BRAND BUILDING FOR ESTATE AGENTS; COMPANY VS PERSONAL

Do we give too much weight to company brands? Both as agents and as consumers I feel that we get ‘lost’ in the brand. It’s extremely rare to come across a brand that transcends itself and genuinely becomes a living part of the fabric of a company and everyone that works there. Apple and Nike are two of my favourites. They genuinely stand for something greater than the product which they deliver, and their ethos is part of the very culture of working there. But they are two of the best of all time and have taken decades to get to where they are.

In reality, the agency business is a transitional one, with staff turnover rates relatively high. The importance of building your personal brand as an agent is key to your own personal success. After all, the clients of a good agent do not use that agent because of the company they work for, they use that agency because of the agent that works for them. If they were to leave then their customers would follow. Therefore, agents must look at building their brand in the same way as a business owner would look at building their business. Like a baby, it should be nurtured, cultivated, respected and treated with care. You also wouldn’t leave your baby at home every time you moved house or went on holiday, you would take them with you and continue to nurture them and help them grow to their full potential. It’s the same with your personal profile. You should be able to build it, nurture it and take it with you wherever you go.

But, how do you build your personal brand as an agent? Obviously there are the usual suspects such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram etc. But as good as they are, these are pretty non property specific and not really targeted at the bulls eye of your pure customer base i.e., those people that are, at that moment in time, about to choose the agent they want to sell their property.

Agents should aim to create their own property person profiles that in turn can not only be shared on all the usual social media platforms but also on the listing portals. Allowing them to build their own personal presence in their local area and be proud of their accomplishments. To showcase their stats, reviews, blogs, expertise and advice on the very listing platform they are using and become a celebrity in their area. To be incentivised to perform at the highest level and be rewarded with valuations and instructions based on past performance and results.

Having high performing agents is key to any successful real estate agency. Especially in the current climate whereby valuations and instructions are gold dust and putting your best foot forward as a company is paramount. After all, it is the individual agent who is seen and heard by the customer and if those individual agents are able to showcase their performance and results and that in turn increases instruction levels then the agency will only stand to benefit.