Most salespeople, when they go out and talk about their product or service, are competing with multiple competitors. If you're a real estate agent, there are over 1.3 million agents just in the United States that you have to compete with.
Now, obviously they're not all in your area, but when you go out and talk about listing a home or selling a home or buying a home, and you're working with a buyer or seller, or you're selling a remodel project or whatever it is, you have to compete with other people.
Let's talk about the six best ways to stand out from the crowd and the pros and cons of each.
Today, it’s easier than ever to have a sharp website. You can get one up and online swiftly and inexpensively, if not totally for free. However, you must be aware that your own website is not viewed as unbiased feedback. If you set up a website that talks about your products and your services, and you say you’re number one or the best, if you don't have things to back that up, like reviews or votes by a local magazine or newspaper, it's going to be viewed as just your bragging rights. It's always better to get someone to say it for you, instead of you saying it yourself. That way, it’s not viewed as biased.
A lot of people go this route. Blogs can be very informative. Readers can get questions answered and learn new information. And a lot of home buyers start their research online. And yes, blogs about your area are a good way to get out there and establish authority, stand out from everybody else and build that relationship early. The challenge with having a blog is that it's very labor intensive. It's hard to get ranked on Google, and it’s hard to get a lot of readers unless you’re sending people there yourself. Chances are, your blog is not discovered unless you've earned your way into a Google ranking or into YouTube or onto the social media platforms. If people don't find your blog and don't find your information, it's not going to provide any value to you. So having a blog is a great solution -- it’s just hard to actually get recognized with it.
If you've built up a list of leads that you've talked to before, or that have inquired about your product or service, you can create an email blast or an email newsletter and send it to them on a regular schedule. The advantage to this tactic is that it's fast, and it gets a lot of information out there quickly.The challenge with this method, however, is that people have fuller inboxes than ever these days. Deliverability is becoming a major issue that Google is cracking down on, and other email services are following suit. This means it's harder to get your email into the inbox. And if you do, there's lots of competition. So while an email newsletter is still a great method, there are a few challenges there.
Another method to stand out is through public speaking or getting on the local news so you can talk about your products or services. The benefit of this is that it automatically makes you an expert. Anybody who's standing on a stage or is on the local news or quoted in the newspaper is viewed as an expert in that industry or field. The challenge with this is that it's labor intensive. Even with speaking at your local chamber or a mixer, a lot of people have anxiety about it. I know I do. It's hard to say all the right things and say it in a way that's done well. Learning to speak in public is difficult, and it’s a skill. Not only does it take a lot of energy, it takes a lot of work. It's also hard to earn your way in, so to speak. It’s a great idea, because it really positions you as an expert, but it's hard. It’s out of the question for for most people, especially if you're nervous about speaking in front of others.
Social media is fast and easy, especially for younger people who grew up using it. The challenge is that there's a lot of noise. You have to compete with food, gossip, news, breaking news, and constant changes. Even if you crack the algorithm for Instagram or Facebook, they come along and change it soon enough, and you could become irrelevant almost overnight. In other words, even after you build a huge following on social media, if Facebook comes in and changes something like they did several years ago with the pages -- boom! -- all that could go away. It doesn't matter how hard you worked; you'll have to figure out the algorithm again. So social media is a great solution, and a lot of people are using it. But, again, there's lots of noise to compete with, lots of people to compete with, and it's constantly changing.
The sixth method, and probably one that is most people view as out of reach, is writing a book. A book has a high perceived value. Everyone knows that you don't get books for free; you go to Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or your local bookstore, and you buy one. Also, most people have bookshelves and have a collection of books, but people never have a business card shelf, or at least, not anymore. For example, when I get a business card, I normally snap a picture and hand it back. But a book doesn't get thrown away. People pass them around, they give them to friends, neighbors or people who have questions or need something answered.
If you write a book about your product or service, it's a really good way to stand out from everyone else. It's also known as your best work and the best answers to problems that you're helping people solve with your product and service. However, it’s normally difficult writing a book. It’s a lot of work, and if you hire ghost writers, editors and designers, it can be really expensive. But this day and age, there are many ways to get a book done faster and cheaper.
One of those solutions is Authorify. We create books quickly for you. Check out Authorify.com where we license a book to you that's already done.