Growing and expanding your lettings or estate agency is all
about brand awareness .. it’s all about selling you as a top agent, selling
your firm, selling your firm’s USP’s ...
isn’t it?
No, quite the opposite .. it’s nothing to do with brand
awareness and it has completely nothing to do with selling. Landlords and
potential vendors want to communicate with someone who wants to solve their
issues, solve their problems and more importantly, fulfil their wants, needs
and desires. Any lettings or estate agency, any Valuer, any Area Manager or
Director who doesn’t think like this is living in another time and place, while
attempting to do business in a world that’s already passed them by.
It’s about establishing trust, understanding and creating
value with your potential vendor or potential landlord ....and you must do that
without selling. You have to communicate with your potential
vendor or potential landlord, you need to engage with the potential vendor or
potential landlord, you need to solve the issues they have. Even more
importantly, you need to create opportunity for those potential
vendors or potential landlords ... but whatever you do, no potential vendor
or potential landlord could give a S**t
about you or your brand.
Forget you are an agent for a second .. in all aspects of
life, nobody likes to be sold to .. but they love to buy. Like all 60 million
Brit’s ... don’t try and sell me – it won’t work. If someone tries to
attempt to sell to me, that just insults my intelligence and wastes my time.
Think about it; do you like to be sold? Hold the phone page, stop what you are
doing on facebook for 2 micro seconds – nobody does. Now ask yourself this
question, do you like to be helped? Most reasonable people do. The difference
between the two positions while small .... is very meaningful.
The conventional practice of selling yourself, your
lettings/estate agency or your USP’s as a way to do business has become at best
fruitless, and in many cases out of date. You see, in lettings as in estate
agency, good business practices don’t stand still. Many MD’s and CEO’s of agencies,
be they lettings, estate agency or both adhere to a fusty ways of doing
things . The problem with many letting or estate agencies is the bosses still
operate with the same principles and techniques they were taught as junior negs
in the 1980’s. What about Rightmove Chris? Yes, whilst the t’internet has clearly
helped agencies to evolve, all RM/Zoops/Onthe Meerkat are an electronic
replacement for the traditional newspaper, as a tool to show your stock to
tenants and buyers alike.
Trust me when I tell you that your existing and potential landlords
and sellers have heard it all before, when you say ‘landlords wanted’, ‘more
properties required’, ‘half price fees’, ‘we are the biggest agent in xxxx’. None of this rubbish works .. you know that,
so why do you lot still do it?
Stop trying to sell yourself, your
firm or your services. The agent with the most bullet points on their A5 flyer
with what they have to offer won’t get the most landlords or houses to sell ...
no, all you have to do is merely do the right thing in putting your potential
landlords and potential vendors needs first and trust me they don’t need, let
alone want to hear about your firm, your services and how bl**dy marvellous you
are as an agent and how big your ego is!
Let us focus on just the lettings market for a second ..
Yes, in the last 15 years the lettings market has doubled in size, but the
number of letting agents has tripled. I
hear complaint after complaint that agencies
just don’t have the time, effort or money to spend, and that landlords simply
don’t swap letting agents. If you are experiencing this type of reaction from
potential landlords, it’s not because they like their existing agent, it’s
because you are selling and not adding value. It’s because you are talking and
not listening. It’s because you just don’t get it…
It’s not about you, your company, your products or your
services. It’s about meeting potential landlord’s needs, obtaining trust and
adding value. When you start paying more attention to your potential landlords
needs than the need for you to increase your income line on your Profit and
Loss Sheet, you will find you no longer have a lack of income problem to
complain about.
You see, landlords (and potential house sellers) are not
fish. If you think your job as an agent is to bait the line, to lure them to
you and your agency and get them on the hook, then I am sorry, I bet your
lettings managed portfolio is probably roughly the size as it was two or three
years ago. One agent recently announced lettings income was 5% higher than last
year ..in most towns rents have risen by that level .. that is stagnation in my
eyes.
If you hate to be sold to as a person (take your agent hat
off for a second before you answer that) .. how does a landlord feel about what
you do to try and get them? How does a potential vendor feel? Therefore, the only avenue you have is to
establish trust attempting to understand the needs of a potential landlord or
vendor? .... and here is the answer ... the thing that turns on a landlord or
potential houseseller is this ...THE VALUE OF THEIR HOME and WHERE IS THE NEXT
PROPERTY THEY WANT TO BUY.
Think about it, that applies to landlords and
homeowners alike.
