This may be a bit controversial to read, but the job of marketing is not to get offers. There, I said it.
Realtors have terrific Listing Presentations where we lay out the extensive, and often expensive, marketing we provide. And we can unwittingly set a trap of our own making, leading the seller to believe that marketing gets offers.
The trap is that if you don’t get an offer, the marketing gets blamed, but what if marketing did a great job, and we were just using the wrong scorecard?
Most consumers, and plenty of agents, believe the scorecard for marketing is the offer. Did we get one or didn’t we. But the offer was never marketing’s to give. Marketing has one job, and that job is attention.
Attention is the scorecard, and it’s measurable. Hits, views, favourites, shares, matches. The listing activity report, the Realtor.ca stats, the hit counter. Good numbers there mean the marketing worked. The eyeballs are on it. Whether or not that sells the house is honestly not marketing’s problem, because this is the point where marketing hands off to the market.
You cannot outmarket the wrong price.
Once the market has seen it, the photos, the video, the floor plan, and the price, the market decides. And it is not shy about telling you what it thinks. No showings, and you’re way off the mark, not even in the ballpark. Showings but no offers, and you’re still off, just by less, the gap wider than a buyer will cross. In these two scenarios, the corrective action rests with the price.
Showings and offers, and the plan is working.
This is why more marketing so rarely rescues a stalled listing. If the home already has attention and no offers, the market has spoken, and no new campaign talks it out of what it just said. I’m seeing too many agents spending more time and money on a property that won’t sell. Attention is your first signal and your best one. Read it early, and just get the price right, otherwise the finger will always be pointed back at the marketing, and by default to YOU.
For Realtors, this is what makes a hard price conversation easier. You tell the client up front how you’ll read the market, and you show them the numbers as they come in. Then when the price has to move, you’re not delivering bad news and you’re not defending your marketing. A competent agent sometimes has to advise a change in price, not because the marketing isn’t working, but because the market isn’t responding to the number. You hold up the market, not yourself. Show them, don’t just tell them, and you get to stand beside your client instead of across from them.
If you lead a team, this is a good one to walk through together. The agents pouring more marketing into a priced-wrong listing are usually the ones still scoring marketing by the offer.
Marketing gets attention. The market decides the rest. The sooner you trust that handoff, the sooner you stop fighting the wrong battle.
Scott
Scott Mills Coaching
P.S. If someone you know would find value in this, feel free to pass it along.