EAM: Estate Agency Mastery with Chris Buckler chrisbuckler123

Katy Poore is a very experience agent who has just taken the leap into the self employed world. She starts with treating everyone like they have a £1,000,000 listing. Katy gives analogies of window cleaners, carpet fitters and postmen and treating them so well bu doing small things such as making them cups of tea By doing this you create an army “raving fans”. A group of people that know, like and trust you. They will use you when the time is right and as Chris affirms from his experience this works. These are the people that find out first if people are thinking of moving. 



Katy hits Chris hard with the next tip, which is that Chris and Katy have known each other a while, but she wasn’t 100% sure what he did. Therefore she didn’t join The Estate Agency as she has already made inroads with another model. Katy then goes onto highlight the simple act of texting WhatsApp grouped and really launching yourself and making sure everyone knows what you doing. Chris really dumbs home that you can’t be James Bond… a Secret Agent. From day one every single person in your world, and those who you haven’t met do. The conversation quickly turns to social media and how in the UK agents often don’t like mixing business and personal. Often, like clockwork, American agents will do two personal to one business posts which works well.



Katy offers the best bit of advice given so far one all the podcast - HAVE FUN. Our business is hard, and by being real, authentic and avenge fun it allows Katy to have fun whilst people see that see is being real. She highlights she isn’t corporate and that she treats social media the same as walking into a pub. Don’t yell out “who wants to sell their house”, but by engaging with people  and being honest, jokey and fun then you build trust.



Chris ends the episode by curve balling Katy with a question on mental health. He asks Katy how she ensures she gets to the end fo the day and when she witches off she is having fun. Katy highlights she still sees her friends for coffee, plays netball once a week and affirms that being an agent, especially as elf employed agent is very lonely. So surround yourself with a schedule that supports you, as well as people that support you. Katy really opens up about things that have impacting her mental health, but Chris probes her into how she got passed it. The conversation goes to putting things into perspective and releasing you can’t’t let one person or moment impact your reason why you’re doing this job. 

Simon Leadbetter is a marketing geek, there is no other way to put it. He’s held envious positions from CMO to Knight Frank to CEO at Fine and Country. In this episode Simon cover 4 things that you HAVE to master in your marketing to drive responses to your business.




Maximising Email Database
Social Media
Direct Mail
Personal Brand Built via PR



Simon quips that’s the end of the show as all his years and data has pointed to the fact that if you nail these four, then you will succeed in driving leads to your business. Chris jumps in and asks how does and agent without a huge budget or brand do this. Simon fires back with  simply by focusing on locality or demography. He highlights that if you’ve been given their email, then you have been given the right to email them. News in the market, Halifax, nationwide and Land Reg House Price index and piece together and update for your local market. 



If someone is thinking of selling in the next 12 months, email is the number one in terms of driving an action (by far). Chris teases out a title that an agent could use such as “What impact will the General Election have on Solihull Property prices”. Be specific and remember, there is no better time to sell than now and you must always promote that. 



Simon also highlights that you can turn a send and forget, to an open conversation where you ask he audience “What have you always wanted to know to know from an Estate Agent”. You can answer these, slip in the answers you want to give. Do this every quarter and I will answer them. 



Social Media - Simon starts by highlighting that Facebook is a non negotiable. But you have to be on at least three. Data backs Simon’s comment of people selling in the next 12 months are Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, X, LinkedIn (in that order). Pick four of them and work out a marketing strategy. If you haven’t got started in 2024, then you need to . The average person scrolls 3 times the height of the the Eiffel Tower on social media a day.



Direct Mail - Chris highlights that he has had mixed success, but immediately mentions he is inconsistent. Legitimate Interest means that you can send 

95% of direct mail is engaged with. The average receives 1.4 pieces of direct mail a day. Be 1 of the 1.4. But don’t got with the mass franked stuff. Be consistent, budget for it, use coloured envelopes that are handwritten. You don’t have to get it all right, but if you can set and forget then do it, but be aware you won’t get the best success. 



