People Aren’t Interested In Your Solution (They’re Interested In Their Problem)

Say you have two first-time home buyers at the very beginning stage of searching for a home. They’ve had “the talk.” And it’s time. They’re ready.

What’s their first move?

A. Do they pick up the phone, call a real estate agent, and ask him/her to come over and explain the home buying process to them?

B. Do they go on-line and start learning everything they can about buying a home?

If you answered “B,” you got it right. If you answered “A”…wishful thinking.

Here’s the thing, if you’re a real estate agent, frankly, you’re seen as a salesman. And if you’re in the very beginning stages of buying a home, the last the you want is to sit down and get pitched to.

What you want is information. Are you’re willing to read it first, before sitting down to have a more formal conversation with an Agent. You want answers to questions like:

• How does this work?
• How does the escrow process work?
• Do I need a down-payment? If so, how much? What do I need to do to get financed? And how much can I get financed for?
• What are some of the best neighborhoods to live in? Why?
• What’s the average sales price in that neighborhood?

Those are the questions on my mind. Those are the things I need answers to. Right now, I’m just not ready to sit down and listen to the “why you should hire me to be your agent” speech. No offense.

Your Website Is Either Working FOR You or AGAINST You:

So say somebody does a search for “[city name] homes for sale” or “Best neighborhoods to live in [city name].” They land on your site. One of two things is going to happen next…

One: 

They land on a splash page with your contact info, your achievements…

• Top Producer,
• #1 Leader in the Market,
• Sales MVP 2009, 2010

… But really, all they see is a pretty face who wants your business. Next!

Two:

They find up-to-date and relevant information that answers all of the questions mentioned above. A blog post here, a blog post there. Suddenly, they’ve spend 30 minutes to an hour reading through your stuff and they don’t even know who you are!

Now, which one sounds like it’s positioned better?

Well, number 2 communicates value.

It says, “wow, this Agent really knows his/her stuff!” It answers my questions. Addresses my needs. So much so that by the time I am ready to talk to an Agent, I’ll think of calling this one. Why? Because their website (their marketing) focuses on addressing my problems not pitching a solution.

Ask yourself this…

“Is my website helping solve somebody’s problem? Or is it simply pitching my services (a solution)?”

80 – 90% of the time, it’s pitching a service/solution.

And here’s the thing… Nobody really cares.

People only care about solving their problem. You need to focus on becoming the problem solving information source in your market. And you can start with your website…with  your written content. The phone call comes next, but only after you’ve established yourself as a valuable resource.

My guess, is you’ll get 10x’s as many leads that way…