A whopping 74% of real estate agents experienced burnout this year, according to a survey we conducted at a recent Inman Connect event. Agents also reported bidding wars as one of the top challenges in today’s market. What if you could use a straightforward, tested technique to simultaneously avoid burnout and win more bidding wars in 2021? It’s called StorySelling.
StorySelling is about using the language, structure, and characters of story to sell more effectively. StorySellers use the power of story to sell… to sell the best version of yourself to yourself… and to sell the best version of your ideal clients to your ideal clients.
Want to avoid burnout? Sell yourself to yourself
Burnout manifests as a lack of motivation and enthusiasm about your day to day job. And no year has seen more of it than 2020. So what causes it?
The Harvard Business Review cites lack of role clarity, unmanageable workload, and unreasonable time pressure as three of the main causes of burnout. And with the year we’ve all had, chances are you are experiencing any or all three of these things. If so, it’s probably time to change the story you’re selling yourself about what you need to do in your business and why you need to do it!
Here’s one question you need to ask yourself to re-organize your workload and give you more professional clarity: What exactly is my unique value in the market?
Your unique value is directly linked with your unique ability to connect with people on a human level and educate them about the market or the home buying process. You were born to tell clients stories and paint a picture about how they could become the best version of themselves using your services. You’re a StorySeller! And once you see yourself as a StorySeller, you begin letting go of all other responsibilities that distract you from StorySelling. This reduces your work stress and frees up your time and energy so you can focus on the one thing you do best.
How to use StorySelling to win more bidding wars
A good story needs three elements: a hero, a villain, and a conflict. But the best stories include something else: the trusted guide. The biggest villain and conflict that many buyers face in today’s market is a lack of inventory and bidding wars. The best way to sell that story is to simply say something like this:
Mr. or Mrs. Client, the number one challenge you face in this market right now is lack of inventory. This is leading to bidding wars in your price range and/or desired neighborhood. Even if you do find a home and place an offer on it, it’s very likely that you’ll lose the home to a competing offer. This is likely to happen not just once, but many times over! What’s your strategy for overcoming that?
What we did with that story is we painted a picture for the buyer of the number one challenge that he or she will experience in the market. We showed them the villain! Then, we asked the buyer to come up with a solution to beat the villain on their own.
Most buyers can’t come up with a solution to beat the villains on their own. That’s why they need you, their trusted guide! Instead of selling buyers or sellers a story about you, sell them a story about themselves. Sell them a story of the villains they’ll encounter and the pain they will experience in today’s market. Sell them a story of your unique value as a guide along their journey. In doing so, you can use the power of story to get more buy-in for your advice and articulate your unique value.
And most importantly, you’ll be better positioned to avoid burnout as you go into 2021 because you’ve clarified your role and set realistic expectations for both yourself and your clients.
Visit TheStorySeller.com to learn more about how to use the power of story to beat your competition, articulate your unique value, and strategically grow your business in 2021!
Gibran Nicholas is the founder and host of The StorySeller podcast and community, which helps real estate agents and trusted advisors use the power of story to stay motivated, beat their competition, and strategically grow their business. Gibran is also the founder and CEO of Momentifi, a CRM sales technology company based in Alpharetta, GA. As a professional speaker, Gibran has trained, coached and certified over 8,000 of the nation’s top producers in the mortgage, housing and financial services industry. You can listen to The StorySeller podcast in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and you can also find the episodes posted on Gibran’s Twitter.