The biggest issue I see in businesses is that people just don’t talk!

We need to communicate to get on in life, to make a coherent ecosystem, to trade, to build relationships, to grow and to be better.

If people don’t speak to each other, bad feelings boil over and relationships sour. This may lead staff to not want to speak up about possible issues and in the long run may make them want to leave affecting your business.

Get to know your staff, have a chat, say hello and build relationships.

Communication is a skill that we should all always be working on.

The post Communication Is Key first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

Your employees are at the forefront of your business. They represent themselves as well as the company and by allowing them to build their personal brand, they will always want to strive to be the best they can.

This is why having your employees build their own personal brand will help your business in the long term.

Primarily when we are thinking about building a personal brand in the business environment, we instantly think of LinkedIn, but the truth is our customers are everywhere, that includes Facebook and Instagram.

When building relationships don’t just focus on the professional aspect, you really want to get to know them on a personal level as this helps make your connection stronger and more valuable in the long term.

In my opinion, when it comes to social media there is no quick win, it takes time to cultivate relationships and you must invest time in getting to know people.

What are you doing today to strengthen your relationships?

The post How Are You Building Your Connections And Brand? first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

Do you measure but don’t do anything about it? Which, in my opinion, is worse!

As a business owner we need to lead from the front and that includes self-improvement.

If we are asking our team to become better then it’s only fair that we do too, don’t you think?

Or do you think it’s fair we push our team, set targets and KPIs for them but we are somehow immune to all of that? Of course, you don’t!

So how do we measure our performance?

Depends on what you do to be honest. If you are a valuer then not only should you be measuring the amount of MAs, Listing, SSTC and completions, but also the conversion between them.

After all, if you could tweak MAs to listing just say 10% and then listing to SSTC by another 10% then the change to the overall picture would be huge.

Say you have 20 vals a month, 12 listing (60% conv) 8 sales (66% conv) and 6 (75% conv) completions all at a fee of say £2000 is £12,000 pcm. If you increase the conversion from MA to Listing by 10%, it equates to 14, then the listing to sales by 10% (round up to 11) then the completion to 9 that equates to £18,000 and increase of 50%!!

All from doing your job better – You don’t need any more MAs, you are already getting enough as it is, you just need to be better at what you already do.

We focus so much on getting more and more but is what we do good enough?

Can we improve?u

The post Do You Measure Your Own Performance? first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

Love this quote.

I love spending time with my team, no matter what level they are in the business. MD, FD, managers, sales negs, apprentices – It’s the best part of my role!

This week I spent 45 mins with a young lad whose only been with us a few months as a marketing assistant – Got to know him, obviously we talked about work etc, but he had some great ideas on a few things, some of which we will be implementing.

You build trust, loyalty and connections, things no pay rise or perks can give you.

Look at companies like Timpsons, Hilton and John Lewis. It’s possible for big companies to treat and care for their staff like family.

Treat your team how you want to be treated, how you would want to be known after you sell or retire – What do you want on your headstone?

Who wants to be known as “Oh, JP made loads of money for himself but what a grumpy man” or “Oh, JP, made loads of money for us all, and he was such a lovely fella.”

Being nice and making money is very much possible.

Of course, you can’t please everyone, and you will always fall out with people in business, but this is where you listen to general consensus.

Be the leader you wish you had when you first started.

What do you think?

The post Do You Spend Enough Time With Your Team? first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

1. You need to out work everyone – there’s no substitute for hard graft
2. Be smart – listen to your body
3. Keep yourself fit and healthy – Eat well, hydrate, keep fit and rest
4. All the best people have coaches or mentors, someone whose been here before
5. Everyone is putting in the work
6. You have to be selfish to achieve your goals – nothing wrong with that
7. You learn more from your losses than you do your wins
8. A loss is only temporary – The pain goes away, use it as fuel and motivation
9. Surround yourself with great people
10. Always push yourself – have different goals, change the goals – keep the motivation

Is there anything else you would add?

