HOW IT WORKS
“If you’re a Real Estate professional, Parkbench.com is a relationship-based marketing tool; if you’re a business owner, school, or community group, we’re a free marketing platform; if you’re a homeowner, we’re the most resourceful newspaper for your community.”
–Grant Findlay-Shirras , CEO and co-founder of Parkbench Inc.
How Parkbench works:
- A real estate professional becomes a Local Leader® with Parkbench by claiming their neighborhood or area of interest at a yearly fee.
- The offer is exclusive. There can only be ONE realtor, broker, or agent per neighborhood.
- Our team of experts set up a fully functional local website for you in 48 hours that allows you to access our unique and exclusive local data aggregating technology.
- The agent or broker becomes entitled to our unique Local Leader® Prospecting System. This proprietary marketing and lead-generating system is simple to use and comes with a money-back guarantee.
- With our prospecting system, the real estate professional – you – begin to connect with other local professionals, businesses, and social groups, and increase your sphere of influence. You will have the unique advantage of featuring these businesses on your local website for residents to see within the area you choose.
- These local businesses and professionals become genuinely thankful and enthusiastically refer your business to their customers. Why would they do that? Because you’re the only realtor in the area who has tried to help their business.
- You become the go-to agent in the neighborhood and you dedicate yourself and your business to the residents. Homeowners will turn to your local website as the ideal replacement for their daily paper, and boom! You are the Digital Mayor of your community.
- Residents can also read and watch interviews with local business owners that you conduct in person and during these uncertain times, remotely. Additionally, they can subscribe to a weekly newsletter to get everything delivered directly to their inbox. This keeps you in constant communication with your target market.
- What we offer: We build a neighborhood microsite inside the Parkbench Network. We manage it. We maintain it. We add the content to it. We SEO it. We do all the tech!
WHY PARKBENCH WORKS
A local solution to a local problem
You have probably heard the quote “think globally, but act locally.” You falter on that account when you choose to go with big tech ad companies like Google and Facebook. These big companies offer a global solution to a local problem – selling houses within your geographical area. What more? They only offer another avenue for cold prospecting which is similar to the old-fashioned door-to-door marketing. Now we all know how that panned out, don’t we?
Similarly, big real estate tech companies like Realtor.com and Zillow share the same shortcomings – they offer leads, yes, but cold ones… How often have you come across a lead that knows, likes and trusts you? Remember, having a potential customer know, like and trust you, before they do business with you, increases your likelihood of success.
It is the gaps of ineffectiveness and inefficiencies of the above companies’ marketing system that the Parkbench Local Leader® Initiative seeks to address. At Parkbench, we offer a local solution to a local problem. We understand that the goal of effective marketing is to connect your business to your customers. And that is exactly what you will achieve with your local website and our Local Leader® Prospecting System.
Parkbench is an easier marketing tool
Some of the biggest headaches in the real estate business are marketing, prospecting, and lead generation. This is generally because of the known ways of doing things like door knocking or branding gifts to prospects.
The problem however is, people are less willing to work with people they don’t trust and people they don’t know. Our system aims to solve that problem. Using our Local Leader® Prospecting Systemwill help you first convert these prospects into acquaintances. You become instantly invaluable because you are.
Therefore, with our system, you’re not dealing with cold prospects. You are not approaching business owners and homeowners and spewing some marketing pitch. No way! People have learned to see through all that, and it just comes across as salesy and cheesy.
Instead, you come to them with an idea that can make their lives and businesses easier. People will be enthusiastic to help you if they can see a way they can help themselves in the process. Everyone wants to help, they just need a little push.
Parkbench appeals to our humanity and solves a problem
Our system of prospecting appeals to the fundamental nature of humans – self-interest. It’s that simple. Self-interest is nothing to be ashamed of. It is essential for survival. If you don’t look out for yourself, family, and business, how would you survive?
Since the dawn of time, any system that supports and nourishes the self-interest of the parties involved thrives and becomes successful. Have you ever wondered why huge companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple are thriving?
The answer is simple; they solve problems and appeal to self-interest. I have never seen anyone go on Facebook so Zuckerberg’s business can do well. We all use Facebook for our own gains. Likewise, nobody gets a new iPhone to keep Apple in business. We do it because we want what’s best for us.
When you offer the immense value of our system to the businesses, groups, and residents of your community, what will get them excited is their self-interest. You couldn’t possibly think up a better means to sell an idea than that. Therefore, Parkbench works because our system is built to sell itself.
For you as a realtor, it solves the undesirable problem of cold market prospecting and lead generation.
Parkbench works because everybody wins
There are only a few situations in the world of business where everybody wins. This is one of them. It is destined for the very top, and hopefully, you’re going to be one of its beneficiaries. Below is a breakdown of how every facet of the neighborhood will benefit from this movement.
- Realtors help local businesses and professionals make more money by promoting them online and connecting them to people who need and want their products and services.
- Realtors will help schools acquire more resources by connecting them with people and businesses who want to donate.
- Realtors will educate homeowners about the neighborhood in ways that Google and Facebook never could.
- Realtors will directly impact the economic, social, and environmental strength of neighborhoods.
- Realtors will become the ultimate concierge and coach through the home buying, selling, and investing process.
- The brokerage model will die; teams will thrive. Every realtor will either own their brokerage or be a part of a team.
- In the end, the realtors in our system will create relationships and a reputation that will keep their bellies and pockets filled for life. When everyone in your community wants to see you succeed because it helps their business too, the odds forever remain in your favor.