An industry-leading marketing and growth expert is revolutionising the way letting agencies do business, with an equine analogy set to propel agents out of the starting gate.
Keen horsewoman Sally Lawson of Agent Rainmaker describes the process of optimising a lettings business as a four horse race – dubbed ‘The Four Horsemen’ – and says that whilst you won’t always start with the same horse as your competitors, what’s important is that you run them all.
Agent Rainmaker teaches the successful application of this business analogy at its Agent Rainmaker Live event and legendary Bootcamps – two highly-regarded events in the letting industry calendar. Sally says:
“‘The Four Horsemen’ represent four key areas when it comes to growing your letting agency. Behind each horse is the team that makes it a winner, and the elements involved make up 28 ways to add £100k to your bottom-line.
1. Optimisation
2. Systemisation and Extraction
3. Leads Generation and Conversion Systemisation
4. Acquiring the Competition.
“Which horse to run first is personal choice but often when agents have invested time and money into gaining knowledge, they want to make that money back as fast as they can. Because of this, most start with Optimisation for a quick return.
“Optimisation looks at key ways to bring instant cash into your business, like reviewing margins, adding new services and side/up-selling, and even changing your terms and conditions. A fully optimised agency’s T&Cs will have forty to fifty charge points, whereas most agencies have only two – lettings and management.
“Another key area is Acquisition. Many agents shrug this off because they think they need readily available cash first, but it isn’t the case. We teach at Bootcamp the fact that you can add revenue to your bottom-line immediately, without having to spend any money whatsoever.
“Once you’ve optimised your business and increased your managed properties through acquisition, you’re going to need to look at Systemisation and Extraction. There may be staffing issues, new processes needed, a change in your management style or team.
“Systemisation and Extraction is a key horse – you must get things off your desk and step away from the tools in order to be able to focus your time on growing the business. It can take time to find the right people, processes and software to run your business smoothly, so this step can be a slow burner – but it’s vital that it’s in the race.
“And finally we have Lead Generation and Conversion Systemisation – this horse feeds off building funnels, running ads, hosting webinars and seminars, introducing landlords and investors, and hiring a Business Development Manager to cope with the sudden influx of leads you’re going to get.
“Each of these horses plays a part in reaching the finish line, and collectively the elements behind each one are what make for a successful race. Horseracing can be scary business – if you fall off it can hurt like hell, but that fear is the only thing stopping you from entering the race.
“And the best way to deal with that is to get yourself into a room full of jockeys who’ve already ridden it out – do that and you’ll soon be picking out your team colours.”
Agent Rainmaker’s legendary Bootcamp runs every three months, with the next event taking place on 25th to 28th March 2025. To find out more you can visit www.agentrainmaker.co.uk.