The post 10 Things I’ve Learnt From Playing Competitive Sport That Has Transitioned Into Business first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

To help our recruitment efforts, I like to post on social media. So should you!

It can feel like a waste of time sometimes as you can get more poor-quality applications but it’s free, a great tool and has previously helped us find great people.

There are millions of people on social media so plenty will see your advertisements and hopefully there’ll be a few hidden gems in the mass of applications. Don’t forget to choose the right hashtags as well as this is how people can find the job.

The higher the position, the more difficult it seems to be to fill roles these days so you need to use everything you can to help your efforts.

Just make sure you’re looking for people with the right values as you and your business!

You’ll see some great CVs, but their values and attitude won’t be what you’re looking for so move on until you find the right fit.

How are you guys finding recruitment and what things are you doing to attract talent?

The post The Power Of Social Media In Recruitment first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

Most agents rely on good old-fashioned reputation to win business – those that do that alone will be as dead as the dodo soon!

Reputation is great and it will get you business, BUT you may have heard the phrase “attention is the new currency”.

Also, your reputation maybe with the older generation – not the younger boys and girls who are all over social media.

It’s not that difficult to stand out from the crowd in this industry in social media.

You might feel uncomfortable doing so but doing videos, blogs, being the go-to person in your area is paramount to get you business.

It’s done for a specific reason. Be the go-to person in that industry and put yourself out there for everyone to see.

People buy people and the only tip I have is… don’t be a jerk! It’s that simple.

If you come across as arrogant, too sales-like or not genuine, then people will run for the hills.

Let them know there’s people behind your business, people who want to connect with them and not just sell them something.

It’s also free advertising and can help people who didn’t even know you exist to find you.

Just be you!

The post Are You Getting Your Message Out To Your Clients? first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

Sounds like a Yoda quote, doesn’t it!

Most of us know what we need to do in our business to improve it, we just don’t. Running a business is not rocket science, it’s not. It can and IS simple if you have the right things in place.

Don’t get me wrong, things go sidewards quite often, but again, if you have the right processes in place, then even when there’s an issue, its solvable.

It’s a bit like martial arts or combat sports. We know we are going to get hit in the face and we know they will punch us back, but we have a counter, and they have a counter, and we have a counter counter, and so on.

My point is there’s always a plan to be made to reduce or even eliminate issues.

So why don’t people improve their business to the level they want to?

For some aspects it will be knowledge – You don’t know what you don’t know right? For others it will be confidence – Is this the right thing to be doing?

It will also be a matter of priority, with people thinking “I think something else is more important to be doing”. It may also be laziness!

As in all aspects of business, you need to have brutal honesty in your reflection.

You can’t grow your business until you have that level of honesty with yourself.

Once you have that then you understand yourself and can change or adapt to grow.

Just be honest with yourself as to what you need to do to build the business you want.

Don’t be lazy, don’t use time or priorities as an excuse and if you haven’t got the knowledge, then go out and get the knowledge – It’s not difficult to get!

The post Knowing Is Not Doing first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

Some people find reasons as to why they can’t be more efficient which are excuses rather than genuine reasons.

It’s so important to me that I get the most out of my time and have been making sure I do for years by making tweaks and changes. It’s the reason I’ve built my business to the size it is.

The first step starts with admitting that you are not as efficient as you can and should be and that you need to make some changes.

I’ve seen some people state “I don’t have the time or quality of staff to be more efficient”. The first excuse is absolute rubbish and the second is very worrying when you own a business.
Yes, you do have the time to be more efficient and productive like everyone does, you are just not making it your priority.

This is sometimes because people realise they have to let go of the day-to-day operations, which many people struggle with.

If you have the right staff this shouldn’t be a problem. However, if you have staff that can’t help you be more productive and take the work load off you, then you’ve got the wrong staff.
Once you realise that you can get back so much of your time by tweaking a few things, you can start the process of “doing the do” and making you and your business more productive and efficient.

Remember, being more productive is not a one-time thing, it takes time, and it has to be a passion that you follow religiously.

