I recently agreed to give a four hour presentation as part of a technology day that is being put on by our local association of Realtors. When I met with the event coordinator to get the course approved for continuing education she asked a question that I have been asked before.
Why would I teach direct competitors how to create blogs, market properties on the internet and use social media? Aren’t you worried that by helping them you will lose business?
The Play book
I am not worried at all. Since 2006 I have been showing other agents how to start a blog and strategies for getting traffic and winning business from it. To date my blog remains on the first page of the major search engines and continues to bring me buyers and sellers.
There are no secrets in my business. Except for my web presence I operate from the same play book that many agents use. There are books and classes on how to run a real estate business. There are seminars and webinars and DVD’s. How to run a successful real estate business is not a secret.
Running a business is about systems and following them. I can give my playbook to other agents but most of them either won’t implement it or if they do they won’t stick with it.
Even if they did I don’t believe that they would be taking business away from me. I check each week and 100’s of homes are listed and sold. There may not be enough business for all of the agents in my market but we all know that 20% of the agents do 80% of the business. There is more than enough business for the 20%.
There are no secrets
There are agents in my market who will not share their secrets with other agents because they don’t want to help the competition. The mind set doesn’t make sense to me. My database of contacts has been built over a period of many years.
Most agents would consider their database to be an important business asset. It is a business asset but I suspect that at least half of the people in my database know another Realtor well. Any agent can call these people or mail to them or run into them at an open house. Yet most of the people in my database will be my clients when they are ready to buy or sell.
I am competitive
Using a blog to generate business is not a new idea and I am not the only agent who is having success with it. How I do it can be replicated by anyone yet the majority of agents who have blogs don’t get as much business from them as I get from mine and many do not stick with it long enough to get any results at all.
I am competitive. I suspect that if someone else were to take my place in the search engines I would work very hard to figure out how to beat them. The process would take my skills to a new level. As it is the competition keeps me on my toes. There are a couple of bloggers out there who are nipping at my heals. . . and have been for a couple of years.
