Estate Agency Survival Guide

Stage 1 SAFETY

Share safety information with both clients and staff, follow advice offered by governing bodies.

Before conducting viewings and Market Valuations please send this COVID-19 Checklist to clients that you may come into contact with.

Stage 2 ACCEPTANCE

Understand That This:

• Is a bad situation for everyone
• Is going to take time
• Is going to take hard work and perseverance
• Presents challenges
• Also presents opportunities

Stage 3 COMMUNICATION

Contact all of your clients

• Keep clients informed, let them know where you are and how to contact you
• Send a newsletter campaign detailing your efforts to continue business as usual
• Clients midway through the buying/renting process should be contacted with an update

Spread positivity

• Adopt a positive approach to all communication

Be honest

• Show complete honesty with clients you are dealing with. If things are going to take longer, then let them know

Offer guidance

• Proactively help clients, are any of your clients going to struggle during this period? Show empathy and offer support to your clients

Regional advice

• Send out regional advice, letting clients know where they can get items or where they can get support/guidance

Build relationships

• Build relationships with clients during this period, go above and beyond in helping them and not only will they complete with you in the future but they will also refer you onto others

• Call clients and pass on your best wishes

Show empathy

• Put yourself in the clients shoes and try to provide solutions/support to help them through this

Communicate with staff

• Communicate effectively with all team members, explain the reality of the situation and paint the real picture
• Be positive, explain that beyond this crisis there is real opportunity
• Encourage staff to spend more wisely over the coming weeks/months
• Tell them what you plan to do
• Tell them how to stay safe

Stage 4 Focus

Refocus your attitude and drive

• Money Making – Less focus on money making and more focus on business building
• Don’t panic – Be cool, be confident
• Remember what matters – Family and friends matter most, do everything you can to ensure that their happiness is not compromised

Refocus your marketing

• Focus on secondary homes – The secondary home market in this situation can be lucrative
• Focus on rentals – There may be people experiencing financial difficulties who are now looking to downsize their rental property
• Attract more sellers – Clients may be looking to sell-up and offload investments – Try to attract more property valuations (Valuations may be conducted virtually using video technology)
• Engage with your community empathetically – What is happening in your community, how can you help people?
• Prioritise clients that are in a bad situation – Offer help and guidance and go the extra mile to assist with their issues

Referrals

• Referral marketing is very powerful, you will be surprised at the success you get from asking previous clients to refer you onto others

Send relevant tips to clients, examples:

• Money saving tips
• Informative advice
• Regional information
• Home entertainment tips

Continuation

• Continuing to market maintains your pipeline
• Continuing to market gives you a headstart
• Continuing to market provides readiness when things return back to normality

Stage 5 TIME

Use the time to implement change

• What haven’t you had a chance to improve over the last few years?
• What has been a burden on your business in recent years?
• How can you automate many of the mundane tasks in your business?
• What marketing channels provide the best return for you?
• Work on your existing client database
• Do you have the best CRM?
• Get digital
• Work on your sales funnel
• Work on your marketing literature
• Improve your network – Network with local businesses – Network online (linkedin)
• Don’t rush into things
• Plan!

News consumption

• Limit news consumption (not good for morale)
• Ignore social media opinions

Time spent online

More people are spending more time at home, which means;

• More people online
• More searchers
• More enquiries
• More potential exposure for your estate agency

Training

• Hone your skills
• Learn new skills
• Train your team

Content

Create enriching and supportive content

• Video
• Area guides
• Testimonials

Predict what will happen in time

• People will be desperate for travel
• Desperate to escape
• Desperate for a better life

Support

• How can your government help you? Grants, funding?
• Who can you speak to for guidance and moral boosting

Boom to come, prepare for it!

Stage 6 Positivity

• WHEN you get through this you will have less competition
• This is an opportunity to IMPROVE
• You CAN do this
• You WILL come back stronger

Checklist BREAKDOWN

Safety

• Pass safety advice on to staff
• Pass safety advice on to clients

Acceptance

• Take time for yourself to accept the situation – There is no quick fix and no magical answer to improve things
• Accept that this is going to take time

Communication

• Inform your staff of the plan
• Inform your staff of the severity of the situation
• Send all clients an update detailing your accessibility (Different communication needed for different client segments)
• Call all of your most valuable clients – Offer advice/guidance and explore opportunities between both parties
• Call all clients that are in a particularly bad situation – Show empathy and offer advice/guidance

Focus

• Plan your strategy for getting through this
• Speak regularly with your family and friends
• Engage with your database in a relevant and supportive manner Create a different strategy for both short-term wins and long-term wins
• Analyse your marketing channels – Focus on the most rewarding channels to maintain a healthy pipeline and momentum
• Show a daily dose of community spirit, what can you do for others?
• Look yourself in the mirror each day and tell yourself you can do this

Time

• Note down what changes you are going to implement
• Schedule a completion date for each change
• Limit your news consumption to 1 hour per day
• Create 3 pieces of content relevant to your area of expertise each week (blog, video, news article)

Conclusion

• Be safe
• It takes courage to be optimistic and positive
• What they do now will shape their business forever Show empathy
• Be community focused
• Don’t dwell, don’t be frustrated
• Channel frustration in a positive way
• Find opportunity
• Use NOW to implement change and to put your business in a much stronger position Be Grateful