You get what you pay for!
People who are good at what they do and charge accordingly for the value they provide, are often asked why they ‘cost’ more than their competitors. When they get an opportunity to explain, they usually have no problem doing so. This is true in real estate, in fact it is true in most service based industries.
I got to think about this on a number of occasions today, when I spoke to three separate people who had called to ask about the training involved in becoming licensed as an agent. Perfect! We are a training organisation, they want training! But not that simple. We weren’t the first place they had called. Two of the people are currently enrolled with different training organisations and are so unhappy with the course they have commenced, that they are willing to blow the money they have spent and start again. The third was even worse. This person is licensed and recently purchased an agency. They have now come to the horrible realisation that they have no idea how to be a licensed agent or how to successfully operate a business. And sadly they were all able to admit to me, that they had chosen the course they had enrolled in, purely on price. After all, it is the same qualification so why wouldn’t you buy on price? Yet here they are now, shopping on reputation.
So is price the same as cost? Is cost the same as value?
Really, value is just the difference between perceived cost and perceived benefit. Perceived because we all see and experience the world differently, hence value things differently.
When an A380 leaves Perth headed to Dubai, the people on board are headed for the same place. Everybody on board leaves Perth airport and lands in Dubai. They travel on the same plane and arrive at the same destination, in exactly the same time frame. But do they all have the same experience? At the front they give you pyjamas to wear in your flat bed and you can have a hot shower when you wake up, at the back – well we all know what its like at the back! But even at the back, we still land in Dubai.
An education is not quite the same. Just because you got a Diploma and can get a license, doesn’t mean you will be equipped to run a business. Just because you got 7 points (and it was cheap and they let you go home early because they didn’t really have anything useful to say to you), doesn’t mean you have up-skilled yourself adequately, nor does it mean that you have achieved value for yourself or your hard earned dollar. Serving time with a trainer may produce the same piece of paper, the destination may seem the same; but the journey is where the experience lies! And when you arrive confident and feel in control, you are ready to take on whatever the world throws at you.
If you know that you are worth what you charge and you are comfortable explaining the value you provide, take a leaf out of your own book and pay yourself back with the quality education you deserve. Because, you know, you get what you pay for.
And, when your quality education pays dividends and your business is hugely successful, you might get to wear pyjamas, sleep on a flat bed and have a hot shower when you wake up, in the pointy bit up front – I hear there are private suites coming in late 2017 🙂