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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Monday,June 14, 2004.
Understanding business
growth in a rough property market
By Olaniyi Ola
Head, Property & Environment,
Lagos
Those who have been in real
estate many years understand that while general market activity may rise
or fall, even in tough times, some individuals and firms continue to grow
and prosper.
Why some succeed when the going gets tough cannot be
linked with a single formula but a combination of several seemingly
obvious. Surely, a few keys point the way:
As others cut back during slow times,
consistent practitioners remain well, and consistent.
To borrow a phrase from the corporate
world, our consistent businesses prosper by gaining market share taking
more of whatever business there is and leaving less for competitors. In
the past few years there has been a considerable debate regarding the
value of referrals and leads. Some real estate surveyors explain that
paying for leads is profitable because it creates additional revenue that
otherwise would not exist. However, money paid for a referral fee -
perhaps thousands of naira - could instead underwrite a personal
marketing campaign to promote you and not a third-party.
The reason many property brokers prefer
referral fees is that no money is spent unless there is performance, the delivery
of a productive lead. In contrast, personal marketing requires payment in
advance for good paperwork, postage facility, gimmicks and such with
results, which may not be certain.
If you are going to promote someone,
promote yourself and business first. It might seem that third-party
referral sources can be a good investment, but the same naira invested in
marketing directly to your immediate surrounding can produce a stream of
contacts undiscounted by referral fees. Unlike manufacturing, labour and
others, property business has an entirely different orientation.
No one outside the country can organise a
property better than a resident real estate broker in the area. The fact
that property is a few miles from some properties can be a huge
disadvantage in many markets. Hence, property merchants tend to
concentrate in given areas or property class. Combine the local nature of
real estate with targeted marketing and you can see how to make the best
use of promotional naira.
But most marketing nairas should be spent
where you find buyers and sellers, not too far down the road. Targeted
marketing will likely translate into the best business chances. It takes
a certain number of transactions to support a given population of real
estate consultants. Now, there are about 5,000 members comprising of
fellows, associate members, student members and other groups in the
Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV).
At the same time, we are likely to have over 250,000
existing property agent doing business legally or illegally.
But some of the folks, who do not succeed
with sales have other qualities, which give them great value in real
estate. They are well-trained and registered and they know about the
business and they have local contacts. In effect, they represent an ideal
pool of staffers and assistants for top real estate concerns.
If business seems to be slowing down with
you, do not worry because there are always listings and prospects to be
gained from competitors who save money by not marketing, spend money for
leads instead of their own marketing and fail to see the bounty around
them. One of the greatest factors that will determine your level of
success in your real estate business is your level of motivation to make
it all happen.
Many real estate professionals out there
are constantly looking for new information to help them to be even more
successful in their real estate business and you cannot afford to be an
exception.
There is always more real estate business
out there for you in any type of economy. The fact that other real estate
professionals in your territory or area are closing transactions that you
are not involved in proves this. Take a step back from your business and
let this sink in for a moment. The additional business that you want is
there right now for you, but other agents instead of you are successfully
closing the sales. You just need to commit to discovering and doing what
will direct more of this business your way instead of to your competition
in the future.
If you feel it is appropriate, write down
the names of one or more people you can go to who have the expertise to
help you recognise what it is you need to begin doing to achieve the
level of success that you want to achieve in your real estate business.
And finally, there is an ongoing feeling that often runs through us in
real estate business that we as agents should do it all alone. If you are
already producing results in your business that you are thrilled with
then the next line may definitely not apply to you. But if you have been
trying for sometime now to take your business up to a new level of
success and you have not yet done it, you need to try something
different.
You need to consult with one or more
people who have the expertise to show you exactly what you need to do to
achieve the success that you desire. Recognise when it is time to seek
out the expertise of people who already know how to get you to exactly
where you want to be in your real estate business in the shortest
possible time. With skyrocketing overhead costs, some real estate agents
are wondering whether it is smarter to form a large team of specialists.
If so, there are many questions to consider. Teams come in many forms. It
is not uncommon to see two agents have formed a team, or one dominant
agent heads a team of assistants, buyer's agents, seller’s agent, closing
agents, etc.
One way to compete is to pool resources,
but that begs the question of whether it is wise to advertise the team or
the individual members. Instead of branding management and the rest of
the team of specialists separately, we must make a conscious effort
toward branding the entire team.
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