Everyone decides
what they want to buy based on one thing ...
sentiment. (Dictionary definition of Sentiment ... a view or opinion that is held or expressed.) You go to Waitrose because it makes you feel better than Lidl
and you belive it is better– its the same trolley of groceries, but you believe what is in your trolley is better. You bought that £30 black top from H+M
because it made you look nice but didn’t buy an almost similar black top in
Primark’s for £2.. why?
So Mr(s) letting
agent, your letting agency marketing must use sentiment to sell what landlords
want, not what you think they need or want them to need. Every last adult with
money in his or her pocket in the whole Western capitalist world fundamentally
makes buying decisions based on sentiment,
not common sense. Common sense supports our sentiments and is used to
justify our decisions after we have made them. Common sense (or you could use
the word reason or logic in the place of common sense) plays a part, but
sentiment is the core ingredient.
How can Apple sell
a £200 tablet for £400? How can Coke sell a can of brown sugary liquid for £1
when Sainsbury’s own brown sugary liquid is 30p? If you have Mr(s) letting
agent have a service that landlords have little sentiment for, that will be a service
that’s hard to sell or has very small profit margins. Because you have to sell
on fee alone.
Some agents think
sentiment has no place in letting agency advertising. They just get straight to
the point .. 'landlords wanted adverts'... 'Bloggs and Co Your 1st choice for
lettings'. Those agents are absolutely 110% totally wrong. The greatest sin in letting
agency marketing is being dull. The world is a busy, cluttered place
with advertisements and messages everywhere. If your message is dull,
you don’t stand a chance. If you can’t think of anything exciting about your lettings
service, then get out of the industry.... come on agents .. you are working in
an industry with a subject that 70% of the British people are obsessed about
..property. If you can’t come up with something interesting ,, you need to get
out!
Don’t get me wrong,
I don’t want to see cute children pretending to letting agents nor do I want to
see puppy dogs or pussy cats all over your adverts .. just get real here. There’s
a huge distinction between sentiment and
hype. Your lettings agency message
doesn’t need to sound like a tv documentary in order to provoke sentiment. You
need to figure out what your landlords love, and what they hate, what keeps
them awake at night, what gives them headaches and what end of the world events
they fear. You’ve got to know what aspects of being a landlord they’re passionate
about and design your letting agency services, and marketing to address those
needs and allay their fears.
..and what do
landlords love? .. they are just like all home owners and have these thoughts
on their mind
- · How much is my property(s) worth?
- · What is happening to the local property market where my properties are?
- · What is going to happen to the local property market in the future where my properties are?
- · Where is the next property I want to buy?
They couldn’t give
two hoots about your ARLA exam, your fees or the name of your company and branding.
All they care about are themselves, telling themselves all letting agents are a
necessary evil and as all letting agents are the same .. I will stick with the
one I have. (better the devil you know)
If you want
landlords to come to you, you have to get inside their head and get
sentimental.. but not in a slushy puppy dog way, but in a way that makes them
want to come and talk to you because you can help them. Lettings is a people business .. not a property business. Landlord
farming just uses techniques that have been around for the last 50 years. Talk
about a subject that the potential customer (landlord) is interested in, put it
in front of them so it grabs their attention and eventually, the customer
(landlord) will want and come and talk to you.
Here are some
examples of what I am talking about ...
·
s.8 vs
s.21 isn’t interesting to a Clapham landlord but finding out that property
values in Clapham are 53.1% higher than they were 10 years ago is
·
Which
clause should go in an AST is dull as watching paint dry to a Battersea
landlord but to tell him/her that average property values in Battersea have
risen from £383,740 in 2004 to today’s £731,950 is.
·
A leaflet saying ‘Fulham landlords wanted’ is
going in the bin with the pizza and kebab leaflets to a Fulham landlord but he
will want to know why values have increased by 33.8% in his area over the last
12 months.
Write articles about
what is happening in the local property market (these are real figures above)
and get it out to all the landlords in your town. It’s as simple as that. I can
either teach you how to write them and get them to all the landlords in your
town or for an ongoing fee I can write it and do most of it for you .. so what
are you waiting for? Or do you need to deliver another 1000 ‘landlords wanted
leaflets’ before you can even think about it .. choice is yours Mr(s) letting
agent.