It means that instead of helping you bring in business your tagline will actively prevent you from being noticed. Using your tagline to focus on ethics, customer service, or any other aspect of business that every other Realtor is providing means that people looking for something specific will ignore you.

I strongly encourage all Realtors (and anyone else operating in an overcrowded market) to purchase Why Johnny Can't Brand - an exceptional book that walks you through many of the reasons why taglines aren't the most important aspect of your brand. Bill Schley masterfully presents five key areas of a brand - and posits that at least two areas are more important than the tagline. Those two areas are your name and your unique ownable specialty. (Note that for Realtors the name is often not in play because they use their own name, or work for a larger brokerage over which they have no influence.)

Here's why I concur with Mr. Schley:

1. If you aren't materially different than everyone else then you can't create a tagline pointing out how you are different or better.
2. If you aren't different or better than no one will have any reason to do business with you.
3. Everyone is different from everyone else, but few people know how to find the differences that matter
4. Differences can be anything from a focus on a specific geographic area, a lifestyle, a family size, or - even better - a tangible thing that you do or offer that sets you apart and would be hard for others to copy.
5. So, if you are different but you can't quantify that difference it means that you may not be skilled enough to articulate it and may reflect poorly on your abilities.

The differences you need to find are the ones that create your unique ownable specialty. You must be come the best provider of your particular services in your area. How? By defining what it is that you do so specifically that no one else in your area can compete. Think you're the only Realtor in your area that is ethical? Probably not. But perhaps you're the only Realtor that focuses on helping families with multiple pets, or with many children, or with two working parents. Even though almost every Realtor would work with these groups, chances are excellent that no one is specializing there in your market today. By claiming a segment as your own and refining your services to appeal to that market you can carve out a niche that didn't exist before. I'm not saying that the segments I mentioned above are the right ones for you, but seeing them may help you find the segment that is.

So - please - step away from your tagline search for a moment. You won't find one worth having until you figure out what it is that your clients come to you for.

And, to answer the question before it is asked - if you are a new agent you still need to do this. You must choose who you want to serve - and it can't be "all people looking to buy or sell a home." You have a unique opportunity to bring your fresh perspective and create something entirely new. Why not leverage that and make a service that would convince you that you were the best choice? A Realtor that has been working for 20 years is so set in their ways that they might not be able to respond to your new offerings. ...and that gets you clients.

Once you've got your specialty you can start talking to folks like the ones at Stokefire to help you create a tagline that can maximize the effectiveness of your specialty. Can't find a specialty? Call us (or a branding firm near you) and we can develop one that leverages your own strengths against the weaknesses of your competition - creating a new market for you with almost no competition.

Yuck. Not sure how the sales pitch slipped in there. Go do your stuff. Call us if you need help.

Tate Linden Principal Consultant Stokefire Consulting Group 703-778-9925