Peter Knight

Why should I instruct you?

One of the first questions I ask a new estate agency client is “if I was a home owner, please tell me why I should instruct you rather than another estate agent?” The answers are very often the same and include things such as: “long established”, “high quality marketing”, “experts in our area” and “professional.” It really is quite amazing how often these nominalisations are trotted out and what’s more, when I ask for substantiation such as “show me your ‘high quality marketing’” I frequently find it’s no better than any other agent, indeed sometimes its worse. But what really lights my blue touch paper is when an agent describes himself, and his company, as “professional” (which the Oxford English dictionary describes as “doing a certain kind of work as a fulltime occupation”) – every estate agent is a professional, even the really poor ones – if you mean something else then say so but please don’t tell me you’re a professional as if this somehow separates you from the pack, it doesn’t.

I used to think that John McGrath’s answer: “your home is worth more with McGrath” was the best I’d heard but last month, when I spent a week with the senior directors and managers of Romans, (developing a new strategy to help make this brilliant business even more successful), Managing Director Peter Coles said “but that’s rubbish, an estate agent doesn’t define the price, the market does.” We debated this point and came to the conclusion that with the data available from Rightmove, Zoopla and TDPG not to mention the Land Registry and dozens of surveys and reports each month there really is no mystique to house prices any more. The days when an enquiry about the price a property sold for prompted the reply: “well, I’m not allowed to tell you exactly but I can say it was very close to the asking price” are in the distant memory, now every detail, from how long the property has been marketed to it’s original asking price and the history of price adjustments, are all available for everyone to see, agent and buyer alike. The key differential between one estate agency and another is therefore the experience the client will suffer/tolerate/enjoy as they sell and buy or let or rent. And of course as just about every agent will claim they can make it hassle free* (*as possible) the client is none the wiser until it’s too late in many cases.

Although the results aren’t all in yet, The Property Academy’s Home Moving Trends survey, now in its fourth year, is so far showing that 40% of people have lived in their homes for 10 years or more, indeed 10% for more than 25 years. The survey also confirms that people spend very little time looking for a property before putting their own on the market – 30% in fact did so before viewing a single one. What this adds up to is that many people suddenly decide to move, it’s not something they plan a long time in advance, often as a consequence of a life stage event (although in around 30% it’s a lifestyle driver), and despite their lack of experience make decisions around the appointment of their estate agent very quickly, almost instinctively. Indeed, when we asked people why they appointed one agent rather than another 63% said “the one I instinctively trusted the most.”

The key therefore, to winning instructions, is to be trustworthy, which Stephen Covey describes in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as “requiring the presence of both character and competence in equal measure.” However, simply telling people, “I’m a trustworthy estate agent,” is probably not going to work! Instead you have to communicate your trustworthiness in ways which are self-evident. This is easier with the competency aspect as you can prove your expertise through examples of properties sold, market share, etc but it’s harder to prove your character and this is made even more difficult when you consider that over half of the people we surveyed only met with one or two estate agents, which means that you’re being largely judged online and in the media. I think that estate agents need to concentrate much more on communicating their character and appealing to the emotional drivers of their clients rather than the current fashion for simply promoting facts and figures and appealing to the rational. After all, how many rational clients do you have on your books right now?

The sweet smell of success by Peter Knight

I read how the internet almost went into meltdown following 5.2 million views on You Tube for the latest commercial for Old Spice. “Old Spice” I thought, my granddad used to smell of that! I checked that I had read it correctly and yes, 5.2 million people tuned in to watch an advert for possibly the oldest of male fragrances.

At the time of writing, views of the commercial have risen to 15,874,611and possibly might have trebled again by the time you read this. In addition there are many variations, copies and spoofs of the ad some of which have been seen over 10 million times as well.

So over 15 million people have watched the commercial, for zero cost, other than the production, which is impressive by any standard. But are they the right 15 million and what impact has the commercial had on sales?

According to data experts Neilsen, in the last month sales of old spice have increased by a whopping 107%. So, this viral campaign has worked very well and it begs the question can this medium work for all businesses and estate agency in particular?