Personal Brand and PR - reach out to all your local media companies and mention you’re happy to give comment and property and the local market. Make sure you’re always accessable. Chris mentions he did this in his early estate agency career and ended up on BBC Breakfast. Papers, parish magazine, radio, TV, etc. Put the time in your diary to do it. 



Chris curve balls Simon for an extra golden nugget, and Simon responds with a hard data backed response. Your brand matters. The correlation between your brand and long term instructions is key. Whether a self-employed agent, or multibranch agency, you have to focus on the brand and make it strong. 

Jason has a successfully exited a large estate agency business. He opens with the fact he chooses who he works with and that agents should be in the same position. Don’t be the needy sales person during the market appraisal, but treat the valuation as a choice conversation… in favour of you, the agent

The quality of your questions will have a direct impact on your future”. Chris jumps in and highlights that during script practice at The Estate Agency, the agent can only respond with a question. This allows the vendor to self discover the right decisions. Practice breads confidence. Jason highlights that if he calls you as an agent and asks you tough objections, are you in a position to acknowledge, isolate and overcome the objection?  Whatever you do, don’t practice is on the public. If you want to sign up for some great scripts subscribe to www.chrisbuckler.co.uk



Jason mentions NLP, hypnosis and how he fully believes that if you want to be in the top 1%, then you need to be in the top 1% of communicators. Jason highlights that you need to go onto YouTube, follow Chris Watkin, etc as all the information is out there, but it is up to the agent to be learning based and go and find it. This is exactly the same  advice Dom Marcel gives us in Episode 8, when referring to marketing and positioning clients as your marketing department Podcasts (such as this) and other learning resources have never been more available than now. Agents Together offer you mentors for nothing, and brokerages will help you work from your goals through to the skillset you need to obtain in order to achieve those goals. 



Chris asks the direct question, “Do you have relationship with your goals”. And do your daily activities move you towards these goals, or at times are you often a busy fool? You HAVE to refer back to your goals on a daily basis. Jason highlights a technique for solidifying your goals is to put a red doc on every mirror in your home. This will then trigger thoughts of what his goals are everyday. 



Jason then kicks in with his 5 Killer Coaching Questions:




What projects have the highest impact on the future (3 years) Your long game.
How can I meet more people in my community? Knowing more people creates more opportunity.
What needs to be removed (not added to speed up) What doesn’t work or what is not contributing. Is XYZ best use of my time!
How can I improve my service levels. Over and above. This will equal more referrals and recommendations.
What is my north star? What is most important. Money or lifestyle. What and who are you doing this for? Remind yourself and tell the world.

Chris jumps in and highlights whether self employed agent or not, that you need to building your own google ranking but rather than just the 5 star review, it is all about the copy in the comments. This is what people pay attention to. 



Chris also then goes off piste and highlights before the val, get agents together with a picture of the property you’re about the value on screen, and text the client with a picture of a the marketing mastermind. “Hey, we are just masterminding a marketing strategy with my fellow agents in order to over expose your property to get the best price the market will allow”. WhatsApp the photo to the client. This is great point of differentiation. Chris then carries on highlighting that you HAVE to put yourself in the mindset that you are going to take the listing, not to give a valuation. 



Chris drops in that before it get’s to fee, always ask the questions?




Fee aside, am I your agent of choice? 
That’s great - do you mind me asking why?



Which then leads on to the close, especially if you can demonstrate your ability to negotiate (actually by not negotiating) on your fee. 



Jason jumps in with, ”if I can show you that the buyer is going to pay my fee, do you care what I charge”. Knowing your numbers as per the John Savage episode is key here.



Jason ends

Dom is a very accomplished self employed agent who has gone on to become one of the most success self employed agents in the country. He now runs a team of self employed agents. 



His first hard hitting tip is that you aren’t in sales, but you are in marketing. This is twofold… you have to market yourself to people. You need to spark emotion as emotion inspires action. Marketing practices is a fundamental for any estate agency. Therefore you have to learn social media, advertising, etc if you want to succeed in our industry until 2030. Dom shares that he sounds like a human, and not an estate agent whenever speaking to clients and within his marketing mix. Dom’s marketing isn’t corporate, for example when doing an open house, reach out to other neighbours and let them know there may be some extra traffic. By doing this you are showing that you are human. It will often then create intrigue and is a great firm moment of contact with the street. Dom highlights that this indirect approach means neighbours will go online to be nosy and then see you great marketing. 



