Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Dear Krista and Jessica,

A little more detail will help. Will you be selling commercial or residential? Houses or apartments? In the suburbs, in the city, or out in the country?

Where are you based? What area will you or do you serve? What kind of ideal buyer fits your profile?

Although a "catchy" name might feel like a good idea, it won't, in and of itself, do anything to help you sell real estate. I'm saying this because "catchy" is not a selling strategy. Nor is hip, with it, cool, chic, or glitzy.

People don't buy a service or a product because of name, catchy or otherwise, they buy because they have specific needs, and when most people are looking to buy real estate they're looking to do so because they want to find a new home, a new office or place of work, or because the land or building will be treated as an investment.

All of this means you need something that will position you as the logical experts, as the "go to" people.

So how about calling yourselves "Richter and Bodnar: The Real Estate Go To Girls". Your business cards could be mini compasses so that clients can find their way towards great real estate.

Or you could offer mini treasure hunt maps as business cards—not in the way of Long John Silver, but in the way of the buried treasure that is so often the thing buyers are looking for—particularly in the world of real estate.

There's nothing wrong with the fit of your names and remember, people will buy from you based on their feelings about YOU, not based on your names. It's what you offer that's of greater importance, not what you're called.

But if you can combine great service with the feeling, in your client's minds, that you're the only ones who can take them where they want to go, you win their trust.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Gary has asked the right questions and given you some good direction. I worry that you are making too much of a "catchy" name and expecting the name to do your marketing work for you.

You need to figure out what it is about the two of you that makes you legitimately better than all the other realtor teams out there. Specializing in a small niche would be ideal.

If you think your uniqueness is that you are two women, then figure out how that is a benefit for your target audience and expand on that. (Aren't most residential teams female?) Otherwise, your gender isn't relevant.