Trust
.. without it you have nothing, in friendship, in family and now in business.
So, out of your family friends and work circles, who do you trust the most ..
well a firm called Freuds (sounds like a lefty Guardian reading drivel
thinktank).. well this Freuds firm (their website says they are ‘world's leading strategic marketing and communications consultancy for
consumer brands, public sector bodies and global corporations’ ... what utter ballcocks) asked 8000 UK people who they trusted the most,
and Sir David Attenborough came top. I don’t about you, but I also think he is
really quite trustworthy .. but hardly any of us have met him .. and normally,
you need to meet someone, not just once, but many times to build a
relationship, from which trust is forthcoming
Every
once in a while, over the last thirty years, Sir Dave has been on my telly,
telling me about one interesting wildlife story event or another. He is
consistent and he has built a body of work over time, taking his time and that
my blog reading friends is what leads to trust.
Your
blog on your local property market can do that for you. .. build trust that is
..and that's not the trust for everyone in your town, not for the 18 year old koolkids, not for leather jacketed Fonz's of the word,
They
say the best time to look for a job next year is right now. The best time to
plan for a sale in three years is right now. The mistake so many letting
agents, estate agents and even worse, marketing departments of those agents
make is that they tie in the urgency of making another vendor use their estate
agency to sell their property this week (or next week) with the timing to earn the right (and trust) to get
that property on the market.
If
you want to look at it through the eyes of a letting agent, most letting agents
get it wrong, because they expect to do something on a Monday and get the landlords business by Friday, or at the latest, next Friday. It’s
true you want/need/require landlords to use your lettings agency, and you need
them sooner rather than later, in fact, you need them urgently ... but nobody
(and most certainly landlords) does business with someone they don’t trust.
Building trust is easy if you have the property to manage .. but its chicken
and the egg scenario.. how can you prove trust if you don’t have the property
to prove that trust?
Well
you can prove trust without meeting someone .. look at Sir Dave .. but it takes
time. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust
right when you want to make a sale is just too late.
Publishing
your ideas... in a blog, drip, drip drip ... and doing it with patience, over
time, is the best way I can think of to lay a foundation for getting those
landlords to pick up the phone and talk to you. Hell, I even do two blogs now.
This one and a property blog about Grantham. I don’t need to, but I enjoy doing
it. I don’t have a lettings agency, so don’t need to attract landlords .. I
just enjoying writing it. Don’t start a blog if you aren’t going to enjoy it –
but remember, you have one of the most fascinating subjects ... your local
property market. Don’t expect instant results. You won’t get one piece of
business for 4 or 5 months .. but if you enjoy writing it, like I enjoy writing
both this blog and the Grantham Property Blog.. that’s irrelevant.
Most
people give up after 1 or 2 months of writing the blog.. because they don’t get
the results straight away, but most importantly, they don’t enjoy doing it.
Stay with it and you will have shed loads of landlords coming to you. Not on
day 1, Not in Month 1,or 2 or even 3. The business will start slowly in months
4 or 5 and slowly build thereafter. Remember, my friend in the East Midlands
who has a lettings agency .. it took him quite a while. He started his blog in
2010 but by 2012 and 2013, he told me 85%+ of his new business was coming from
his blog – he enjoyed doing it ...his bank manger was also happy as his annual
turnover was around £450k a year in 2011 and by 2013 it was £650k a year
Now you know what (and
not) to put in the blog. We have talked it about many times in previous pieces.
If I see another blog post about the differences between s.8 and s.21 notices,
I will not be held responsible for my actions!!......