The Blockbuster Moment for Estate Agency

When ten AI scouts prospect thousands of properties in under a minute, the rules of estate agency change overnight.

In The Blockbuster Moment for Estate Agency, Mark and Rob break down the first AI workflow that truly shifts the economics of running a branch, from live-market scouting to personalized outreach at scale.

Discover how to flip your model, raise revenue per employee and redeploy human time to the work that actually wins instructions.

We cover EXA 10 insights, the startups vs. incumbents gap and how to systemise the predictable while humanizing the exceptional.

If you’re ready to modernise your agency, move beyond portals and turn AI into a real competitive advantage, this is the episode you can’t afford to skip.

Leading Estate Agents of the World – Founding Members Launch

We’ll soon be introducing the first founding members of the network.
If you'd like to be considered for the launch event, register here

https://estateagencyx.co.uk/leadingestateagentsoftheworld

This episode is sponsored by Iceberg Digital, the AI Operating System for Estate Agents. They replace outdated CRMs, disconnected marketing tools, and manual prospecting with one intelligent, AI-driven ecosystem, built to increase revenue per employee and future-proof your agency. https://iceberg-digital.co.uk/

Transcript

Catch‑up and EX10 Context

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to this episode of Aesthetin CX. Today it's just me and Rob sitting there talking absolute bollocks for uh for about 40 minutes. No, seriously. Uh me and me and Rob are gonna sit down and we're gonna recap over the Estate MCX event. These are just asking me some of the things that are sitting in the market. We dig into some really crazy stuff. So if you're an estate agent and you want your mind blown, this is the episode for you.

First Real AI Breakthrough Revealed

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Estate MCX, the UK's number one estate MC podcast discussing the future of Estate MC, entrepreneurship, and business. Host Mark Virgin and Rob Brady. Sorry, we haven't had an episode later for a while a while, Mark. A lot of people speak to you say, we don't even do those rob and run bottles. I think we should bring that back because that was a lot of fun. But um I thought we'd just catch up on this episode and see where where you're at, what we're at, where things might be developing in iceberg, we've just got EAX10 coming up, come out of the post-summer, stuff that I've probably been spinning comments with. For a lot probably to catch up since we last did this. So um October, forgetting Tonda. October. A couple of days out before EX10. So first thing is like, what's what's what are you excited about probably when this comes out it'd be in a few weeks' time, but what's your what's your thing you're excited about for EX10?

SPEAKER_05 1:24

Uh well, I mean, as you say, this is post the AX10 now, so I guess the caps are already out of the bag with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

We have some big discoveries in terms of artificial intelligence, which I know, you know, I know I I just start boring for everybody now, but I I think it's boring because it's not that groundbreaking.

