Tony Brazier

www.braziers.co.nz

Tony Brazier

The Press - Wednesday 10 March 2010

Image and Profile

There is an aspect of real estate selling that many disagree on. Where some individuals and companies totally ignore it, others may go a little overboard with it and that is building an image and creating profile.

Initially individuals tend to stay reasonably incognito in their career until such time as they know they’re going to survive/thrive in the game. At this point they need to decide how to tell more people than just their own clients about their prowess as a sales consultant and what their ‘point of difference’ is. It is extremely difficult to have a ‘point of difference’ in straight residential sales unless one services a particular sector of the market or a chosen geographic area whereupon that salesperson can be seen to specialise. For those that don’t specialise the advertised ‘differences’ tend to come down to how many million dollars worth of houses they’ve sold or what place they are in their company this month, year etc.

It is fair to say the public could be excused for wondering just how many No.1’s there are out there as the practice has become more popular and with no gauge on how much a salesperson should sell its hard for the public to make sense of any numbers quoted.

Other individuals will use profile building by flooding their target catchment area with recognition of their name through bus ads, calendars, sponsorships at schools, pens, pads you name it. All of it is designed for their name to be the first one the public thinks of when they want to make a real estate move. In marketing terms this is called ‘positioning’, by putting your name at the top of the target market’s minds.

All of this is of utmost importance to some, yet others, don’t bother at all, feeling totally uncomfortable with the whole ‘pedestal’ thing. Seemingly, profiling has no real affect as some of this city’s most successful salespeople have always operated under the radar albeit with a large number of repeat clients who are very active. These particular salespeople already know what has been shown in various surveys over the years that among the most important criteria for a vendor choosing a salesperson to act for them is past experience of their services or that they were recommended by a trusted acquaintance.

Is this to say that profiling is a waste of time? No way! But it does slot in below those that can prove how good they are, above those hoping to convince the public of their prowess with their own advertising. Company principals also know this to be true especially when one of their better salespeople moves companies. Their followers go with them. It is natural and proves the above point that experience of a service is much more powerful than branding or scattergun profiling.

A company’s profiling however is not just about being the most recognised by the public, it is about being seen to be a good place to work by the salespeople, as well.

Company image and profiling requires the company first to know what it stands for, creating its own culture, then allowing the public to view that culture from the outside. Some companies stay small, focused on an area or type with a more homely feel yet others go for market domination and a corporate service that covers all types in every location. The public will choose whether to go for a large, medium or small company (if they haven’t already got a favourite individual) and with a little research can establish the underlying culture of a company that best fits with their own.

For example, regardless of whether a brand new European car is part of the company uniform or if one follows the ‘Hubbard Concept’ that you don’t need to drive a flash car to be the most successful, the public will judge salespeople on the strangest of things, cars being one of them.

I have gained listings and lost them dependent on what car I was driving at the time. Too flash and “You obviously don’t need my money,” too old and “You can’t be selling much”. Investors, thankfully understand that it is a pretty sad day when good money spent on a car is seen as more sensible than spending that money on another investment property.

Image and profile are an important part of our industry. The use of them, and more importantly the reception to them, is very much a matter of people’s own belief structures. As time goes by we are moving from the modest Kiwi mindset of not putting your head up above the crowds in case someone throws a rock at it, to the more prevalent U.S. and Australian way of celebrating successes loudly and proudly. For those who have no preferred agency or salesperson it allows recognition of who is out there, where they are and what they’ve done. The salespeople who do expend much time, energy and money building their profiles are simply putting their money where their mouth is when they tell you that you “… can’t sell a secret”. The others who rely on their past successes to reap even more success, albeit covertly, must be left wondering “If I’m this good without a public profile, how much better would I be with one?”