JULIAN SAYS…

One of the most interesting and reliable barometers to current market challenges facing estate agents, is the subject matter that estate agency firms are requesting us to cover on our forthcoming training sessions. It’ll come as no great surprise that the highest demand for courses throughout the past 18 months has been for those aimed at increasing the quality and quantity of instructions, in both the sales and lettings sector.

Already in 2015, we’ve worked with many agents on this crucial element of their businesses, reviewing and perfecting the key stages of their ‘instruction process’. How to win business by being seen as different from the competition has been one of the most significant areas to be given attention.

Grasp the principle of differentiation – be exceptional!

Many firms we work with are already good at what they do, however our mantra is that ‘good is no longer good enough’. It’s fair to say that most agents with any noticeable market share must be at least ‘good’ to have achieved it, therefore any agent who conducts business to a ‘good’ standard will almost certainly be perceived as ‘one of the crowd’. In turn, if landlords and vendors perceive potential selling/letting agents as similar in standard and approach, those clients tend to base their judgement on which agent to instruct upon the most basic differentiator – the fee.

This is a disaster for most agents, assuming you aren’t one of those looking to rely on getting instructions by being the cheapest. Indeed, with transaction numbers still less than pre-downturn levels, charging cheap fees may well represent a slow painful death.

The best practice principles in securing quality instructions against low fee competitors are too numerous to list here, however a few essentials should be borne in mind.

KNOW YOUR BUSINESS

One exercise we’ve conducted on recent training courses has been to issue a questionnaire to all the attendees that ask about the detail of their company’s services as well as those of the main competitors. Questions include ones about opening hours, number/names of property portals used, years of trading, number of recently completed sales in the catchment area, current market share, amount of combined staff industry experience, membership of trade bodies/affinity groups. It’s been fascinating to see what a struggle it is for a large proportion of valuers to answer the questions accurately with confidence. One company’s valuers, when asked how many associated branches their firm had, gave a range of answers from 200 to 1,500!

The old adage that ‘people buy differences’ in selling is as relevant now as it has ever been. It is hard to see how a valuer can sell the ‘differences’ of their services against a competitor when he/she has not grasped the detail of either. This is an example of a lack of knowledge which makes a valuer vulnerable to a superior clued-up rival. Plugging this knowledge gap is relatively easy with a well-structured training session, plus a few mystery shopper calls to local rivals. Once full knowledge is in place, it becomes clear which elements are your strengths versus the weaknesses of the other agents. This in turn ensures that the competent valuer can highlight those important differences between his/her services and the competition.

Equally importantly, an exceptional valuer will focus on different USPs in their armoury at different valuation appointments, depending upon which competitors they are up against. Knowledge of the weaknesses of all your rivals is absolutely crucial, to the same extent as knowledge of your own strengths.

As an example, one client firm of mine has identified that they are open 65 hours a week, compared to their nearest rival who are open 56 hours. These extra nine hours are almost as good as an extra day a week, and this allows the firm in question to say exactly that: “We are open the equivalent of an extra day a week to find you a buyer, so we don’t miss any opportunities, can arrange more viewings and ultimately maximise your chances of selling your house quickly.”

DIFFERENT IS GOOD!

The result of this approach of differentiation is that the potential client perceives clear, tangible variances between agents’ offerings leading to them weighing up whose services will secure the best result in terms of price, speed and quality of buyer or tenant. The ultimate upshot of that deliberation is that the fee becomes of secondary importance in the decision making process.

There are many other behavioural improvements that we have instilled in valuers which contribute to success – suffice to say that they are all geared to ensuring the individual achieves ‘exceptional’ standards.

Trying out the above principles within the training environment provides valuers with an opportunity in a no-risk situation to become comfortable with those techniques before putting them into action in the real world.

Helping valuers be ‘exceptional’ is the goal of our ‘Winning Instructions’ courses, but grasping the principle of ‘differentiation’ is a fundamental stage on the road to that goal. After all, as Olaotan Fawehinmi said, “Being outstanding is good, but standing out is better…”

Julian O’Dell is founder of TM Training & Development.