Professionals Get SmithAdams

Posted by nithi.vivatrat on August 20, 2009

Among the various types of consumers with whom I speak about SmithAdams, one segment immediately and intuitively gets it: professionals. By professionals, I mean specialized service providers such as lawyers, accountants, consultants, and doctors.

None of these professional groups charge a commission for their services. Accountants don’t charge their clients a percentage of their taxable income to do their taxes. M&A lawyers don’t calculate their fees as a percentage of the deal size. Consultants don’t charge their clients a percentage of profits. Yet the commission model is the traditional way we pay for real estate brokerage services.

Looking at my customer base, I can see that professionals — specifically lawyers — are among the early adopters of the SmithAdams model. More than one told me, “I’ve been waiting for something like this to come along!”

What is it about SmithAdams that appeals to professionals? Is it that they can pick and choose what services to use and pay for? Or is it that the potential for conflicts of interest inherent in the commission model is avoided? Or is it our focus on establishing a culture of service and client advocacy, versus a culture of sales and transactions? Probably a little bit of all of the above.

To me, this is key validation of our approach. If the SmithAdams fee-for-service model was the WRONG choice for a consumer, who would know better than professionals who use the same model in their work life? Fortunately for us, lawyers, consultants, and other professionals are opting to choose the SmithAdams model over the commission alternative. Great news for SmithAdams!