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A spark of
business insight
from Mike Hickman
From Seven Gables Real Estate
Something Special in the Marketplace
I’m reading Scott McKain’s Collapse of Distinction. This is from the
introduction:
“If you cannot find it within yourself to become emotional, committed,
engaged, and yes, fervent about differentiation, then you had better be
prepared to take your place among that vast throng of the mediocre
who are judged by their customers solely on the basis of price. It is the
singularly worst place to be in all of business. If you aren’t willing to create
distinction for yourself in your profession—and for your organization in
the marketplace—then prepare to take your seat in the back, with the
substantial swarm of the similar, where tedium reigns supreme*.”
Powerful stuff.
Each and every morning on my way to the Seven Gables office, I’m pumped. Pumped because I know I’m
going to spend the day working with a group of people who have what it takes to stand above the throng. To
outperform their peers. To differentiate themselves.
And that’s not just one guy’s opinion. We’re surrounded by the evidence. In an era in which we have seen a
collapse of distinction in the real estate market, here are two distinct facts that speak volumes about Seven
Gables’ unique place in the Orange County real estate industry:
1. There are currently 23 second-generation employees and agents working at Seven Gables—
people whose parents spent (or still spend) their careers here.
2. Head to head, where we have an office and our closest competitors have an office,
our agents out-earn their agents by twenty percent.
I’m proud to say that the culture and brand of Seven Gables attracts driven people. People who find it in
themselves to be, in McKain’s words: emotional, committed, engaged, and yes, fervent about differentiation.
Our agents are distinctive and thereby support & strengthen the brand, making it stand for something special
in the marketplace.
That’s why we hold so tightly to and place such importance on our brand standards. Sure, we’re changing with
the times. But we’re remaining true to our core values and beliefs. And that’s what our brand speaks to and
lives by.
Add it all up. What do you have? A brokerage in the driver’s seat. Leading the pack. Operating at the forefront,
where excitement and success rule.
That’s Seven Gables.
--Mike
*© Scott McKain. Published by Thomas Nelson, 2009
R E A L
E S T A T E
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