What you have to do to become a strong competitor? Are there specific benchmarks to strive to achieve? The answer is definitely, yes!

As a matter of fact, there are four components of competition:

1. Know The Facts

My organization recently unveiled a new program. The New Agent Day Training was developed as a result of the many discussions I've had with real estate professionals throughout North America. It became clearer and clearer to me from their feedback that to get listings in today's market you have to first become a lister. That may sound pretty silly unless you first understand that becoming is adopting a certain state-of-mind. The state-of-mind of a lister is that of a true competitor. The most important component in creating that state-of-mind is knowing everything there is to know about the competition.

If you think about the major sports leagues; baseball, football, hockey, and then think about the most successful teams, they have one thing in common. In order to be successful they view and review videos of their games and those of their competitors. They look for strengths and weaknesses so they'll know how to defend and compete effectively. It's the same in the real estate business. You have to know what you're up against in order to outpace the competition. There are a few questions that agents will have to answer in order for them to achieve market-share dominance. For example:

• Who are your top-ten competitors?
• If you lose a listing, to whom do you lose it in most instances?
• How many agents do each of your primary competitors have?
• What is the average experience level?
• What is their annual per person production?
• What is the average number of listings in each office?
• What is their list-to-sell ratio and list-to-sale time-frame?

There are other questions that agent's could ask, and it would be well worth their time to sit down and to think of the information they'd like to know, information that would help them answer seller and buyer objections, and then gather that information, immediately.

2. Have The Weaponry

To "out-gun" them you need the tools to do the job. Every agent needs a digital camera; color printer; notebook computer; contact-management system; a listing presentation on a notebook computer; cell phone and a message center. They need these things because they set the minimum standards that buyers and sellers expect.

Throughout history all of the great armies of the world were great because they had the right weapons needed to do the job better than their opponents. Real estate agents today must have the right tools to battle the highly-skilled competitors they meet every day.

3. Skill

In the thirty-five years I've been in this business as an agent, manager and trainer, I've never seen an era where the necessity for high-sales skills was greater. With the accessibility to communication and information as strong as it is, sellers and buyers are more savvy than ever before and have more questions and concerns than ever before.

We have to overcome more commission objections, "We want to shop around" objections, pricing, length of the listing, etc., etc. The art of persuasion is in demand and critical in the field if you want to compete successfully. The real proof of this is seen in our Sweathogs classes. We find that the average experience level of the students is almost four years, whereas, not so long ago, it was two years. It seems clear to me that being able to close the transaction is the difference between thriving and merely surviving in the business.

I often tell the lumberjack story to my students. The current champion lumberjack finds himself pitted against a small, frail competitor in the championship log-splitting contest.

Confident that he will beat this new upstart, the champ jokes around with both his friends and onlookers, paying little attention to the pile of logs at hand. The frail competitor is the "Steady-Eddie" who focuses on chopping away. However, oddly enough, every hour he takes a ten-minute break and goes off by himself. The champ finds this astounding and believes the little guy to be a fool. "How can he possibly even challenge me if he is not even going to keep at it?" To everyone's amazement, however, when the four-hour contest drew to a close, the champion had logs before him still to be split, while the challenger had successfully split his entire pile. When asked by the defeated champ how he did it and where he went every hour for ten minutes, the new champ said, "Oh, that's simple. While you were boasting and goofing-off, I was off sharpening my axe!" Agents must sharpen their axes every day.

Another important thing we have learned from our thousands of students is that listing presentations done on notebook computers, are in demand everywhere. Many agents shy away from notebook-computer presentations because they are uncomfortable with anything new. I say practice will make perfect. Don't lose a listing because of "old-time stinkin-thinkin'."

4. Develop A Competitive Attitude

Attitude is everything. It takes a certain mental toughness to be willing to convey to a prospect that you are the best person/company for the job. This mental toughness, added to the facts, tools and skills discussed above, add up to an enthusiastic response to the question, "Why are you the best?" It's like you are saying, "You know Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we have 1,000 agents in our area. However, for what you want, need and are trying to accomplish, you really only have a choice of three, good, better and best. You see, we are all good. After all, you have to at least be licensed. Some are better than others. But for what you're trying to accomplish, the most amount of money, in the shortest amount of time, with the least amount of inconvenience, it seems to me that there is only one best agent, and what a coincidence that we should be together at this moment."

There are many ways to answer the question, "Why are you the best?" Here are just a few:

• "I'm the best because I am new in real estate and I'm not bogged down like those top producers."
• "I'm the best because my office is right on the corner. Where do you think the buyers are coming TO?"
• "I'm the best because my office is clear over on the other side of town. Where do you think the buyers are coming FROM?

You need the mental toughness to be able to enthusiastically convey to the seller this message.

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, if you were going to fly coast-to-coast and you had the choice of flying first class or coach, both at the same price, which would you choose?"

Seller: "First class, of course."

Agent: "I expected as much. May I ask why?"

Seller: "Because I get more for my money and a more comfortable journey."

Agent: "If you knew you could get more for your money and a more comfortable journey by choosing me over someone who might be considered coach, I'd be the obvious choice, wouldn't you agree?"

My advice to you is to become a competitor. Stay nice but be a competitor. Put people first, but be a competitor. Care about what they care about but be a competitor. Never verbally knock the competition but be a competitor.

You get the idea.

Also See:

Prepare for Success by Preparing for the Worst

Choosing To Be A High Achiever

Turning Past Clients Into New Clients Again

Published: January 13, 2000

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