The three steps to getting more free valuations.
These are the three steps …
1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Action
Awareness … If the prospective vendor doesn’t even know your agency exists, then how can they ever even consider using you? Making someone aware of you and your estate agency is great, it’s addictive and fun to do. Big adverts in the paper and on Rightmove Featured Agent and Home Page banners, big swanky High Street offices with lovely touch screen displays, thousands of leaflets dropped everyday … loving it!
Interest is the story we tell, the transmission of information and emotion (ie education) from us, the esate agent, to the aware prospective vendor. But here is the problem, most estate agents are too self absorbed to be interesting to others, to educate. The other issue is that it takes time and the fact that interest takes many forms, but without a doubt, experience is the most trusted and high-impact way to educate and interest of people
Action … How many times has a prospective vendor said “Later”, but then never used you? Well, it’s because they were never going to say ‘yes’ anyway to you and they don’t want to put themselves in a spot by say No to you. Action is the last step of the prospective vendor to use your agency, but the only one that the Area Manager is measuring. If you sacrifice the first two steps to boost this one, you will regret it.
If you have attracted a prospective vendor through steps 1 and 2 (Awareness and Interest), the slight jump from Step 2 (Interest) to Step 3 (Action)is very small indeed in the eyes of the landlord .. and here is the most powerful thing … the prospective vendor is coming to you (the estate agent), you aren’t grabbing them in. Natural actions happen more often than ones that require a leap. Most prospective vendors aren’t going to act, but if you treat them well, they might just tell their other homeowner friends.
In fact over the last few months, talking to a few of my clients who have been with me 9+ months or more, most of their new business is coming from people who have recommended my client agent, but the person who has recommended them DOESN’T USE MY CLEINT AGENT .. yes, that’s correct, other prospective vendor of other agents recommending my client agency .. why? .. because that prospective vendor hasn’t had enough pain to swap agents themselves but doesn’t hate them enough to leave .. but because my clients have had blogs, newspaper editorials, newsletters (Step 1 – Awareness) been writing articles (some have me as a ghost-writer) on the local town’s property market ,those landlords/ prospective vendors have found interesting (Step 2 – Interest) … they (the prospective vendor) has said to their mate, ‘You need to talk to this agent, he seems to know what he is talking about’
…. think about it …the world is changing but estate agents havent . There is a different way, the question is, do you want to know what it is? Call me if you do ..