A viral campaign is one which, as the name suggests, acts like a virus being passed from one person to another. I’ve just asked Ann-Marie, Hayley, Hollie, Sharon and Sonya (the five women in closest proximity to my desk) and this very unscientific survey confirmed they were all aware and had seen the old spice commercial (although none had been persuaded to buy some for their husbands, boyfriends or brothers just yet) and each had received the ad from a friend who in turn had received it from a friend and so on. No doubt you might have received several virals, perhaps the German Coast Guard, “what are you sinking about” (Berlitz), Little Gordon (caterer.com) and Kylie Minogue riding a mechanical bull (Agent Provocateur). But whilst these stand out there are hundreds of thousands that don’t. Videos on You Tube receive over 2 billion views every day, 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute indeed more video can be found on You Tube in the next 60 days then appeared on all USA TV for the first 60 years – in other words everyone’s at it and very few get it right.

Successful virals are either funny, sexy, mind-blowing or best of all, all three combined. So the first thing you need to consider is can your company/product/service be presented in this manner? And I believe the answer for 90% of estate agencies is a resounding “yes.” However, if I asked you, “are you prepared for your business to be made fun of or to be portrayed in a way some will find offensive?” then I will gamble that most of you will say “no.” So here’s why so many virals, and for that matter estate agency communications generally, fail – they aren’t funny/clever/sexy enough to be passed on. Virals work when they are edgy, push boundaries, break taboos and potentially upset some people, perhaps more people than they please. Are you prepared to do this?

Business is a serious business but many of us would do well to stop for a moment and ask if it always has to be so and whether we can communicate in a way which entertains, amuses or even arouses our target audience rather than boring them as so many communications unfortunately do. The trouble is our tendency is to be conservative and eliminate risk so whilst you could potentially create something for negligible cost which might cause a 107% increase or more in sales, the majority of you will shy away and be scared off. Which is a shame, because if something that smells like my granddad can be an overnight hit just think what you can achieve.

I am not a number

Completely out of the blue, 02 sent me a text the other day offering me a 40% discount at a Hilton hotel. Barclays also sent me one saying that if I'm stranded abroad (I was in the UK at the time) I can call their 24 hour helpline. Some random number has just texted me to say "our records indicate you may be entitled to 3750 pounds for the accident you had" - what accident, I wondered? These are just a few examples of how many companies, mostly very large ones, get it completely wrong with their communications. By treating me as a number rather than a customer and blanket texting in the hope that a small percentage of recipients will respond they incur my wrath at wasting my time with their nasty intrusive behaviour. Hilton get a double black mark (which is a shame as I've praised their service in previous columns) as I now wonder why, as one of their gold card holders, I receive a smaller discount than any and every 02 customer? Barclays also score a home goal as I was led to understand their security would mean they will never text me and any communication to my mobile should be treated highly suspiciously.

By contrast I've just been reminded that I'm having my haircut on Saturday. The text from Headmasters always comes 48 hours before my appointment with a request that I confirm by texting "Yes" back, which I always do. In October I'll receive another text but this one will have something extra, a 10% discount included - how do I know this, well it's my birthday next month and every year Headmasters gives me a 10% discount for my anniversary cut and I have no doubt that they will do this for the fifth year running. This is in addition to the 25% discount I also receive for being a member of their club (membership is free) and I've just been entered into their free drawer to win a holiday in the Cayman Islands.

I'm flying to Nairobi on Monday to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for lung cancer research (if you're feeling generous you can support me at www.justgiving.com/team-hall ) and before I leave for Heathrow I'll receive 3 texts from Addison Lee. The first will confirm my booking, the second that my driver is on the way and finally, and always on time, a text to say my driver has arrived. This last text will state: "If necessary feel free to contact your driver on his mobile (number) and the vehicle is Ford Galaxy reg (number)."

Headmasters and Addison Lee understand how to use text messages very effectively. Headmasters only text me when it’s relevant and appropriate and their reminder service has substantially reduced the number of no-shows. Addison Lee understand the stresses their customers experience, particularly on airport runs, and seek to remove these with timely texts which reassure.

