There's a Message in This Bottle (Sendin' Out an S.O.S….)
Every company in my market has me on their recruiting list. I love reading the emails my competitors sends out attempting to recruit agents.
I got one a few days ago that I found extremely amusing. It was from a local team leader of one of the “top brands” in real estate, and it was promoting an “Objection Overcoming Workshop.”
I had to read it several times to make sure I was understanding it correctly. And I was.
ffff99;">So, let me get this straight: two weeks from 2010, with Web 2.0 blurring into Web 3.0, with Google and SEO and SMS and YouTube and Social Media and Twitter and LinkedIn and FaceBook and blogging and Gen X/Y/Z and so many other things hitting real estate like a technology-driven-tsunami, with consumers finding houses and Realtors with mouse clicks and search engines and peer-to-peer recommendations, and with distressed sales and lending challenges and appraisal problems and other mega-issues complicating everything we do, we’re talking about…”overcoming objections?“
Really?
REALLY?
Really…
…1995 just called. It wants its real estate training agenda back…
Honestly, sometimes I think the majority of the real estate industry is like the Titanic, chugging full-speed-ahead toward a giant iceberg while sipping piña coladas and playing gin rummy, blissfully unaware that a sea change (no pun intended) is not only imminent but already well underway.
I can think of a LOT of hot topics to discuss with agents to help educate and equip them for Real Estate 2.0 and beyond.
And, if I were to put together a list of those topics, it would look something like this:
- Developing Your Own Unique Selling Proposition
- Understanding Social Media
- Is Social Media for You?
- The ROI of Social Media
- The Evolution of Real Estate
- Real Estate 2.0 – Are YOU Equipped and Ready?
- All About Blogging
- Lead Generation in the Digital Age
- Incorporating SMS/Texting into Your Marketing Strategy
- Understanding the Psychology of the Web-Enabled Client
- Working with Web Leads: Strategies
- Selecting & Maximizing a PDA/Smart Phone – Pros & Cons of iPhone vs. Blackberry vs. Droid
- Understanding Twitter
- Twitter Strategies
- Understanding Twitter Clients: TweetDeck vs HootSuite
- All About Video
- How to Create & Edit Video
- Syndicating Video via TubeMogul
- SEO Considerations for Video
- Selecting a Virtual Tour Vendor
- Understanding Google Wave
- Working with Clients on Google Wave
- Using PDAs & Smart Phones to Handle Documents
- Working with Digital Signatures
- Understanding Gen X/Y
- Prioritizing RELATIONSHIPS over TRANSACTIONS
I could go on and on and on…a LOT longer. And it would be at least another 20 topics before I got down to “overcoming objections.”
And please let me say this: I am NOT suggesting that “overcoming objections” isn’t important. Of course it is. It is a basic, fundamental topic that every Realtor should understand.
Sending Out an SOS…
ffff99;">What I AM saying is that, given ALL THE OTHER THINGS that are going on right now, with the basic job of selling real estate morphing into almost an entirely different job than it was even two or three years ago, I question the leadership and the awareness of any company that would not be teaching its agents about some of these other topics that I think are much more relevant, much more timely and much more valuable.
It’s about PRIORITY. And BIG PICTURE PERCEPTION. And equipping agents and brokers to COMPETE AND WIN in a future paradigm that has come upon the industry at a much faster rate than most expected.
ffff99;">I hope that someone gets my, I hope that someone gets my…
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Great post. Your list seems a little more…relevant, you think? Their idea of HARD selling the public to buy what for many is the most significant investment (we are not talking about a used car here) is part of the mindset that contributed to the housing bubble and the biggest mess of an economy any of us have ever seen.
Aren't we finding out now that even all those “rich” people we persuaded to buy 2nd and 3rd homes couldn't really afford them, but they sure qualified for them.
Now if they can teach us how to overcome massive unemployment, I might sign up.