Business Development – It isn’t always about Big Budgets!
Estate Agency (Sales) is a ‘transactional business’ ie an agent wins the instruction, sells their clients property and the client moves on…one engagement and one transaction – there is no repeat buying of your services every week, every month or even every year. There will always be an exception whereby the same client asks you to sell their next property within 2 yrs but in most cases they have gone, possibly never using your agency again. Lettings however is different. There is more of a ‘relationship’ with your landlord client and ‘The Lifetime Value’ of that landlord’s business to your agency should make you think about things very differently.
But what is Business Development and is it something that works in the world of Estate Agency? Having ‘bounced this off’ a few Agents it seems that some consider Business Development to be a function that only applies to larger companies and organisations ie The ones with the big budgets, fancy marketing departments and back office support teams.
This an interesting perception and whilst I respect the views of fellow professionals, I don’t always agree with them. So you could think they are right and it only applies to big businesses with big bucks to spend or you could choose to think differently.
Business Development covers many job roles and tasks and involves more people than is often appreciated. Contrary to common perception it doesn’t always require a big investment in time or money. In fact, experience has shown us that a little effort and attention in the right areas can achieve so much more. Business Development is also about ‘partnering the opportunities’ in a better way to win business from different sources.
It’s about being creative and thinking differently, keeping ahead of the game, having a plan and converting that plan into action. An ongoing process and not just something to react to when the numbers are low. What to do before your vendor enquiries ‘dry up’ and the phone doesn’t ring? What to do before the email leads don’t come in and the opportunities start to reduce? How does the pipeline of potential new instructions look? You might be selling well but the churn isn’t there as your stock is reducing.
The truth is it doesn’t matter what size your agency is, the market share you have or the number of staff on the payroll. The simple facts are that nearly everyone in your branch or company play a part in the Business Development process. The sum of the parts will help you achieve greater success and it’s not just the sole responsibility of the valuer or agency owner.
When done properly it’s a very effective investment for the future and that future could be as soon as today….and who doesn’t want that??
Specialising in Making A Difference to our clients business so check in for further details at MADConsultancy.co.uk
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