Rory Black from Dataloft recently caught up with Dataloft Inform subscriber Chris Poulton from Martin & Co Sunderland. In a wide-ranging conversation, Chris and Rory compare notes on the importance of using property market insight to win new business, nurture long term relationships and stand out in marketing.

How would you go about choosing your next estate agent?

Would you go with a well-known brand, the loudest voice locally, or perhaps the one with the endless stream of sold boards in one street? Is it all about how much money an agent has spent on marketing, their market share and the awards that they have won? Or perhaps the one with the cheapest fees?

Everyone clearly has their own reasons but there is evidence to suggest that most of these factors don’t come into play when someone chooses their agent. Indeed, when we analysed the Property Academy Home Moving Trends Survey, we found that 82% of home movers rated good market knowledge, trust and reliability as the most important factors when choosing an agent. Chris had similar views on the subject.

“You could have 10 sold boards going up in a street but you see someone going with another agent. You think, why did they go with another agent? People often don’t know who agents are, as they move so infrequently. The only people who know that are the people in the industry – they’re the only people who are bothered about market share. They (home movers) are bothered about credibility, reliability, knowledge and that they trust that person. ”

— Chris Poulton, Martin & Co Sunderland

So how do you become the agent of choice?

For Chris, it's about building your brand over the long term by adding value. A fundamental part of this is in helping people to understand all of the complicated nuances of the property market. Chris has worked with many local homeowners, landlords and investors in Sunderland, using Dataloft Inform and other tools to paint a picture of the market for them that they can understand and benefit from. And as a trusted source of information, his customers keep coming back for more.

“What you do is demonstrate your knowledge and back it up with stats and that goes a long way. I’ve been having conversations with people for five years and they’ve never bought from me but then, all of a sudden, they will buy something. Or they will get a development of 10 city centre apartments and that will come my way because over the years I’ve been the person that they’re coming to. So, you’ve got to invest your time and it’s about not being in it for yourself. If you can help somebody make or save money, they are going to be your best friend. ”

— Chris Poulton, Martin & Co Sunderland

Don't become a vanilla agent

An investor might speak to 50 agents in a year, but they will all become ‘vanilla’ unless you can offer something that makes you stand out. And this is not just about your marketing, although that is important too.

“You’ve got to do something that makes them think that is the person I’m going to go back to. It’s really hard to get landlord and sales leads, you’ve got to have a stream of people that want to come to you, so you’ve got to build that pipeline. You want to be the one that people think – I’ll go to them because they were the only one that helped me out and said something different and using Dataloft Inform from day one has helped us do that.”

With such a high level of competition, an agent could be forgiven for selling hard to gain the win. However, like Chris, we work with hundreds of agents who are thinking long term and ‘selling more by selling less’. By being a local market expert, and someone that people can turn to for advice, they are creating customers now and in the future.

“I don’t think I’ve ever sold – I don’t like selling in that sense. Maybe call it old fashioned but I think there’s so many people out there who will just spin it. When was the last time an agent turned around and said, based on our conversation, my property is not the right one for you, but I've seen three or four properties down the road with another agent that might be great. These are the stats; these are the details, and this will save you some money and the potential mistake of a buy. It’s about establishing a place in the market where you’re building trust.”

And what about fees?

Savills have invested in a large team of market analysts for many years and demonstrating their knowledge of the market has helped maintain their high-level brand values and fee levels. Chris believes this approach can work for other agents too.

“Savills have established that credibility that makes people want to go to them. It’s the reason that people go to Apple and spend £1000 on an iPhone or go to Waitrose, because people can see the value. If you can be seen as an expert and the more you can position yourself as different, the easier it is to justify the fees that we should be getting. It’s up to me to prove my value and Dataloft Inform allows me to do that. If I can save someone £20,000, then an extra £500 in my pocket is worth it in their mind.”