Posts by Sam Ashdown
How The Right Music can help you Sell your Home
Playing music to put someone in the mood for buying isn’t new. Retailers use it, hotels and even hairdressers employ background music to influence our behaviour. It can be quite literal: fast music makes us move quicker, and slower tunes help us relax, and browse. Music can be a very powerful sales tool. Music can…
Read MoreLet’s get truly ‘social’
What does social mean, to you? Is it reluctantly attending a networking event, then standing around looking and feeling awkward clutching a cold coffee? Or is it hiding in the supermarket aisle because you’ve just spotted a client then pretending to be pleased to see them when they find you? I’m sure you’re not alone,…
Read More8 Rubbish reasons not to become a client of mine
“I don’t like Facebook”, said an agent to me recently. He works with one part-time admin, from a serviced office, and has been going around five years. Last year his annual revenue was £53,000. “Where’s your business going?” I asked him. “Well, I’d like to get to £60,000 this year,” was his response. This guy…
Read More3 Ways to Double Your Profit in the Next 12 Months
Firstly, what is your profit? Let’s say you’re a ‘typical’ single office independent agent. If you’re been established more than three years, you’re probably doing around £200,000 – £300,000 in turnover. Let’s take a mid figure of £250,000 and estimate a profit ratio of 20%. That gives us a profit before tax of £50,000. Not…
Read MoreHow to compete with the online agents
Do you feel stuck and unable to grow your business? Is overwhelm, confusion and firefighting keeping you from loving the agency you founded? I’m going to show you how by making one simple change in your business, you can have freedom. Freedom from busy-ness – to give you your time back. Once you have time,…
Read MoreProperty Styling – 10 tips to get it right and win those big instructions
Over the last fifteen years, I’ve helped style over 1,000 homes for sale. I’ve worked with some of the best stylists, home stagers and photographers in the country, and I’ve picked up some tricks and tips that have helped me build an agency of my own. If a house is untidy, over-personalised or just poorly…
Read MoreWhat’s Your Audience Worth?
Why your audience is your most valuable asset, and how to look after it I posted this picture on Twitter the other evening. It opened up a bit of a debate. Some agents insisted that it works for them, generating enquiries and viewings. Others, including Julian O’Dell, estate agent and fellow trainer agreed with me:…
Read MoreWhen Did Estate Agents Become Marketers?
An estate agent friend of mine asked me the other day, “Sam, give me a better term for a grade II listed cottage than ‘Superb kerb appeal’, please?!” I offered a few adjectives, like ‘fairytale’, ‘captivating’ and ‘a slice of English history’, and he eventually settled on “Oozing charm and character”, which is pretty good…
Read MoreYour Minimum Viable Market
We are all marketed to, all of the time. Most marketing is noisy, shouty and intrusive. It interrupts our reading, watching and browsing. And most of it is entirely irrelevant to us. The only time I notice an advert, is when it speaks to me directly. When I’m fast-forwarding the ads on tv (no one…
Read MoreWho’s Your Pacemaker?
Do you ever watch the London Marathon or the Great North Run? I do, with a mixture of awe and guilt. Awe that so many people had taken on such a momentous challenge, of their own free will, and guilt, that I was enjoying the event from my sofa, while many people less fit than…
Read MoreWhat do estate agents say when asked “What do you do?”
What do you say, when someone asks you “What do you do?” Do you reply, “I’m an estate agent”? Or perhaps you say, “I work for Downtons”? Or even, “I help people move ”? Perhaps what you say isn’t as important as how you feel when you reply. I’ve heard agents pre-empt any cruel barbs…
Read More5 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong On Social Media
Getting a new instagram follower on social media can be such a minefield. A scary, dangerous place where your questions never get answered and you could set off a huge landmine at any moment…. What should you post? How should you post it? On which platforms? Who should do it? How long should your posts…
Read MoreDoes Your Website Have a £300 million button?
No one likes bad websites. If you can’t find the information you’re looking for in a nano second, you’ll simply click away and find it somewhere else. Your website is great: all the information a potential customer needs is right there at their fingertips, with no need to click onto a competitor’s site. But what…
Read MoreEasy Delegation
What did you do on Friday? If your day looked like most other agents, it probably consisted of answering emails, valuation appointments, calling clients and organising staff. You may also have photographed a new property, written the details up, uploaded to your system, pulled off a couple of Rightmove performance reports, sent your designer a…
Read MoreProfitable Purchasers
Why your previous purchasers could be your best source of instructions. A friend of mine – Helen – has recently moved house. It was a fraught time. She was on the phone to me a lot (naturally), complaining about her buyer and her agent. They were both dragging their heels, apparently, causing her unnecessary grief…
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