AI Scouts: Data In, Deals Out

Personalized Outreach At Scale

SPEAKER_05 1:45

Do you know what I mean? Like people keep coming out with stuff being just a bit like that's alright. But um, you know, we showed some stuff that is that in CX Tim that I'm in what, I'm like 30 30 years in this industry now. And biased, but I've never seen anything like it. Like, it's the first time that I've seen something in this specific industry to do with AI, where I thought to myself that's it. Like, you know, this is the the beginning of something that is just gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Um, you know, we we had a little side project whereby um we wondered if we could get, you know, AI to bring in the addresses of properties that were on the market and monitor, you know, what was going on with those properties, whether they had price reductions, whether they'd had fall throughs, any of that sort of stuff. I haven't particularly groundbreaking about any of that. You know, you can do that in other softwares. Um and we sort of thought, yeah, we could do that, and and then what though? Then then maybe we could match it up with like info in their database. Um, but maybe it's not likely to max that many people, and so they're not like you've got to send out shitty letters or something like that. So it's not what we're gonna be. Um so that's why it kind of stayed as a side project um a year or more ago. And then gradually, like over the course of the last year, like we started we did a little bit of work on it, and it was just a few months back whereby we sat with our team and the AI we had these AI scouts go out into the market. So we test it with an agent. Ten AI scouts go out into the market and they bring back thousands of full property addresses and um of properties that are on the call tours, all the information about what price they were on they're on for, whether they've had price reductions, how many weeks they've been on the market, all of that sort of stuff. Well, that's pretty cool. Um and then the AI scouts go through the the agent's database and find who you know the owner of, and they found 750. 750 of those properties whereby you know the owner, you know their email address, you know their telephone number, and then it would the the room that we was in uh with the developers just literally went into silence as we watched Vazaire write personalized pitches for all 750 of those properties about uh the problems they were facing, how many weeks they've been on the market, whether they've had price reduction, whether they've had sales fall through, what buyers in the system match, specifically looking in that location in that price range for that type of property, whether those buyers are first on buyers, whether they've got nothing to sell, what properties we sold nearby, how many properties we sold nearby all time, how many properties we sold nearby in the last year, how many in the last month, all personalized, written to 750 both emails, WhatsApp and letters in about a minute, and we just went, fuck. I mean, that is it's just insane. Because you're talking like a small tweak, and the AI's actually sending the messages, getting the responses, but buying. The AI already knows that OZ already knows the agents, USBs, it knows what's so good about them, it knows what the end objective is, it knows how a state agency works, so it can have two-way conversation, no problem, via email or WhatsApp. Until the point whereby the objective's being reached, whereby the person has said, Yeah, okay, I would like you to come in and see me, at which point it's just presenting it to the to the human. You there is no human on the planet that can do that. That fast, that accurately, and that consistently. And so it it led me to a place in my mind where I went on another five, four, five, six steps from it, where I thought to myself the procrastination that happens when an estate agent decides that they're gonna move to a software like lifecycle, for instance, or or just change anything, change something big in their business, is kind of uh extended because quite often they look around at their competition and they think to themselves, all right, I'm kind of already winning this fight. I don't really need to make this change. And this moment that I witnessed made me realize that your competition's already fucking dead. But the companies that do what I've just seen are going to do it from day one and they're gonna come and fucking eat you alive. By the time you realize the world just changed, you're fucking dead. It's no different to the whole, you know, that age-old analogy of Blockbuster Netflix. There's just no way that you're going to be able to catch up with a company that does this first. Imagine I come to your area, you've got a successful estate agency in Canterbury, everything's been good for all these years.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

And I come along and I start sending personalised messages to 750 that worked out at like 2.5 million pounds worth of business in a minute.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

I'm sending those messages and I'm in one fucking minute, and then I'm having conversations with them while I fucking sleek real personalized messages.

The “Your Competition Is Dead” Moment

SPEAKER_05 7:40

We're not talking about just a random AI saying random things, but I'm talking about real estate. We're talking about I can see that you've got this three-bedroom, semi-detached house that's been on the market for nine weeks now with John Smith Estate agents, and I've got a new strategy that I think might be able to help you. We work specifically on this kind of strategy, and because of that, I've put this many buyers that specifically match against your property in your location. 15 of them are first-time buyers, four of them are investors, and importantly, 38 of them have got nothing to sell. I can speak to those people right now about your property. Also, we have a lot of success in your area. This year alone, I've sold 200 properties in your location, 20 of them in the last month. So can we talk to you about coming around and having a conversation about how we might be able to help? That personalised in a second to 750 properties.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

And that's you you're not going to keep up with that. And even even like, you know, you think like a lot of clients I speak to or agents we speak to, they say like they struggle with a future talent coming through. And you could have anyone sat there, even even just even if we were pushing a button to generate that, and they would have all the history they'd come through without actually needing it. They don't need to know that they sold this property nine months around the corner. That that wealth of knowledge goes out the door of acquiring that skill set in me.

Startups Versus Incumbents

SPEAKER_05 9:06

That's right. And the the the stumbling block is when you're an established business, so let's go back to that analogy, you've got a successful estate agent here in Canterbury. It's quite hard to turn that shit. You know, you've already got staff, you've already got wages. You don't just walk in one day and say to the people that you spend a lot of your time with, like, sorry, yeah, you're fired. Like you just don't do that. But the new staff, the new estate agent, they're gonna look at it and go, wait. So for I don't know, let's make it really expensive. Let's make it more expensive than it currently is, and let's say£30,000 a year, right? At this point in time, no small estate agent is paying£30,000 a year for their estate agency software, what they call their estate agency software. The reason they're not doing that is because the estate agency softwares that exist at the moment, even the most recent ones that have been released, you work for the estate agency software. So I I need people to qualify my portal leads, I need people to send out property matches, I need people to chase spewing feedback, I need people to write property descriptions, I need people to so on and so on and so on and so on. I do vendor care, I need people to prospect, I need people for that. The new starter stat agent is just gonna go, wait, so you're telling me that 30 grand a year, or whatever it is, this will qualify all of my thought release, this will chase all of my viewing feedback, this will write all of my blogs in the way that they need to be written for me to be found in SEO and ChatGPT. This will make my website automatically change when people hit it to be the most appealing version of that website. This will automatically transcribe all my videos and put the text behind the videos so that they get found in ChatGPT. This will find all the properties that are on the market in my area with the address and like personalised pictures to all of it. This will do this, this will do this. It's a fucking no-brainer. I'm not gonna go and employ a member of staff with that first 30 grand, you're gonna get the software to do it. And yes, of course. I'm not saying you don't need humans, but you you s you systemize the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:29

So then, what your humans are doing, the money that you pay for humans, you get them to spend all their time on revenue generating tasks, not chasing viewings, uh qualifying portal leads. And yeah, you might go, yeah, but if they don't do that, then they miss opportunities. No, you're not missing any opportunities.

