The easiest and practically only way to succeed at anything is to be excellent at it.  Whether it’s playing hockey, public speaking, performing jazz music or selling real estate, being the best matters; but being really great at something doesn’t matter if no one knows.

When people know that you are good, they will watch you, listen to you and hire you.  Only then do you have the opportunity to serve, to have an impact, to influence.

The real estate agents who scream out in their marketing that they are number 1 are letting people know that they are good, and it works fairly well but what about the rest of us.  After all, there can only be one number one and not all of us are trying to build a high volume transactional business.  So, what can we do to show people how good we are in a tasteful and effective way?

I believe it’s in sharing more of what we do during the process of buying and selling a home with our clients. When we share our process, it gives them a window into what we do that is truly valuable to them.  When they see that we are significantly better than the other agents they’ve met, they are not only willing to refer us to their friends and family, but excited to do so.

So how do we let them see how awesome we are?  Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Imagine that you have just come out of a long hard offer negotiation where you have successfully convinced the sellers to sign back to your buyers at a price that is fair and you’ve also managed to get a closing date that is essential to your buyer clients but challenging for the sellers.  You managed to get this done because you took the time and had the skills to get the sellers to trust you and this allowed them to open up about the closing date challenge.  When they shared this information with you –  you were able to offer a creative solution that was acceptable to them. It’s easy to just tell your buyers how it worked out and celebrate with them. However, by involving them in the whole process, asking questions about what’s important, sharing what you’re going to try as a negotiation tactic, and then sharing what worked- your buyers will feel involved in the process, and will see what a phenomenal job you’ve done for them.

Now, imagine that you are a listing agent and it is a seller’s market.  You have one offer coming in from a buyer and you know that if you could get just one more offer you would likely get significantly more money for your seller client.  You decide to take a half day and reach out to everyone who has been through the property with the intention to get one more person to make an offer. Through your superior interpersonal skills, you manage to make a good connection with several prospective buyers and one decides to make an offer on the listing even though they are not in a situation to pay above the asking price.  The original purchaser increases their offer and your seller accepts that offer and is thrilled with the outcome.  By sharing the process with your buyer clients all along, they know that this beneficial situation didn’t just arise by luck but was in fact the direct result of you going the extra mile and having the skills to get them more money.

Finally, imagine that you have a client who wasn’t actively looking for a home but something unique came up and they bought it.  They need to get their home on the market asap but it needs the roof shingled if they are to get a fair price for the property.  All the roofers are booking months in advance but you have developed really great relationships with some roofers in your area and one of them offers to postpone another job and do this as a favour for you.   You are able to get the roof done in under a week and get all the other preparations done during this time as well. You put the house on the market and get it sold in time for them to close on their new home.   They have had a successful outcome as a direct result of the work you have done to build strong relationships and if they know this, they will be sharing the story with everyone they know.

So yes, do everything you can to be awesome but make sure that the people you work with know that you are awesome.