Kim Prior All marketing executives work to best articulate what makes their products stand out amongst the competition – to find and explain the special sauce and modify that message with time, product and industry evolution. And in a world where Brands compete for mind-share by squaring off on features, benefits and pricing repetitively – it all becomes, well, really noisy. Breaking through the noise makes this task all the more difficult for the marketer.
So, today as I’m pulling together some marketing copy, I’m thinking about what makes our products stand out from the competition, I am reminded about my longstanding admiration for FBS (and a reason I was compelled to join when the right opportunity presented itself this year), beyond their proven technical product leadership. Superficially, this may sound like a shameless plug about how cool we are …but I implore you to follow me through. I promise, it won’t be a long one.
Here at FBS, the distance from the competition ends with a phenomenal product stacked with awesome bells and whistles …but it begins with something on a deeper level. And that’s our hyper – personal approach to business.
What makes it personal? FBS is 100% employee owned; that means that every single employee has personal skin in the game. People here are (really) vested in the outcome: long-term, increasing customer success and happiness. Employees innovate and develop products, deliver service and scale business with a personal mindset of creating growth and helping customers achieve greatness. This is a proactive, thoughtful, intentional way to do business. Sitting still to enjoy a few moments of success (and allowing the competition to catch up) simply isn’t an option when you are an owner. And when everyone is an owner, well, there’s just no sitting around.
FBS’s personal approach to products means more than fostering uniquely personal relationships with our customers – it means delivering products that empower our customers to create unique, personalized experiences for their customers – enabling them (through tools and functionality) greater client collaboration. Simply stated, we infuse our personal approach into our products at the baseline level and carry that all the way through. For potential (and existing) FBS customers, this is really important…perhaps more important than any single feature that can be replicated with time and technology. Why? Because this personal approach yields unprecedented value and, is uniquely FBS.
In the case of flexmls, the super flexible system is powerful, innovative and industry leading. MLSs love it. Agents love it. Customers love it. Collaborative agent portals, fast, reliable performance and big photos (just to name a few) all supported by expert service are just a few of the reasons why. But the real breakaway, the real differentiation is the customization: thoughtful and plentiful options we’ve “baked in” empowering Users (MLS, Broker, Agent) to personalize the experience in the way(s) that matter most to them. Minimizing the need for laborious, time consuming custom work, flexmls yields and conforms to the customer’s needs, giving them the system that they want.
So yes, we have our special sauce – the features, bells and whistles that make flexmls so compelling, unique and competitive. But it’s also about what can’t be replicated by competition because it’s at the heart of FBS – the secret “marinade” that subtly imparts this distinctive flavor into everything we do.
This inherent, almost radical focus on creating long-term success by making it personal is a key factor in maintaining the satisfaction of the clients we’re so grateful to serve every day. At the same time, it is the ultimate foundation for growth, stability and continued future innovation – attracting new MLS clients into the FBS family who want truly personalized, high-value relationships, products and service.
At FBS, we’ve created something truly special – and we look forward to sharing it with you!