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| Are we Good at Selling our Services? 4 replies 5 voices |
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Emily Sim
on Oct 7, 2010 4:10pm
apmasphere Sydney NSW |
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What services do we offer? How are we different to the next agent? Why should I choose your company over another? All questions I know you have heard before and yet they are ones we struggle to answer well. By well, I mean correctly! I challenge you to list out all the tasks a property manager undertakes everyday and then add the time that it took to wrap up the process. Take the instance of processing applications through to approving an applicant. Owners know that we check references on applications forms, but if you simply list out every step a property manager has to take to actually get an approved applicant across the line … that’s a lot of work. Of course you would need to include the phone calls you have made and had to leave a message for, the phone call that requires something in writing to now make the request a second time, the two to three phone calls each between the Owner and the approved applicant negotiating the terms of the new tenancy agreement and then all the phone calls to the declined applicants advising them of the outcome. I’m tired just thinking about this one… and, it’s only part of the entire process multiplied by all of the properties your business have for lease. I wonder, do we ever convey to our Owners all of the work we really do? Do you think an Owner would be impressed to know the detail and effort you put tenant selection? Would this list business? What is it that an owner most wants from a property management business? Rent on time, evidence that the property is being well maintained, quality tenants.. the list goes on. The best way to think about how good we are at selling our services is to understand what owners want and marry this with the particular services your business offers. An Owners desire for quality tenants might go very well with the detail you can demonstrate in your tenant selection process. The likelihood is that your business has a very nice statistic regarding successful tenants, perhaps this is a number that we should share when we list a management? Do your competitors know the success rate of tenancies in their business? |
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Mark Shorrock
on Jun 10, 2011 1:19pm
BDM L J Hooker Toowong/Paddington Brisbane Qld |
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Hi Emily, you are correct and a very valid point. I did a list like this up once and then when I was asked to discount my commission or management fee package I would ask the owner to look at the list then decide which ones of the tasks did they not want us to have to do for the reduced cost. needless to say it worked quite well. I would simply look here because all the property managers are too busy doing the jobs you talked about above to find the time to reply to your post….it pretty much speaks for its self in that regard. |
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Keira Biddle
on Jun 10, 2011 3:31pm
Property Manager Burke & Smyth TAMWORTH NSW |
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Hi Emily, I recently just had a meeting with my staff about this, and they requested more training on selling our services. I dont think there is enough traning being done in PM on how to sell the service and the company – most of the funds get focused towards the sales department. But essentially its the same. Im also a big believer in working smarter not harder, and therefore encourage my staff to think of the things they do over and over which takes up a lot of time and efford, and to think of better ways to do it. Of course maintaining the level of servcie whist doing this is a must. As a result we are implementing some big changes in the department which will help reduce burn out in staff, and will streamline our work so we can improve service, whilst still keeping all the day to day tasks under control. |
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Chris Crasto
on Jun 10, 2011 3:50pm
Director Crasto Properties Robina Queensland |
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Hi Emily Selling services is a sales related skill. In the past, we found that property managers whose “typical” personality profile is very different to a salesperson, were expected to excel in both roles. Nowadays, with the introduction of BDMs, I believe that issue is being addressed and getting better by the day. A business just has to ensure that the BDMs and the Property Manager are in sync so that the promises made by one party can actually be delivered by the other consistently. |
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Maxine Rose
on Jul 5, 2011 12:26pm
Investor Relations/Property Manager Ray White South Coast Nowra NSW |
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I’ve found this forum a good one to read everyone :) Emily the points you raise are very relevant and aspects of which I think about on and off frequently. How am I to convey this during the listing process? Well I think preparing a list as you and Mark above say is a fantastic way of showing that. Keira, I agree there tends to be alot more focus on sales and training in that regard but some of the ideas and skills are definitely transferrable. Chris, your points are valid – I have been a Property Manager for 8 years and over the last 1yr have embarked on my role as BDM/BDO. I’m still a Property Manager in a very small capacity but I find being able to draw on my experience in that role helps me greatly with understanding our other main Property Managers and also to sell our agency to prospective clients. You have to know what you’re selling – and I’ve only just realised having done Property Management myself is a fantastic way of being able to do that effectively! |
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