The truth is that all the corporate agency’s and regional
mini corporate (those with 5 to 20 offices) players have very established and
entrenched pecking order. The MD’s and Area Managers sit at the top the food
chain, followed by the Branch Managers, then the hot shot Lister/Valuers and at
the bottom of the food chain, you will find the good old Neg or Property
Manager. Hot shot listing machines are revered as demi-gods with their Branch
of the Month awards, whilst those hard working front liners who go the extra
mile but don’t pull trees up are just about tolerated.
Irrespective of the titles that are doled out from up on
high, ten a penny, this
entire concept of agency (be it lettings or sales) is so
antiquated it is ludicrous. Let us be honest, most people I know would rather
talk to a knowledgeable neg or property manager over a slick, smooth talking
TOWIE lookilikey wide boy (with fake RayBan’s bought from Camden market) shiny
suited 22 year old whippersnapper Lister any day of the week. The reason for
this should be obvious – the perception is a neg or property manager
is providing information and helping them meet their needs
whilst a valuer/lister is trying to SELL them something.
It’s time for big, medium and small (and yes I also mean
independents here) to realise that landlords and potential sellers have become
very savvy and very demanding. Today’s landlord or potential seller does
their homework, is well informed, and buys…they are not sold.
Until you realise that a potential landlord or potential
house sellers knows you care more about meeting their wants, desires and needs
than yours, you Mr Letting Agent or Mrs Estate Agent won’t even appear on the
radar. By the way, in order to understand my wants, desires and needs you have
to actually know something about me . Since a huge proportion of all buying
decisions either start or finish on the tinterweb, you better be online ..
but just having a website doesn’t count if it doesn’t hit the needs, wants and
desires of potential landlord/vendor.
Look at your website ... apart from your listings for sale
or to rent .. it’s just a shop window for YOU, what services YOU offer .. how
marvellous YOU are .. it’s trying to SELL YOU and nobody cares about YOU
But I have told you what landlords care about ..
- How much is my house worth
- Where is the next one I want to buy
Just do what these agents do ... and whilst you won’t get
any new business for a few months, I guarantee you, if you adopt the principles
I teach in my own blog and on my training courses/ 1 to 1 coaching, I guarantee
this works.
.. but don’t take my word for it ... as Paul Tobias-Gibbins
(agent from Essex) said after six months of doing this ..
Just a quick email to update you on my progress with featured agents.In
a 7 day period I had 595 views to my blog through Rightmove. In addition the
editorials are working really well and I have had a significant number of
potential clients either call me or drop into the office for a chat regarding
their property requirements. Last week we sold
4 properties to new landlords. Also as an estate agent I have seen a
significant increase in valuations from this time last year. In fact it is
roughly a 20% increase. More importantly we have seen an increase in rental
valuations up 15% on this time last year with a 95% conversion rate to
instruction. Client really like the no-hard sale, free information and
assistance in helping them with their property requirements. It would seem that
knowledge is Power.
Regards
Paul
Here is his blog ... http://southockendonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/
I also ghost write for Jeremy Bullock, letting agent in
Derbyshire, who has been publishing articles about his local property market
for over 12 months, putting them in the newspaper, newsletters and his blog ..
and now is CONSISTENTLY getting at least 4 new landlords EVERY
MONTH bringing him property to let ... 4 new landlords, every
month, worth at least £4000 a year in fees ...
This is his blog http://www.jeremys-property-blog.blogspot.co.uk/ and this is an example of one of his newsletters Let him tell you why he is getting, each and every month FOUR new landlords, MONTH IN MONTH OUT without fail, DIRECTLY from writing these articles....
This is his blog http://www.jeremys-property-blog.blogspot.co.uk/ and this is an example of one of his newsletters Let him tell you why he is getting, each and every month FOUR new landlords, MONTH IN MONTH OUT without fail, DIRECTLY from writing these articles....
You can grow your lettings agency if you choose to do so. The most important factor in improving your agency (be it estate agency or lettings) and building it so it continues to grow is to focus on potential landlords and potential house sellers needs, wants and desires. If you don’t build and focus everything around the client, your client relationships will vanish before your very eyes. Don’t be just another agent, become a trusted advisor and advocate.
Stop believing the lies that you want to believe. Avoidance
isn’t a growth strategy. These two THREE minutes videos tell you how its done
Yours as always ..
Christopher
What do I do? I can teach you how to write these articles on
a 2 day course in getting more landlords or I can ghost
write them for you.