I find it surprising that many companies don't seem to take any note of customers preferences nor learn from previous experiences. Take a walk down any residential street in the UK and you'll see "NO Junk Mail" signs on letterboxes, check the permissions on any PC and you'll most likely find junk settings set to a high level and apparently over 15 million people have registered with the telephone preference service to avoid cold calls. How many times do we need to tell big companies to stop bothering us? How many clues do these giants of commerce need that their lack of consideration turns potential customers and fans into enemies? And talking of fans, if the rules of texting are ignored then see what’s going down on Facebook and Twitter. There are hundreds of examples of companies using these mediums for sales promotion and once again applying a blunt instrument approach to try and generate business rather than seeking to woo customers and build relationships.

Communication has always been about saying the right thing to the right people in the right way at the right time and this principle is being broken more frequently than ever it feels. Just because you can text gazillions of people at once doesn’t mean you should. Just because you it’s cheap to tweet and post on Facebook doesn’t excuse your doing so indiscriminately. Treat your customers like human beings, (note that’s what they are by the way) not numbers.

There's always a choice

There's always a choice

Steven Covey recommended me to read Victor Frankl's excellent book "Man's search for meaning" and twice this week its most powerful message has crept back into my mind - whatever the circumstances we always have options and can make a choice. Frankl was a Auschwitz survivor who chose to view his condition as a unique opportunity to study human behaviour in an environment which until that time would have been hard to imagine never mind comprehend. As a psychiatrist he decided to make the most of his incarceration and I have no doubt that this state of mind, or attitude if you prefer, was the key factor in his not only living to tell the world but to continue to do so positively and with a clear sense of purpose.

Nigel Risner and I work some of the same speaker circuits and I was very pleased to engage him to address The Academy's Partnership Group last week. His excellent talk included the idea that we are continuously talking to ourselves and do so either as a coach or as a commentator - the first being more helpful. During the workshop, and many occasions since, I have asked myself "is that Peter the coach or commentator talking?" and each time the commentator has appeared I've noticed how poor the tonality is as well as being unhelpful. When the coach has taken over I've marvelled at some of the excellent options I've suddenly noticed.

Many of you will be aware that my good friend Sean Newman was hit by a truck at 70mph as he cycled across America for various cancer charities. Sean will thankfully survive his horrendous injuries which include a fractured back, 2 broken legs and a smashed pelvis. I have no doubt that he will use this experience to become even stronger and can almost hear him say in a few years time "it was a major turning/learning point." But the words I want to quote to you now are not Sean's but his wife Caroline's. On her Facebook page she has been keeping us all updated with Sean's progress and when she posted a photo of Sean's bike in bits, at the side of a dual carriageway, one friend commented how it seemed impossible for the accident to have happened on such a wide, straight road and how he really felt angry about this and how he took huge issue with the truck driver. Here is Caroline's reply:

"It was an accident. Nothing more. In fact we would be happy to meet him - I am sure he is in a crappy place right now and it might help him to know we bear no ill feeling. I think he is about 60 so not a nice thing for an oldie to be carrying around."

Victor Frankl came back to me for the second time - what a choice response! What a great and positive attitude and how much better for everyone involved - Sean, Caroline, their kids, friends, family and the truck driver too, that this is the mindset Caroline has chosen?

Increasingly people seem reluctant to take personal responsibility and often look for someone else to blame for the market, the state of their business/job, their relationships; even their health. But there is another option - a good coach will encourage you to take charge and to be in control of yourself. Vicktor Frankl and Nigel Risner understand this - Caroline Newman lives it.

One in a thousand...for one in a million

Last Sunday my friend Sean Newman was hit by a truck at 70mph as he cycled across America raising money for cancer charities. The pictures tell the story better than any words I can muster - Sean's bike in bits with the missing pieces seeming to appear in his reconstructed pelvis (they are cables and pins). He suffered a fractured orbital eye socket , shattered pelvis, broken femur right leg, fractured lower spine, broken tibia and ankle left leg, bruised spleen, a closed head injury resulting in a subdural haemotoma (thankfully a bleed that will absorb and does not require surgery). But his biggest issue is his frustration, indeed despair, that his ride was incomplete and his desperate wish that the funds he has pledged to raise will be achieved.

Sean is a one in a million - he's raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities having cycled the length and breadth of the UK twice, raced across the Sahara desert - completing 7 marathons on foot, numerous marathons around the world and building a total of 7 schools in third world countries. His wife Caroline said the other day "we have always worked on the basis 'you never give to receive' but I think now would be a nice time for a little to come back Sean's way" - not that she's asking for anything for Sean personally - no her request is that people will find it in them to make a donation to make sure Sean's goals are achieved.