He adds other touch points such as, “we are out of your hair thanks for baring with us” which again indirectly highlights we’ve done our job, which in turn is non ‘estate agenty’ and also promotes more intrigue. 



His second tip is that you just “treat your clients like your marketing department”. So rather than spend on marketing, treat your clients on the standard of service  you provide to them, so that your clients indirectly become the marketing department and refer you business. Do not take for granted the importance a £500 increase with work on the final sale amount and the little things you can do throughout the sales process - they go a long way. Whilst Chris doesn’t discuss this, the fulls right in line with the teachings from the great book, “Full Fee Agent” by Chris Voss and Steve Shull.



By driving a powerful enough emotion to blow someone away, they will actively drive people towards you. Dom mentions a TV show called “The Bear” on Disney Plus (Season 2, Episode 6) in order to understand the levels of customers experience and how you can translate that to your estate agency business. If you can provide such outrageous service, you clients will refer you for life. Go and spend your entire marketing budget on ensuring the experience is so world class. Note it is actually Episode 7 as Chris found out, but WELL worth a watch.



Customer Experience trumps Customer Service and if you offer what Dom suggests and combine it with excellent database management, this should lead to 85% of business being referral business. In the theme of this Dom shows us how to use yearly events to promote your business to the community. He highlights linking this to local Facebook group and how quickly it can help grow your reputation in the community. Events are massively underrated, and there are no such things as past clients. Chris shares all the events (and the events calendar) that he utilises and drives Associates to at The Estate Agency.



The hard thing is that you don’t want to treat giving back like running a business (even though that is what you are doing). Be human and focus on the relationships and not transitions.



Chris closes the podcast by asking Dom what the best piece of coaching advice he has been given. Dom highlights that as you grow you HAVE to document your processes. You will get very busy, very quickly. You need to be able to leave the business tomorrow, and by documenting processes from the off, this will be possible. Learn from Dom’s mistake, who had to take 4 weeks out in order to document his processes. Dom leaves by highlighting that it isn’t fair for clients to receive different experiences  because there is someone else in the business looking out for them. 

With an ex Military background and self proclaimed no BS approach John starts with agents being able to “tell the truth and get away with it’. Especially when other agents may often lie in order to win the business.



So how do you act with integrity and turn yourself into a trusted advisor? John jumps straight into the “anchoring effect”. When it comes to selling a property, the highest figure the vendor is given, then will ankle every decision based on that figure. So if agents are artificially inflating prices in your town, how do you get around it?



Firstly, google the anchoring effect. Secondly remember this Tom Panos quote, “property is not in isolation, it is in competition”. So your goal is to help the vendor self discover what the right price is. 



Agent: “Mr or Mrs. Seller, would you agree with me that property is not in isolation”

Vendor: “Yes”

Agent “So would you agree your property is in isolation”

Vendor “Yes”

Agent “Well at the moment, there are X properties for sale similar to yours on the market, what are you going to do to make all the very best buyers  way from what they are currently looking at, to come and see your property instead?”



This will allow vendors to move away from the anchor and as an elite agent that understands consumer psychology. Chris, jumps in and highlights the importance of asking great questions is key for agents. 



John moves onto data, and the data play. Who is the most competent is the one that wins the conversation. When it comes to objection handling, most agents don’t know how to handle being town they aren’t great. John goes onto share data that you need to prepare in order to ensure you aren’t caught short on the valuation. He believes you HAVE to know the answer to the 20 questions below, before you go into battle?



