Building brand drives sales without having to sell.
Bob Vieira is a real estate agent and short sale expert that built his business off branding and now he has a constant flow business from referrals.
Transcript:
Chris Bounds 00:02
It seems like the sales aspect of it is pretty automated in the sense that it’s all referral based. What are you doing to help build the brand aspect of the business?
Bob Vieira 00:14
One of the best things I ever started doing was providing free information to my customer based. The majority of my referrals come from real estate agents. Obviously, listing agents that have short sales and real estate wholesalers. Specifically, people who assign most of their deals because obviously, you need high equity to do that.
They’re dead leads. But what I’ve been doing a lot is just providing free information. Figuring out what kind of information and value. What could I post? What kind of video could I shoot? What kind of information could I post that is going to help a wholesaler? That’s going to relate to a wholesaler. Same thing with a real estate agent.
Obviously, I tried to keep the information short sale and distressed real estate related. But just providing free information and just being there to answer questions.
Chris Bounds 01:08
What do you say to folks that they hesitate to take that step? Because they feel like all they’re doing is training their competition or training some emerging competition?
Bob Vieira 01:25
I felt that same way for years. I mean, it was just recently, I started kind of smartening up and saying this is the way to go. I mean, what I would say is don’t have a scarcity mindset. That’s not me attacking people that do that because that that was me for the longest time, I had a scarcity mindset.
Like you just said, Chris, I was worried. I don’t want to put this information out because I’m arming my competition. And but really, it’s not like that. I think providing good energy and good information out there. You’re going to get the same back. You’re going to get the right people that want to do business with you. You’re going to get good energy and information back. People are going to appreciate it.
Chris Bounds 02:07
I’ve always felt that the information is out there anyway. The society we live in there’s nothing that you need to learn that you can’t find on YouTube. Yeah, absolutely. You putting it out there. Really. The only extra layer is you and how you want your ability to create the message.
I find it funny how people want to have fun. They hesitated that and I get it. It makes sense with your clients. Actually, there’s two people one, he’s the one who referred me to you but someone completely unrelated who I talked to. They’ll said, Hey, we got the same short sales guy.
Bob Vieira 02:51
Oh, yeah. Good.
Chris Bounds 02:52
Okay. Are you doing anything unique to turn them into raving fans?
Bob Vieira 03:00
I wish I could sit here and say, “Yeah, this is my secret sauce. This is what I’m doing. Ready? Get a pen.” It just goes back to what I said before. I mean, just be yourself. I just try to be honest and upfront.
Look at the short sale we’re doing together, right over on time. Especially in the beginning, that wasn’t perfect. We had a buyer drop out. We have stuff go wrong.
Chris Bounds 03:22
No one’s been hearing.
Bob Vieira 03:23
Yeah. Just give honest updates. Make sure everyone’s updated. Even when it’s bad news. Don’t try to sweep it under the rug. Even if it’s something the customer doesn’t want to hear. Let them know, be upfront. Just be honest and be real. There’s too many people that are giving the scripted hard sales pitches that are rehearsed.
Did you ever get a phone call from someone like a telemarketer that’s trying to sell you insurance or something random? I mean, I’m sure we all have. You could tell. Yeah, you could tell in two seconds. As soon as you pick up the phone. Oh, okay. This person just like a robot trying to sell me something. Right. Immediately. Yeah, just don’t be that person. Just be yourself. Be authentic. Yeah. I mean, really, that’s it.
Chris Bounds 04:11
Something the last guy said. He said, “Be different, but also be yourself.” And that’s a same thing because no one’s you. If you can do that, you can do it in a very authentic way. That provides value and looks for them and what they’re trying to accomplish helping them that you’re able to at least solve that authenticity problem.
Now you’ve build trust. Now, we got to figure out if whatever you’re proposing is gonna be a good fit. And it seems like you’ve been able to do that. It’s created a lot of mutual connections with me, leading up to you. So far with our interaction, I’ve had a very positive experience. We still got to get to the finish line.
Bob Vieira 05:01
Yeah, don’t give me too much credit yet.