She might be grumpy but she makes a lot of sales

She’s grumpy and rarely smiles. If she does it’s when I’m not present.

Her reputation is fearsome. Young sales reps are pilloried by her about ethics and etiquette. Her commitment, it seems, is to make other agents cringe and cower. She’s like a caged fighting dog, snapping and snarling at everyone and everything, even her handlers.

And yet strangely she makes sales. Lots of them. In her patch she’s clearly the leading agent.

While others drive expensive cars and wear designer suits this agent puts sales together. Her marketing isn’t flash. To the contrary it’s dowdy. Small signs, small print ads and faded photos in an old shop window. She’s not on Facebook or Twitter and doesn’t have a blog. In fact she doesn’t even have a website, at least not one I could find.

So what is it about her that gets the job done?

For a start she lives where she works. That gives her a nuanced understanding of her patch that an outsider could only hope for. It’s an edge that others find hard to combat.

She knows the market backwards. That’s not hard when you’re the one making all the sales. When sellers ask her opinion she speaks with the confidence only years of knowledge bring.

And she walks her dog in the park and chats with the locals. She knows their names and the names of their dogs and their kids. She takes an interest in them and knows where they live.

There’s no need to sell or hand out cards. Her dog walking friends know who she is, what she does and where to get hold of her.

In short, she’s a social marketing pro. We who exercise our dogs online would do well to take a leaf out of her play book.

Photo credit: mikebaird on Flickr