What is your point of difference?

Standing out from the crowd is essential for new business success in property management, especially when it comes down to a choice between you and a handful of other nearby competitors.

But what do you think happens when I speak to my clients and ask what they see their point of difference or unique selling point is? 

You guessed it!  Most of them, are the same points of difference! 

We recently conducted a survey where we asked agencies all around Australia and New Zealand what their unique selling points were, click here if you wish to peek at a
free copy of the results.


So how do you find your point of difference and then market it effectively? Two of the simplest ways to do this will be through A) researching your competitors, and b) the researching your customers.

Firstly consider, do you know exactly what service your competitors offer? Many clients we coach often find the handful of items they are selling as their points of difference (POD) are actually no different to the agency down the road. No point selling it as a POD if the guys down the road do it too. Perhaps you will need to mystery shop your competitors to find this information out.

When you do find a POD through this kind of analysis, think first, does this POD mean something to the client? Often we see points of different that sound great but have no real meaning from the client’s perspective. Secondly think, can it be it tangible? How can you demonstrate this? What tools do you have within your office to prove what it is that you are saying?

For example if you are saying “we get faster results”..... how exactly can you demonstrate? Do you know your average days on market? Do you know your average vacancy rate? What are your recent results compared to your competitors? How can you use this data to show your point of difference to the prospective client?

Second option is to ask someone what makes your agency stand out. Someone not related to you, so not your mother or sister or husband or best friend. Ask your customers. Ask them why they selected to use you. Ask them if they considered the competition and if so what made them chose yours instead. Ask them what they like about your service, and what they don’t, and ask them why they feel your product is the best choice for them.
Ask as many customers of your customers as you can, you will quickly find some great points (that actually mean something to the client) to draw from in future attempts to win business. If you aren’t asking this question upon a new client signing, try to, or consider conduct a new client survey through something like Survey Monkey for every new client.

Once you have established some real key POD’s then you will have some differentiating points that can overcome the price objections, because you will have tangible points that show value over the competitor. Because unless you can differentiate on value or service, it will always come down to price.

Hermione Gardiner

Don't just expect the unexpected... Plan for it!

I recently heard a trainer use the phrase “property management is a series of predictable surprises.” True, isn’t it? In property management, new business, leasing and life in general for that matter, we can often sense when things are going to go wrong, or can recognise the warning signs of issues you’ve seen before. Do you take the necessary steps to prepare or prevent the occurrence? Or do you simple hope it won’t get to that ‘dreaded point.'

When there’s a fire at hand, we put it out and rush on to the next problem without taking the time out to look at our internal processes and what we can learn and put in place to ensure the same issue doesn’t recur over and over. Taking the time out to review what went wrong and how to avoid it happening again is essential for business success as it ensures we minimise errors and conflict, whilst staying as efficient and productive as possible, and importantly, that our service to our clients is constantly improving.

When I am coaching and consulting with clients across the country, part of my role is help clients to review their systems and look for the tell tale signs of potential issues such as higher arrears, prolonged bond refunds, escalated complaints over lagging repairs, vacancy levels creeping up, loss of managements and more. So based on what I’ve learnt, what can you do within your business to ensure the same recurring issues don’t keep happening?

• Seek feedback – if you aren’t already surveying your clients, it is essential to ask them for both positive and negative feedback to work out how to improve what you do and avoid issues recurring.
• Complaint/Issue Log – Keep a complaint log detailing actions taken, errors paid out, if review of process is required (free template available here)
• Review – create a review process where your procedures (and complaints) are reviewed periodically (can be a team effort). Remember what worked 10 years ago may not work today.
• Scenario Planning & Contingency Training – from the above results decide what additional training can be provided to the team either internally or from a training provider to cover not just the hard skills but soft skills such as communication and conflict resolution.

As I’ve said before, always remember (as spoken by Catherine Devrye), the most “expensive words in business are, we’ve always done it that way”. 

From the Eyes of a Prospective Tenant

I have recently been in the market for a rental property. Whilst conducting my own rental search, I have been taking note of my consumer experience as a prospective tenant in order to be able to deliver live customer feedback, information and training to our property management clients.

I’ve almost felt like a mystery shopper at times, secretly taking note of the quality of advertising & photos, accuracy of descriptions and photos, response times from agents, presentation of the agent and presentation of the property. Along the way I also reviewed the application process across several agencies and in particular - how I have been treated as a prospective tenant and ultimately how this affected my decision in choosing which properties to visit and ultimately lease!

There were definitely some property inspections and agent response times that left me feeling bad for the landlord that the agent’s actions had turned me off renting their property! And even further still that if I was a prospective landlord that I would not be choosing that agent to lease my property.

Don’t get me wrong, many of the agents were doing a great job, however my experience was very interesting and eye opening which has helped me identify some key areas that leasing agents need to work on at the leasing stage of their property management process. (Without meaning to toot our own horns, I was very pleased to see that one of the best experiences I had was with an agency who is a Real+ Member undergoing regular training across their property management team – the proof is in the pudding).

So, want to know more? Well next week I’ll be hosting a webinar on leasing – in which we’ll be talking about ways to get properties leased faster, reduce vacancy and ways to make your lives easier. I can tell you now that what I’ve learnt from being a prospective tenant will be going into this session so be sure not to miss this one if you want to know how to improve your leasing process!

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real+TV where you can watch our webinar Just Leased! Leasing made Faster, Smarter & Easier.