EFFECTING PROSPECTING IN ESTATE AGENCY Richard Rawlings
About The Author Richard Rawlings is the current PropertyDrum Estate Agency Trainer of the Year, estate agency consultant and property journalist with over 20 years experience in helping estate and le ng agents in the UK and overseas boost their market share by crea ng dis nc on and communica ng it eec vely. www.EstateAgencyInsight.co.uk
Ethics The issue of “tou ng” immediately raises ethical concerns in some but is “fair play” to others. However, other than reasons of protec ng an informal cartel or losing one of his/her own instruc ons, I cannot understand why an agent would be against direct prospec ng. Any sugges on of using the ethical card in this context would surely be hypocri cal. There is perhaps a mild argument that you would not n be doing the vendor any favours by encouraging them to switch agents as this might suggest a degree of despera on that could nega vely influence buyers. However, what could be regarded as unethical is the long period of sole agency that might prohibit vendors from switching agents in the first place. Self-serving or what? And certainly not in the client’s best interest in most instances. On the contrary, if an agent has taken on a property, given it fair market exposure, yet failed to sell it, surely the vendor should not only have the right to reconsider, but should also be encouraged to do so by an agent who is clearly so ac ve in the area that they are prepared to invest resources in approaching prospec ve clients there. A er all, the seller’s exis ng agent has let them down! They have failed to deliver to expecta on, most probably Th as a result of having over-valued the property to secure the instruc on ini ally - another ethical blunder!
Added to this, the communica on level the vendor receives from their current agents has probably declined alongside a corresponding reduc on in viewing numbers. I would therefore defend an agent’s right to prospect another agent’s instruc on, just as phone, electricity, gas, an TV and broadband suppliers encourage consumers to switch suppliers, on the basis that if your current supplier is serving you well, you’ll s ck with them in any event. If not, then your supplier deserves to lose your business. However, where an agent is also a solicitor, as is o en the case in Scotland, it is against The Law Society’s code of conduct to approach another solicitor’s client for business. If any such body to which you belong has any similar restric on I would urge you to challenge it as an -compe ve and unethical. The Property Ombudsman is clear on the ma er and reminds agents, in clause 5L and 5M of the Code of Prac ce for Residen al Estate Agents, that in order to comply with the law any “canvassing material must be truthful and must fully explain who the message is from, its purposes and how the seller’s interest can be followed up. If as a result of an unsolicited approach a seller is interested in using your services, you must draw to their a en on and explain before they are commi ed to another contract the poten al of paying fees to more than one agent where another agent has been previously instructed to sell their property.” Clearly there is an implicit
acknowledgement here that prospec ng in this way is an acceptable business prac ce. The only real ethical ques on to be considered if you are going to prospect another agent’s instruc on is, do you genuinely feel that the vendor would have a fair chance of selling through you if they were to switch agents? If not, then don’t approach the vendor!
Numbers Prospec ng is of course a numbers’ game. Several agents have told me that they tried prospec ng but it “didn’t work” - so they stopped! I asked then how many le ers they had sent to their prospects and how o en. “We sent 50 out once and had no response” is not an uncommon reply! Yet those who send out hundreds or thousands tend to generate great results, so they ramp it up further. These are the agents who regard direct mailing as a strategic ar route to their success. They allocate marke ng budget to it just like any other business that is serious about increasing its market share. There is of course some maths behind the numbers. Let’s say your prospec ng le ers generate just 1% response. This means that if you send out 100 le ers you might expect one reply. What it also means is that if you send out 99 le ers, you might expect 0.99 replies, which is none as
you can’t have 0.99 of a response. Send out 201 le ers and you are more than likely to receive at least 2 responses. The business value of even this low response would be worth many mes the amount spent on the mailings!