SPEAKER_05 11:47

And we're we're missing opportunities if you don't put what they are on it. So this is bringing all the opportunities to the human. And the human's closing it, like as you will expect, you would need a human to have a human-to-human conversation that one. It's it's a new version, it's a completely new version of the state agency coming down the track, that's your competition. If you for a second are looking around at the current little Claudia stat agents that are next door, thinking they just need to stay ahead of them, like you're dead, you're really dead.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

And j and and I I have always come back to it, like, you know, well, you only said in another video we're talking about EAX10, and like I remember having when I even first was up to six, so five or six yeahs, like EX5 or CX6, and we're talking about then what is happening right now. And see, like, you always have to see the leap forward more than what you th what you believe is the perception right now. Like, who would have thought like four years ago someone saying, it's gonna be this AI, gonna do this or this, you go, no no, it's never gonna do that, right? Yeah, look at the world of like someone put a post the other day saying it'd be nice, you know, for people to actually put on Facebook and on socials, like a post that actually isn't just chat GBT generated, because it was so obvious. Imagine a year or two years ago, it would have just been seen as like a futuristic no, no, we'd be writing a wrong post. Yeah. But it's it it's adapting. Yeah. And like you like you said, when you showed me the other day, I automatically think back, like, God, if I had this an agency right now, even though we were like one of the leaders out there, I'd be using that to my advantage now. I'd be t I'd be consuming it to the point where the growth is so beyond everyone else.

Rewiring Roles: Systemize Then Humanize

SPEAKER_05 13:39

There's such a big change that you need to make. If you're running in a state agency, you're not to say, I'm not underestimating the difficulty of changing the format of the business because you know you're talking about changing the technology, the way the staff work, the the the routine, what people do. Uh that's a big tart. So I'm not underestimating that. But what I was saying at a statement CX 10 is you should be like a kid in a sweet shot. Uh exactly what you're talking about. You should be looking at this going, like, I can't fucking wait to do that. If you're not like that, just fucking quit. Seriously, your business ain't never gonna be worth more than what it's worth today if you're not thinking like that. You are a blockbuster. Even if you think you're pretty forward thinking, you can hear what I'm you can imagine you what's gonna happen just from what I'm talking about here.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

If you're not gonna go down that road, you're uh going to get eaten. It's just inevitable because I can uh have three members of staff and be constantly prospecting uh thousands of business, thousands of properties not potentials are these might go on the market. These are on the market.

SPEAKER_05 14:54

I can be talking to every single one of them constantly, uh qualifying every portal lead and knowing every single opportunity in those portal leads and talking to those people.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

I can be chasing every bit of viewing feedback, getting that view and feedback, collating it and feeding it back to vendors regularly.

SPEAKER_05 15:13

Maybe I haven't even got staff yet. That's insane when you think of the revenue per employee for a company. You know, take the total turnover divide it by how many employees you've got. Mine is going to be ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

And that's gonna allow me to do more marketing, invest more in technology, and just keep going.

New Breed Agency Playbook

SPEAKER_05 15:33

It just compounds and compounds and every industry has been through this. Every single industry has been through this. We're just you can look at farming, you can look at farming before tractors, you can look at retail before Amazon, you can look at Blockbuster before Netflix, like the technology allows you to make more revenue per employee. And that's what I've just witnessed something whereby, like you say, some of the other strategies we spoke about what might come in the future and why you need to be prepared for it, prepare for it. Um this was the first one where I said I can show you.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

