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Showing posts from December, 2020

Love the Free Val – not the Listing

One of the best things about me meeting so many agents in my role is that I learned the best agents love the free val – not the listing The agents that give themselves over to the work of the free val (ie the input) that makes up the inputs that deliver what you want, the more certain you will create the output (the listing). Those agents who learn to love the work of the free val, generate the listings they want because they never avoid giving the inputs their attention, focus, time and their energy. When was the last time someone went out with you on the free val? When was the last time you recorded the audio your free val on your phone, and listened back to it, and this wills care you, with your boss or colleague? ‘I don’t need to do that Chris, I am a professional’ , yet isn’t it interest every professional (Surgeons, Lawyers, Accountants have to do 20/30/40 hours of Continued Professional Development a year… how many do you do Mr/s Valuer?”   Most of you ‘trust the proces

The Gods of Listings

When Estate Agents start out, they are so focused on their business gen, nothing slips through the net. Yet after a few years, when are doing well and the FV’s come rolling in and the listings aren’t as tough, they stop prospecting and creating new listing opportunities when they have a listings on a plate.  Just because you are doing well should not avert you from chasing other listing opportunities or cause you to reduce the focus, time and effort you spend creating new listing opportunities. The last 9 months have been amazing for Estate Agents – everyone has done well .. yet soon, things are going to get a lot tougher for agents. The number of people moving in the next 18/21 months when unemployment goes into double digits will make a difference The Gods of Listings punish those Valuers who put off the prospecting work they need to do now & smile benevolently upon those who continue to prospect, even when the times are good.  I saw so many Valuers in 2009, only starting

Constipated Sales Pipelines

The bottom line is this, the stamp duty holiday ending in March means you will lose some of your deals.   And whilst you will have some amazing commission cheques in Q1 2021, unless you do something now, Q3 & Q4 next year are going to lean months for commission.    The fewer SSTC’s you have in your pipeline, the more reliant you are on those sales for your commission. Yet when you have more than enough sales, you can have sales fall through without harming your commission.   You have to accept are going to lose sales. Whilst you can’t stop bad things from happening, you can incessantly create new opportunities.    It’s the business generation you do in Q1 that will get the listings in Q2 and the commission cheque in Q4 .. yet so many Valuers and Listers can’t see beyond 60 days.    The clever listers play the long game. Just because you can convert free vals doesn’t make you an awesome estate agent … to get that status, you need to create the vals   Q. How many of the last 50 free

THE PERSISIANT LISTER

If you are going to win your dream listings and landlords, you are going to have to pursue them over time.     You have to play the long game, working on them for months (if not years for portfolio landlords), and hence most agents dont do it This means that you have to communicate with them at a tempo and rhythm that keeps you top of mind, without being a pain the ar$e, annoyance or a time waster.  Here are a few ideas to help you persevere while preserving your professionalism. 1. Relationships with Potential Vendors & Landlords are More Important Than The Listing:   You have a choice to make as you persist in your business generation. If you choose to push hard for what you want (the listing), being overly forceful and pushy to gain the listing you want, you will be proving to the vendor / landlord that what you want is more important to you than the relationship. The do whatever it takes attitude is useful in your chasing, but it should not incorporate the absence of integrity

If you want to be successful in 2020’s as an Estate or Letting Agent, you need to do this #1 thing

Everyone says Estate & Letting Agency is a people business. Yet, looking at most agent’s social media and marketing, nothing could be further from the truth   It can not be argued against that People connect with people, not with brands (unless you are Apple, Tesla or Virgin ..and there is an argument that they are there in some (not all) way because of their famous founders)   That is why I a suggesting everyone reading this should invest in their personal brand (and I am not suggesting that should be at the expense of you investing in your company brand)   The internet and social media intensifies and magnifies an outstanding personal brand many many times   So, having no personal brand and no social media / internet presence puts you in oblivion much faster than before.   If you don’t jump on-board with the ethos of personal brand you will get left behind, because building a personal brand is the single most prevailing marketing strategy you can have for your agency   The simple