38% of prospective landlords are not asked for their phone number

Just 24% of landlords said they felt the agent really understood their requirements & situation

85% of tenant applicants are not asked for their address

At last month’s Lettings Agency of the Year Awards, mystery shopping exercises were carried out as part of the judging process. Here are just three of the findings I wanted to share with you today for you to consider how you benchmark against them. Is your performance similar to, or better than these? A really valuable exercise can be to mystery shop yourself and find out first-hand how you compare.

38% of prospective landlords are not asked for their phone number

Nearly four in every ten landlord enquiries cannot be properly followed up because a phone number is not being taken. Even if the landlord is not looking to move right now, a phone number is invaluable for future prospecting! Definitely room for improvement here.

Just 24% of landlords said they felt the agent really understood their requirements & situation

I don’t believe you can sell to someone if you do not fully understand their needs. During their telephone enquiry to agents, 76% of landlords did not feel that the agent really understood their requirements! This makes it so much harder to outline the reasons why a prospective landlord should use you. If you understand a potential client’s key drivers, and what is important, it is so much easier to sell the features and benefits that will tick their boxes when appointing their next agent.

Its definitely worth reviewing your lead generation process to see if you are asking the right questions to get the information you really need.

85% of tenant applicants are not asked for their address

Tenants may already be in rented accommodation, and it is a missed opportunity if you do not know their address. Who is their landlord? Will the landlord be re-letting the property? If the property is not in your area, is there another agent who could help them? This data can be incredibly important for lead-generation purposes and so I am surprised that this is not done in 85% of cases. Either way, the tenants are moving out of the property and so there is an opportunity there somewhere, whether in sales or lettings.

If you would like access to data from the Property Academy’s previous Landlord & Tenant Survey, or Home Moving Trends Survey, you can find more information here.