Don't Be a "Me Too" Agent

For 20 years, I have taught REALTORS to not be a "Me Too" agent when speaking with a homeowner about selling their home. Today, most people have become much more educated about the real estate process--which works great for REALTORs. A true professional is not worried about an educated consumer and should welcome the opportunity.

So what is a "Me Too" agent? Let's say the homeowner is educated about how selling their home works using a REALTOR and they decide to interview four or five agents to list the home. The homeowner makes a list of which services the first agent outlines they can do. The second agent shows up and the homeowner brings up what they have learned plus benefits the first agent shared. Here we go:

"The other agent said they would put my house on the MLS."

"Me too!" says the agent being interviewed.

"They said they would list my home on the company website, and their personal agent website."

"Me too!"

"They said they would put a sign on my property, hold an open house, advertise in paper, and print flyers."

"Me too!"

You get the idea, and the more the homeowner interviews, the more "Me Too" they will have.

The big question is what can you do maybe being the fifth agent interviewed to set yourself apart from all the other "Me Too" agents that went before. I have a few suggestions. First, I am a firm believer in building a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation that outlines all the things you do that others might do. But here you are being proactive by presenting rather than playing catch-up with having to say "Me Too."

Present it one slide at a time and explain each step of your presentation. If any of you have ever sat in one of my presentations, you know I am willing to take questions and comments and even go off subject. But when it's time to get back on subject, I glance at the screen and pick up where I left off. This little trick ensures that when you leave, you have covered all the material you wanted to share. Printing the presentation as a PDF and leaving with the homeowner can help you if they want to "think about it." This approach could lead to other opportunities as people share when impressed with a service or person with others.

Two more strategies I personally feel are strong ways to separate you from the other "Me Too" agents: social media and blogging. Creating the largest possible sphere of influence should be the goal of anybody in business that needs to find contacts, clients and customers. You have for free at your disposal all the different social media sites to grow the number of people you are connected with to share and advance your business and even your friendship. Blogging helps you not only share information, but can help you become established as an expert in your local market or beyond, depending on the information you want to share.

So are you going to be a "Me Too" agent or are you going to be a "Yes, I do all those things—plus here is what I offer over and above of all the others" kind of agent?

Dick Betts is a REALTOR® in The Villages, Fla. for Touchstone Real Estate in Mount Dora. He's also a national speaker, trainer and consultant. Learn more at www.DickBetts.com