What are you going
to replace those tenant fees? One option is charging your landlords more? But
what if your landlords wont pay? Can you afford to lose them? Can you still
make a profit being a letting agent? If the answer is No to any of those
questions and its making you have cold sweats, I then I have the answer.
You better start to get yourself more landlords ...
No landlord will ever use a letting agent they don’t trust, in
fact no solicitor, banker, IFA, mortgage arranger, no professional can sell any
service to anyone, if that buyer doesn’t trust the person they are buying from.
Ever since the dawn of Victorian commerce the principles of building trust have
never changed. However, the way and strategy of how you do build trust in
today's tinterweb world has changed.
You see trust is the number
one commodity to have in life, let alone business. Before the tinterweb world
started, trust was built face to face where all the fine distinctions and subtleness
of tone of voice, body language, shiny shoes, ability to look one in the eye
and the inflection of someone’s voice were how we judged each other. As
lettings and estate agency (as with most other businesses), most initial
interaction is now done online, how can we prove (and judge) trust?
Podcasts, Twitter, Facebook and Blogs can feel very much
like a popularity game. Bottom line is this ..likes don’t get you landlords or
properties to sell.
Even with the best of intentions, there are some primary
ways that letting (and estate) agents erode trust in their online efforts. If I had a £1 coin for every time someone
said, we need to improve brand awareness, I would be a very rich man. Do you
care the local solicitors have rebranded? No of course not .. so why do you
expect anyone would care about your rebrand? Do you care the Statute Law Amendment Act 2014 has changed .. nope.. So why the hell do you think a landlord
cares about the Immigration Act or changes in EPC law? That is what they pay
their agent to do.. so you telling them won’t be interesting (and the DIY
landlords who don’t know would use a letting agent anyway .. you are wasting
your time fellow agents). If another accountant sent out reports about changes
in the tax, would it make me swap accountants.. no .. I would assume my
accountant would have that covered .. that is what I pay him for.
Trust has to be earned .. everyone would agree with that.
Ask what trust is and most would say the attributes of trust are your credibility
and reputation. I think we can agree on that ... well .. no actually. Now if
you are an established letting or estate agent, your reputation is a reflection
of your PAST actions and PAST achievements. However, reputation doesn’t equal
trust (stop thinking like an agent for a second and think about people or other
firms who have a good reputation).
The only attribute
required to gain trust is credibility. A good reputation doesn’t automatically
lead to trust. Trust is in the eye of the beholder. Trust comes from within you
as a person and by having credibility and trust will follow. We all know in
aspects of life, trust is really hard work to obtain and so very easy to lose. If
you can understand, as a letting or estate agent, the importance of trust and
how to develop and keep it , it can make a huge impact in your agency.
Checking up on The Oxford English Dictionary, it defines
Trust as: “ Firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or
something” This is where new agents and start ups can be pleased. Nowhere
in that definition is there a mention of expertise, no mention of the fact you
have been open since 1860, no mention you have won awards, no mention you are
part of a large company. As in life, so in business, boasting about
something will not necessarily earn you trust.
So how do you gain trust? Well banging on about yourself,
your firm or your services is a big no-no. First up, the big one, as we have
mentioned earlier, is credibility. How do you get credibility? Your knowledge
of the property market, your skills on landlord and tenant law, and finally
your overall behaviour towards the landlord or potential house seller, all
contribute to a customer experience that will lead to gaining trust. But it’s
not just about you Mr(s) Agent. Opposite to what you might think, people want
to believe in your agency, but only if you are reliable. .. but this is where
every agent lets themselves down ... the
easiest way to lose trust is to focus more on your products and services of your agency than on your potential clients
(be they landlord or potential house seller) needs. Understanding their needs
will help to build trust and confidence.
BUT here ‘s the best
bit ... Trust can’t be bought. It has to
be earned. So what can your business do to gain the trust of your potential
clients? .. easy , look at it from their point of view (the potential client)
and not yours. What are their wants? What are their needs? What interests them?
Correct me if I am wrong .. but the following are not high
on the needs, wants or interests of a potential landlord or house seller ...
- · Landlord and Tenant law
- · Immigration Act
- · What property you have just listed
- · Section 21
- · Council tax liability of a landlord
- What awards you have won
- · That landlords are wanted
- · That you have sold millions of houses this month
You first have to earn their ATTENTION. Once you have earnt
their attention, you need to earn their INTEREST. Once you have their interest,
you will be able to earn their TRUST. ..and
when they trust you they will do business with you.
What are the British obsessed about? Their local property market and the value of THEIR
property. Just talk about the local property market in articles that a
journalist would write, with a narrative, a story, with interest and reveals
... and I guarantee, if you adopt the principles of ‘landlord farming’ you will
be on the way to getting shed loads of landlords (and even houses sellers)
beating a path to your door. 100% guarantee it.