The most successful people I know value their time more than money as it’s the only commodity you can’t get more of no matter how successful you are.

What do you do to make yourself more productive and efficient?

The post Be More Productive And Efficient first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

That doesn’t mean they are the best in the area at being an agent, but it means they have the best plan in their area.

I appreciate many people don’t know where to start. There is so much noise around various tactics – Facebook, Google, TikTok, letters, leaflets, cold calling, content, lead magnets, email and SMS marketing – Where the bloody hell do I start? That’s the thing – Just start!

Pick one or two and start them immediately – Do it religiously, every day, without fail. Don’t make excuses, as Nike says, “Just do it”.

Pick low cost or free things such as cold calling or handwritten letters. We have picked up several million pound plus houses in the last few weeks, with at least 4 more coming on, JUST off handwritten letters alone! And before anyone asks, the average fee is 1.55% and increasing.

You will not be surprised to know that I’ve systemised the process so literally anyone in our company can write them and know what to say. The fear of overwhelm and trust stops us doing things. We trust all the people that promote the various marketing and don’t know which ones to use first.

It really doesn’t matter to be honest. When you are deciding and not doing, your competitors are stealing a march on your market share. If you chase two rabbits you won’t catch either – Don’t overwhelm yourself.

I would always pick at least one that got immediate results such as calling, letters, FB or Google AND pick a longer-term tactic to build trust like content, community, email marketing etc.

Master, manage then move on to another one or two.

In a few months you will have an awesome marketing strategy.

The post How To Come Up With A Sales and Marketing Strategy first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

I’ve been obsessed with this ever since I had a career in professional sports.

Over the years I had forgotten a lot of the tips and tricks I learnt when I was over in America, but now I’m revisiting them and learning new stuff along the way.

I started off by looking at how to save time. How can I save 1 minute a day or even 5? Why not save 5 mins a day, 25 mins a week, 3 to 4 days over a year?

In “The One Thing”, Gary Keller talks about refocussing and how by being a constant flitter and moving from thing to thing without finishing it, can cause a productivity loss of up to 20%. That’s a day a week when you think about it.

So, what little things did I do to gain time back? Which over the last 2 weeks I’ve analysed and its 5 hours per week so far and climbing.

Well, I’ve bought extra cables and webcam equipment so I’m not constantly setting things up or unplugging things to take with me all the time.

I’m being military strict on my diary. Only coach on certain days, only do Fine and Country on a certain day, Castledene on certain days, podcast on certain days.

I’ve planned in the gym and that’s non-negotiable. Currently at 4 days per week and increasing to 5 in Feb. Makes a HUGE difference in energy and mindset.

I’ve got a set routine on a morning that I don’t deviate from. Get up at a set time, walk the dog, sit down, 2 coffees, answer emails first then strategy work.

Of course, things might get thrown in the mix now and again that throw me off course, but it’s all about being strict and course correction. When you feel yourself being pulled from pillar to post, don’t feel guilty about saying no.

One could argue by being the best you, it’s benefitting them and therefore its selfless which is totally different.

What high performance tips do you swear by and what do you think you could get better at?

The post High Performance Tips first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

It will vary from person to person as you not only will have various skill sets and experiences, but you will need to recruit to fill the void skill gap you have.

Have solicitors and accountants that are so much more than your bog standard, charges you to do the VAT or end of year accounts.

Sit down with them as often as possible and be a sponge and learn from them, ask them everything – I must have bored the pants of my advisors in the early years!!

I bought more coffees and lunches than I care to remember but it was the best latte I ever bought as I had them for an hour or so, and I could ask them as many questions as possible.

Have someone who has been in your shoes and is further down the road than you, someone who has been there and got the t-shirt (they are like the chairman).

So, it’s not just metaphorically, but in the literal sense, start thinking of having corporate structure in your business – but not the corporate BS that sometimes goes along with it.

It’s a huge topic and not one I could go into all the nuances on here, but it’s been a huge benefit in our business and a big reason on our growth and future plans.

The post How Important Are Company Boards? first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.