5 Steps to Defining Your Unique Advantage

The challenge for any business in standing out is the perception by consumers that they are all fairly similar. Many professionals fall into a trap of sounding like everyone else. It seems safer to say a lot of the same buzzwords or a cute tagline, cite a lot of the same advantages and claim we're better at them. Yet, to many prospects, it all sounds repetitive and unremarkable, and it leaves them wondering why to choose this particular provider over the others.

What this means is that many agents are lost in a sea of sameness. They are in the same pool looking among many of the same prospects and hoping they will get a lucky break. That leads to more hours spent trying to land prospects, added frustration, lost opportunities and less income.

That's why it's crucial for an agent to demonstrably stand out to achieve greater success. To do so becomes a matter of creating and conveying a clear impression of a unique advantage that would attract people looking for a difference-maker.

When asked what makes them special, many agents will default to citing "great customer service" as the thing that sets them apart. As logical as that may seem, the words become meaningless when prospects hear them. The phrase ends up being dismissed for a number of reasons:

• If everyone claims to offer it, then every agent is staking the same ground. With this claim bandied about by everyone, it loses any element of standing out from the others.
• People will claim it whether it's true or not. We are all aware when dealing with some businesses that such claims often turn out to be less than true. So after such a claim, it's understandable that prospects would be skeptical and wonder, "How can I be sure?" or "Are you really any different?"
• Today's consumer expects good customer service, at a minimum, from any business, whether a discount store, a high-end merchandiser or a service professional, so citing it is seen as what would be expected anyway.
• The phrase becomes subjective in terms of what each prospect considers great. To some, it may be how quickly the phone is answered and promptness at appointments, others might feel it's in only showing them the type of house in which the buyer has expressed interest, while others might feel it is having coffee and donuts in the car when the agent picks them up to look at homes.