No one gives a **** about your Estate / Lettings Agency.

March 19, 2015

Do you know what every homeowner in your town lies awake at three in the morning worrying about? Endless sleepless nights, tossing and turning in cold sweats, for weeks, months and years every night, until they cry themselves into a cold tear soaked pillow just as the dawn chorus starts? ……

  • Transparent agency fees …. and the real show stopper …
  • Vendor contact.

Do you know what excites a landlord, what interests them, what makes them surf the web for hours on end? Let me tell you….

  • Cheap fees.
  • Tie in periods …… and again, here is the crowd pleaser…
  • Accompanied Viewings!

I know its shocking, but these are the buzz subjects  (.. of course they bl**dy well arent .. slap yourself if you thought they were)

A huge part of the reason for that is most estate and letting agents failure to understand one basic concept: no matter how great a service or agency, homeowners don’t really care about what you’re saying, especially when you talk about the transparent fees (is that an agency agreement on glass?) and the last time I looked tie in periods weren’t the hottest subject in the world, even to potential housesellers and landlords.

If your marketing talks about you, your company, how your agency compares to other agencies, your fees, your services, and don’t get me started on leaflets that have 5 or even 10 bullet points listing your company’s USP’s … no one cares .. the only person that does care is YOU Mr/s Letting or Estate Agent (..and your Mum…possibly). Do you really think a landlords or potential home sellers will go with your agency because you have more bullet points than the competition?

Bottom line is this …If all you talk about is yourself, your company, your USP’s, apart from your Mum, you’re simply not that interesting… no one gives a damn about tie periods and transparent fees

Do you care about what the local accountancy practice tweets about? Do you care the local solicitors practice has five solicitors in the practice that can do 14 different types of legal work? When was the last time you were out with your mates, and you remarked over a pint that local conveyancing practice offered transparent fees? Come on Agents .. no one cares ..we (human beings) are in our own little bubbles, trying to get to the end of the week and pay the mortgage … transparent fees, accompanied viewings, tie in periods, the number of ESTA’s and Neg Mag Awards you have won, which portal you go on are not things that either keep people up at night, nor are they exciting and groovie (ie not interesting).

Alright, I think I know what you’re thinking: isn’t the definition of “interesting” subjective? The problem is that estate and letting agents habitually over estimate the degree to which even our existing clients, let alone potential new ones (ie new landlords and new house sellers identify with our agency services.)

So when I go shopping to the local supermarket, and I see that they’re promoting the URL of their new Facebook fan page; or when I am watching a TV advert and notice that the maker of a soup or pasta sauce is promoting their twitter name (I think they call them handles??), my first thought is …

I dont care.

What could they possibly say that I would find interesting? Sure, if I could go to their webpage, and I am sure they have 100 different ways to use a pasta sauce, hey even perhaps I might find a funny pasta sauce game, naaah.. can’t be bothered .. I have better things to do with my life than visit a pasta sauce webpage. This all might sound rather harsh, but think about yourself and your life .. you know it’s true.

So how can you be interesting? Well work out what interest’s landlords and homeowners, and then just talk about that.

It’s that simple.

Just talk about what interests THEM, not YOU Mr(s) Agent.

Once you know what to write, then just deliver that message using traditional and modern methods ie emails, newspaper, social media, leaflets, letters etc)

The conventional wisdom has been that business people should seek to establish themselves as the expert within their related field of expertise. Now being the UK’s no.1 guru on Pasta sauce or making Soup is a fine place to aim for .. but is it interesting?Does it pass the “who cares” test.

So should estate and letting agents simply disregard social media? Yes and No. If all you do is share your opening hours; property listings; cheap fee deals; list your agencies USP’s, talk about Vendor Contact or tie periods .. then Yes, it’s a waste of time. Those sort of posts simply won’t be enough to excite their social media connections. You should assume that by default, no one really cares about your agency. Why don’t you ask your friends when you are next out if they remember anything you tweeted or posted in the last two weeks … and if you have no friends, ask your Mum. If you go with that assumption (that no one cares), it will force you to have an honest evaluation of what it would be like take to drive genuine and interesting content to potential landlords and potential home owners.

When it comes to the web, the medium is not the message. The message isn’t even the message! Interest is the message, and unless you’re delivering it in an original, and ongoing fashion, nobody (apart from your Mum) cares.

Want to know what is interesting to a homeowner or landlord? I tell you every week in my blogs..

  • the value of their own home,
  • the local property market and…
  • where are they going to buy the next property.

That’s all you have to do. Talk about those three things, writing stuff like this…

If you are rubbish at writing, I can teach you how to write them on one my courses (I have taught over 185 agents to do them, and over half of them have always said, I am rubbish at writing or my English is awful… yeah, so is mine! (I just get the Mrs to proof read everything) and if you are a busy agent, I can write them for you (all the above (Tunbridge/Tooting/Kingston) were written by myself) ….or you could just start writing them without my help.

Bottom line is this .. I can help letting agents get landlords to swap agents. If you aren’t sceptical, you should be. Look at my LinkedIn profile and see all the agents who have kindly given testimonials on both the course and writing services .. and more importantly, the results it produces.

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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