\u201cI use a professional photographer on every listing!\u201d<\/p>\n
Big deal!\u00a0 So does every other competent and half-competent REALTOR\u00ae in your market. Also, most of the incompetent ones.<\/p>\n
So, what can you do to separate yourself from the crowd? First, let\u2019s take a step back and ask a fundamental question:<\/p>\n
How important is photography, anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week, we discussed Marketing on the MLS and how\u2014from your sellers\u2019 perspective\u2014the MLS Presentation is BY FAR the most important part of all your marketing efforts. After all, it\u2019s the source of information for 99% of your potential buyers!<\/p>\n So, what\u2019s the most essential component in your MLS Presentation?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s the images!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Think about it from the perspective of potential buyers looking at your listing. They\u2019re scanning through hundreds of available properties. What\u2019s the first thing they focus on? The images!<\/p>\n If they don\u2019t like the images, they won\u2019t even bother reading the words.<\/p>\n They say you shouldn\u2019t make assumptions about people. I disagree!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a powerful and smart assumption you should make about the person who will ultimately buy your listing.<\/p>\n The buyer of your listing has a very short attention span.<\/strong><\/p>\n You don\u2019t know this for sure, of course, but in our distraction-filled, information-saturated world, it\u2019s a safe bet. You\u2019ve probably got about two seconds to capture their attention, or guess what? They\u2019re gone. They\u2019re looking at the next listing now (your competitor).<\/p>\n By the way, when you explain this stuff to your potential sellers, they ALWAYS agree wholeheartedly. You know why? Because they just finished looking at the crappy presentation of most other listings.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to differentiate yourself:<\/p>\n 1. Every half-competent REALTOR\u00ae uses a professional photographer. You? You use (insert name here) \u2014 the best Real Estate photographer in the business. Mentioning your photographer by name adds a considerable amount of credibility. Talk about your photographer as if he or she is a famous artist.<\/p>\n 2. Speak in detail about the time and effort you invest in choosing exactly which images you will use and in which order, and also which images you will NOT use. Remember the buyer with the short attention span? If an image is NOT contributing towards generating a showing, it\u2019s useless clutter! Sometimes less is more.<\/p>\n 3. Describe the psychology behind why you do what you do! Talk about the buyer with the short attention span. When you speak to potential sellers in this way, you build trust and rapport. This goes for your entire presentation, by the way, not just the photography part.<\/p>\n Now, here\u2019s the most important part:<\/p>\n It\u2019s NOT about only TALKING about this stuff. You\u2019ve got to DO it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you have the very best photographer? No? Why not? Seriously, we\u2019re talking about someone who is probably the most essential service provider in your business. Don\u2019t be cheap. And don\u2019t be lazy. You should always be on the look-out for a photographer who is better than the one you\u2019re currently using.<\/p>\n Loyalty is nice. Landing and selling more listings is better.<\/strong><\/p>\n Besides, talk is cheap. You\u2019ve got to be able to demonstrate precisely WHY you use that famous photographer.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t demonstrate your photography with immense pride and confidence, you\u2019re doing something wrong. I suggest you fix this vital part of your business as soon as possible.<\/p>\n One more thing about that buyer with the short attention span:\u00a0Once you\u2019ve captured their attention with the fantastic quality of your images, then (and only then) will they read the words.\u00a0This is your sales pitch. But it\u2019s NOT a sales pitch to sell the house.\u00a0It\u2019s a sales pitch to generate a showing \u2014 more on that next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI use a professional photographer on every listing!\u201d<\/p>\n Big deal! So does every other competent and half-competent REALTOR\u00ae in your market. Also, most of the incompetent ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-12-marketing-the-listing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}