Richard Murray Blog:

We recently sponsored and attended the Josh Phegan ‘Life’s a Pitch’ seminar in London hosted by The Property Academy.

Those of you who follow Josh will be aware of his thoughts on data and how it can be used to generate business by going back through your contact list of vendors and landlords and contacting them to ask for business.

This got me thinking about how estate agencies manage their data and how they can easily access current and archive data. Many estate agencies still operate multiple software applications to manage their business, for example using a separate application for sales and/or lettings.

Estate agencies may also maintain legacy products having changed software once or multiple times through the lifecycle of their business. 10 years ago Eurolink pioneered the ‘one system’ software concept covering all the main residential estate agency property disciplines.

By far the cross over between sales and lettings is the most used configuration of a one system software application but clients also offering estate/block management and property auctions can bring their data and systems together to create a powerful CRM system and a goldmine of opportunities.

If lack of stock is the main issue (which our clients tell us is daily) then using Josh’s tip how can we best help estate agencies make the most of their database? In a room of over 190 estate agents Josh asked how many of those present had called a vendor since completion of a sale and the room fell silent.

I appreciate that it is important to get onto the next deal but there are ways of using automation to trigger communication post sale completion and beyond.

Whether that is sending a congratulations text message immediately after the completion, an email to ask how the buyer or tenant is settling into their new home, or ongoing communication with your vendor, landlord, buyer and tenant to remind them that your estate agency is busy and successfully selling and letting property.

All of this communication can be automated and sent at times set by you, or trigger lists of contacts to call at prescribed intervals. Having all of your data in one system with archive data migrated will ensure that you won’t miss up-sell or cross-sell opportunities.

Can the frustrated vendor become the happy landlord or vice versa? Is the guarantor of someone’s son or daughters’ student property your next landlord of vendor? Do your suppliers have buy to let properties? All of these people are contacts on your database and communicating with all of your contacts (not just previous vendors and landlords) could further support Josh’s tried and tested new business generation advice.