Looking for the fastest way to business success?

Have you noticed that everyone is looking for the fast track? Easiest way to be successful, easiest way to get fit, easiest way to get a credit card, easiest way to get life insurance without a physical, easiest way to lose weight – so no wonder people are looking for the easiest and fastest way to sell a house.

Are you looking for a way to get to the top of your game?

If you said YES then uncovering what your client needs – not wants – and providing it, will be the tool which differentiates you in the market place.

Of course if it was easy, everyone would do it.

Recently, I read Verne Harnish’s book “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits”. He offers excellent “growth” advice in the book and challenges you to think as a CEO of your company vs. someone in a job. One of his suggestions is to have a brand promise for your business (large or small).

As there is an ocean of real estate agents – why should someone choose you? What do you deliver that others don’t and does that something address the need of your potential customer.
An example in the book we are all familiar with, is the brand promise of Federal Express.

When they started in business their brand promise was “delivered by 10.30am the next day”. This claim was audacious at the time, because everyone was using the postal service – overnight delivery was unheard of. Years later, Federal Express isn’t making that claim any longer.

Not because they can’t do it – rather because there are many players in the marketplace who can do this – even the postal service. This kind of service delivery is “table stakes”. That means you have to be able to do at least this to get in the game. Federal Express has raised the stakes again promising “peace of mind” and they have accomplished this by providing a process and a tool for their customers to “track and trace” their own packages. They didn’t stop delivering 10.30am overnight – they upped the brand promise- they deliver early and their tracking gives you peace of mind. A few years from now they will add to this again.

I see a similar situation with brand promises in real estate, staging or any service industry. Once a claim is made it raises awareness and someone else heads for the top. I remember when Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier. What was exceptional about the achievement, in my mind, was that he broke the record while undertaking full-time medical studies, and setting aside only 45 minutes a day for training. May 6, 1954, finishing the last lap in less than a minute, Bannister broke the tape and collapsed as the announcer delivered his time to the cheering crowd: 3:59.4. The unbreakable record had been broken. At age 25, Roger Bannister had made history. However within a month, an Australian runner John Landy broke Bannister’s record.

What does that mean to you in your business? It means that you must always be investing time, resources and money into business differentiators. As soon as you find one, someone else will copy you and you will need to keep in front of the pack by reinventing your differential again.

CSP organization is consistently looking for business differentiators so their graduates are able to keep ahead of the crowd. Initiating a partnership with a Certified Staging ProfessionalTM will initiate the differential for the services you have available. Working consistently with your staging professional will keep you ahead of the crowd. Only a CSP can provide you with the Room Ready Handbook, Staging Safe Colour palette, Staging Standard Magazine, a comprehensive preferred pricing benefit for a plethora of customer service programs your customer will need during the moving process:_ boxes, truck rental, furniture rental etc, a sign rider, and exclusive website advertising presence.

Orignally published in CSP Staging Standard MagazineTM