that is intangible. The process that a consumer goes through to decide to 'buy' from you as opposed to anyone else, is a process of making a judgment about you.

When consumers choose a Real Estate Agent to assist or represent them, they are placing into the hands of that agent, their trust, hopes and aspirations all of which are connected to the biggest and probably the most emotional purchase they will make - their next home.

This is why successful agents differentiate themselves by using tangible expressions of their intangible service. Such methods of making your service more tangible include:

• Courteous and responsive communications
• Professional standard of dress
• Quality marketing materials
• Service oriented web site

Marketing Systems and Processes.

Our favorite maxim is that Real Estate is really all about marketing.

We see Real Estate Agents spending more time on marketing than any other activity. The lifeblood of revenues earned are new sales leads coming in to the agent.

This process of Marketing, or Lead Generation or Prospecting, consumes a lot of time up front, quite often with little pay-back for some time.

As Real Estate is a service business, i.e. the product "sold" is an intangible service, its VERY important, as part of your marketing, to ensure that people experience you and your service so that they can start to make a judgment about you.

This is why personal contact and meeting people are so vital for agents.

This is also why a referral can be such a great way of generating business, as being referred means your services are endorsed by someone the consumer already trusts.

There are many ways to create new opportunities:

1. Develop relationships with individuals who in turn are also well connected to many other people and
   refer business to them in return for referrals. Examples: Tax preparers, casualty insurance agents, plumbers, and others whose services you use and to whom you refer business.
2. Review the closed files of agents who are no longer with your company. Start with a letter of introduction or phone call introducing yourself and your services.
3. Participate in communities. These could be actual communities or even online communities. Some Agents are even facilitating their own community with Neighborhood web sites for Farming .
4. Ask for referrals.."have I done everything to earn your referral business?"

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