If You Can’t Touch It, Don’t Sell It with Solly StricklandIn this episode, Chris is joined by Solly Strickland, who started out selling loft apartments in the 1990s and has been heavily involved in the American broker model since about 2017.Chris asks Solly for the failures that shaped his career, and Solly shares three. Each one changed how he works with clients, buyers and agents today.What we coverSolly’s first failure came at 23, at his first agency, selling loft apartments in rock and roll tees and jeans. A client, a lawyer with a very cool flat, called Solly’s business partner and asked for someone else to handle the sale and the viewings. Solly says lateness wasn’t the issue. He was too relaxed and hadn’t learned to click with a different type of person, the person who was paying them a decent amount to sell his home. He was devastated, but he understood, and he never did it again.That lesson shapes how he mentors and coaches today. He goes hard on aligning yourself with the client, and he sees nervous agents at higher price levels fluff their lines and rush out. He believes the longer you spend with someone, the better your chance of doing business. With a buyer from a well known English band who didn’t know the area, Solly took the time to walk him round the local coffee shops, and he believes that built the relationship.His second failure was on a penthouse in the Jam Factory about ten years ago. He handled everything from the pitch to the marketing, then took his eye off the ball on sales progression. On the day of exchange, it emerged that the flat didn’t have the parking space he thought it had. Because he had put so much of himself into the deal, he couldn’t deliver the bad news himself, so he asked his business partner Dan to call the seller, and the sale exchanged. His advice is simple: if you’re in charge of your own sales progression, do it.Solly also shares the story of a loft in East London that had already had around 40 or 50 viewings with another agency, every one of them through social media. He believes you need to find out why people want to see a property, what they can afford and whether they have a mortgage. He sold it a week later, after nine qualified viewings.His third failure relates to recruitment in the American broker model. He enjoyed it, but says he is in the business of selling and finding property, and thinks he may have failed at the recruitment side. He believes everyone should be given a chance. Through the academy, he brought people into the industry who were told they had no right to be there, and some went on to make £25,000 on a single sale.Solly believes tunnel vision always makes you money, and his first rule is that if you can’t touch the property or shake the owner’s hand, you shouldn’t sell it. He admits he nearly fell into that trap when a Cyprus development wanted him as their UK rep, before he realised they would never sell a single unit and said no. Before taking on a property in Portugal, where they are licensed, he flew out and spent two days walking around the estate.To finish, Solly’s advice to his younger self is to get his RICS qualification. During his loft days, his dad, a very successful developer, asked him over lunch in Mayfair whether he had qualified yet, and Solly says he regrets not doing it. He also thinks he probably should have gone to university, after boarding school from 8 to 18. Being an agent was never his dream, but he enjoys the people side and still finds it nice to hand someone a set of keys. He wishes he had been better on the technology side, joking that when he was 19, the closest thing they had to AI was 2001: A Space Odyssey.Key takeaways- Remember who is paying you, and adapt to the client in front of you.- The longer you spend with someone, the better your chance of doing business.- If you’re in charge of your own sales progression, do it.- Qualify your viewers before they come through the door.
