Time is Running Out: Grow, Monopolize or Die
I don’t have to tell you the Real Estate sales profession is ultracompetitive and demanding, or that it’s getting worse. You experience that headache every day and night. Below, you’ll find 3 Keys to Carving out Your Monopoly.
And if you’ve grown your website and sales success already, congratulations. You’re very Good! (Let me know your secret). However, most successful business people think success will last. But up against giant corporations who pay little tax and can compete freely across borders, you may be looking at a minimum wage future yourself. There are no protections for small business.
Realtor Competition: With home owner selling alternatives eating away at your sales and commissions, with brokers signing up more new agents, and with the digital, Uber-realty crowd aiming to get rid of you via digital channels, your income and survival are in question. What if you had a new plan to help you get to the next level of sales without eternal head to head battle with the hordes?
Excessive Competition is No Good – Get Away from it!
I’m certain Internet marketing is just one more reminder of that insane competition out there that kills you slowly. I’d like you to you to check out the steps below that could keep you focused on a course to dominate your market and be rid of competitors. This post has some intriguing ideas about why striving for a niche-type monopoly could be the way to go. There’s some insight here on how you can do it.
I don’t want to scare you but consider this. If you don’t pursue monopoly, technological changes could bring your career to a dead end.
And listen to what Paypal’s Peter Thiel has to say below about striving to become a monopoly just like Google, Apple, PayPal, MLS, NFL, NHL, PGA, Amazon, Facebook, Disney, Neflix, Uber, and Sutton Group West Coast Realty. There’s a principle here that can drive your business through the roof. He suggests that being less competitive and less concerned about the competition and instead focus on building differentiation, exclusivity and client preference.
Let’s Hear What you Think About the Future of Real Estate Agents
I’d really enjoy hearing your comments about how you differentiate yourself and what strategies you’re employing to protect your business.
In this video below, here’s Peter Thiel speaking about Monopoly at Stanford – where Google started. He makes some funny analogies about useless positioning for startup entrepreneurs. It’d be a treat to attend classes at Stanford!
Beating the Competition Means Getting out of the Race
In my sector of Internet marketing, competition is sickening and counterproductive. Desperate low cost automated marketers from around the world pump out low quality “messaging” in a quest to live another day. Well, after a few years of robot driven global competition, you realize this era of marketing is coming to a close.
Competition has its downfall. So with this in mind, let’s take a look at the 3 key areas you could focus on, which few Realtors, realty investment advisers, home builders, and real estate publishers do. 3 Steps for excellent differentiation and winning results that all of a sudden make Internet marketing make sense again.
- Gain Wide Visibility with Correct Prospects – lots of high quality prospect traffic and making a big impact when they arrive. Stats suggest that clients hire one of the first agents they find. Please be at the top of the serps!
- Build Authority & Trust – demonstrating expertise, thought leadership, local knowledge, and skills in action in a helpful way – clients are impressed with knowledgeable agents who have the angles covered to help them avoid a serious buying mistake or to get way over asking price.
- Be Persuasive and Convincing – delivering your unique value proposition with a personalized, relevant impact, in a way they can relate to — which clearly makes you their one and only choice. Is your UVP perfectly clear?
In this post on real estate lead conversion, I spoke of the importance of working on your unique value proposition to build preference for you. This preference is vital in all relationship building. Your Realtor UVP or your brand, needs to be spot on, specific, and to set you apart from other agents. It creates/increases a compelling desire in them to call you right away. Capturing the moment, building intent and getting the desired action is our goal.
The goal for any business is monopoly, and some top agents do a pretty good job of building a near monopoly. Merrily Hackett of Sutton Group West in Vancouver, who has $12 Billion in yearly property sales comes to mind. Your local MLS has a monopoly too, unless we don’t consider FSBO and Zillow. With monopoly (or loyal customers), you can generate greater value for your clients and time/energy for yourself.
“I’ve become, I think, much more self-aware over the years about the problematic nature of a lot of competition,” — Peter Thiel from CNBC article.
Striving For Market Monopoly or Loyalty
A post Inc.com featuring billionaire Peter Thiel who co-founded PayPal, talks of his ideas on building a monopoly. He says monopoly is the proper goal and that competition is for losers. Thiel advises to focus on specific niches and then scaling over time.
By pursuing monopoly, you gain more expertise in key niches, create more productive working time, produce more valuable output, and create better loyalty with your best clients. Monopoly and differentiation are connected.
You also stave off copycat competitors in your market. Unique differentiation is the only way to stop competitors from copying you and it’s the only way you’ll stand out. Differentiation is generated online through interesting, entertaining, thought-provoking, epic content, timely social media posts, deep insight into specific buying and selling issues, unique selling strategies, creative storytelling, amazing videos and graphics, a website they love to visit, contests, giveaways, and unique insightful market reports.
The key as Theil says is to one to do one thing exceptionally well for a specific type of prospect. Nail that first and move onto the next.
You may have already specialized in condos, first time buyers, divorce, retirement planning, financing, and other areas. You may have to specialize much more deeply to get recognized meaningfully.
“Monopoly is owning a market through which the business can set its own prices. Monopoly companies stand to create (and maintain) lasting value for themselves”, Thiel says, citing Google as a good example – from post on Inc.com
Thiel’s explanation of monopoly is to own a market so you can set your own prices. In your situation as a Realtor, you’re setting yourself up as their trusted authority and the one who understands their dream and can make it happen.
My Real Estate Marketing Value Proposition: I help top flight Realtors get to the next level in sales and customer loyalty by helping them differentiate, become an authority, and create big visibility which leads to sustained, high quality leads online. I do all that automators can’t do.
Making a Commitment to Your Success
As a fairly successful Realtor™, you have the resources to make it happen, but may lack the strategic digital marketing partner who can convey your impressive value proposition to create your monopoly.
If homebuyers and sellers choose with the first agents they find, why aren’t you at the top of Google’s search results pages? 90% of them go online.
If they respect an agent’s authority and promise of value, is your website content demonstrating your excellent marketing and sales knowledge? Do you show empathy for their dream and the things they care about? For instance, luxury homeowners selling their home like to be able to have a story to tell about their home. Can you help them with that?
If they want the best value from their transaction, are you demonstrating and expressing that right away so they understand it in 3 seconds?
Make an Impact Fast
Our goal is to help you make a big and fast impact on them emotionally and ultimately psychologically. They will delve into your content, testimonials, and listings with fervor. The more they engage with your content the more they will only work with you — and that’s Thiel’s monopoly idea.
Thiel also talks about the end game which you can read here. Endgame means you need to have a goal and a path to it. That path is impossible to see unless you find a success model and do some reverse engineering. Get curious about the top Realtors and how they built their empire. Those secrets they don’t divulge are the keys.
However, if you follow this model of real estate marketing strategy I outline here on my blog, you’re going to get there. I will help you do it. If you do this right and persist at it, it will come true. It all comes back to faith in yourself.
Additional Resources:
Top Real Estate Lead Conversion Factors
Upgrading to RETS Means all the Difference
How to Build Traffic that Converts
Real Estate Zip Code Search – A Unique Opportunity for You?
15 Prospecting Tips for Smart Realtors
See the latest real estate housing market stats from NAR.