I really do
feel for you guys in estate and lettings agency. Running an estate and letting
agency in 2017 property market of too many competitors, over valuing and the
online threat bears a heavy burden on the shoulders of any agency business
owner, irrespective of the size of the agency.
Keeping the
staff happy, keeping the existing clients happy, making sure everyone pays
their bills, keeping cash flow positive … doing all this as the job of running
an agency gets slightly harder as each year passes by.
Then it
comes to spending your money on marketing to attract new clients
You spend your
money your marketing efforts to make more homeowners and landlords aware of your
estate and letting agency and to seize their attention. Not only that, you want
your marketing to generate trust, differentiate your estate / letting agency, show
value and change people’s thoughts – that they should use your agency over your
competitors. It has to persuade people that don’t know of your company to decide
to use you and spend their hard-earned money with you …and you want all that to
materialise as rapidly as possible with the minimal investment in pound notes,
time and effort.
.. but you
have to admit that’s a big ask, and so that’s the cause many agents fail when prioritising
strategies over a workable and justifiable marketing strategy, and as each year
has passed since the Millennium, itt seems to have got slightly harder as each
year has passed, hasn’t it?
The estate
and letting agent marketing strategies that worked in the 1980’s and 1990’s
don’t work like they used to …and that isnt estate and letting agency fault… Instead,
my why intuition tells me the as a whole has changed in the last 10/15years,
ever so incrementally, as each year goes by.
…and like I
said, that’s not yours’s or the industry’s fault it has changed .. but it is
our responsibility to change to that new .
On my
travels, I have seen a new breed of letting / estate agent adapting to that new
, adopting old ways and improving them
to the 21st century we all live in. These agents I see are prepared
to be open minded to the new 21st century – not in terms of its
technology or social media merlarkey – but in terms of their attitude
….and I
call them the ‘absolute’ estate and letting agents
I know it
sounds a bit new age and bu*****t – but stay with me on this.
I have
noticed these agents, call them what you may .. all have certain attributes,
skills and attitudes
1. The ‘absolute’ estate
and letting agent isn’t anything new .. in fact they are more old school than
your dad’s dad’s dad’s great grandfather. Their outlook is more Victorian than
21st Century …let me explain
2. The ‘absolute’ estate
and letting agent doesn’t believe there are such things as fast wins and
overnight successes. Instead, the ‘absolute’ estate and letting agent fixates
about how to make positive changes in the lives of his potential landlords and
homeowners before crafting his or her advertising strategy.
3. The ‘absolute’ estate
and letting agent understands that creating value outdoes banging on about their
firm, or their services, or what awards they have won, or what they have sold
or let this month.
4. The ‘absolute’ estate
and letting agent learns to question how the landlords and vendors, he or she
cares about serving, feel before assuming they will act.
5. So much so, they go
the extra mile on creating a market strategy potential vendors and landlords
would miss if they stopped, instead of trying to create a market strategy of
trying to persuade landlords and vendors to love the agency and its services.
6. The ‘absolute’ estate
and letting agent knows his or her market strategy is all about creating value.
The ‘absolute’ estate and letting agent deliberately sets out to make a
difference one landlord or one potential house seller at a time. The ‘absolute’
estate and letting agent understands his pressing need for the business today does
not motivate his potential landlord or home mover.
7. The ‘absolute’ estate and
letting agent knows that people do business with people they trust …and that trust
is scalable… if you know how to scale it.
How do you
do learn those attributes, skills and attitudes?
Start
learning –
One place
would be these videos on attracting landlords and vendors Video Link to Youtube