What do you say about other agents to your (potential) clients?

Speaking to a few agents this week has got me thinking. It took me back to when I was an estate agent in a town where I knew a lot of people. Word would often come back from clients and friends relating to what other estate agents had said during market appraisals about us and other agents in the town. Rather than focussing on the positives about their own service, certain estate agents would use the market appraisal as an opportunity to be really negative about other agents-

"They're not on Rightmove."

"They don't do floor plans."

"They don't sell houses."

"They rip you off."

"Their fees are high."

"We'll beat their fee."

"We'll match their fee."

What is your stance on this?

Personally I think that in an ideal world the focus would solely be on what someone COULD do and not on what they don't do, but I'm not naive enough to think that everyone is like that.

I think that you should focus on what you do best, on what differentiates you from the competition - so "we're the only agent in town that offers floor plans as standard" is the positive way of saying "they don't do floor plans."

I think that positivity will win out and eventually you will get a reputation of being a fair, honest and open estate agent, where your rivals that have nothing good to say about themselves will lose out in the long run as customers become more aware of how they operate.

Think of all the positive things that you can say about your own team, marketing, track record, sales, Rex and make these the basis of your market appraisal , not knocking your competition verbally but hitting them where it hurts the most - in the pocket.