3 Easy Ways to Double Your Sales in 2014 – Part III

Stay in tune with the market

We often feel that being in the market and going to work in the office each day is the same thing as staying “in tune” with the market. It is not the same thing. The first gets us some financial benefit but the latter is what separates us from the others in our market space. As an example in the area that we live in there are high-end waterfront homes that are their own market place. An agent that does not know this market has no business in it. They can look comparables up online but they cannot tell the difference between and the value of the nuances that can make a million dollar difference from one house to another on the same street.

This is what makes one agent able to control an entire segment of the market if they know what they are doing and continue to apply those skills and stay in tune with the market.

For others it could be a collection of several townhouse communities. Knowing the different floor plans that were built and the price difference between an end unit or an inside unit. Facing the street or the woods behind. It all matters and if we can tune into this, we can close people on the value of things that they may have not noticed until you brought it to their attention.

Perceived value is what makes us drink, eat, drive, buy or not 90% of the things that we buy each day.

Does anyone think that Charmin is the only soft thing to do its job? Charmin costs twice what the same product in our office costs. Why? Because the perceived value hasn’t been explained to the person that buys the supplies for the office. If someone in management told the supply person that if they bought Charmin the office production would go up by 50% I can guarantee that we would have Charmin in the office tomorrow. Likewise if we told a client that the end unit townhouse with a fireplace is worth 50k-60k more and we knew this on the spot we would not be trying to explain the price difference. The explanation would be more ring with greater gravity and the buyer would not question us. If on the other hand we had to do the research and get back to them, we come across as not knowing what we are doing. This diminishes the power of the perceived value.

The only way to combat this is to determine to be an expert in a particular market and spend the necessary time to cultivate our knowledge of what makes that market different and better from other markets and homes within the market.

We should love what we sell or we shouldn’t sell it. It comes off hollow and we don’t really enjoy our jobs as much as when we are jazzed to sell a particular home because we know we are doing what is best for the home buyer.

Example markets can be:

Waterfront homes

Golf Course communities

Foreclosures

High end homes (top 10-25% of market)

First time buyer communities

Townhouse communities

Retirement communities

Etc…

Whatever market that you select to be yours and to dominate, you need to be sure that there are enough transactions to make a living on. Being an expert in a really narrow market segment can lead to starvation and hair loss. But anywhere is a good place to start and you can incorporate additional complimentary segments into your expertise in time.

Note: When expanding focus be aware of the possibility of over expansion and think deep instead of wide.