Indirect In addi on to the direct response men oned above, there are also indirect benefits derived. If your content is good (see below) then this will s ll influence many people who are simply not ready to switch agents (they like their agent, they are ed in to a long sole agency period, they are expec ng an offer etc) but who may well do so at a later date. When the me comes, it is easier for them to Google your number than it is for them to find your le er. So whilst it may be temp ng to assign a dedicated telephone number to your prospec ng le ers, don’t be surprised if your responses come in on your regular line and you may not necessarily make the connec on. And don’t expect the vendor to men on they got your le er. I suspect that you gain more business from your prospec ng than you might realise! I o en hear of agents who go on an appraisal unaware that the instruc on had been ini ated by their prospec ng efforts, only to find their le er si ng on the vendor’s coffee table!
Consistency How o en should you direct mail a vendor? Too much and you could irritate them – too seldom and you might miss the boat! If you discover that the vendor has just come onto the market within the past few days, it is extremely unlikely that they’d switch. But you could s ll send them a “good luck with your sale” card! Who then would be in pole posi on to pick up the instruc on should they struggle to sell down d the line! One month later, if they’re s ll on the market, they are possibly disappointed that they haven’t sold yet. Ini al viewing numbers are declining although their agent remains op mis c. So a second le er at this stage can be useful in compounding awareness of your service. But it is your third approach that really begins to sow the seed of doubt although it may take a further month for the vendor to seriously consider contac ng you. By this me viewings have all but dried up and the vendor’s original agent doesn’t contact them much any more, as they are rather embarrassed. Sound familiar? embar So a minimum of four approaches (the Direct Marke ng Associa on suggests six) should be enough to not only raise awareness of your brand, but also to prompt people to act. Each le er should have a different tone/wording and build on the previous one, yet carry similar key
messages, albeit worded differently. Consistency and momentum are cri cal. That’s why the major agency chains employ en re departments sourcing vendors’ names and addresses and mailing them accordingly. Such canvassing is the ingredient that converts average market share to serious market share. Every instruc on gained from a compe tor counts as two in the market share ba le. (eg 36v46 instruc ons becomes 37v45)
Content Content is the one ingredient that agents so o en get wrong. Brand awareness is insufficient if it is not backed up with substance. There’s no point in throwing money at genera ng volume unless your content is relevant, meaningful, mely and respec ul. It should also be engaging and interes i ng and prompt people to take ac on. It must be very well wri en, gramma cally perfect and have no typos. It should not be mid, it should address issues and ins ll confidence whilst promo ng your key messages. Ideally it should also include a few key stats that make you pull away from your compe tors, eg average days on market, percentage of proper es you sell over the asking price, pri number of viewings per sale, etc.
When you come to check your le er, which should cover no more than a single side of A4, ditch any predictable a ribute that can be applied to most other agents, eg no-sale – no fee, free valua on, open six days a week, personal service. Boring and meaningless!
Graphics Your copy is considerably more important than your graphics. However, if your graphics look shoddy then your le er will hit the bin before you can say “overpriced”. Your colour scheme, logos and other livery reflect your “corporate personality” and business style. In this context there should be plenty of white space for your actual copy.
It’s All About You Most agents DO about the same sort of stuff. It’s therefore who you are that counts. So your le ers should be personal and clearly wri en by an iden fiable individual, ideally supported by a high quality image of the writer, looking relaxed but professional, smiling but sincere, a rac ve and engaging. A good upbeat photo suggests transparency and integrity – two important considera ons when assessing an agent. Likewise, do sign le ers personally, ideally in blue as a foil to black copy. If you are sending le ers out in bulk using
digital services then scan in a high quality jpeg of your signature for a similar effect. You should also make it easy for the vendor to respond, so don’t overlook to finish with a strong call to ac on and a clear phone number – ideally associated with you as an individual (“please call me personally on...”) This is a direct appeal, not a corporate brochure. And it’s certainly not a brag sheet although a few key stats can be powerful. It’s also worth checking that there are more “you/your” references in the le er than “I, me, us” references. Your wri ng style should be a friendly and conversa onal “you to me” tone.
