Blog / Winning Business

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Raw is Real

Amber Werchon Property

You have to fight to get business and reading the client is critical. Personalisation is everything in our industry and you must communicate with confidence. Recently I listed a quality property and the client asked for the request via email, so I replied by email with a text email.

It was a quality property and the client had a relationship with another agent. Openly between myself and another principal of another agency, I wrote a written submission about why I should get the listing. I kept it as factual and simple and succinct as possible, because that’s what I would personally want to read, but obviously made sure that we sold ourselves enough. I then sent that to all of the agents in the office. Some of our administrators happened to get hold of it to save onto the server. Funnily enough they wrote back and said, ‘Well, if I received that, I would definitely pick you to sell my house’.

I think if someone asks you for specific things, particularly on an email brief, and they want it in writing, if you try to scoot around the questions in that case, they just don’t think you’re being honest and upfront and you won’t get the business.

With people like this who own a property of this calibre, I didn’t need to explain what the different methods of marketing are. With an experienced property person, I’m not going to go into all of those things, or even why to choose a certain method. Just, ‘I think it should be auction, and this is why’.

I think if you can communicate with a certain level of confidence, then people just believe it. With this property, I followed up a lot with texts, phone calls and emails. The last text I sent was, ‘Can I send the paperwork to get started?’.

Believe in Yourself

Simon Caulfield Place Estate Agents

Unfortunately you cannot be an effective agent by only using one medium for marketing; print and online really work hand in hand. People get an agent in for two reasons - one is to market, and one is to negotiate, because effectively they’re the two things that they can’t do in an every day sense, that we can.

Most agents as well run the risk of guaranteeing a result with the marketing. And I think the key message here that we need to get across is; it’s all fantastic - well and good to get the marketing investment, but you don’t want to be promising something that you can’t keep. And I think the key here is giving the client an understanding why the investment works, providing them with a strategy of online and print media, not online vs. print media. And finally, giving them that plan that they don’t have to commit to upfront.

Most clients object to print media. And it’s not actually that the print media doesn’t work; they’ve got an objection with the investment. It’s approximately 75 to 80 per cent of the total investment that they will make. If you can help them understand that that investment is an insurance in the sale of their property, again most people will move forward quite comfortably - hence why 75 per cent of the properties that I sell in a particular price point will have a $25,000 to $35,000 marketing campaign.

You have to deliver the question, ‘Would you be prepared to invest in a marketing campaign that could provide you more buyers through your front door, which could potentially increase the eventual sale price of your property?’.

Give the client a belief in the product; explain to them why they work in unison, online and print. Sometimes it can be two stages, start with online - don’t get the right buyers through - move to print. Or you can do it all at once, but the key is, give them an understanding; ask them why they don’t want to move forward. And if they don’t have a genuine reason to not invest in the marketing, then you really have to help them question how serious they are about selling their property, and most importantly how serious they are about getting the best price out there.

Harness Social Media

Sherrie Storor Place Estate Agents

I use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and post videos on YouTube. Social media is a really great way for people to get to know you. You’re not that cold Real Estate agent. They actually see that you’re a real person - that you are engaged in your community, and you love what you do.

For me, I just looked at, okay, how could I build my profile and build a point of difference. And I saw that nobody was really engaging in social media, so I really saw that there was an opportunity. In the last month, I’ve sold a $2M property from a referral on social media. I’ve had three offers from videos that I’ve posted on social media. Plus people have gotten in contact with me and asked me to come and do four appraisals. So it’s well worth my time of half an hour a day.

I don’t share everything on all the sites, I actually choose to put some photos on some channels, and put some videos on other channels, you don’t put everything on all of them at once. For example, the language on LinkedIn is quite formal as opposed to Facebook, which is very, very informal.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to continually ask for things, so I think it’s very important to give a lot. I might ask for something maybe once a month if I’m lucky. So I don’t do a lot of that. I think you can’t be egocentric, so it’s not all about you, as much as I would post a lot of pictures of me holding sold signs, I don’t put all of my properties up there. So it needs to be a lot about the community, what else we’re sort of doing, and it’s very nice to be inspirational for people as well.

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