And I was gonna mention approvaling though, I was gonna basically say about it's quite important. Actually that that's what some of the some of the clients I speak to um when they look at their database and like the old ways of doing stuff and the new ways of doing things. I've noticed like a mindset shift towards um how they're approaching the market share than anything else. And this is the this is what when I saw this being launched, I thought like when you do trying to find more business out there, you don't don't find more people and more of a greater access to a newer market and people looking at it. It's the share that's out there right now, and the share doesn't really change. This is the amount of people that you move every pretty much month, every year, and that's the same theory. So like you don't have you don't you should be thinking about tools to think you can try and find into new new versions of it. This is a tool to aggressively go after that share. Yeah, absolutely name up, it's not getting any bit any someone's just gonna steal everyone's love. Exactly. And that's what that's what I think I think if you that's where I started to see that when I see the clients, clients are starting to technically think about how do I not uh take market share in the way of like dropping off hands. Yeah. It's like how do I take more of the pie this year, this year, this year, and even before we even had this sort of a product that's going to be available soon. Like I've seen clients that are building their market share through data generation and strategy. Yeah. You layer this thing on top of it, all the stuff they've been doing the last three or four years, is like, ah.

Search Is Moving From Google To GPT

SPEAKER_05 18:41

Well, let look, I mean, when we ran that test, we had a a developer a good agent uh who had a lot of business and we gave them 10 AI scouts and that, like I say, found loads and loads of matches. And we did wonder, maybe it's just because they've got so much, yeah. There's so many market appraisers in the government 10 AI scouts, we went to a small single branch office. Just put three AI scouts there, just did the same fucking thing. We went to a try on the third agent, just did the same thing. It's just I think where the shift is that I'm seeing a very in my own head, I'm seeing the shift, I guess. It hasn't yet made its way into the market. Even with what you're talking about, you're talking about you see clients making this transition over. And that's what it's always been about for us over the past decade. Trying to help people in that this transition over slowly from what you would consider to be traditional aesthetic or two of the traditional aesthetics and chores to this other way of thinking. And like it's a slow progress sometimes. I just suddenly saw something that went, yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of them companies ain't gonna make it. I mean, I wish they did. I've dedicated my entire fucking life to my business life to try and save those companies. We've been talking about it for a decade. But what I've just seen is like, now new companies, they're not gonna need they're not gonna need convincing. There's no other way of doing this. You know, my son's 17, I mentioned him before, he's here recording the podcast for us. If he's starting on the state agency, you think he's not using that fucking tool. He he would he he just wouldn't be able to work out who who wouldn't. I mean, I'm starting on the state agency, you put we're gonna we're gonna be prospecting 750 listings for me while I sleep. I head of course he's using that fucking tool. He doesn't have to worry about having a conversation with John who works an old way that he's been a lawyer member of staff and that they're real difficult conversations, but then what's gonna cure you? They're blocked that you couldn't just make didn't just shot their stores, make everybody redundant and go online. Like it's just it wasn't right. It's fucking easy for a startup. The competition that's there right now, one of my sales guys travelled over to the Isle of Wight recently to see it see a a prospect. And the prospect loved it. But they're pausing on it, they're thinking about it. And and I and in my mind, the reason they're doing that is because they're looking around at their competition around and I just I don't know, I mean this does look good, but the rush. But there's a fucking rush, believe me. Like forget the people that you can see your competition out there, just forget them.

Always‑On Prospecting Without Headcount

SPEAKER_00 21:23

I even remember remember we did that uh we did that meet blog called a few years ago and we put like Amazon then to the state, you can see it's like one of the most red blogs ever. And then we put on the first line saying it's gonna either Jacob, they could happen. Yeah, like you're waiting for that moment and you are. If that was if that was to land tomorrow that Amazon decided they're going to a state agency with this technology, with with I mean, even nowadays, like you think about they do custom um people as shops, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like they came along and said we're gonna have a people as a state agency with a vested load of money in it, all automation, all AI, and they and they've got access to all that data already, like you would be thinking, holy fuck, this is the original purple bricks that's gonna come eat us.

SPEAKER_05 22:09

I was talking to Hailey, my business partner in life about this technology. She was just saying, like, you know. What's the difference why where is this different than to other big technology companies that do your sort of stuff or whatever? I was saying to her, like, I think they're the main differences is that most companies that build and discover a tech like this one that we've just spoken about, they then start a company and use it to destroy everybody else in the market. And I have decided, for book for whatever reason, that I'm gonna try and give it to independent estate agents to save themselves and save their businesses. But if you stop for a minute and think of it the other way, imagine I didn't. Imagine I just started a national estate agency with that technology. I were dead. You're dead. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna wait to see someone else actually do this? It's just it's just crazy. That's the main flip that I've seen in the past few weeks. From from the moment where I just we saw that it was there, right, all of that stuff, discovered all of that information. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Obviously, there's loads and loads of things that spin off the back of that. But just that that alone was a m was a moment for me like I'd never seen before in this industry that I had it where I just sat there in silence thinking the people that have come so this far on the journey with iceberg, I I appreciate it, and they've all been brilliant and they've bought into Sankin, and for a lot of them it's made huge differences to their business. But now those people and everybody else, you're gonna have to stick it up another notch. Like this your whole business got fucking change. There's we can't be paying people to do anything other than really new gender meeting tasks.