Proac vity I men me oned earlier that there is a reluctance for Bri sh agents to appear “pushy”. Yet a vendor is surely more likely to be predisposed towards an agent who has deliberately approached them than a weaker passive one! Indeed, the vendor is likely to want to engage a proac ve agent on the basis that their property will be marketed proac vely as well. I don’t mind annoying 10% of the popula on if it means I’m engaging the remaining 90%. Certain “unpopular” agents come to mind who nevertheless do remarkably well!
Drill Down Deeply It’s temp ng to use direct mail to a ract vendors in areas outside your usual area of opera on in order to expand your business. However, this is far less effec ve than prospec ng more thoroughly in the area in which you are already well-known. Direct prospec ng delivers the best results when it’s combined with other forms of marke ng. The marke ng gurus call this “bunching”. So you’ll see be er results from your prospec ng if you are also adver sing elsewhere, have good PR coverage in the local media, have a strong Sold board presence, are ac ve with your social media and are being “talked about” – ideally because you have in some way demonstrated elements of remarkability. If you already enjoy a good reputa on locally, your prospec ng al should be the pping point for new business! But if you have a poor reputa on, or indeed none at all, then don’t expect immediate results.
Finding Vendors Of course, you need to know who’s selling in order to approach them and this involves a bit of detec ve work. There are companies (eg AgentProspects.co.uk) who have some very clever automated processes, plus a few manual ones, that do this for you.
Alterna vely it could be a full me, albeit tedious, job for an office junior. I o en hear about agents on bicycles trying to match portal images with a par cular house; or nego ators painstakingly trying to match Google Earth ne images with floorplan property footprints, then using Streetview to discover the actual street number only to find that what looks like the number 5 is actually number 8; or agents spending vast amounts of money on out of date or otherwise unreliable data! For example, some mes the person listed as the owner of a property on a marke ng database might be a tenant or rela ve of the owner, who, when applying for credit, incorrectly stated that they owned their own home. You can either pay the Land Registry £3 to find out for sure, or let it go and take a bit of occasional flack. This is a task that requires a systema c approach conducted on a daily basis. You won’t get it right every me and – even the experts occasionally mis-discover an address (<0.1%) . But the alterna ve is to do nothing! The key is volume. And if there is not enough volume of proper es remaining unsold in your area, then you’ll need a different marke ng strategy that uses a shotgun rather than a rifle approach in order to get first crack at people yet to enter the market.
You Won’t Find Everything Don’t assume that the number of lis ngs that appear in your area in a portal will be the number of addresses you will discover. It could be half that! This is because several of them will be mul ple listed and therefore count more than once, others may be under offer by the me you approach them, others will be repossessions, new build/ app conversions, probate sales, or shared ownerships where it is difficult to discover/contact the actual vendor.
By Name If Possible You’ll generally get a be er response from named individuals rather than using “Dear Homeowner” so it’s worth going to the effort and expense to discover exactly who owns a property wherever possible. There are various ways of doing this including HM Land Registry, the electoral register, marke ng databases etc. You’ll then need to run these names through the Death Register to make sure they are s ll alive (dead people are slow to respond; or their rela ves can be offended), the Mailing Preference Service (screen out the irritable people) and you’ll also need to make sure their address complies with Royal Mail’s acceptable address forma ng (called a PAF code) if it is to be delivered correctly. If there is any confusion over the owner’s name then it’s
be er to send to “Dear Homeowner” than a name that may be incorrect. Most people are familiar with this approach and as long as the content is relevant to them, and it’s from their friendly local estate agents, then this is unlikely to adversely affect response.
