Early adopters of technology see more success

I love to read. My favorite place to hang out was my local Borders. So you can imagine my dismay when they closed the store (despite my healthy monthly purchases)! Borders will soon be a distant memory.

And I wonder what went wrong. It wasn’t all Amazon’s fault. Yes, people like to purchase books online but it was more than that. Borders was also slow to adopt the e-reader concept. I’m sure there were other issues as well.

Last week, Chris Smith, Inman News’ chief evangelist, compared the failures of retailers like Borders to Blockbuster and urged Realtors® to learn a lesson from their mistakes during an Agent Reboot conference in Cherry Hill, NJ.

Both companies were slow to recognize the changes occurring in the marketplace and even slower to adopt new technologies. While chain bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble eliminated many independent book stores, Amazon has further eliminated the competition by offering consumers a new way to purchase books. And Amazon was quick to offer the Kindle, making it even easier and less expensive to buy books.

Smith highlighted how Blockbuster was similar in its lack of vision to offer consumers a simpler way to rent a movie. So while Blockbuster maintained its retail outlet, Netflix bowled them over by offering simple home delivery to consumers. Moving forward, Netflix continues to adopt new technology, offering consumers the ability to stream movies without ever touching a DVD.

Smith encourages Realtors® to be open to try new technology. “Sometimes we have to fail and try more than once. Sometimes we have to try things at least three to five times before we get it right,” he added.

He explained that using new technology is not an “either or” situation. Integrating new technology into a business, along with other methods, only helps build success.

Smith said one technologies Realtors® are not taking advantage of is advertising on the web, specifically Google and Facebook. Given that consumers spend significant amounts of time on the Internet and more than 90 percent begin their home search online, it makes sense to advertise there.

“In 2010, more homes were purchased that the consumer brought to the agent than the agent brought to the client,” Smith noted. He said this makes it more important than ever for Realtors® to illustrate the value they bring to the transaction.

Smith said Prezi.com is a great online program that Realtors® can use to prepare electronic listing presentations. While 74 percent of agents are still using a printed version of listing presentation, using this new technology gives Realtors® an edge over the competition and gives consumers what they want.

“By using this computer program, it takes something that’s outdated and puts you a little bit ahead of the curve,” Smith said.

“It’s easy to see that the early adopters of new technologies are the winners,” Smith said. “Don’t be afraid to fail, over time, early adopters will make more money.”