Daily Ideas

Are you missing a BIG market?

It’s Dyslexia Awareness Week from 6th to 12th October.

The experience of a family member raised my awareness of dyslexia.

This led me to discover that approximately 6 million people in the UK have some degree of dyslexia.

That’s a significant number that will contain many homeowners, landlords, tenants, and potential buyers.

It led us to create a guide for estate agents on how they could make their marketing materials and communications more accessible to people with dyslexia.

It’s not only an opportunity to do the right thing. It’s an opportunity for your agency to stand out.

The guide was recognised by Dyslexia Scotland, which gave us the Official Change Maker status for our work around the subject.

And to mark Dyslexia Awareness Week, we’ve made the guide available to all.

Email ruche@estateagentcontent.co.uk if you want a copy.

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Spot the Difference

The other day, I was cleaning my office when I found copies of a bedtime story I had written for my then-six-year-old daughter (seven years ago, time files).

It ended up getting published – It’s called Spot the Different.

WTF does this have to do with estate agents?

Well, it got me thinking about the differences between good and bad agents.

And how it could be turned into a game of Spot the Difference.

One turns up on time, and one rocks up five minutes late.
One bases valuations on comparable evidence and data – the other on overvaluing to win the instructions.
One thinks they know it all, the other is open to ideas, learning, new technologies and thinking.

Over to you.

What differences have you spotted between good and bad agents?

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Listen Up

I’ve been wrestling with a big decision for a while.
I went back and forth and felt like I was overthinking it and then underthinking it.

I’d spent days, even weeks, mulling this move over.
And I was stuck.

Then, the answer became clear during a 20-minute chat with someone I greatly admire.

Probably only 60 seconds of those 20 minutes solved my issue.
Everything became clear.

My point today is to find people whose advice cuts through the noise.

Most of the time, social media will offer up shi7e advice.

So, seek those whose opinions you respect.

Those gems who base their comments on experience and facts rather than ego and feelings.

You’ll know when you find them.

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

“It’s all marketing.”

That quote came from a former client who, after four decades as an agent, cashed out handsomely four years ago. Ker-ching.

He applied this marketing mantra everywhere to each aspect of his business.

In my experience, the best agencies share this same approach.

Some examples include:
The way their office windows look – marketing opportunity.
How incoming calls were answered – marketing opportunity.
Getting involved in community projects – marketing opportunity (and moral obligation).
Email signatures that encourage the recipient to discover more about the agency – marketing opportunity.

Recently, I came across an excellent example of incorporating an email signature into your broader marketing mix from the Scottish Property Centre.

They include info and links to expert E-guides housed on their website.

It’s all marketing folks – even these Daily Ideas.

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Ask The Audience

I was listening to a podcast on social housing policy the other day.
I have no idea how I clicked on it, as it’s a subject I’m not really interested in.

The internet rabbit hole at work.

But one of the hosts said something that struck a chord.
It was about the importance of having people affected by decisions involved in how those decisions are reached and agreed upon.

“It can’t be about us without us.”

This got me thinking.

How often do agency leaders and their teams mull over decisions about their services to landlords, sellers, tenants, and buyers, and seek input from the people whose lives the changes/choices will impact?

Could this be something your agency could consider?

We strive to achieve this within our business by having an Advisory Team of agents with whom we liaise, listen to, and learn from.

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Prepare Properly

Advise home sellers/buyers/landlords/tenants to create a moving/property-related folder in their email or phone/computer to store anything related to their sale/purchase/tenancy/let.

Recommend they name it something intuitive, such as ‘New Home’, “Property Transactions”, or “101 Acacia Avenue.”

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Everything is Energy

I got into the Aussie estate agent Mat Steinwede’s podcast a few years back.

He regularly spoke about the importance of energy (he calls it frequency) when it comes to being a top estate agent.

No great salesperson has dull energy.

We all have people we know who we avoid because of their energy.
The big thing I’ve noticed about giving up alcohol is my energy is far, far greater.

I loved this sign displayed in an American hospital’s staff rooms.
“Energy is everything.”

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Harness the Power of Signs

I love signs and posters.

Not the w@nky ‘inspirational’ ones like ‘Lions don’t hang out with sheep.’

That’s mainly because lions would rip the sheep to pieces, and thousands of miles of land mass and oceans keep them apart.