Can You Measure It? This is a really important ques on, as it is of course important to be able to assign a return on investment to importa any ac vity you might conduct, especially one that so directly involves genera ng new business. However, a certain amount of business intui on is required here as well, as you won’t always know when your prospec ng has “worked”. Was it your le er that did the trick, your boards, your office presence, your reputa on, a recommenda on or a phone call? In reality, it’s probably a combina on of several of these, yet each in isola on would probably fail to deliver! For example, if you already have a terrible reputa on, you don’t have any boards up in the area and you don’t adver se locally, then don’t expect a huge response to your direct prospec ng! Ideally you should keep a record of all proper es you have ever prospected and cross reference this with vendor enquires (nb not instruc ons – that’s down to the agent in enqui
the field a er the prospec ng has done the job of making your phone ring). These enquiries might come in some months a er you last prospected them. We know that, subject to enough volume, prospec ng works. It’s just that we don’t always know when it has!
A Nega ve Response You can probably expect a few nega ve responses as none of us likes to receive unsolicited mail. All the more reason that your le ers are respec ul and appropriate and you should not ask for the business without having first earned the right to it. It may be that the recipient is happy with their agent, or they resent you “knowing” their house is on the market and wonder how you got their name, or you may have accidentally approached the wrong person or ma address. Whatever the reason, the way in which you handle the call can, in many cases, not only enhance your reputa on, but actually lead to indirect business (eg “we’ve decided not to sell but do you do le ngs?”)
Challenge It’s easy to take the passive route seeking not to offend anyone. Yet all the research suggests that an element of “challenge” is a good thing. (See “The Challenger Sale – Taking Control Of The Customer Conversa on” by
Ma hew Dixon and Brent Adamson). Politely ques on the vendor’s exis ng agents’ results to date or remind them of the importance of selling before the property goes stale on the market. As long as your approach is respec ul and appropriate you are unlikely to offend.
Follow Up Just because your first le er “doesn’t work” this does not mean your second, third or fourth won’t. Indeed, your first le er is instrumental in ensuring that your eg fourth le er does the job. However, if you have the vendor’s phone number then you can significantly increase your chances of ge ng the instruc on by phoning them as well. Once again, don’t overdo this, don’t annoy and don’t pester, although tenacity, as ever in this context, can go a long way. The purpose of such a phone call is of course to secure an opportunity to pitch for the business. You won’t get the instruc on on the phone, so don’t try. An effec ve way of gaining the ini al appointment is to task a Personal Assistant to do this for you. As the PA is not “qualified” to discuss values etc with the vendor it is quite acceptable for him/her to phone on your behalf simply sta ng that you have asked him/her to call the vendor with a view to arranging an informal and confiden al appointment during which you will offer to conduct a no-obliga on marke ng
review. This can be outsourced to trained agency-specific PA’s for maximum efficiency. Again, if you feel this is a “bit strong” for you then don’t do it; but those who do, tend to gain more business! When there’s less pie to go around, maybe the table manners have to change!
Other Agents I hear hea you say, “But won’t this upset other agents in my area? Yes it may... Get over it!
Summary: Is your prospec ng working? It probably is, even if you can’t see it; but if you’d like to maximize your direct responses check the following top ps. Numbers: The more you send out, the more you get back. Consistency: Hold your course and build momentum. Frequency: Mail the same people every month for at least four months. Target audience: Drill down deeply in your established area. Content: - Unclu ered, dis nc ve graphics - Clear, Clea strong and memorable key messages - Appropriate, informed, asser ve - Sincere personable approach - Friendly “you to me” tone - Upbeat professional-looking high quality photo - Blue signature - Bold call to ac on - Direct phone number Reputa on: Get this sorted first!
The right people: Use efficient and professional discovery processes. Follow up: By phone using a PA or outsourced service for volume response Actually do it! You can’t test the depth of the water by dipping your toe in it! Compared with other marke ng ini a ves such as print adver sing or email newsle ers, direct mail prospec ng is rela vely expensive on a “cost per touch” basis. But, if it’s managed well, direct mail can provide the lowest cost per response and the highest return on investment. As such, it should be regarded as an integral part of your marke ng strategy and it’s worthwhile either employing mar someone to focus on this, or, probably for a much lower cost, you can outsource this cri cal element of your business to people who specialize in the field of estate agency prospec ng, such as AgentProspects.co.uk.