Yep, that’s exactly what the sales rep for Trulia.com told me as he was hanging up the phone after a failed attempt to sell me advertising.
I’m not sure what irritated Travis (Trulia sales rep) more, the two weeks he spent hounding my assistant to get my attention just to end up with no deal, or the fact that I called Trulia a competitor.
Agents have been debating and ranting about Trulia’s web savvy tricks and widgets for years. And for good reason, especially since Travis said that Trulia is about to overtake Realtor.com as the number one real estate site on the Internet.
I’ve been sitting on this post for a few days to make sure I didn’t turn it into a Trulia bashing session just because one of their representatives was rude.
However, something definitely had to be said. It’s bad enough that I’ve lost valuable web rankings over the past few years to Trulia and similar sites, but now they are personally calling and rubbing it in over the phone.
We get sales calls all day long from SEO gurus, web design firms and vendors like Trulia trying to tell us that their “web traffic solution magic bullet” will help us generate more leads.
Since I’m busy running a property management and real estate company, my assistant helps field calls throughout the day to make sure we’re able to address the most important issues first.
Obviously, clients come before sales reps… and we have a lot of clients. Which ironically enough in this particular situation, 94% of our new business comes from the web.
Apparently Travis wasn’t happy with the level of priority we were giving our clients’ calls over him, so after several tries he finally asked my assistant if I was really out of the office or just avoiding him.
Anyway, here’s how the call went:
After Travis told me about how much traffic Trulia receives and that they’ll be bumping Realtor.com as the #1 used real estate site on the Internet, I told him I don’t use Trulia or similar sites for advertising.
Travis quickly interjected and said, “I know why you don’t use Zillow, but why wouldn’t you use Trulia?”
Before I could answer, he said that he was reviewing my profile on Trulia and noticed that I have received several leads, but I could get more with an upgrade.
I began to explain to him that I won’t spend any money to generate business from my competitors, at which he took offense to stating that Trulia is not a competitor.
My opinion is that anyone who ranks against me in the search engines for the same target audience is a competitor.
Now that Trulia has bumped me from many of my key organic spots, I have a hard time paying them anything for the same leads I was getting before they came to our town.
I explained that I am not a new agent trying to generate leads, and how I have a large web presence that I have been building for over 10 years. So, I have a different outlook on sites like Trulia then newer agents or agents with no web presence.
Travis said that he really appreciated my feedback and …… “Sorry, we are blowing you out of the water” as he hung up.
So, here are a few takeaways from this conversation:
- If you’re an agent helping Trulia’s SEO by placing their widgets on your site, then it’s your fault that they’re “blowing us out of the water”
- Anyone trying to reach your target audience online with a similar product / service is a competitor
- If the rest of Trulia’s sales reps are as prideful and rude as Travis, then they should clean house
From an SEO / publishing perspective, I think Trulia has done a good job competing against us in the search engines.
But, As Rob Hann points out in this post about competing with the Big Guys for SEO:
Why is competing with Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and so on nearly impossible? Why is hyperlocal so much the point of agent blogging?
The answer, to me, seems to be that when a Big Company decides that it wants to compete in SEO for some desirable keywords, it will simply outspend the little guy and just crush him. The focus on hyperlocal and “long tail” strikes me as the result: small companies and individual agents pick up the crumbs that the big guys let fall from the table.
In other words, their SEO-based strategies are viable only insofar as some Big Guy allows it to be viable.
Regardless of whether or not Trulia decides to blow us out of the water on either trophy phrase or hyper-local searches, I still believe that homebuyers will have more options for searching homes online with a Real Estate Agent’s site that is integrated with a killer IDX solution.
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Hi Tony!
My sincere apologies for what you experienced. That is not appropriate at all. I will make sure we have a chat with Travis and our other team members on how to respect and treat our clients and customers.
Rudy
Manager, New Media and Agent Education
Wow Rudy, you’re quick. Nice response.
Tony – Well written article, I wonder what the first version looked like before you had a chance to simmer down. Do you think that Travis guy was joking or trying to be funny? Maybe you misunderstood him?
It just doesn’t make sense that someone would pop off like that when they represent such a well recognized company.
I mean, he’s selling “Internet Marketing” services…. did he not think that you might mention something on the “web” about your experience?
Hey Rudy,
I appreciate you stopping by and giving your input. I thought Travis did a great job going through his sales pitch and when I explained why I wouldn’t use the service, he continued with why I should reconsider. The conversation was very civil until it came to an end when I think he realized I wasn’t going to become a client and that’s when he made the statement, “sorry, we’re blowing you out of the water.” I was shocked that he said that.
Trulia reps are so good at social interaction! There certainly has been a lot of negativity towards trulia, zillow and the like for taking over the SERPs. I’d say more than half of our real estate clients come to us to help jump them in the search results, and there’s a reason they’re initially not quite there. So many real estate websites don’t really provide anything of quality to get them above that spot.
Let’s take their San Diego page as an example, http://www.trulia.com/CA/San_Diego/;
The content, the structure, the resources, the map, the local agents and all the other goodies. I know Trulia has a crazy big link profile, but when it comes to taking them out for your area, it just requires a little work. Just because and agent has been established in the area for 20 years, doesn’t mean his/her website should be ranked number one. If all you’re doing is providing mls listings and occasionally blogging, then you’re going to always been blown our of the water.
Check the SERP results for ‘Manhattan Real Estate’, something Trulia (nor the other giant sites) have a grasp on. The agencies ranking there are doing all the right stuff to be the bigger \brand\. I blogged on this already, so I apologise for re-bringing it up, but it’s good stuff imho.
