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3.
What Does Your Car Tell Your Prospects
About You? Being
a real estate agent is a business where
image matters in a big way. Your clients
and prospects will be investing hundreds
of thousands to millions of dollars
through you, and they want to know that
you're someone who is fully capable of
representing their best interests. So
everything you present about yourself
makes a statement to your clients and
prospects about whether you're the agent
they'll want to work with...or not. With
this in mind, the car you drive can make a
huge statement about you to your clients
and prospects. If your car is a very small
one, or is old, dirty, and in poor
condition, what message do you think this
is sending to the people you want to do
business with? In
responding to this, some agents might find
themselves saying, "This is the car I
want to drive, and I'm not going to change
what I want to do for anyone." And my
response to that is, "That's fine and
wonderful, but if it may be costing you a
lot of money in your real estate business,
is this still what you want to do?" And
if your answer to this question is,
"Yes, it is," then I'm OK with
that. At least you're fully aware of the
choice you're making. Still
another agent might say something like,
"Well, I'd like a nicer car. But I
really can't afford one." And to that
agent I say, "Come and listen to a
story of a man named Bill..." Bill
was and is a highly-successful real estate
agent. During any given year he'll
typically earn between $500,000.00 and
$1,000,000.00 in his real estate business.
One time, several years ago, Bill and I
arrived in the parking lot for a meeting
at the same time and he showed me the
Mercedes Benz he had just purchased. He
asked me my opinion of the car, and I
answered by telling him I thought it was
very nice. He then responded by telling me
he had purchased the car for only
$5,000.00. Now
granted, the car was a number of years
old, but it still looked great! And Bill
really just wanted the look of a great car
to impress his clients and prospects with,
but he didn't want to spend a lot of money
to get this look. Now
keep in mind, this was a man who could pay
for most any car he wanted to, but he was
much more interested in finding "the
great deal" than he was in spending a
lot of money on a new car. And
even though I'm no longer on the brokerage
side of the business, now doing coaching
and training 100% of the time, I still
find myself looking at how agents are
presenting themselves and whether this
would have me want to work with them, or
completely run in the opposite direction.
With this in mind, in the city where I
live, it's normal for residential agents
to have their names and companies posted
on the driver's and passenger's side doors
to their vehicles. So whenever I see a
real estate agent's car on the street with
their name on it, I ask myself what my
first impression of them is from seeing
this. Sometimes I see them driving
subcompact cars, midsize cars, luxury
cars, pickup trucks, and sometimes I also
see them driving SUVs. In fact, one
agent's car I've seen parked at a golf
course so often during working hours, that
I'm convinced he's far too lazy for me to
ever work on a transaction with! My
point is this...Your car makes a statement
about you the moment people see it. And
since you're in a business where you're
driving people around on a regular basis,
your car will make an even bigger
statement to people. After all, they'll be
riding around in it with you for hours. So
what kind of car are you driving right
now? And what kind of car should you be
driving? Well, part of that depends on
where you live and the real estate
community you serve. Ideally I recommend
you drive a car that is one of the nicer
ones normally driven by the type of
clients you're working with. As an
example, in farm and ranch areas, a top of
the line Dodge truck could be impressive,
but it's definitely not going to work in
Beverly Hills. And in Beverly Hills, a
Mercedes might work very nicely, but it
may offend some people in Heartland USA
who feel strongly about others owning
autos with American brand names on them. So
in helping to solve this mystery for you,
there is one vehicle that seems to work in
most any given real estate situation, and
that is a clean, well-maintained SUV. The
SUV has become an incredible phenomenon in
our society, and it's owned by people from
all economic classes, too. As long as it's
not very old, and it's kept in good
condition, most people look upon SUVs as
an acceptable vehicle for themselves,
their friends, and their real estate
agents to own. And of course you don't
have to spend an arm and a leg to own one,
either. (OK,
in Beverly Hills it would still probably
be better for an agent to own an expensive
one..:) So
remember, your car makes a tremendous
statement about you to the people you want
to do business with. With this in mind,
make sure the car you're driving speaks
loudly to your clients and prospects with
a voice that says, "My owner is the
real estate agent you'll definitely want
to work with."
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