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Can you imagine sitting down with your great grandparents or even your grandparents and explaining to them the world we live in today?
The technology we now have in place would be mind blowing for them. Imagine trying to explain that the mobile phone is all we really need to talk to people, run businesses and stay connected.
The fact that we have connections to people we haven’t even met, thanks to social media platforms such at twitter, facebook and linkedin and we know what is happening anywhere in the world, as it unfolds, through social media rather than the daily papers or the 6pm news. This alone would astound generations gone by.
It’s because of these connections scarcity no longer exists. We can do anything we want with a mobile device and a connection to the internet. The bottle neck that generations prior to us experienced no longer exists.
What does this mean for us?
Well, what we do know is that people today are looking for experiences and connections. In fact, most teenagers would rather give up their car and keep their phone as the phone connects them to the rest of the world.
So how are you connecting with your tribe, what stories are you telling them?
Humans are story machines, you need to tell great stories that are memorable and remarkable enough to resonate and spread. No one cares about the facts, they care about the stories.
If one of your colleagues came in with an awesome haircut, you would ask, where did you get that haircut? People remark on the haircut because it was remarkable.
If you had a great massage, the best one you have ever had, no one is going to remark on your massage unless you tell them about it. As the client, you make the experience tangible by sharing it, getting others to connect with the experience and they, in turn, will want the same.
A lot of what we do in real estate is like the haircut and massage. We can run great opens and conduct awesome auctions – very tangible, however how do we make people feel when they interact with us face to face, via the internet or phone; how well are you making the intangible, tangible.
How remarkable is your marketing, the service you deliver, the connections you are building?
They may be remarkable to you but are others going to remark about it.
We create environments by connecting with people, these connections are like links on a chain that you can constantly add to. However to connect with people we need to care about how we make them feel, not just once, but every time we interact with them. You have to care more about the experiences than you do about the transactions.
If you create the connections and feed it with experiences they can remark on, at some point, it will feed you back.
Your customers decide if you are worth remarking on.
A question to ask yourself constantly - if you disappeared from your market place today, would anyone actually miss you?
No matter how large your boards, how big your market share, the tribe you work in will only miss you if you were remarkable to them.
Most of our businesses get noticed. This is different to getting remarked on. The streaker on grand final day gets noticed but the win the Hawks had over the Swans gets remarked on.
If you have not reviewed your business strategy recently or don’t really have one, I would suggest that you review or put one in place immediately. Remember what got you here won’t get you there.
Look for the edge in your business and people, what is your “only” that will blow your competition out of the water.
Just like fashion, remember wedged shoes? They were fashionable, then they weren’t, then they were again. Just because you are remarkable today does not mean you will be tomorrow. So you must constantly invent and reinvest to stay ahead and be remembered.
Being remarkable isn’t enough. Our competitors copy remarkable quickly so you have to be remarkable and valuable to the client at the time they need you.
Our industry is full of databases that no one calls, marketing that too often does not connect with the tribe, service that is average and a pre-conceived reputation with clients that isn’t remarkable.
What an opportunity!
To be remarkable and valuable is so very easy, most will opt out, however if you are the agent that opts in and provides experiences that are remarkable, creates connections that are constantly added to, understands what your tribe wants because you pay attention, you will never be missed because you will never become extinct.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
sadhana-smiles
Sadhana Smiles is chief executive officer of Harcourts Victoria, the state division of one of Australia’s leading and well respected real estate brands.
She is also a popular speaker and presenter, and is regularly asked to speak at some of the industry’s most prestigious events, including ARPM, AREC, AREL, RELC, the REINSW Women’s Conference and the Harcourts Conference.
Sadhana is also a regular contributor to a number of national real estate journals and publications.
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