I want you to think of an example of when a real estate agent is actually “selling” a home.

When does “sales” come into the equation?

I can tell you that “marketing” is a major part of listing a home and presenting it to potential buyers, but “selling”?

Selling Doesn’t Work

There is no situation on Earth where a person likes being sold to. Period. Us humans are finely tuned to sniff out a sales pitch from a mile away. We’re strangely addicted to marketing though, and the difference is that marketing places a product or service into our world so that we have an opportunity to reach out and grab it. Should the need arise.

Sales on the other hand, forces products or services into our faces sometimes against our will. Often it’s something that we don’t necessarily need or want in that specific moment. The visceral reaction, the fight or flight we’ll call it, takes over and neither of those is going to result in a successful sale.

Marketing Is The Key to Success

When you are looking around your home, at all of the great stuff you’ve purchased lately you’ll realize that you weren’t “sold” any of it. The “sale” occurred when you paid at the point of checkout, but the reason you chose those specific items in the first place was because of effective marketing. You may not have even realized that you wanted a new watch, but there it was, sparkling away and rotating in a plume of dry ice on your instagram feed. Marketing!

The Same Applies to Real Estate (and Real Estate Agents)

If you are listing your home for sale, you don’t need an agent to “sell” your home to prospective buyers. Buyers as a group, believe this or not, are also human beings designed with the same “sales pitch allergies” as you!

Buyers don’t want someone “selling them” a home. That is a surefire way to trigger their flight instincts. If your home is prepared to be listed, and presented properly, there is no “selling” required.

Your agent being an expert at guiding you through the preparation process, and then presenting your home effectively to the market is what will yield the results you’re looking for. Buyers want to fall in love on their own, they just need to meet their perfect match. This is why the caliber of marketing know-how, branding, and materials your agent utilizes is so vital.

High end, eye catching and attractive marketing captures the attention of your prospective buyers without any convincing (a.k.a. selling) needed.

In Ontario, real estate agents are all given the title “real estate sales representative”, but the best of the best know that it’s marketing and negotiations that get our clients what they want.

Effective Negotiation Turns the Key

Marketing is the key, and negotiation is where the key is turned to open the lock.

Once you have received an offer from a prospective buyer, it is your agent’s skill and ability to negotiate the deal that makes the ultimate difference between a successful “sale” and a total failure. As a negotiation expert, your agent must possess the ability to identify possible red flags, circumvent potential hazards, and lead the buyer’s agent to help them get the most out of their actual offer. Highest price. Most favourable terms.

Once again, nowhere along the sequence of events does “selling” come into effect. The keys to success are proficiency in; marketing and negotiation.

So why are so many real estate agents obsessed with portraying themselves as “sales agents”? If a sale is a transaction, are you and your nest egg just a transaction to them, too?

Are you considering selling your house or condo right now?

Do you have an agent in mind to guide you through the process?

How attractive is their marketing? 

Food for thought!