In Part 1 of this article series we told a story of an extremely competent agent losing out on a “trophy” listing because her competitor worked for a more prestigious company brand with which the sellers identified more strongly. At stake was a $500K commission. We were inspired to write Part 2 because of some of the comments we received.
Sheri Sperry’s comment represented many when she said, “I feel bad that the right agent did not get the listing”. This is definitely a valid response. We certainly wanted our friend to get the listing.
But, from a broader perspective the seller and competing agent were a perfect match. And, that is truly what great branding accomplishes. A brand is a shortcut to matching making. The brand just accelerated the match.
We also appreciated Anna Banana Kruchten’s remark, “I am fine about that; there is plenty of business out there”. Back to the broader perspective, when you have an abundant mind you find that doing business with ideal clients is much more fun and rewarding. The truth is there is no scarcity of ideal clients.
Yet, there is something to be said about switching brand when your current brand is impeding your progress. A client of ours was up for a $21M new construction listing from a good friend. However, the friend told him that he could not give our client the listing because our client’s company was not known for its luxury marketing.
This was a spec home with a huge investment of time and money and the owner did not want to take a risk on a sub-par luxury brand. Within hours of hearing about this opportunity our client called us to add his new company brand to his website and other marketing materials. The next day, after the switch, the listing was signed and he soon sold the property.
The moral of this story is that your personal brand should stand on its own and be “portable” so that you can switch brands with ease if necessary. We are not saying that the grass is necessarily greener on the other side. In the case of our client, however, it was very, very green!