Let Your Clients Do the Selling For You
In order to sell more houses, you must first sell yourself to potential clients. Your marketing message and client testimonials can truly set you apart from the competition.
What others say about you may be just as important as your own marketing message. In today’s information age, people tend to do a little homework before making a purchase or hiring for services. Often, folks rely on the referrals and testimonials of others.
The fact is that testimonials work. If at the end of a listing presentation you provide Mr and Mrs Seller with a list of names and positive comments from other happy sellers, this automatically gives you credibility. Or while a homebuyer is searching the web, they come across several testimonials showing how you have helped others save money and time, this person now feels you might be just the expert they are searching for.
You now have an advantage over the competition and a better opportunity to turn leads into clients.
As REALTORS, how many of you have one or more marketing messages posted on your website, printed materials, and advertisements? All of us, right?
And how many of those include testimonials from your clients? If you don’t have testimonials yet, get some. Ask each client personally for a written synopsis of their experience with you. You can even help them promote the message you want to convey by asking questions.
Mr Seller, how much money did I save you in selling your home? Mrs Buyer, did I negotiate an excellent price for you on this home? Did I make the escrow process as painless as possible? Did I always follow up in a timely manner? Would you recommend my services to others?
Adding testimonials to your sales message is certainly not a new concept. Jay Abraham, perhaps the most famous marketer of them all, stresses the importance of getting your clients to talk on your behalf. “Provide testimonials and show examples…that other clients have experienced…” he pitches to a group of business clients (Summaries of the Master Marketing Strategies, 2003). In fact, as popular as he is, even he displays client testimonials on his own website.
Always be sure to keep a copy of the original testimonial from each client – and be sure to get the client’s permission to publish their name and comments.
If you are new to the business with no clients yet, ask if your brokerage has some statistics and testimonials that you can use. You could use something like “My company sold over 1200 homes last year” and “92% of my company’s clients would recommend us to their friends.” This can get you started. Then, ask for testimonials from every client you service.
When you post the testimonials on your website and printed materials, be sure to include the client’s full name. Using anonymous names or initials makes it look like the clients aren’t real. This can actually detract from your credibility. Adding full names and possibly the city or phone number gives your testimonial a human touch.
And you will be seen by potential clients as the trustworthy and reliable agent that they are seeking.
I just started doing that for my agents the first one is at the bottom of our agent pages. We sent them a questionaire and took a polaroid picture to test. More will come.
The first questionnaire is linked from http://www.falconliving.com/loren-shevitz.php
February 21st, 2007 at 4:00 pm[...] FamousAgents.com had a great post about testimonials. Ahhh, remember what testimonials are folks? They are often times a [...]
February 21st, 2007 at 4:01 pmABSOLUTELY!!!!
February 25th, 2007 at 6:50 amThis is something that I know I should be doing, but always seem to forget to do. Will have to add it to our post closing checklist.
February 26th, 2007 at 2:48 pmI try and get my agents to do this but it usually gets the “yea I should but is it really going to get me deals” comment or looks. Everytime nice words come through my inbox I immediately ask permission to use their name and comment. Thanks for the reminder…I’ll ask my agents today to see if anyone is doing this or has testimonials to contribute to our website. Great Post!
February 27th, 2007 at 11:48 amToby it can be hard to get agents to do things that are different then they are used to doing. You need to find a agent or two that are willing to try it and then have them give you a testimonial about how it has helped their business.
February 28th, 2007 at 4:20 pmIt is especially nice when a client posts a complimentary comment on your blog.
March 6th, 2007 at 4:35 pmAfter reading this post I sent out an email, referencing this blog asking again for testimonials along with a suggestions on how to get them. Low and behold one of my agents sent out questionaire and she got back a whole bunch of nice testimonials to be used on our website (her page specifically) and her marketing material. Great Post!! Thanks!!
March 9th, 2007 at 11:57 pmIf you’re using a system, or have a program like Top Producer or Online Agent (there are others – I used to use Goldmine!) you can add this as an automatic thing to do for closing. It can be part of a to-do
To Do
* Buy Client Gift
* Print Out Form TESTIMONIAL
* Print Label for Self Address Stamp
or part of e-mail campaign that sends them to a form.
March 13th, 2007 at 6:05 pmI have completed a few transactions based solely off of the fact that the buyer/seller read through the testimonials on my website and liked what people had to say about me. That page is now one that I make an effort to keep updated.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:42 amKen, Toby and others – you may want to have an independent person call your clients after the closing and have them interview the client. Then the interviewer can prepare the testimonial for the client’s signature.
Have not tried this yet or researched the cost involved. But is might be worth the time and effort.
Just a suggestion.
April 1st, 2007 at 7:27 amGlenn do you know of any services that do this? If there is one in place it would be great to just pay someone to take care of it.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:59 am