I’ve been in the news a lot this past week. The company I founded, 72SOLD, was just recognized for an unprecedented achievement. We grew bigger, faster than any firm in our industry. After only five years in business, we are the 2024 Inc. 5000 #2 ranked real estate firm in the nation, just behind a firm in Massachusetts that’s been in business more than twice as long.
We also ranked as the #1 real estate firm in Arizona (for the 3rd year in a row), #1 in the entire Western U.S. and the #8 fastest growing company in Arizona compared to all businesses in every industry.
Of course I’m proud… but this article isn’t about that. It’s about the “why” behind 72SOLD’s success, a “why” that most businesses could emulate; and in my opinion, every business should.
THE “WHY”
Real estate agents typically try to earn business by being better. “I will advertise your home more. I will hold more open houses.” Better usually means doing more.
Clearly, doing more for clients is better than not. But doing more often doesn’t make a big difference. For example, in real estate, serious homebuyers search Zillow every day. You can’t attract more buyers by doing more advertising because you can put a home in front of every buyer immediately simply by uploading it to Zillow. However, you can attract more buyer calls by presenting a home on Zillow so that it stands out from other similar homes a buyer might consider. This is an art we developed at 72SOLD, and it has made a significant difference in the number of buyers that inquire on our properties.
Doing more of the same often makes only a marginal difference. Doing it in a different, better way can make an astounding difference. This has been the key to 72SOLD’s success. A study released in 2024 showed that sellers who used the 72SOLD program had a median sale price 7.8% higher than other homes sold in the local MLS. Another study just showed that in July of this year we sold homes in 20 days compared to other agents in the market at 46 days.
UBER DID IT
To get a taxi you had to pick up the phone and call. Uber fixed that. You never knew when the cab would arrive. Uber fixed that. You never knew exactly how much it would cost. Uber fixed that. You had to tip the taxi driver before you got out of the cab. Uber fixed that. Uber drivers get to consumers faster, provide a better experience and do it at a lower cost. Better, faster, cheaper. Uber didn’t try to be a better taxi; it revamped the entire taxi business model.
AMAZON DID IT
Amazon didn’t try to make your in-store shopping experience better. Instead, it invented a way to avoid having to go into a store. It started with books and now sells pretty much everything. Teresa even orders our groceries online from Whole Foods (owned by Amazon) and has them delivered to the door.
7 DIMENSIONAL THINKING
A few years ago, I developed a concept I call 7 Dimensional Thinking. It’s a way to look at processes and products to identify how to do them different-better instead of better-better. I ask myself if it would be more effective to do it bigger, smaller, faster, slower, opposite from how it’s done, a different shape/color, or make it completely go away and start from scratch? I’ve applied this concept in real estate, but I think it would be equally applicable to most any business.
Sometimes people try to be different just for the sake of being different. That’s not what this is about. Different isn’t always better. Sometimes different is worse. Perhaps my message today is best summarized by Seth Godin…
“Don’t be different just to be different. Be different to be better.”
