The Guide to Dropping Estate and Letting Agent Leaflets

Leaflets .. well when I say leaflets, I don’t mean promo leaflets which talk about fees, and your services .. no I am talking about those magazines, newsletters and reports many of you write and produce about what is happening in the local property market –  stuff like this from Charters in Winchester (click on the image to download the gorgeous PDF newsletter) or the reports Savills do (below)Screenshot 2016-09-08 08.48.41
Its so easy to think emailing your PDF newsletter is the tops. Yes, of course it is, especially if you are emailing to a few thousand on your linkedin or applicant database you have scrapped.
 
.. but all of you have a list of landlords or people on the market that don’t do business with you, but you would like to.
 
So, yes, by all means bulk email it .. but don’t rely on email…. we all get hundreds of emails a day.
 
.. and it might get caught up in Spam (trust me – i ‘m on many of your lists to get newsletters and the huge number that go straight to spam is eye watering.
No, why not pop it in an A4 envelope, with hand written address and post it and stamp (not franked) … how special would that make the potential customer feel?
Even better, why not hand deliver it?
 
Post the first couple of months, then from month 3, knock on the door and say, .. and make sure you follow the steps ..
 
1. ‘Hi, its Chris, I was in the area on a viewing/inspection/etc and I remembered you lived here [important to say – it makes people think – wow they remembered where i lived] –
2. …. so i thought I would save a postage stamp [again important –  it sounds like you are doing it for yourself – saving you money – that is your motivation] and drop it by.
3. I can’t stop as I am round the corner in five minutes‘ [another important thing to say so they don’t think you are going to be doorstepping them  for hours like a couple of Jehovah Witnesses] ,
4. .. shake their hand, give them your card .. and walk.
 
Screenshot 2016-09-08 08.57.38 Screenshot 2016-09-08 08.57.28
.. then next month do the same, but take a few copies this time and say to them, when they open the door, that the other people requested a few copies extra to give to their landlord / homeowners  friends. .. so to save time and money and [and again here is the important part here fellow agents] ensure you didn’t miss out, i wanted to give you a few (because they will then give/gift them to their landlord and property owning mates – because remember, they wont say, ‘this agent gave me this to try and get my business’ … no no my friends, they will say .. ‘ I picked this and and thought you might like it’ .. because it makes them look good.
Trouble, hassle, cost .. yes, but how much is landlord or house sale worth?Thousands and Thousands of these …. £££££££
All of us are guilty of being sucked into the day to day runnings of the business. If you are a one man band – of course you will be. But many of you on here aren’t.
 
Leave your colleagues to the job they are paid to do. They probably do a better job than you anyway. Your roll is work on the business .. not in it.
 
and why a paper copy?
 
All the words of the articles are already online for free on blogs you will say. What you can’t get online, though, is the feeling of owning it, running the thick quality A4 350 gsm card through your fingers and thinking quality, the ability to pop it on the coffee table to read later and the joy of gifting it.
 .. and does it work? Well I have been told Charters have been doing these for years .. have a look at the stats and decide yourself?
Screenshot 2016-09-08 09.23.05

Christopher Watkin

I teach, guide, support, mentor, consult, counsel, partner many hundreds of UK Estate and Letting Agents in their quest to grow their estate and lettings agencies business. Old school techniques of touting, landlords wanted leaflets, ring us for a free valuation, we have sold this in your street leaflets don't work anymore. There are too many competitor agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic, overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the online/hybrid threat. So a few years ago, I set about looking around the UK and spotted that certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds .. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up in the morning and people looked up to them Over 400 agents around the UK are on a mission to change the way our Estate and Lettings agency profession is perceived and looked upon, doing it town by town, city by city. I guide these 400 agents, teach them, mentor them and support them to be seen in a different light, to be seen as the ‘go to person for property’, actually be the ‘local property expert’ and prove it. Christopher Watkin 07950 147 572 christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk

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