Chris Watkin: The biggest fear of estate agents I find is that they want everyone to love them and therefore fear rejection. Whilst letting agents, they want everything to be perfect and fear criticism. Why is that and how can those agents get over those feelings?
Tom Panos: Well firstly, how can they get over their fears? Whether you're in lettings or whether you're in sales, people are not looking for a friend. They're looking for their problem to get solved. So that newest friend is your strategy. What you want to do is be a heavy hitter that gets a result for him.
Tom Panos: So number one, take away this belief in your head that the way you're going to get business is because you're their mate. They're not looking for mates, they've got mates. They're looking for someone to solve their problem. That's the first thing.
Tom Panos: The second thing is on this ability to handle rejection and failure. You need to have a belief that failure and rejection are not the opposite of success, that they are in fact part of success. So when you actually factor that into your model, like a bank factors bad debts, what happens is life is so much easier because when something bad happens and someone says, you know ...
Chris Watkin: It's like losing a property to the competition.
Tom Panos: Correct.
Chris Watkin: It kills them, especially if the value is they're listers. But then the letting agents, they're very detailed orientated and they want everything to be perfect and they'll spend hours and hours ticking boxes on their CRM systems, just so it's perfect. Why do they think they have this perfectionism?
Tom Panos: Well, anyone that's watching this, that's in lettings, drill this into your head. Never let perfect get in the way of better. What we're saying is you're far better off doing more work than trying to make everything 10 out of 10. A very important rule.
Tom Panos: The second rule is, look, I've got a golden rule. I make rejection my best friend. I realise that every day I'm going to have people that are going to turn around and they're going, if they don't say it literally, I'm going to feel it in body language. They're going to sort of say, no stuff him, he's not for us.
Tom Panos: And I've already accepted that because I know that not every piece of business is for me. So I think that some airlines are suited, like some people fly Ryanair because they fly Ryanair and they're not for British Airways. And I think that some people will stay at the Hilton Hotel and some people will stay at the Ibis Hotel and there's a market for everyone. So don't get offended if they don't stay at your hotel.
Chris Watkin: Thank you Tom.