Use your Stats to Win Instructions

RAT 87 (Rawlings Agency Tip)

Gaining an instruction is a blend of good marketing and effective salesmanship. Good marketing should not “sell”, but establish you as an attractive proposition - attractive enough at least to get you through the door. Then of course it’s up to you.

But how do you take over from where your marketing left off? Is it your personality, your professionalism, your persuasion, your perseverance or your presentation that does the job for you? Of course all of the above are involved, but in this article I’m going to focus on just one element of your presentation - your key ratios.

Although they say that “telling is not selling” it is still quite useful to have some impressive stats at your disposal, especially those that reflect well on your success. I recently took part in a round table discussion with other agency trainers (see Negotiator Mag Article) and there was wide consensus that many agents are not only failing to use their own stats but often don’t even know what they are! Do you know yours? The types of figures to which I’m referring are, for example:

Speed of sale/let:
Are you selling your instructions faster than the national/regional average?

Reductions:
Do your competitors have to reduce their clients’ price more than you, or more frequently?

Viewings:
Do you typically have to show fewer buyers in order to secure a sale/let (or, if this is a high figure you can argue that you get more buyers round a property thereby ensuring a higher sale price/rental)

Buyer enquiry trends:
Can you demonstrate positive market movement?

Market share:
Whilst other agent may have more for sale/to let boards in the area, do you perhaps have a higher proportion of sold/let boards?

Fall-throughs:
Perhaps your fall-through rate is a fraction of the national average

Void Periods (letting agents):
Is you void period substantially less than the national average?

Average length of tenancy:
Do your tenants stay longer?

Average rental figure (letting agents):
Is this higher than other agents average stock?

You should make it your business to know your above figures in national, regional and local contexts wherever possible. You can use DezRez, TDPG, Rightmove, Vizzihome, Hometrack, etc to help source such data.

Once clients can see the fact that your success and efficiencies ratios are more impressive than your competitors, then you are well on the way to convincing them to instruct you. I’d be very surprised if you can’t find at least three stats that reflect well on you.

Then there are the softer elements that might impress the seller. It may be your charity affiliations, your office’s green credentials or the fact that you give support, employment and training to young apprentices*

Whichever way you look at it, if you don’t put real meat on the bone of your offering, the client has little more than intuition on which to judge you. Your stats and ratios, well presented, could just be the tipping point for your next instruction.

*By the way, a number of RAT subscribers have enquired about hiring an apprentice, as this government-funded initiative provides you with well trained fresh blood qualified with an NVQ Diploma and NFOPP Technical Award in either sales or lettings. All you pay is your apprentice’s expenses (equating to half minimum wage) and allow them to attend the training centre for the formal element of their training. The Bloom Apprenticeship Academy for Estate and Letting Agents currently trains up to 100 new estate agents annually from each of its centres in Birmingham, North London, Manchester and Liverpool. If you are interested in either hiring a well-screened apprentice, or putting a young person on the programme, you can find loads of information at www.bloombi.co.uk.