At the time of writing, it is likely that every single booked market appraisal has a cost of over £200 in marketing. That’s a big number, and not doing everything possible thereafter to win the instruction means this market investment has not been maximised or has arguably been wasted.

Many valuers put all their efforts into winning the instruction as being the market appraisal itself, perhaps with the strategy that their wonderful personality and rapport building skills will win the day. Indeed, they might. But this tactic doesn’t deliver a good result enough of the time, and certainly it’s not the approach the best-in-market are adopting.

So, what are the 5 steps to improving conversions?

1.Start before it begins
As mentioned, pinning your hopes on a great rapport the moment the front door swings open isn’t a strategy for success.

As soon as the market appraisal is booked start promoting the valuer and showcasing them in their best light. You might also provide useful information relating to the homeowners move/rental.

In a recent research study we ran with 500 UK residents, just 7.8% of people who had sold or bought said they understood the market appraisal process, and 56.6% felt they ‘somewhat’ knew what happened during the market appraisal. Despite this, when asked, 89.4% of all respondents thought that photography would happen at a market appraisal.

2.Research is key
It is critical that you do as much research on the homeowner and property as is possible before the appointment. This means using social media insights, finding out how long they have owned the property, the planning permissions nearby, and more. You would be surprised at the amount of agents who lack the basic information here.

In our study, 52.6% of homeowners who had moved in the last 3 years felt the agent didn’t understand the local property market, while 60% felt more generally that they lacked expertise.

3.Stand out and be remembered
At the market appraisal itself, the best route to conversion is to not do what every other agent who is invited around will be doing. Paper print outs, generic brochures, or sometimes nothing at all. A personalised interactive presentation with the reasons to use you, effectively conveyed and with local/national market overviews and comparables included is extremely effective.

Around 65% of people are visual learners; this means verbal communications alone simply won’t be effective for over half the people you meet. The answer is to use visuals to get your messages across – knowledge of the market, the reasons to instruct you, how you are arriving at an asking price recommendation, and so on.

4.Be ‘The Agent’ not ‘one of the agents’
Don’t send they the same sort of valuation letter every other agent sends – be different. Be better and stand out as ‘The Agent’.

After the market appraisal send a formal (visually stimulating) digital proposal, and include case studies. When it comes to marketing tactics to win the instruction, providing clear case studies of success ranked for 62% of people as a reason they would pay higher fees to an agent.

Unlike a plain email or a letter, a digital proposal can be tracked and notify you when they are reading it. This is key as it means you can time your follow up calls at the very moment when the client is considering your service and may have questions. This is key, if you know when someone is looking at your proposal and can time a follow up call accordingly you are always able to strike while the iron is hot.

5.Play the long game
Nurturing is key – by sending regular market reports containing useful information to them that includes (for example) new properties to market in their road or price/status changes to other comparables, it keeps your brand at the forefront of their thinking.

Even when you think a lead is as good as gone, that’s not the case. In our study, 47% said they would actively start looking to sell, and 39.6% said it would put selling on their mind if they saw relevant comparables, even if selling was not on their radar.

If you would be interested in the release of our upcoming whitepaper ‘The Vendors’ View’ – please contact the Acaboom team: hello@acaboom.co.uk

About Brian Farrell - Director of Acaboom

Trainee Negotiator through to various Area Director roles for both leading independents and larger national agencies. Learn more about Brian here.