"What's The Worst That Could Happen?"
A Facebook post by London wanna-be 'trainer' and recruitment dabbler from Crux Careers, Steve Meade, discussing my favorite subject, Door-Knocking.
To which my reply was:
"Homeowners might think you're a beggar and tell all their friends."
That set the cat among the pigeons:)
There is never anything personal in my opinions, just the ideology of whether any practices help, or hinder, reputation of not just the agent, but the industry as a whole. I also try to uncover the hucksters.
The Ideology shouldn't be hard to understand - Do You as a person respect other people's privacy, or not? There's no middle ground; you don't respect privacy sometimes and not others.
My thoughts have been well-documented, but the interesting point arrived when veteran estate agency trainer, Iain White, entered the discussion. Then it did get personal.
A rambling dialogue (since deleted from my timeline) and defense of door-knocking amounted to nothing more than his questioning my credentials to be at the debate.
"Are you an estate agent; have you sold homes?" was the gist.
As though that has any relevance. What if I was a piss-poor estate agent that hustled owners out of their money. Would that then qualify me to comment?
A veritable net full of red-herrings later, it deteriorated into personal abuse and no longer warranted serious debate. I'm happy to entertain the low-information agents and useless-information 'trainers'. They're playing a finite game (with the goal of winning the argument) and I'm playing an infinite game ( getting them to think logically for themselves).
"I've never heard of you and will have forgotten you tomorrow." was one comment from Iain White - despite a lengthy debate we had in August 2021 about the merits of PurpleBricks marketing. How forgetful!
That's the issue I have with this industry - it is with a few exceptions, led by these dinosaurs that believe what has always worked in the past will continue to do so in the future. They have zero concept of modern marketing; all that other industries do well is of no concern - "this is estate agency, there's nothing they can teach."
Russell Quirk has a similar mentality when he suggests that major corporate estate agencies can ONLY be led by those with specific industry experience. Thereby excluding a wealth of talent that might just have the answer.
Shaun Adams, of Cooper Adams, chirped in with his unique wisdom: "How much experience have you on this? I'm not a mechanic and I wouldn't tell a successful mechanic how to change an engine."
Which, presumably, is why his video "Why You'll love selling" on their Cooper Adams website takes 11 edits to stumble its way through one minute 46 seconds. No one told him that remembering what you have to say can be so hard. That it shouldn't be difficult to talk for 106 seconds without the need for 11 video edits.
A video, also, wherein he claims to be "different from every competitor", yet offers the same easy promises that they offer.
Worse, a claim that they "get people moved 27 days faster than the second and third agent combined."
Combining the days to completion of the second and third agencies would presumably give a figure of , let's say, 180 days. Twenty seven days faster for that "combined" k.p.i would provide Cooper Adams with a performance indicator of 163 days. I know what they mean, they're just not very good at saying what they mean.
"Twenty seven days faster than the next best agency" would suffice.
Then, as if to cement the idea that he really doesn't understand the ideology of the discussion, this gem:
"Many corporate agencies knock the wrong way -telling people to use them - there is a friendly way - just as friendly as saying Good Morning to someone in the street."
What part of privacy don't you understand, Shaun?
Saying Good Morning to a stranger in a public place might be considered a pleasantry - knocking uninvited on their door, pretending you're welcome and trying to sell them something is an invasion of privacy.
Get permission, how hard is that? What's the worst that could happen? You're told No.
This band of brothers isn't alone. I have had similar to say, on other matters, of Richard Rawlings, John Murray, Benjamin Dennehey , Tom Panos, Julian O'Dell and Tom Ferry. No wonder UK estate agents don't spend much on 'training' and of those that do, many fail to execute on the expensive garbage served up.
The problem with 'training' is that some think that if they achieve a modicum of success as an agent, that qualifies them to impart said 'wisdom' to others.
The author of the Facebook post, Steve Meade and his cohort at icgapproved , Iain White, to be specific.
A website for Meade's 'consulting firm' is built with Wix, the Poundland of DIY web design. An amateurish design if ever there was. Advising others, when the basics of marketing aren't even in place, might suggest a 'best-to-avoid' approach.
So too with Iain White. A website that hasn't been completed. Want "more information" on his services?
It might help to understand Latin.
"Lorem Ipsum", a placeholder text used before final copy is ready, is all that you see.
It's not as though he places any importance on finishing the site - I made the same point over a month ago!
This slipshod approach to their own marketing doesn't inspire confidence that they grasp its importance to others. Having the information is irrelevant if you don't know how to share it.
It's time estate agency 'training' was over-hauled. Tear it down and start again would be my advice.
May the bridges I burn light the way. Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.
Thanks as always for reading.
Chris.
mob: (44) 07369251435
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