I'm asking you to be one in a thousand and to make a donation of just £100 - it's a small thing to ask for one in a million I feel - but any amount will be gratefully received.

Sean is a director of the Estate Agency Foundation - a charity encouraging estate agents to raise funds for good causes - you can make a donation for Sean's charities (Macmillan Cancer, Copafeel and Live Strong) at www.estateagencyfoundation.org/sean

Thank you in anticipation of your support.

The Green (eyed) Monster

Foxtons bashing continues unabated - yesterday’s twitter pages exclaimed outrage that they have won Gold for Best Property Management in The Lettings Agency of the Year Awards in association with The Times and The Sunday Times with comments including the suggestion that the industry is letting itself down by allowing them to win. However closer examination reveals that many of the critics are competitor agents some of whom are more than happy to boast of their award success but don’t like it when they get beaten themselves.

A quick look at the Foxtons web site this morning shows they are offering 6,713 properties for sale and 3,887 for rent – over 10,000 clients in total. Now consider the fact that in every area Foxtons operate there is considerable competition, in quantity of agents anyway, and that no one has been forced to use them, and then ask why are they market leaders in just about every location where they have an office and in several where they don’t? And the only answer I can come up with is because they do the job their clients pay them for – they sell or rent properties for more money than the average agent. Because that is what estate agents do or should do – get the best possible price for their clients’ property.

I fully acknowledge that in order to obtain the best possible price Foxtons have flirted with the dark arts and some individual members of their team have, on occasion, crossed over to the dark side – and I don’t condone this. And I’m not naïve to the extent that I’m saying they have always put their client’s interests ahead of their own. But let’s be very careful here, which agents haven’t got a few skeletons in their cupboard? And what is worse, overvaluing a property, and then selling it, or undervaluing, and then selling it? People in glass houses…

I regard Foxtons as one of the best estate agencies in the UK, and say this publicly whilst running the risk of being accused of being on their payroll which I can categorically state I am not, and never have been. I admire their brand, their marketing, their work ethic (on a typical walk to the tube I pass a dozen estate agencies all of whom are closed at 8am and 8pm except Foxtons) and above all I admire their value – no estate agency has ever been worth more than Foxtons. If many of their critics spent more time focussing on their own businesses rather than knocking their more successful competitor then they might give Foxtons a run for their money – but I doubt this will happen as it’s easier for the green-eyed to carp from the sidelines than to get into the arena and perform.

What's the Story?

Seth Godin said "if you can't describe your position in eight words or less, you don't have a position." Tom Peters added to this with R.POV8 - "Remarkable Point of View in 8 words or less." In HEMP, (Highly Effective Marketing Plan), I ask "What's the Story?"

And what is your story? Why should I buy from you rather than someone else? Many people can't answer this question - go on try it if you don't believe me, ask 3 people in your company "why should people buy from us?" and then be shocked by the mumbles, fumbles and generality of reply.

I've delivered almost 500 HEMP workshops and only twice have been asked: "What's your story?" I reply, "we create & deliver FBI's" (FBI's are Fantastic Big Ideas) but now I've refined our message: "we teach, reward and celebrate best practice."

That's our story - what's yours?

The High Street Strikes Back

I’ve just received a tweet from Dan, my Operations Director, telling me not to bother coming to ‘Internet World’ at Earls Court as some people have been queuing for four and half hours to attend the seminar I was hoping to “pop into if time allows”.   I now find myself reflecting on the irony of a totally sold out exhibition and massively oversubscribed seminar series for the online industry.  Video didn’t kill the radio star and the internet hasn’t seen off exhibitions; or any other medium for that matter.

