How one agent plans to grow from £864,000 to £3.5 million inside a year (with my help)

How one agent plans to grow from £864,000 to £3.5 million inside a year (with my help)

Marketing isn’t easy. If you’ve read my post When did estate agents become marketers, you’ll know that I advocate learning how to do it, or else outsourcing it.

Yesterday I spoke to a sales agent with four offices in Northumberland; let’s call her Joanne. She has 8 listers in total, with targets of 20 MAs each month – each.

Joanne explained that her listers were doing nowhere near their targets, struggling in fact to generate 5 MAs a month each, on average. When I asked her about the methods they were using, Joanne said it was a mixture between canvassing and door knocking, but added that she seriously doubted they were actually doing this. I agreed.

 Listers are salespeople, not marketers

You see, Joanne’s listers are salespeople, not marketers. Marketing and selling are two very different skills. To ask a salesperson to generate their own leads is like asking a phone engineer to also do the accounts. It’s just not going to work.

So what can Joanne do instead? Together, we mapped out a plan, and I thought I’d share it with you here.

The 10x marketing plan

First we looked at her current revenue for the four offices. The average commission is £3000, for rounded figures, and the conversion rate from MA to instruction, around 60%. At 40 MAs between them, the listers are generating revenue of £72,000 (excluding any withdrawals), or £864,000 a year.

Next, we calculated what that revenue could be if the 20 MAs a month per lister was a reality, or 160 valuations a month. With the same commission and conversion rates, the revenue would be a healthy £288,000 a month, or an impressive £3.5 million a year.

Now came my recommendation: hire a full time marketing professional, and give them a realistic marketing budget to manage. Even at a £50,000 salary, and say £100 marketing budget per market appraisal, Joanne would be spending under £250,000 to achieve a potential £2.5 million plus in revenue. That’s a 10x return on investment.

Bootstrapping it?

 But what if you have a much smaller agency, or you’re a new start-up? Chances are, you can’t afford a full time marketing manager, so what can you do instead?

My advice is to start small.

Taking the above figures as a guide, Joanne’s new marketing plan equates to £130 per MA. Is that a realistic spend? What’s your return on investment? Let’s say your average commission is only £2000, and you want to win two new instructions per month. You’re new, so your conversion rate may be just 40%.

2 new instructions per month = 24 instructions per year

@ 40% conversion rate you’ll need 60 MAs per year

60 MAs at £130 each = £7,800, or £650 per month

Revenue £4,000 per month, or £48,000 a year.

So you pay a marketing assistant £10 per hour, and allocate a further £100 in marketing spend, to generate 5 new MAs a month. Giving you a return on investment of 6x. You can then increase your assistant’s hours, and budget, as you grow and learn what specific marketing tactics work for your area and client base.

Does that seem more realistic?

It’s not their job – it’s YOURS

Keeping your listers’ diaries fully booked with new market appraisals is your job, as the agency owner, and not the listers’ responsibility. They aren’t very good at it, rarely are they motivated, and it takes their valuable time away from what they should be doing – listing new properties.

Can you take 45 minutes to plan your marketing with me?

This month, I have five slots available for a FREE 1-2-1 Marketing Planning Session, just like the one Joanne and I did.

This is where I’ll sketch you out a marketing plan to get you from where you are now to where you want to be in the shortest amount of time.

They’re completely free and take around 45 minutes.

If you want to apply for one …..

Then click here to book yours [5 available]

Speak soon?

Sam

What to read next: Why you need a marketing funnel

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

Attic bedrooms can boost the price of a home by a quarter

Latest research from Nationwide reveals how home improvements can boost property prices in 2025 Analysis based on Nationwide’s HPI data shows extensions or loft conversions with a bedroom can increase value by up to 24% But kitchen and bathroom renovations most popular improvements amongst homeowners in last five years 34% made green improvements, such as…
Read More
Breaking News

Prime London sellers exit the market

Prime London sellers exit the market, as high-end for sale stock falls in Q3 The latest look at prime London property supply from Jefferies London has shown that the volume of homes priced at £2m or more listed for sale across the capital fell by 4.3% during the third quarter of 2025, accounting for just…
Read More
Planning disputes on new build land
Breaking News

Government’s last-minute Planning Bill amendments will tackle blockers and boost growth

The Government has announced several major amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which further streamline the planning process. They include reducing the length of consultation, stripping uncooperative councils of the right to make certain decisions, and paring back the impact and ability to raise legal disputes. Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation…
Read More
Breaking News

Next budget a “pivotal moment for the property market”

The UK government is due to unveil its next budgetary statement in November, with many rumours circulating on how it’ll affect the property market. While many rumours are circulating among thought leaders and economists, Mitchell Martyn, property expert from Pure Property Finance, a property finance specialist based in the UK, says that this next budget…
Read More
Breaking News

28% Increase in Brits Moving to Australia

The number of people moving to Australia in the summer of 2025 increased by 28% year on year, making it the busiest quarter for Australia-bound movers in recent years. According to data from international movers surveyed through Compare My Move, September 2025 recorded the highest share of moves to Australia for the year, capping off an…
Read More
new build homes colchester essex
Breaking News

New-build transaction volumes fall by 62%

New-build sales volumes fall by 62%, but market improvements are driving accessibility for homebuyers The latest insight from Yopa has found that, whilst average monthly new-build sales volumes are down 62% so far in 2025, new-build homebuyers are benefitting from improvements to market affordability, with mortgage lenders currently introducing a range of new initiatives and…
Read More