Swap ideas for pizza

Share

Most days, I chat to an estate agent about their biggest challenges.  Up and down the country; single office or multi; their challenge is almost always the same: they aren’t getting through enough doors.  There’s nothing more frustrating than a board going up on your patch that you haven’t even been invited out to, is there? But what can you do to make sure you always at least get the opportunity to value, without spending the GDP of a small country on advertising?

The answer may lie in pizza. 

 

I suggested this idea to a great agent in Devon a couple of years ago, who tried it, then said it was the best staff morale booster ever. And he generated a load of new valuations from it too.  Since then, quite a few agents have had a go, under my bossy tutelage, with similar success.

It works.

Ask your team for a couple of hours one evening.  Tell them you’ll pay them and ply them with all the pizza they can eat.  This is best done in your office, but if you don’t have the room, a local pizza parlour will do too.  The purpose of the evening is to figure out new ways – or better versions of the old ways – to generate new leads and valuation appointments.  Even if you only have a small team, perhaps three or four of you, that’s at least three times your ideas.

What you’re also looking for, is a campaign leader.  This is someone who will take the best ideas of the evening, and actually implement them. After all, I’m sure you’ve had loads of brilliant marketing ideas over the years, but how many of them have you actually applied? Exactly.

You’ll also need prizes for the session, to keep things fun and rewarding.  Prizes for best ideas, the most ideas, and perhaps for the daftest.  Choose someone to be scribe, and to put the initials of each person next to the idea they came up with.  Your job as session host is to be encouraging and supportive, and also to keep things light.  Don’t let arguments break out and ruin the creative mood.

Go round the table a few times for ideas, letting people knock on the table when they have run out of ideas.  When everyone has exhausted their creativity, go back to the list, read it out and highlight everyone’s single favourite idea. Now you have a shortlist.  Discuss these for a while, sketching out the practicalities and resource implications, then draw the meeting to a close. Make sure you thank everyone individually, so they know how valuable their contribution was to you, and how much you appreciate them giving up some of their own personal time. End the meeting on a high, leaving them smiling and motivated as they leave.

Next day, call a meeting with your campaign leader.  Explain what you want them to do and reassure them that it will be financially rewarded. This is important.  They need to feel valued and willing to take on the extra responsibilities you’re going to give them.

Together, look again at the short list.  In the cold light of day, do the ideas still have strong merit?  You may want to trim the list again, to finish up with a core of excellent ideas to try.  Don’t take out all the outliers though: it’s good to have a wildcard in there to try.  You never know where it might take you.

Print off a blank calendar for the next three months and decide on a start and end date to each campaign.  Keep the activities different colours for the different ideas, and add in any tasks that need doing to make the idea work.

Once you have your calendar, it’s time to set some targets. Between you, set some optimistic but realistic goals for your ideas. These need to feel a bit of a stretch but not to be wholly unachievable.  Agree them together then write them on a large poster size piece of card for the office wall. You may choose to use a ‘church fund’ type picture of a thermometer that you colour in each time you get a new valuation. Whatever it is, however you choose to illustrate the targets you’ve set, make sure it is clear and that it recognises every small success, so that everyone in the office is on board.

When you spread your targets for new valuations across the ideas you are going to try, they start to look much more doable.  For example, if you have three ideas, and a target of 3 new valuations per week, each idea only needs to bring you 1 new one every week.

During the campaign period, keep the energy and interest high.  Make time in your meetings to report back, and above all, make time to keep your campaign leader interested and engaged in their role.  Take them out for lunch to discuss progress, allocate resources in time and money, set mini targets and reward with vouchers as they reach them.  In short, make them feel valuable and special.  Because they are.  In fact, if they are generating new leads for your business, no one in your company is more valuable than they are.

So are you going to try your very own pizza party? Go on – I dare you.  You never know where it might lead.  In the words of Doctor Pepper, what’s the worst that could happen?

What to read next:  Does Your Website Have a £300 million button?

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

Rent and run? Agents warn of new ‘Stopover Tenant’ epidemic

Nearly 1 in 3 letting agents report tenants walking away from 6–12 month tenancies – some after just a few months Experts warn rental reforms are fueling relocation-style, short-term renting Almost half of agents now advising landlords on how to manage early exits A new trend is sweeping the rental market and it’s leaving landlords…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 11/09/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   A ‘workplace companion that’s not just about managing buildings’ Smart Spaces has launched Space Agent, its new agentic AI-driven workplace concierge designed to transform how people manage and engage with buildings and their workplaces. Space Agent – introduced through its friendly persona, Max – is fully…
Read More
Breaking News

Where can you still buy a home for under £150k?

Zoopla reveals Great Britain’s property bargain hotspots Just 12 per cent of all homes for sale across Great Britain are priced under £150,000 making location key for home buyers looking for a bargain In the North East, a remarkable 41 per cent of all homes for sale fall within this price range, followed by Scotland…
Read More
Breaking News

Landlord repossessions soar as Renters’ Rights Bill looms

Landlord repossessions soar as Renters’ Rights Bill looms, with some areas seeing increase of over 2,500% The latest analysis from Dwelly, one of the UK’s leading lettings acquisition and success planning experts, shows that landlord repossessions have increased by 6.8% across England and Wales. However, in some areas of the country they have soared by…
Read More
Breaking News

These are Britain’s most active housing markets

New research from The Property DriveBuy reveals that the busiest homebuying postcodes in Britain right now are found in Croydon, Buckinghamshire and Waltham Forest, however, for those hopeful homebuyers facing tough competition, shifting to a neighbouring postcode could see them secure a property. The Property DriveBuy analysed latest housing market data to discover which of…
Read More
Breaking News

Downsizers can bag 2 for 1 on property purchases

The latest research from over-50s property specialists, Regency Living, reveals that downsizing retirees could own two homes for the price of one, combining a comfortable home in England with a sunny escape in Europe. According to Regency Living’s latest analysis, retirees who sell a traditional bricks and mortar house and purchase a park home can…
Read More