Not to embarrass her (as her name is a ‘little unique’), I’ll
call her Chloe. Chloe said, “Its proving
to be difficult against so many established agents.... I'm struggling to get people to believe that
my company is just as good, if not
better, than these agents”,
... I replied, “that's just the problem .. YOU are
trying to prove it when it should be THEY who prove it to themselves
.. Only then will you succeed.”
... to which Chloe
replied, “I just want to try to be as
unique as possible and use that as my selling point but it's very hard to find
something that no other agent is doing other than I'm available everyday till
late unlike a high street agent.”
.. for which I said,
“the fact you open late isn't what will
get you business. If a solicitor or accountant said they opened until 8pm ...
Would anyone care ?.. Would anyone go wow ?.. Would it make people talk in the
pub?.. No ..Not really. YOU have to be interesting to YOUR
potential client by talking about something THEY are interested in.”
Being a letting or estate agency is hard work ..on the
estate agency side, if you don’t keep getting new stock.. once you have sold
your existing stock ... like a shark who doesn’t keep swimming .. you are
scr*wed!
Lettings is a bit easier, as landlords don’t tend to leave a
letting agency, but I know many agents who are slowly losing 3% or 4% of their managed stock each year due to
landlords selling .. but not replacing them.
And think about it... as landlords aren’t easy go .. that means they
aren’t easy come .. thus growing a lettings agency is just hard.
So what should our friend Chloe do? Chloe needs to have two
things .. guts and generosity
... the guts to grow her lettings
and estate agency without the need lots of money nor the approval from anyone apart from
herself.
I told her that if she wanted to
succeed, she should have the guts to be
different, not different for the hell of it but a difference that would add
value to her potential clients, (by being either educational or entertaining).
By being educational or entertaining (or both) to her potential clients (be that the landlords who own rental
properties in her town or the homeowners who own property her town) she
will add value to their lives and from that, albeit very slowly at the start, people
will begin to trust her ..... and people
do business with people they trust. (and if you don’t believe me .. would you
do business with anyone you dont trust?
Exactly!)
However, guts on
their own won’t get you the prize.
The second thing
Chloe needs to realise is that she shouldn’t market AT her potential landlords and
house sellers, or even TO
her potential landlords and house sellers, but market FOR them and WITH
them
....and how do you market for them and with them?
Easy... educate and entertain them by giving stuff that
potential landlords and house sellers want to read, want to watch
or want to listen to. By being generous and giving them what they want ..
you will by definition marketing for
them and with them.
Good estate and letting agents have for a long time
understood that it's very easy to attract a landlord or house-seller’s
attention. But attention on its own won’t get you the business. But grab the
attention of those local landlords and home owners and then have the guts to
be interesting and generous by
doing stuff that is either entertaining
or educational ... and you will fly.
By being generous, by talking about something that interests
your potential landlord or homeowner, they will look forward to what you talk
about, hell, they might even ring up if you fail to deliver (just like the agent who got thirty phone
calls from thirty landlords in one morning ....(read why 30 landlords rang him
in one day here) http://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/what-would-make-30-new-landlords-ring.html
So at the crux of all this .. what is interesting to homeowners
and landlords?
Well its none of these ...
·
We sold x number of houses this month (want a medal?.. well you haven’t sold mine
yet)
·
Landlords wanted leaflets (You know these don’t work anymore)
·
We have arranged 50+ viewings for the weekend
and its only Tuesday (Who gives a !!!)
·
Smashed my target and its only the 18th
of the month (Don’t worry SunnyJim, Your
Area manager will whack it up next month .. and anyway – no one likes a bragger)
·
Tenants waiting (dull dull dull)
·
XXXX have been awarded the 'Best Agents in the
London accolade at the xxxxx annual conference 2015 (at
least your Mum will be proud)
·
We are about to open our 10th office
.. exciting times (it might be for you but I don’t suppose the Mayor will be having a
parade in your honour)
.. but I do think I know what is interesting though
homeowners and landlords in your town...
·
How much is my house worth?
·
What is happening to the local property market?
·
How does my town’s property market compare to
the neighbouring town’s?
·
What sort of returns and yields can I get from
buy to let property?
·
Should I buy another buy to let property in my
town? ..and if so, Where?
Stop talking about yourselves, your firm, your services, how
wonderful you are agents and start talking about what interests your potential
clients ... you become the local property market guru ... then you won’t have a
problem in getting more stock .. be that lettings or sales.
Here are some examples ..
Northampton http://northamptonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/
Canterbury http://canterburyproperty.blogspot.co.uk/