A FOCUS Strategy for Estate Agents

A FOCUS Strategy for Estate Agents Image

I have a coaching client at the moment – a very successful four office owner from Kent – who can’t wait to use the techniques and strategies I’m sharing with him in his business.

There’s just one problem – he wants to do them all.  Right now.

As estate agents, we like shiny new things, right? I certainly do.  The latest tech, the hot new trend, the newest style website. We want them all, and we want them now.

It’s not our fault; we’re made that way. 

 We’re salespeople,  and that means we love the thrill of the deal, and the roller coaster ride that goes along with it. After all, who in their right mind would run a business where we do all the work months (or longer) before we take a single penny from our clients, and where even then, only around 75% of deals will come off??

So if you want to implement all your new ideas, immediately, you’re not alone.  Trouble is, you can’t. Well, not successfully, at least.  You’ll get overwhelmed, frustrated and burned out before you’ve managed to implement everything. I know this, because I’ve been there, lots of times.  I too felt overwhelm at all the exciting new ideas I wanted to apply to my business, and ended up with a lot of half-baked, half-finished, poorly-executed initiatives, most of which just didn’t work.

Then someone told me about this acronym:

F – follow

O – one

C – course

U – until

S – successful

It made a lot of sense.  So I reined in all but one of my ideas, putting all the rest of them on a list called ‘Backburner’. Then, I divided up the campaign or project into several smaller steps, and put them in the best order for implementation.  I printed out a calendar and wrote each step on a date that represented a realistic timeframe to get it done, and a final delivery date for the entire project.

Then I worked on it until it was finished. Without looking at any of the other shiny ideas on my Backburner list.

And it worked!

My tactic was to work on each project first thing every morning, for at least an hour or two, before opening any email or switching the phone on.  Perhaps you’d prefer saving a couple of hours at the end of each day, or taking a whole day every week to work on your current project, maybe from home, to avoid work distractions.  Whatever works for you is fine, just so long as you actually set aside the time to do it. Otherwise, as we both know, it will become sidelined amongst all the detritus of your working day.

Are you going to try it? Let me know in the comments; I’d love to hear from you.

What to read next: Is Your Diary Running Your Business? 

What to do next: Do you get my Supertips? They’re jam-packed full of great tips and marketing strategies just like this one, and best still – they’re free! Get yours here -> www.samashdown.co.uk/samsupertips

Speak to Sam: If you’d like to know how I think you could improve your marketing, just answer a few short questions here and I’ll tell you if and how you could be more effective.

Sam Ashdown

Sam is an industry-renowned marketing strategist to estate agents. She helps agents grow and flourish, using her unique smart marketing techniques and strategies. Sam works with agents throughout the UK to help them gain more valuations, win more instructions and sell more properties.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

House price growth remained subdued in July

UK annual house price growth slowed to 1.8% in July, from 2.2% in June House prices were up 0.1% month on month Average time in a home is 14 years: 24 years for those owning outright and 5 years in private rented sector Three quarters of moves were within same tenure type in 2024/25 Headlines…
Read More
Breaking News

Rent hikes and tighter tenant checks as landlord costs climb

Rising costs are prompting 63% of professional landlords to raise rents, prioritise lower-risk tenants and reassess portfolios Renters face a more expensive and more selective rental market as professional property investors respond to re-emergence of realistic gilt yields, rising operating costs and regulatory change by increasing rents and reassessing tenant risk and selection criteria, according…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

North-South divide for time to move as Londoners see longest wait

New analysis reveals a north-south divide in the time it takes to move home: In London it takes 174 days on average to go from agreeing a sale to completing a move, whereas it takes 141 days in the North East Scotland is the fastest part of Great Britain at 98 days, due to the…
Read More
Letting Agent Talk

Dispelling the top five biggest letting agent myths

By Sophie Danes, Group Director of Property Management, Lomond   This year has seen the introduction of the seismic Renters’ Rights Act (RRA) as well as other changes affecting the private rented sector (PRS) coming into force, such as the rollout of Making Tax Digital (MTD). As a result, more than ever before, there is…
Read More
bank of england interest rate
Breaking News

Bank of England Holds Interest Rates at 3.75%

Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove says: “There’s stability for now as the Bank of England holds its Base Rate as widely expected. We’ve seen average mortgage rates increase over the last few weeks as geopolitical tensions have escalated, and the average two-year fixed rate is currently coming it at 5.11%. For broader context, this…
Read More
New Builds 2020
Breaking News

Average new-build value to surpass £400,000

The latest research from UK Property Development has found that the average price of a new-build home in England is on course to exceed £400,000 by 2027, having risen steadily over the last decade alongside sustained growth across the wider British market. The research analysed average new-build house price data across Great Britain and its…
Read More