 

At the Madejski Stadium last week, I facilitated a HEMP workshop on behalf of Vistage for 60 CEO’s from the Thames Valley.  The audience was as interesting as it was diverse with manufacturing, IT, High Tech and Service companies all represented.  Over coffee I commented to Carl Shuker, CEO of A Plan Insurance how impressed I was that his new branch in Wimbledon was open at 7.30 one morning when I passed by and then asked how he manages to compete with the Meerkat, Bulldog, Opera singer, Peter Jones et al who claim to offer the best insurance deals online.  His one word answer, “relationships”, sums up perfectly the difference between most online retailers and the high street - I think many people go online for the best price but perhaps might find they will sometimes get better value on the High Street. Carl explained that they are continuing to open new branches and their 60th in Salisbury has enjoyed the best start of any in their 40 year history.  He highlighted that the comparison web sites have actually been a huge help for his company as despite their claims to offer the best deals they often don’t and anyway deliver a service which is as impersonal as it gets.

 

I reflected on my recent investigation into car insurance, prompted by my daughter adding a third car to the family “fleet”, which resulted in being tempted by the Admiral multicar policy. To be fair I’m very happy with the rate but what a palaver it was to get the policy in place.  Five phone calls, each lasting over ten minutes was bad enough but most frustrating of all was having to listen to the same scripted nonsense as I hit another brick wall – (NOTE make sure you have every single detail of your life to date to hand before calling) – in the end I begged to just get to the last question but no, had to go through the whole rigmarole again.  I wish I’d met Carl a week earlier.

 

When we come out of recession I think many customers will become more demanding of a better service.  Price will still be an important factor in consumer decision making but not the only one and many businesses that are struggling to compete at the moment might find that a value based proposition, rather than a price led one, will succeed in the end and I suggest they start reviewing their proposition now. Whilst I represent a sample of one l realise that all my travel arrangements are being dealt with by a human being again, as is my banking and many other services and perhaps more significantly is the realisation that I’m actually enjoying going shopping. My local bookshop in Wimbledon Village is now giving me a 10% discount (which actually makes them cheaper than Amazon on a single book purchase as there are no delivery charges) and lent me several CD’s of classical music when I last popped in and enquired what was playing – and this sort of thing just doesn’t happen online.   In the last few weeks I’ve tasted some interesting samples at Wimbledon Wines and had my boots custom fitted at Cotswold in Kingston-upon-Thames (which led to buying more gear than can possibly be necessary for my charity climb up Kilimanjaro later this year) and nothing on a computer can possibly compare to the pleasure of seeing my friend’s three year old being indulged in Hamley’s.

 

The pendulum swung too far I reckon and the High Street is fighting back, to quote Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi “ROI now stands for Return on Involvement, we are moving from rational to emotional, from delivery to delight from transact to connect” and these things are much more likely to be accomplished in person than on your PC.

The Circle of Influence

My pleasure at seeing how some people turn adversity into opportunity was sated during the recent freeze across the UK.  Take this email from Tim Dibbs, Managing Director of Crown Motors (Honda) in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire:

Subject: Adverse Weather - Offer of help!

To all our customers:

Over the last week we have managed to increase our fleet of Honda CR-V’s. (4 wheel drives).
If anyone needs help today/tomorrow in running an urgent errand or making an
important appointment, please call us and we will try and assist you by sending a
driver with a car.

In the meantime, drive carefully and we look forward to seeing you soon.

 

 

How brilliant is this?  What an opportunity to show off the ability of the 4 wheel drive and doing a good turn for your customers while you’re at it – and even if they don’t take up the offer they will remember the gesture – as Carl W Buechner put it “they may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

 

That same week Romans estate agents of Berkshire, who I’ve commented on in previous articles, reported that all their offices were open for business whilst nearly every competitor was closed – impressive in itself but they went a step further.  Realising that many home owners would be stuck at home they donned snow gear and boots and went on foot to visit those contacts they hadn’t been able to get hold of for a while and by midday received instructions to sell seven new properties.  That’s around £28,000 of business on a morning when the competition was making snowmen.  The press was full of stories of the cost to industry lost to the weather but there was a flipside to the coin as Romans demonstrates.

 

In equal measure my frustration was added to during the same period, as the New Year forecasters came out with their usual gusto.  And what a miserable ragbag of predictions these people offer -   “It’s a W” says one, “watch out for another dip”, “its worse” says another, “a V W is on the cards” and then there’s what will/won’t happen at the election, “Labour are finished”, “the Tories are too weak”, “a hung parliament is on the cards” – and they make these forecasts so earnestly as if everything they’ve said before has come to pass; if only. 

