Last night, I came across something wild in one of the
shiny, perfumed magazines I skim before falling asleep: Michail Gorbachev in an
ad for Louis Vuitton. He’s pictured in the back of a sedan driving alongside a
remnant of the Berlin Wall. His Vuitton bag sits next to him, standing out
against the greys of the wall, the sky and his apparatchik’s suit.
history, this is the sort of thing that makes you think that absolutely
anything is possible, that any system, ideology or convention, no matter how
monolithic, can be turned on its head.
Real Estate Connect on Inman TV. While not quite as exquisite as a former
Soviet leader hawking luxury handbags, it did strike a similar chord.
professionals extolling the virtues of transparency, truth and focusing on the
consumer.
top agents would have talked about lead capture, lead incubation, stealth
sites, Adwords and email newsletters.
prospective clients, after reading her blog posts, now call her to ask: “will
you be my agent?” No cold calls for her.
data, that it’s OK to be honest. Someone tell NAR.
time to leave town. Next to the Inman TV viewer playing the blogger panel sat
an ad for Craig Proctor’s “Quantum Leap
Success System.” It promises “Inexpensive
ads that compel ready-to-act to seek you out”.
with TypePad?
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Ardell's comment on readers contacting her illustrates that for many folks there is more to choosing an agent / broker than the hard stats of closings, days on market, etc. The social media tools allow professionals to make personal connections with the readers and enable prospects to gain a comfort level with the INDIVIDUALS they may want to do business with.
Any successful business person should understand that long term, healthy business and repeat customers are developed through relationship building and that relationships require personal connections.
I'm pushing the envelope a little further this week with a listing that started by the consumer posting that he needed an agent. Definitely interesting. Working right on the blog. I've been getting the house ready today. We're going to try to do the blow by blow on Active Rain.
If you click the link in the post, you will see the consumer's original post. Funny thing is, he posted it while I was doing that panel discussion in San Francisco for Inman. Luckily no one beat me to it before I got back
Awesome — I am glad the speaking gig didn't cost you a client!
Brian
As a foot solider during the end of the cold war, I sat in my barracks in Nuremberg while the wall came down, I remember thinking… "what will this change?” I couldn’t have known that it would change everything!
Your post makes me think of the “ah-ha” moment when, I realized that there are technologies that could change how real estate is bought and sold.
The only problem is that you need someone with the fortitude of Mr. Gorbachev to push thru the old line thinking so prevalent in our industry. Can you imagine if one brand rolled out a paperless, lead to close technology initiative? They would lose 20% of their agents right off the top, but in 10 years they would rule the industry. They would have the ability to understand their business like never before, have a real “cost of customer acquisition” and “average profitability per transaction”. The data would be at there fingertips and they could deploy their resources at a moments notice.
Where is the brand leader willing to risk everything to lead the race? I’d gladly work with him for free!
Wow, Gorbachev has become such a capitalist, haha