Have agents made so much money in the past that they need not be concerned with details? Most of the ancillary services offered to Realtors have a common thread. Good enough is good enough.
- Websites don’t need to look good, you just need to have one. “Get a template.”
- Standardized direct mail marketing. Hey we all say the same thing right? “Don’t forget to put your picture on it.”
- Lead providers that still collect names in popups online then sell it to Realtors for hundreds of dollars. “Hey you only need one right?”
- Newspaper advertising that marks the prices up for a Realtor ad. “You have the money.”
- The showing service that is inadvertantly rude to my clients and other agents. “They’re really busy.”
That’s just the short and local list. The local Realtor associations push their poor quality products down your throat with little or no choice for alternatives. The Denver MLS that we pay for by the minute is incredibly slow. Realtor.com, … I think that says enough. When will there be actual quality services for real estate professionals that just want to focus on their business?
How much is too much?
“That’s too expensive.” The words have the sound of an excuse to me. I would respond better to, “That appears to be an inappropriate purchace considering current trends and the inability of the product to add real value to our enterprise within our time constraints.” At least it would show me that they thought it through.
Expensive usually means that something costs a lot. That is a really bad definition.
I remember trying to talk my parents into buying me a pair of Nike shoes way back when. All they saw was the cost. I saw opportunity. The Nike shoes would obviously make me run faster, jump higher and inevitably propel me into an improved social circle. Certainly the $50 price tag might have seemed a little pricey to the untrained observer but as any ten year old could tell you, sometimes you need to “just do it.”
Most children can see the big picture. They see the benefits the product brings to the table at least in terms of the instant gratification they’ll get. They understand how the product will affect the complex social interactions of junior high and why they need to have it now before it is too late. By the time they turn into full grown business managers though, they’ve lost their vision. Adults slowly beat it into your mind that price is the most important thing. “How much money will the purchase take out of your pocket?”
I try to think of it differently. “How much money will the purchase put in my pocket.”
If I spend $200 on marketing that doesn’t bring me any business. That’s expensive.
If I spend $20,000 on marketing that makes my phone ring off the hook, marketing that nets me $100,000 or more, that’s not expensive, that’s shrewd business. A great deal.
Somewhere along the line you need to make assumptions and projections in order to determine if there is going to be a benefit that is worth your investment. Return on investment (ROI) is only a certainty after the fact. There is no certainty but if you can find that childlike vision you used to have, maybe you can get past the price and look for the benefits.
Greg over at Blueroof.com did,
That sounds like a deal to me. I look forward to seeing what’s in store.