I am the best...

The question every client asks, implicitly or explicitly, is "Why should I hire you?"

This question stumps most real estate agents. I am not so sure the industry answers that question either. The industry teaches professionalism as a supporting tactic, not the central theme.

If you look across the real estate industry, generally this is what is promoted:

GET ATTENTION
↓
GET LEADS
↓
GET APPOINTMENTS
↓
GET CLIENTS
↓
GET TRANSACTIONS
↓
GET REFERRALS
↓
GET MORE

We can break it down into the following buckets and class titles:

1. Get More People to Talk To

• 20 Lead Generation Hacks
• Prospecting: The #1 Skill for Real Estate Success
• Riches in Niches: Proven Prospecting Tactics for REALTORS®
• How to Generate More Referrals
• Modern Door Knocking: How to Win Your Farm

Underlying promise: If you had more opportunities, you'd do better.

2. Get Better at Selling

• Master the Conversation Frameworks That Actually Convert
• Buyer Consults That Win Clients Before They Shop Around
• Mastering Sales Scripts & Dialogues
• Converting Leads Into Closings
• Handling Objections & Closing More Business

Underlying promise: You already have opportunities; learn how to convert more of them.

3. Become More Productive

• Time Block for Maximum GCI and Freedom
• Daily Habits Top Agents Use for Time Management
• The Busyness Trap
• 90 Days to a More Productive Real Estate Business
• Accountability: The Secret to Consistent Production

Underlying promise: You know what to do; you just need to do it consistently.

4. Build a Better Business

• The Millionaire Real Estate Agent Blueprint
• Five Ways to Control Your Net Income
• Buy Back 10 Hours Per Week with People, Systems & Tech
• Building a Referral-Based Real Estate Business
• 7 Things Successful Agents Do Differently: A Proven Business System

Underlying promise: Stop being a salesperson and build a real business.

5. Build Your Brand / Become Known

• Personal Brand Power: Build a Reputation That Pays Off
• Become the "Mayor" of Your Market
• Luxury Branding That Sells You Before You Speak
• Turn Your Instagram DMs Into Appointments
• Harnessing YouTube's SEO Power: Capturing High-Intent Real Estate Clients

Underlying promise: Become more visible and people will choose you.

6. Use Technology / AI to Do More

• The 17 AI Prompts Every Real Estate Agent Should Know
• Set It and Forget It: Automate Real Estate Workflows with AI
• 5 Free AI Marketing Tools Every Agent Needs
• AI in Real Estate: Optimizing Your Value Proposition
• Artificial Intelligence Certification: Leverage AI to Grow Your Business

Underlying promise: Do more, faster, with less effort.

On the surface, all of these seem to be different categories and skill development, but underneath they look very similar:

• Get more attention.
• Get more leads.
• Get more appointments.
• Convert more people.
• Do more in less time.
• Use technology to do even more.

MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE!!!

When you read all of the above lists, what does that do to your overall state?

For me, it leaves me anxious and exhausted. It's not that there isn't value in any of those subjects. To the contrary, competence as a professional is required. It just doesn't make the difference of "Why should I hire you?" They assume everyone is competent, and... they have no way to check your competence!

Everything in the above paragraphs is essentially based on competition, scarcity, separation, and ego. Nothing wrong with any of those subjects or trainings, or any of the existing frameworks. It's just unlikely to provide you with any satisfaction or fulfillment.

The industry, or The Marketplace, as I like to refer to it, radiates a set of practices that keep people separate...by competing. Radiation vs. Gravity is a whole separate post I have been working on — so more to come.

Back to the question, "Why should I hire you?"

There are a lot of answers that the Marketplace teaches.

• I will get you more.
• I'm a good negotiator.
• My marketing is the best.
• I will guide you through the transaction.
• Look at my stats.
• I am #1...

Or whatever. Those answers are...meh.

A better answer would be: "You can count on me to be the best person you could ever hire."

Now that's a bold statement!

In order to make that statement, you would have to:

• Believe that it's true
• Back it up

Much safer to stand behind, "I'm a good negotiator." Or, "My marketing is excellent." Or, "I have a killer social media presence."

A few of you might reply to me saying, "Wait, no, I tell people that I am the best person they could hire!"

Okay, fine. Even if that is you, do you say that from ego, or from a grounded place of humble and authentic confidence?

So, the question is, "What is in the way of you saying authentically to your clients, 'You can count on me to be the best person you could ever hire?'"

If I were you, I would stop screwing around with all the other crazy stuff I listed out earlier — most of you do not need another class on videos, social media, or AI. Consider that those are all distractions from the question of, "Why should my clients hire me?"

Because who are they hiring?

That is the question to answer, and the one that most people avoid.

Remember, everything is cognitive dissonance. As I said last week, from Matthew Syed, "Lying to oneself destroys the very possibility of learning." I like to replace learning with growth and development.

Your growth and development only happen when you get past lying to yourself. Maybe that is too confronting for some people; however, it is simply another way of saying Kahneman's "blind to our blindness."

Here's another cut at it, again from Kahneman: "The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little."

What I am suggesting is to expand what you see. Begin to expand your awareness of who you are as a professional. Being a Professional Worth Hiring™ is grounded in this very practice, and is why so few people are willing to do it — it takes work. There are no shortcuts. You can't take one class and then have it "handled."

When you can authentically say, "You can count on me to be the best person you could ever hire," you are making a bold claim. That claim makes you undefeatable. It makes you unconquerable. 

Being a Professional Worth Hiring™ makes you market-proof. However, you can't buy it. You can't hire someone to do it for you. There are no shortcuts. It requires you.