Why did 30 landlords ring one letting agent in one day?

October 31, 2014

Last week I was on the train up to Newcastle, when one of my clients, for whom I write the articles about his local property market, rang me …

‘Bloody hell Chris, I made a cock up a few days ago. You know that list of 300 landlords I had, the ones I had captured over the years via referencing, the ones I have been emailing the newsletter for last couple of months about the local property market with the articles you write for me’.

‘Yes David’ (not his real name!)

‘Well I sent the newsletters, but for the third one I thought I would send a paper version, on the nice thick paper you suggested, instead of emailing it’,

‘Great’, I said, ‘Where’s the issue?’

‘ The mail merge address labels cocked up and moved the postcode on one record, so Landlord A’s name and address got landlords B’s postcode and so on and so forth’

‘ Oh, dear’, I replied, ‘No Chris, it’s the best thing ever!’, to which I replied, ’How?’

‘ Over thirty landlords rang me today, not complaining, far from it. They all said how much they looked forward to receiving the newsletter via email, but as I was now sending it by post, even better, but as the postcode was wrong, they wanted to ensure they continued to receive the newsletter, as the wrong postcode might mean next time, they wouldn’t be so lucky and might miss out on getting the next edition’

David went on to say,’..and even better Chris, I had never ever spoken to these landlords before, so I asked If I could take their telephone number and all of them happily gave it, some asked to be kept in contact and some even said that they had already made the decision to ring me the next time their tenant handed in their notice’

How many landlords on your database would do that for your landlords wanted leaflet? How many landlords would miss you not sending your marketing material?

You see, all these newsletters and advertorials, which we call landlord farming marketing , is just marketing that delivers anticipated, personal and relevant messages to landlords who want to get them.

Christopher Watkin

I teach, guide, support, mentor, consult, counsel, partner many hundreds of UK Estate and Letting Agents in their quest to grow their estate and lettings agencies business. Old school techniques of touting, landlords wanted leaflets, ring us for a free valuation, we have sold this in your street leaflets don't work anymore. There are too many competitor agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic, overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the online/hybrid threat. So a few years ago, I set about looking around the UK and spotted that certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds .. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up in the morning and people looked up to them Over 400 agents around the UK are on a mission to change the way our Estate and Lettings agency profession is perceived and looked upon, doing it town by town, city by city. I guide these 400 agents, teach them, mentor them and support them to be seen in a different light, to be seen as the ‘go to person for property’, actually be the ‘local property expert’ and prove it. Christopher Watkin 07950 147 572 christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk

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