If I were an agent, I’d still totally utilise sites like Trulia just because they’re most likely always going to be in the top 10. Might as well be on there as well as ranking your site and other social media content into the top.
@ Ryan
I’m not going to profess I’m an expert or anything to that nature but I have been involved in Internet Marketing since 2001 and own numerous top ranking websites, like WannaNetwork.com. I never stated that just because I have been doing this for 10 years, I should be ranked #1, what I stated was because I have been doing this for 10 years, I have a different outlook than most agents who have no experience in building a web presence.
Trulia isn’t blowing me out of the water. They have they jumped me in the serps for the most competitive search phrase, Las Vegas Real Estate, but I don’t optimize my site for that search phrase much any more and I still rank around #12. This search phrase doesn’t generate the best converting \leads\.
I am a broker/owner and I would much rather continue to spend my advertising dollars on building my own web presence as opposed to buying advertising spots or upgrading an account on sites like Trulia or Zillow. If I were a new agent or didn’t have a web presence, I probably would use sites like Trulia and Zillow.
@Tony I in no way meant that towards you or your site at all, I have to make that clear! I as well am a little irked that they made that comment, so I wrote with a little fury. I just want to get it in more agents heads that building up a very high quality site should be of utmost importance. Especially now giant sites such as Trulia are in play…and they won’t be the last either.
I also highly agree with you about the “big” keywords…a lot of them drive mostly traffic that doesn’t convert into leads so great. The amount of long tail traffic in just about every city is more than enough to make up for it, as well push quality leads.
Trulia for new agents is a most likely a priority because it’s so tough and I don’t really know the half of it (not being an agent). The Trulia Voices aspect of the site seems to rank extremely well for the long tail, so that’s at least one aspect I can see someone getting leads fro.
Interesting post, Tony. I have gotten my share of phone calls from ‘experts’ who promised everything under the moon, but when I politely said I wasn’t interested then their entire tone changed from one of a professional salesman to a teenage smart ass. Customer service is nowhere near the priority that it should be.
Anyway, back to the topic, there is a plethora of agents who simply don’t see how Trulia, Zillow, et al, are really the competition. And by advertising on those sites, those agents are further cementing that the big aggregators will continue to move up on the SERPs. Personally, I don’t like using those sites as they are becoming more commercialized (how many ads can you stuff on a page) and data is often outdated.
Such a killer post. So many good points. With respect, I will add a few more. Not only are sites like these competitors, I will go so far as to say they border on extortion. They solicit our listings, then sell space on them to the highest bidder to mislead viewers into assuming the buyer of that space is the actual listing agent. They diffuse traffic away from your sites if you let them.
They pit your listings that are tied to MLS integrity standards against advertisers, like RealtyTrac, who bottom feed for leads by posting all sorts of misleading information. They cannibalize their agent members by changing their premium subscriptions to basic ones by adding a super premium subscription above it. They change the ranking rules such that ratings seekers can game the system by posting quantity over quality. And now they are targeting advertising of their own to user based ip addresses.
The fact is the most Trulia “leads” I receive turn out to cost me even more time and money, as they are in the “I want it yesterday” timeframe, at the beginning of their learning curve, with very little respect for how the process works. I am so with you… I’d much rather spend each dollar where it will build some actual value for my actual clientele, or folks who are ready to take serious action and who appreciate the value of local expertise.
Only one thing to say here. “If you can’t beat em’ join em.” Travis was 100% correct, these websites are “blowing you out of the water.” How much money are you WASTING every year by trying to compete with websites for organic SEO’s whom are backed by the richest VC firms in the world? A lot I’m guessing. Capitalism, survival of the fittest, whatever you want to call it, you are LOSING a David vs Goliath battle without a slingshot. Join the herd and start making these website work FOR you and not against you.
Best of Luck
Just have to laugh at the comments above.
I received a call from them just recently and had the same experience a rude, condescending sales rep who thought he knew it all. I calmly informed him that I didn’t need Tr ( I don’t want to give “you know who” any SEO help) to generate leads that I did just fine all by myself to which he challenged me and said he couldn’t find my website anywhere in the search results. That was a lie, I know where I am and what keywords I rank for when you search for real estate in my area. I tried to keep my composure as he badgered me and I finally just told him I appreciated the fact that he was trying to make money but I was busy selling real estate to be bothered with him telling me how to sell real estate and he might want to go do something that would earn him some money. He got really nasty at that point and intimated I was a loser because I didn’t know what it took to be “successful” in today’s
market place. I didn’t bother with a response, click, my other phone was ringing, another buyer on the line:)
I work at Trulia. It is honestly the best job I’ve ever had. All we are trained to do is HELP agents. We go through two and a half weeks of training before we make our first phone call, and then we are subject to go through 3 months of calls, more training, classes, one-on-ones, and a rating system. And after all that, in order to “graduate” (become a “Trulian”) we have to go through a review no matter what our sales are, called the IMPACT values. Innovate. Motivate. People Matter. Act With Integrity. Customer Obsessed. Trust and Respect.
I don’t agree with the other Travis’ end of that call, and that is certainly not how we as sales reps and account managers should behave.
I’m not even on Trulia’s payroll yet, but I hope to be soon. I’ve been there 4 months and all of the agents I set up are HAPPY and GETTING CLOSINGS. Around 70 of them. I’m sorry you had a bad experience Tony, maybe you should find someone to talk to who isn’t all about the sale!
One more comment…are you aware that Trulia actually HELPS generate traffic to your site if you’d like? In October 2011 Trulia had 17.3 Million unique visitors. If you have a local ad or Trulia Pro, whenever someone clicks to contact you you do have the option of that being a link directly to your site. Not sure if you were aware of that.