Posted by Kevin Doell

We had a special guest last week. Anne Randolph, publisher of “lore” magazine (Lives of Real Estate) dropped in to talk with Sherry and to meet with some of the staff members and others at Realogy. Anne will look to cover our launch in her July edition.

In my first meeting with Anne, it was clear to me that she is a woman of ideas. Among the various projects she’s working on is a survey of 3,500 CRS agents. Not only will she be publishing the results soon but she is also pulling it all together for a book with the working title of “Future Agent.” The objective of the book is to identify not only the requisite skills of the future agent, but also how real estate professionals can get the information they need to perform at the top of their field.

A common theme among the successful agents her group surveyed was their ability to:
1.) identify and master a niche; and
2.) Market in a way that gets a response.

Marketing is near and dear to Anne’s heart and she will tell you that many in the real estate industry are late to the party when it comes to implementing sophisticated consumer marketing techniques. The industry needs to get in touch with the “what’s in it for me” techniques of giving consumers a reward for their responses to our marketing efforts. She believes in not just “direct marketing,” but “direct response marketing.”I think Anne summed up the challenge facing our industry quite succinctly when she raised the simple question, “How will you deliver value beyond price?”

Good question, and one that businesses will continue to pursue for the ages.