When it comes to lettings prospecting there’s a lot to think about. It can be daunting and hard to know where to start or what to focus your efforts on. I have been a letting agent who has used Spectre in the office and also someone who works with Spectre customers to grow their business through prospecting. Having seen the product from both sides, it’s given me a unique understanding of what best practice looks like, so I’m here to share some of that knowledge with you.
To give you a quick back story on who I am, my name is Joe Gaudoin and I’m the Head of Sales at Spectre. Before I joined the team, I worked as a lettings agent for many years, focusing my efforts on increasing each business's management portfolios. I’m here to share how I’d be using Spectre if I was still a letting agent.
From my experience, prospecting within the lettings industry has always been a struggle due to one overly large elephant in the room:
"How do we find out where the landlord lives?"
I’ve spent many hours trying to find a landlord on HM Land Registry so that I could contact them and I’m sure many of you will share this pain. However, Spectre will now save you that time through their integration with HM Land Registry. This means you can now purchase the title deeds of a rental property directly from your Spectre account and obtain the details of a landlord with the click of a button. This is definitely something I would have taken advantage of when I was working as a letting agent, as it would have saved me hours of searching.
One concern our customers have is “Land Registry doesn’t always give me an alternative address to the rental property”. Whilst this can happen, Spectre have built an algorithm to identify properties in your area that are more likely to have been purchased for investment purposes, as opposed to an accidental landlord. To find out more about our Investment Properties feature click here.
Tip 1: Take advantage of the data you already have.
I can guarantee that most of you reading this are already sitting on a bank of information held in your CRM. If you aren’t currently doing anything with it, you definitely should be.
I would start off by ensuring that any landlord information I held on my CRM system is immediately uploaded into Spectre. This allows Spectre to cross check any information I currently hold against the properties in my Spectre account, and then automatically attaches the details I have to the appropriate properties. After the upload I can instantly identify properties that I have vital landlord information for and I can also see which of these properties are at a prime stage for me to reach out to.
Tip 2: Write directly to the landlord directly where possible.
A no brainer, huh? However, this is a fundamental step that is going to amplify your chances of a higher ROI from your prospecting. The Land Registry integration will definitely help with this and if you’re wanting to be tactical with your purchases, take advantage of the Investment Properties feature.
So you’ve started to purchase title deeds and have your data uploaded, now what?
Well, now that you have your data ready to go, one feature you can take advantage of is Portfolio Landlords. If you’re looking to expand your management portfolio, Spectre is going to save you both time and money. Spectre will automatically cross reference the data from your land registry purchases and your personal data upload, to identify portfolio landlords within your account. This then leaves you with a comprehensive prospecting list, so you can start to create tailored and personalised letters to try and win their portfolio.
Tip 3: Write to landlords before upcoming tenancy renewals.
Spectre’s tenanted database provides you with a wealth of information, allowing you to proactively communicate with landlords who are approaching a tenancy renewal. This is going to be your most opportune time frame to prospect if their current tenancy agreement is coming to an end with their managing agent, especially if they’re not happy with their current service.
Finally, as COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on people's day to day lives (redundancies, job relocations, divorce, up sizing due to family growth etc…) there are going to be a significant number of people who want to move quickly but may already be a homeowner.
Now is a perfect time to start using Spectre’s latest release - Lettings 20/20.
This allows you to send your message out to three different types of prospects:
1. Homeowners
Now is a perfect time to get a brand awareness campaign out to the public, letting them know you are still operating strongly in your local area and are still managing to achieve good results. You might find that you have reached out to a homeowner who needs to relocate but is left with a house they currently own and has not yet considered the possibilities of renting.
2. On market landlords
Social proof is paramount. Reaching out to landlords who currently have their property on the market to let and letting them know that you are the agent who can consistently let properties in their area is extremely powerful, especially if they have been on the market for a while and their current agent is not living up to expectations.
3. Under tenancy landlords
A very similar concept to prospecting landlords who are on the market, however this allows you to show that you are here to help if their current agent has gone quiet, possibly due to lack of staff or the facilities to communicate.
Having worked closely with our development team to ensure Spectre Lettings is everything an agent dreamed of in a prospecting tool for the lettings industry, it does make me both envious and overjoyed that you get to experience what a professional lettings prospecting tool can do for your business.
If you ever want to know more about Spectre Lettings, please feel free to contact myself or the team who would be happy to help.