The first 10 of the 20 questions below are from John’s agents course called ‘Highest Net Profit Formula…’



1. What is the pounds per square foot for the good, the bad and the ugly?



2. What percentage of asking price do you or your agency achieve on average for your sellers?



3. How many days are your current clients property’s on the market before they go under offer?



4. What has been your viewing to offer ratio been in the last 12 months



5. How many properties have you been instructed to sell and how many of these have you completed on (last 12 months)



6. How many properties have you sold at the asking price or above in the last 12 months?



7. Can you explain in detail what other properties similar to the property your valuing have sold and when?



8. How will local, national and international economies affect the sale of property in your area?



9. What questions will you ask buyers to be absolutely confident they will make your client an offer before they go to your clients home?



10. What are your sole agency fee’s? If below 1% why? If 2%, why? 



Chris highlights when he sold his last property that agents he invited in offered a 26% price variance, which is shocking. If you have a world class pre valuation call, this should never happen. 



Do not be afraid of other agents in your area. It is OK to share what other agents sell for / their stats and John believe this is a superpower. By being confident John wins the conversation. Turn your vendor into a critical thinker and allow other agents stats to do your talking. Chris ad to this, that you should never bad mouth another agent. 



What is great about John is he turns the table on the vendor that he is interviewing them.



Final thoughts, property is not in isolation it is in completion. Remember that takeaway and 



John SavageTikTok · John Savage55.7K+ followers

Chris Webb is an estate agency author, coach and all round nice guy. In this episode he shares some fundamentals which offer a great refresher for the experience agent, and a no nonsense approach for those newer to the industry.



Chris starts with lead generation, highlighting that if you are good at it, everything else falls into place. Both Chris’s are in agreement that everything else is downstream of lead generation. 



Chris B, highlights that you are a lead generator first, and an estate agent second. Chris W uses a tool of asking agents to rank themselves out of 10 as an agent, then ask the same question but for how well known they are in that area. There is often a difference and that is the chasm that the agent needs to cross. Chris W uses a tool with his clients of writing down all the ways that you can get leads into your business. Withdrawn letters, build emails, etc. Then write down what you are actually doing in the next month. Both set of questions show disparity on where agents want to be and where they are now. 



Again, Chris W hits on that 80-90% of agents time should be spent lead generating. If you’re self employed and you only have 4-5 properties on at then this is only 10 hours a week to service. The rest of the time needs to be spent lead generating.



“If it isn’t in your calendar is doesn’t exist” if a quote both Chris’s agree with when it comes to time block in the above. You can move appointments around as agents we need to be fluid. “If you erase you replace”. 



Chris W highlights that it isn’t a one size fits all and you have to work out what to use. 



Chris B curve balls Chris W by telling him then he firmly believe agents should not take a call of a buyer wishing to offer, if they agent is in a middle of a lead generation task.



Chris W moves the conversation to what can we do to get properties on the market. What do you do pre and post market appraisal to increase the changes of wining. If you don’t win the appraisal, then get someone else to ring for feedback, but will highlight areas for improvement, but is also a time to re-pitch and ask “if it doesn’t work with the current agent, would you be happy to use is as your second agent of choice”.



“Is it too greedy of you to want to be first and last”, from Chris W rounds off the conversation of his post val tips.  



Your property details are not there to sell the property, don’t give it all away. Show off the best 8-12 photos of the property. Don’t repeat what the portals already tell you such as bedrooms, etc in the first line. 



The conversation then moves to client feedback. Chris W is a a huge advocate of vendor care and that it needs to be weekly. This also allows you to work towards a price adjustment conversion. It is very agents for agents to shy away from this, but in essence you’re opening up your clients to competition who will be hearing from them, more than they hear from you. 



Chris B highlights as agent sending videos to clients, which most agents wouldn’t do, but Chris W highlights that you don’t get two way feedback. If in doubt pick up the phone. Chris B highlights the importance of when you update the vendor and allowing it to be on your time and not on theirs, especially if they’re on a long motorway journey and are ringing “for a quick check in or update”.

The real message in this podcast is that you have to be structured, create your own processes and protect your time and make sure that your number one activity is lead generation. 



Choosing Another Agent: Could you share what led you to that decision? Were there particular services or offers they provided that you found more appealing?Future Consideration: If things don't work out with your current estate agent, would you consider using our services in the future? What could we do to be your first choice next time?