Inspiration

Scare Your Clients

Making sure your clients know the dangers of not selling through your agency

Recent findings by ICA (Independent Customer Analysis, the company specialising in understanding client satisfaction and motivation) have confirmed that the number one reason for a property seller to choose one agency over another (after a direct referral from a friend) is simply that they like the person they deal with.

Many of us knew this all along of course, and as employers, we have striven to hire “nice” people who also demonstrate that cutting edge; the killer instinct that we believe is required to balance the Mr. Nice Guy image. Is it that, deep down, we feel such nicety just might not cut the mustard when it comes to closing a deal on our terms?

We admit that we want good sales people, but we nervously recognise that today’s public does not want to be sold to and rejects the aggressive sales techniques of the past.

Anyone who has seen “The Apprentice” BBC2’s intelligent version of “Business Big Brother” cannot fail to have noticed the overbearingly pushy loudmouthed Saira Khan. This dynamic 34 year old sales manager has a BA in Humanities, an MA in Environmental Planning, and speaks five languages. Yet her business skills appear to be limited solely to aggressive and unrefined sales patter. That is all very well if you are selling flowers as an impulse purchase in a market, but it would insult the intelligence of many would-be property sellers.

To Saira’s prospects, it must appear that she needs the sale more than they need the purchase. Salespeople such as this will typically say anything the client wants to hear in order to appear “nice” when they are actually shooting themselves in the foot by destroying any semblance of trust. And as we know, trust is critical in securing instructions on our terms.

As estate agents effectively have to sell twice (once to capture the instruction, then to secure the sale), it is critical that we integrate increasingly sophisticated aspects of salesmanship if we are to develop market share. These include pre-listing activities, an understanding of buyer/seller psychology, pace, volume, body language, neuro-linguistic programming, staging, male-female relationships, etc. in addition to individual listing techniques and personal style.

Some of the above would be more correctly described as marketing disciplines, and I am often asked what is the difference between sales and marketing in estate agency. My own definition of “sales” is doing/saying something that causes a sale (or instruction) to happen, whereas marketing is creating the platform upon which sales happen more easily. Sales is: “They want me to buy through them – beware!” whereas marketing is “I want to buy through them through my own choice” Sales is push, marketing is pull; and in an society where the consumer is far better informed and empowered than ever before we had better get pretty good at “pull”, because “push” is scaring people away.

But there is a place for “scare tactics” in agency, and I believe it is one of the most powerful yet under-utilised forms of salesmanship around. We have established that few people are attracted to the egocentric pushy “sales-type”. Yet neither are clients attracted to the obsequious sycophant who simply tells the client what they want to hear. It would be easy to take the middle road and blend the two, but there is a better way. Scare the client!

I don’t mean wear a Frankenstein mask when you go on a valuation! What I mean is that if you are to blend marketing attributes with sales ability then you need to make sure the client understands not only the benefits of hiring your agency, but also the potential pitfalls of hiring the wrong agency. The trouble is, at the outset, the client does not have enough information on which to make a real value decision.

A case in point is when I went on an instruction recently with one of my client’s appraisers in the East End of London. The vendor was an elderly couple that had not moved house for 18 years. During the course of our conversation, the agent, not unreasonably, asked them if they “had any concerns at all?” And each time they looked a little dazed and said “no”. Of course they didn’t have any concerns. They simply did not know enough to be concerned about, apart from the value of their house and the fee the agent would be charging. The trouble is, if you fall into this trap, you will be judged on one or both of these unless the client is made aware of consequences.

The consequences of using an agent who does not exhibit some of your agency’s attributes. For example, the consequences of using an agency that is not open seven days a week therefore missing key buyers. The consequences of using an agency that does not use floorplans, potentially increasing the stress of moving by failing to weed out unsuitable buyers in advance. The consequences of using an agency that flatters you with a high valuation, meaning the property go stale on the market and take longer to sell for less money. The consequences of using an agency that charges peanuts so needs turnover at any price – never mind achieving the best figure! The consequences of using an agency that is not a member of the NAEA/Guild of Professional Estate Agents/ TEAM/ Homesale Network, etc., thereby missing out on key network resources and code of conduct benefits. The consequences of using an agency that does not subscribe to Righmove.co.uk/ Propertyfinder.com/ Primelocation.com, etc. resulting in a reduction of potential buyer enquiries. The consequences of using an agency that does not give you the name and phone number of the managing director – how dedicated are they to customer service?

My list goes to over 40 various consequence scenarios (many of which are dealt with in my client pre-listing pack). The best agents tend to be those who can skilfully blend “nice” with being assertive enough to deliver scary consequences and their respective proposed solutions simultaneously.

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© Richard Rawlings 2012
Richard Rawlings is the founding director of Estate Agency Insight, which specialises in helping estate agencies harness opportunity through innovative method, marketing, publicity, and training. He can be contacted at or on 0845 838 1354.

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