I used to work for a
large Corporate Agent for over 15 years. I loved it, but every once in a while
I thought, do the big bosses up on high (not the Area Managers as I have always
found that level of management as the stalwarts of agency), but the Head office
bods, the MD, the Head of This and That, the Bean Counters and Marketing Dept
people (don’t get me started on the Marketing Dept) have no ****ing idea what
it’s like on the front line of estate agency and especially lettings?
The one size fits all
mentality for estate agency used to work in corporate life and to a point,
still kind of does, but it is lettings that scare me, because it doesn’t fit
there. The only way it seems for Corporates to grow their lettings businesses
are by acquisitions. Yes, there are a few diamonds in Corporate-land out there
to prove me wrong, who I do talk to, but in essence, the Corporate techniques
to gain new business in lettings is very 20th Century.(landlords
wanted leaflets, door knocking, touting, cheap fees, letters through the door
of rental properties, land reg certificates etc etc) .. you know this stuff
doesn’t really work!
When the last time the
MD or marketing department chief came to your office or Area Meeting and ask you
your opinion? Consider what would happen if all the colleagues in these
corporates used their power to push senior management to take risks, embrace
change and most of all, do what's right for landlords (and house sellers) in a
competitive age? What if the Negs and Valuers demanded the freedom to actually
connect with those that they are serving, and to do it without onerous scripts? ...
and they would be rewarded for building long term relationships instead of
short term ‘move in’ commissions?
The market is changing.
The online vs hybrid vs High Street argument is an argument that is NOT important.
Where agents trade from irrelevant. THE
MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IN AGENCY IS THIS .....
It’s
how do we, as agents, interact with our clients, but more importantly, POTENTIAL
FUTURE CLIENTS, so they always use our agency to sell or let their house in the
FUTURE ? (because
the agent who gets more free valuations will always be the winner).
What we should always be
asking is How do we get more free valuations? .... more free vals for next week,
next month, next year, next few years? I am sorry, but agents just focus on
today .. they are too short term’ist. The agents that nail the ‘getting even more
free vals forever’ that will be the winners, be they online or with a High
Street presence.
How would I do it? A heavily ‘British version’ of the American
model of estate agency. The nearest I can see to that model is Purplebrick’s
‘hybrid’ model. Don’t dismiss it out of hand. I like the PB model and the people
behind them (although there are still a quite a few things I would change
there). It won’t happen overnight, it won’t all happen over the next year, but
over the coming decade, there’s going to be a steady and gradual, (yet still massive)
cultural and economic shift going on in the property industry.
Negs, valuers and Branch
Managers will start to realise that their connection to the local property market
and the internet gives them more of the means of doing business than ever
before. ..bosses either embrace that and listen to your front guys or they will
walk out your door and set up their own agency.
Without a doubt, there's
a huge challenge in ensuring that the Neg’s, Valuer and Branch Managers who do
the work for the Corporate’s are listened to, treated with appropriate respect,
dignity and compensation. From
what I hear though, whilst there are some exceptions, it's not happening nearly
enough.
The problem with
Corporate life in Estate Agency is that it rewards the race up the Corporate
ladder, that the view from the top of ladder of the real world, the coalface is
often opaque (and don’t even get me started on the awful marketing rubbish that
the Corporate’s chuck out ... with the exception of some of Haart’s marketing
stuff – especially their featured agent adverts on RM .. I like what they do).
Anyway, back to the
story. You Neg’s , you Listers and Valuers, You Branch Managers’ have a vested
interest to reject the industrial sameness of what your marketing dept chucks
out that seems so efficient to those on high but ultimately leads nowhere.
..and it it just Corporate's, this
could also apply to a lot of independent agents. Just a thought?