Anyway, I digress.

One thing I’ve noticed successful sports teams do well is place signs around their environment that inspire and focus the minds.

A sign I’m getting done for my office is: ‘What got you here won’t get you there.’ (It’s used at Chelsea FC’s women’s training centre.)

Emma Hayes, the Chelsea Women’s’ team former coach, said: “I was conscious the club had success, but I want to take it to the next level, and that meant things would always need to change, and our levels always had to go up a couple of notches.”

What signs does / could your agency have to motivate, inspire and focus your teams?

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Premium Post

Tell YOUR Story, Especially When Recruiting.

This excellent example of business storytelling from Tom Tarver popped up again on my timeline yesterday.
It beats ‘We’re Hiring’ posts.

“As a teenager, I had two big ambitions: to be in business and to buy my own house. At 14, I started saving and buying and selling all sorts of things, from flowers to toys, to boost my ‘fund’. It was always the buzz of doing a deal that gave me the greatest satisfaction.

A career in property seemed like a natural fit, and it all started with some work experience with Rob Johnson, founder of Evesham-based Johnsons Chartered Surveyors when I was just 17 years old.

My first few days involved cleaning the office, filing reams of paperwork and walking around Evesham with a clipboard collecting details of homes for sale. By the end of the week, I was putting together the black and white newspaper adverts and faxing them to the local papers. At the end of my work experience, I was offered a job as ‘the Saturday boy’.

Five years later, I was appointed partner and have since become the proud owner of Johnsons Property Consultants, leading a fantastic team who works hard every day to deliver an extraordinary customer experience to hundreds of landlords, tenants, buyers and sellers.

I am now seeking an apprentice to join my team and embrace their own journey in the property industry.

The variety in our business, sales, lettings, property management, land & development, and our desire to grow, means that for the right person, there are some exciting opportunities to establish a successful career in property. As we expand, we would love to think that we can develop more of our own local property experts and even future business leaders.

Our continued growth plans include selling and managing many more homes across Worcestershire and beyond. The successful candidate will learn from our team’s decades of combined experience while studying for a Housing & Property Management (Level 3) qualification.

We are recruiting for great attitude and values, which are far more important to us than experience or existing qualifications. Each team member benefits from their own tailored personal development plan and fully funded training, their birthday off (an extra day’s holiday) and joining our team’s social activities and events.

If you know anyone interested in this opportunity, please ask them to message me and tell me why they would like to join our team.”

People buy from people, so we need to tell personal stories – even when recruiting. That’s a young Tom in the middle of the photo.

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

Keep Asking Questions – Keep Moving Forward

Here are some questions that leading sports/business coaches use to improve their organisations:

• How do we make our processes better?
• What can we do to make our client’s lives easier?
• Will doing this help our clients in some way?
• Who must we get on board to become the community’s favourite club/agency?
• Where is the weakest spot in our business?
• Why are we doing it that way?
• How much time will be needed to change this?
• What needs to change for us to win more business/games?

There are plenty more questions we can ask ourselves and our team that will bring about positive change.

Do you have any questions that have worked well in improving your agency?

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

The Pangea Principle

Look at a world map and you’ll see the continents almost fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. That’s because millions of years ago, they did.

They were part of a supercontinent called Pangea.

Your agency’s marketing should follow the same principle: everything joined up.

Here’s how:

Define your core messages – what makes your agency a category of one (what you do that rivals can’t).
Decide who you want to attract and how you’ll do it.
Then make sure your different marketing pillars deliver those points in a coordinated, connected way.

The opposite of the Pangea Principle looks like this:

Claiming decades of experience but having a Meet the Team page dominated by 20-somethings.
Taking a spray-and-pray approach to direct mail.
Advertising a premium service while charging 0.5% fees.

That’s disjointed and confusing.

Remember: the small pieces matter when you’re building your big Pangea picture.

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/

To Email or to Call? That is the question.

I like what Australian agency coach Josh Phegan says about emails:
“If it’s more than two sentences long, it’s a phone call.”

I agree – though I’m guilty of sending long emails when a call would be better.

That said, my personal favourites for communication are voice notes or Loom videos.

🔷 Today’s idea is brought to you by Ethical Agent Network – for more info on how we help ethical agents succeed, visit: https://ethicalagentnetwork.co.uk/