 

Talking of politics, I read an article about Ronald Reagan, a glass half full man if ever there was one, who said to his bodyguard during their period of recovery following the assassination attempt, when four members of the entourage were shot: “Listen, it was McCarthy, Reagan, Delahanty, Brady, what the hell did this guy have against the Irish?”  James Brady, who Reagan referred to, was Presidential Press Secretary and his head wound left him permanently disabled – he later commented: “You gotta play the hand that’s dealt you. There may be pain in that hand, but you play it. And I’ve played it.”

 

I first heard Brady’s quote when qualifying as a facilitator of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  It was used as an example of how important it is to focus on the things you can do something about as opposed to worrying about stuff out of your control which is debilitating as well as pointless.  Stephen drew a huge circle on a flipchart with a smaller one in the middle.  In the outside circle he wrote all the things that we said were concerning us and then in the smaller circle he wrote all the things we could actually influence – the lesson was cathartic; by focussing on our circle of influence our concerns diminished if not vanished. 

 

Another quote from the Covey course comes from Francis Bacon, “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds” and this sentiment resonates strongly with me at the moment.  I believe that following a period of recession, cutbacks and battening down the hatches people’s appetite for new initiatives, ideas and innovation is greater than ever before.  Indeed, in twenty years of running my own businesses I don’t recall a single period where there appears so much opportunity -  the circle of influence is growing.

Where do your customers really come from?

A decade ago gut feel was often more accurate than the various methods for tracking the source of customer enquiries.  Many sales people were then, as now, encouraged to ask “where did you learn about us”, or something equally awful, and either accepted the reply without further questioning or made up the answer if they couldn’t be bothered or forgot or were just plain embarrassed to ask.  Alternatively customers were asked to complete a form with several options, which, unintentionally perhaps, suggested selecting just one, and the really frightening thing is how often marketers held up these answers as facts and whole communications strategies were founded on very flaky research.

 

Today technology has, for many companies, replaced the inept questioning and form filling however it is potentially even more dangerous as its anonymity, combined with a belief held by many, that computers get things right all the time, cause online questionnaires to be given even more credence.  Similarly, web statistics are being used to prove that this is the source of leads when in fact they are often merely the last step in a sequence which leads to an enquiry. Indeed, while the internet and, more specifically Google, has helped by providing proper analytics on visitors to your web site in doing so it has helped to create a myth, now believed by too many companies, that "the website is where we get all our customers, other marketing doesn't really deliver much."

Consider your own actions as a consumer: If you see or hear an advert for something of interest, do you immediately phone the company or do you go to the website to find out more? Do you use the special URL on the advert or do you just Google the company name? If you decide to call having looked on the website, do you go back to the advert to get the number or do you use the one on the website? We often oversimplify the customer journey assuming that direct action has resulted from a single marketing medium.

Our ability to gain insight in this area is about to change with the arrival of the location aware web browser. In the recesses of Google Analytics is the ability to map the location of visitors, a great idea that has thus far been poorly executed because of the difficulty in establishing the exact location of a computer. The latest versions of Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome browsers include a Geolocation API which allows websites to know visitors’ location. (Geolocation is part of the latest specification for HTML which means it will become a standard feature that can be used on any website.)  The theory is Geolocation will help to deliver a better web experience on your customers desktop or laptop too by automatically delivering content that is relevant to their location and, at the same time, Geolocation will also improve the analysis. The browser effectively tells you where your customers are when they access a page, and by collating this data and examining it, you might be able to better determine what drives traffic to your site.  Now this is not a panacea, indeed might cause as many questions as it gives answers, however for communications such as direct mail, leafleting, local press and some PR you will be able to see if there is a direct correlation between the number of web visits and your specific communications.  For example, you might mail to several thousand specific addresses and currently only be able to measure the percentage that reply and still not know for certain whether it was your mailing or some other communication (or combination) which caused their response.  Now you will be able to see the location of people who responded and see exactly which of these received your mailing and then, using other data, have the ability to match with other addresses of similar demographics to increase your responses.

Geolocation gives you the ability to know where someone is when they visit your web site and when they visit but doesn’t tell you exactly who they are or most importantly why they’ve arrived at your site – answers to these need to be researched or left to good old gut feel!