A friend of mine Nicci Barnes shared this story about The Black Door with me…

It’s a story of a black door, a young man and a Persian general.

The young man, it is said, was a prisoner of war, and the general was a very fair man. When the day arrived to decide the fate of the prisoner, the general had him brought before him. The young man was certain of death, but the general generously gave him two choices. On the young man’s left was a firing squad, guns poised ready. On the right was a plain white wall with a large black door in the middle of it. The young man was given leave to determine his fate, the firing squad or the black door.

The young man made his choice and in a short while a volley of shots rang out and the prisoner crumpled to the ground. The general shook his head and commented to his aide that in all his years he had seen only a few men choose the black door. May I ask, sir, the aide queried … what lies beyond the black door? Freedom, the general replied. The black door leads to freedom, but I have seen only a few men choose it because they are afraid of what horrors may lie beyond. Most would rather choose a fate that they know, even if it means death, than experience the unknown. The man brave enough to choose the black door deserves to be free.

Today, in the world of business, change is constant, and those afraid to experience change are in a precarious position. Trends in business are changing, and business and career choices once thought to be safe and stable are no longer so. The advice our parents gave us – to go to university, get a good education and get a good job with a company who would take care of us for the rest of out lives – is no longer true. Company restructuring, downsizing and retrenchments have caused abrupt changes inadequate to take care of a family’s needs. And yet, there are choices to be made, and those brave enough to make them will survive the economic crunch.

Are you ready to choose the Black Door?

The Real Estate Agent Success Club is a place where agents like you can provide inspiration to others by sharing your success story and is something that all real estate agents can feel extremely proud of. It is a great knowledge resource for our industry.

The Mission Statement for the Real Estate Success Club is:-

“To provide an ever increasing resource of true inspiration to the real estate industry and in so doing create a place where real estate agents can network together, learn from each other and receive the recognition they truly deserve for their achievements.”

The Real Estate Agent Success Club provides a wealth of motivational and inspirational stories from some of the world’s greatest educators.

The Real Estate Agent Success Club already has over 540 downloadable
items within the site. This is a great opportunity for successful agents like you to be able to align your own personal success story and profile amongst some of the greatest success trainers in the world like John Maxwell, Anthony Robbins, Richard Branson, Brad Sugars, Shelley Taylor-Smith, Allan & Barbara Pease, Mark Victor Hanson, Jim Collins, Doug Malouf and more…

Even though we have created a huge resource of success related material
within the Real Estate Agent Success Club site, we will always be on the look
out for a number of inspirational success stories from within the real
estate industry.

There are numerous real estate agents that have toiled hard within this industry and have become extremely successful within their own service areas, but unfortunately they normally don’t receive the industry recognition they truly deserve.

The Real Estate Agent Success Club will help to provide a voice for both the success stories of our industry as well as some of the unsung heroes of our industry.

Because of the immense capability of this website, the Real Estate Agent Success Club will provide hundreds, if not thousands of agents worldwide, with a real opportunity to tell their story or share some of their experiences. By sharing their expertise they can help others learn some of the extensive skills that they have developed and pass on the legacy of their successful real estate careers.

Small Things Can Make A Big Difference

Years ago I saw a TV ad with little kids playing up in their tree house. Playing pretend parents with their dolls & toys the little girl says to her brother. “You better go & pick up the kids” & the little boy says, “Yes just as soon as I knock off the rest of this drink”. He pretends to drink the rest of the beer out of an empty beer bottle.

The caption at the end was – “Everything you say & everything you do someone is watching you”.

Nowadays this is even more evident with marketing over the internet.

With real estate marketing your attention to detail is extremely important.

I read an article the other day where the writer was so impressed about the ‘Launch Marketing Campaign’ that a NEW real estate agency in town had created & what a fantastic buzz they had created throughout the neighbourhood.

But then, he saw a property marketed for sale by this same company over the internet & his impression changed really quickly. It was amazing to see how one persons great impression of a real estate company could change just over a small item that was left in the photograph of a kitchen.

The author asks if he was being too petty, but it’s important to be aware that it had enough impact on him to write about it to his audience. The item included in the photo was a can of pest spray.

It may not be enough to turn a buyer off, but then again how would you ever know?

None of us get things exactly right all the time. This could be one of those extreme cases of someone being too picky but be aware that the small things do count.

It’s important to realise that there’s lots of potential buyers & sellers who look at your marketing every day & something as small as this could create the wrong impression for your company & the seller’s home.

YOU are your Point Of Difference

There is no one else like you. Even though there are a lot of similarities between the way that Real Estate Agents market properties for sale these days, you still have a major point of difference over your competition and that difference is YOU.

Although the current spectrum of online marketing products seems to be funnelling all the agents down a similar path. It may appear that it is going to get harder & harder to create a real point of difference, but there are some things you can do online to differentiate yourself from the rest.

The main way that you will be able to stay ahead is through clever use of innovations and even though others will follow your lead you can at least be further along the path than the next agent. You want to be seen as the innovator not the imitator.

Agents worldwide seem to be grabbing onto the smallest detail within their businesses and are passionately selling their point of difference based on that alone. Things like we create the best brochures or we do longer or more frequent open homes, etc simply won’t be enough to grab the seller’s attention compared to some of the web 2.0 marketing strategies that are currently available or being developed.

Ultimately the consumer is going to become even more confused by all the similarities within agent’s marketing that they won’t really care who they select to interview for the market appraisal & may end up choosing their agent based on commission rates.

At the end of the day the only real point of difference that you have is YOU. You have to market yourself in such a way that you can connect with people. You have to become a presenter & embrace the Web 2.0 strategies, via video & podcasting because unfortunately as an agent people assume things about you without even meeting you – video helps more people to get to know you.

Within these videos you should try to provide your potential clients with social proof that you are an excellent negotiator & feature some supporting evidence eg. testimonials (video or audio preferably) and wherever possible you should use piggy backing. I’ll explain piggy backing in a future post.

Understand that it’s going to be a bit tricky to wear the sellers agent hat & the buyers agent hat within the one video. A buyer may be put off by putting too much seller based slant into the video & vice versa.

Have a planned approach to these videos. Remember that the video could end up anywhere on the web & if it’s too outrageous the majority of people won’t connect with you.

Ultimately, it’s about getting people to meet you & getting them to like & trust you. Make sure you include some information relating to the area in which you work because both sellers & buyers would be more interested in watching your video if you provide some insights about your area rather than just making it all about you. A professional video company can help you with this.

Real Estate Agent Success Starts Here

I’ve been really looking forward to today, but I’m even more excited about tomorrow & what the future holds for all the members of the Real Estate Agent Success Club.

My first post on a blog that is ultimately here to help all Real Estate Agents succeed and provide helpful insights to make your life easier.

I’ll be providing information to help agents understand a lot more about where the real estate industry is heading with technology, plus lots of inspirational stories to help inspire and motivate you to succeed.

I am really excited to see what ideas develop along the way. I’m especially looking forward to being able to contribute some personal insights for the industry, but I’m even more excited about some of the Real Estate Agent Success stories that we will all benefit from along the way.

Whether you are an experienced agent or just new to the industry, there will always be some helpful information and success tips provided here to help you.

If you feel you can help other members by adding a few suggestions please feel most welcome to comment on this blog, as we can all learn from each other experiences.

I would like to say a big Thank You in advance to anyone who contributes towards making this site a better & richer resource of real estate information.

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