The 7 Skills all 21st Century Estate and Letting Agents Need to Know
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 …
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
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Estate/Letting Agency Youtube Channel