I recently appeared in a podcast which was posted here on EYE in which I shared 10 lessons I have learnt during my last 40 years in agency.
I received quite a lot of feedback both publicly and privately and by far the most disputed contention was my suggestion that agents should love their suppliers – even Rightmove.
I suspect it was the “Rightmove” reference that excited most of the respondents. I’ve always found it interesting that the UK’s biggest and most successful property portal, as measured against nearly every accepted metric, is literally (and I know that this is a strong word!) Hated by a lot, even the majority of estate agents. This despite the fact that Rightmove is well liked, even loved by the general public!
Simon Bradbury shares 10 lessons from four decades in estate agency
Now don’t get me wrong, the other two of the “Big Three” portals, On The Market and Zoopla, do not enjoy unfettered adulation either and I love them too – I really do. However, I would seriously suggest that working WITH them rather than against them is the most mutually beneficial approach and a strategy that should be adopted across all of the suppliers you may use.
I remember that a few years ago at one of the many conferences I have attended, the outstanding estate agency mentor and commentator Peter Knight suggested that agents should view the numerous firms who provide services and products to our incredible industry, as “supporters” rather than just suppliers. It really was a light bulb moment for me and transformed the way in which I approached and dealt with numerous supporting businesses.
I’m sure that a number of you will cynically claim that “Peter would say that wouldn’t he” – referencing that he needs the financial support from various suppliers for the events he organises and that may even be true, but his advice has certainly benefitted me and my business interests in a number of ways over the years.
It’s always surprised me that whilst attending an industry event with the requisite exhibition stands, I see most other estate agents actively avoiding any interaction with potential suppliers. I suspect that they worry about the inevitable follow up call subsequent to displaying even the vaguest expression of interest and fail to see any value in discussing how they may be helped. This is a very naïve, negative and ultimately self defeating approach in my view. I was once told that an effective mind is like an effective parachute – it only works when it is open!
Once a business relationship has been established with a supplier/supporter it should like any relationship, be nurtured with honest two way feedback, both positive and negative. I have lost count of the number of advantageous nuggets of information I have discovered as a consequence of a conversation with a supplier either online or in person… a new service that the supplier would like to test, a previously unknown secondary product that I wasn’t aware of or even a different charging mechanism.
I would even flatter myself that on at least one occasion I have made a suggestion to a supplier that a particular service could be amended and improved on. It’s an immensely satisfying experience to see such a suggestion converted to a new product or service.
Such an approach really does require a change of mindset from most agents who often appear to think that as they are the paying customer, what they want goes and at the cheapest possible price. This is of course the very antithesis of how they would/should approach their own clients and how they would like to be treated themselves by a customer.
Personally, I would take a leaf out of the book from my eXp colleague Katy Poore who set up her agency in St.Ives Cambridgeshire just three months ago and emphasises to all of her potential selling clients that “we are in this together and we must work together as a team if you want to achieve the desired result”. If the client doesn’t accept that premise, she will (and has) refuse the listing. The consequence of this collaborative approach has been impressive.
In her very first quarter Katy has listed 20 properties, agreed sales on 13 of them and already has an exchange, all whilst charging 35% more than the average agent in her area. Of course Katy is the first to admit that her success is not simply due to her own talents, considerable though they undoubtedly are, but is based on the relationships she has with her clients and suppliers…
Even Rightmove!
Simon Bradbury is a consultant specialising in securing new instructions and runs a (very) small estate agency powered by eXp
With that logic, addicts should “work with” their supplier even though such a toxic relationship will likely not end well. That, “abuse” should be ignored and, that “the paying customer” isn’t the arbitrar of value.
RM should actually pay agents for their valuable data – not have their cake and eat it.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Simon was always a joy to meet at any conference that I attended or hosted. He always kept an open mind, he adopted things that he felt could (not necessarily would) work, he shared information, thoughts and wisdom. I hope that he never felt “sold to” by me – but I always wanted his business.
Suppliers out there who overwhelm people like Simon with sales calls or through Linked’In need to research and understand their prospective client base better. If you have a compelling proposition he will seek you out, but I suspect he will want to ensure that he is dealing with someone who he can build a longstanding relationship with, rather than a quick fix and/or a quick buck.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
If the love and loyalty was reciprocated I would agree with you Simon but 15 years on I am getting fairly regular phone calls from ex customers pleading for help with their service or software- There are agents with a 50 year contract that is not conditional on being under support who cannot get the help, support and security codes they’re entitled to.
The fact is a sad one, many service suppliers are loyal only to themselves and their profits and are actively working to maintain the status quo; a Rightmove centric world where everyone is geared up to making sure things still work as they did in 1999/2000. The upshot of that is innovation that’s available is being stifled and denied to agents.
Its about time the service industries started to realise tech has moved on an awful lot since Windows 98 tick box tech and it will not take very much for suppliers who are as reliant on the Rightmove way of doing things to end up horribly & financially left behind. Agents cannot remain loyal to service suppliers who cannot and will not comply with legislation that changed in 2013. I recently had to explain to a customer who was genuinely loyal to one supplier. Your supplier does not have an API and does not have any means of getting data out of their system, they are not property data trust framework compliant which means they are isolated and only able to communicate with themselves.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Highlighting the Katy element of that piece. Katy Poore is an exceptional agent, something I researched and congratulated her on when we were preparing for Agents giving Strictly in 2022, her numbers when she was at Thomas Morris were some of the best I have ever seen.
Katy could quite easily be the inspirational leader of a large agency group . As a self employed agent using EXP she will do better than you Simon, she will do better than her colleagues, not because of the tech because of who she is and what she does so well. The tech is allowing her to be an agent in a way that fits in with her family and lifestyle. If she were given a top job in agency that had the same work life balance she now enjoys she would ace that too.
When we were yacking about disruption on EAT back in 2013 I used to describe how with the right support, good agents could be self employed, could be online only, could disrupt but they had to be as good as Jane Taylor or Russell Burrington (Ewemove) and as good as Katy Poore. It not the tech that’s making the agent its the other way round
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
This would be sage advice if the relationship with suppliers was not entirely one sided. Suppliers increasingly deliver less and charge more, such is the nature of things, particularly in the “prop tech” space. Fees only go in one direction regardless of performance or market conditions. Agents need to learn to say no far more often than they do.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Actually fees don’t go in one direction; we are currently charging 55% of peak transaction volume prices to reflect the fall in transaction volumes. I made a commitment to relect the market with my fee strucure so that as prices or sales volumes ebb and flow so will our fees. If agents hurt we ease the pain, if agents are doing well so will we.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Lovely to hear… however this is rare, I think you will agree.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Of course it’s rare, it was done to make the point that when the market is against agents it’s wrong to exploit a monopoly/duopoly position. Some people cannot think outside ‘you averaged £40k every week last year the new target is £50k’
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register