Let Go Of Old Habits

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Well, I mean, I look at it when you when you talk about the flip of time, uh chasing them viewings, registering people, the usual mundane stuff, the the minutes, not just uh hours you put in, every single minute while they are doing that task, whether that's opening up a tab, doing this, check clicking this bar, and it doesn't take they the the process might you might think that takes 30 seconds a minute, but actually overall things like 10 minutes, yeah, all those 10 minutes collated, they could literally just be out on video all the time interviewing people, creating your own social media, media channels, putting that that content then gets repurped back into it, the system's then putting that in place, like all of a sudden the the awareness structure becomes even more aggressive that the admin crack than usually you get your team to deal with.

SPEAKER_05 25:36

But even if they don't want to even if they don't want to get out on video now, they've got uh they've got Azure, they've got artificial intelligence that will write the content, yeah, yeah. And they can teach it what are your keywords that you want to get found for in Google and what are the sort of questions that you want to get found for in GPT, now write all my blogs for them and do it consistently and put them out there like but just on a so consistently that I'm like I say, if I'm that new breed of a stage and that's doing that with no staff, but you've got 15 people and you can't you can't put a blog together every week, I'm just knocking them out like I bet you essentially when you look at something like you said the search that's a difference in search of what do they say uh Google's traffic down search for you?

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Yeah, 20 22, 22, isn't it 2%, yeah. And and people are directed to Chat GPT. So like if you're if you're not doing that, and you like you said, you've got somebody who's running the right thing, and they go, What's the best estate agent in Canterbury?

SPEAKER_05 26:34

Well, here's the thing like they don't say what's the best estate agent in Canterbury. That's the that's the thing that has to change because you go to Google, you put who's the best estate agent in Canterbury. You go to Chat GPT, you tend to say something like, Yeah, I'm I'm thinking about selling my house, but I'm a bit worried about whether I'm gonna get a right val the right valuation on it. Who do you think I should speak to that is probably that is quite trustworthy within the Canterbury area that would just be honest with me? And it might be that, it might be a whole different conversation. But and then what Chat GPT does is it needs to come back with a very convincing, compelling conversation. So keywords and where you're ranking Google is kind of irrelevant. Quite often GPT will be pulling people off a page 20 of Google if it's just got the right kind of answer.

SPEAKER_04 27:21

So it's all of that. If I'm if I if my soft my software or my my AI and my technology and my website is making me appear in those searches and you're not.

Killing “Feedback Fridays”

SPEAKER_05 27:32

And my content that I'm creating through AI on autopilot is making me appear in Google searches, and and my video content is also making me appear in Facebook, and I'm running retarded, and I'm doing this with hardly any star. And I'm also sending personalized messages to all of those people on the market that have maybe been on the market for more than six weeks, let's just say, or had a house for a south for or had a price reduction. Personalized messages. I'm doing all of that and haven't employed anybody yet. But uh, maybe I'm paying 20, 30 grand a year for my software you're like. I'm I'm winning this race. You're not gonna beat me. Of course I'm gonna end up employing staff, but they're gonna be employing staff that close deals, they close listings. The software's telling me already I've got AI software that's telling the agent what properties people are looking at on their website. Not like this property's had a hundred views. No. This guy or this girl has looked at this property three times on your website, but they haven't sent you an inquiry of it. Now I can just step it one step further. The AI can just reach out to them. Based on everything they told you. It's you know, raise the kids that property, that's based on the properties they looked at, based on this, based on that, and that I can encourage these people to viewings. And that is that is good estate agency, isn't it? Good estate agency is not me waiting for you to send an inquiry on white move. The good estate agency is me going, Rob, I know you said you wanted a four-bed house that was detached, and I know you're gonna think I'm mad, but trust me, come and see this two-bed bungalow, because I think you can do something with it. And you come and see it and you offer on it and you buy it. That's that's how you sell something that no other agent could sell.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

I can do that. It's just raise that and that's what like when when when we were gr growing our agency, the issue we had was how sh how far do we stretch before we have to get another starter? Yeah. How much pressure do we put before we have to relieve that stress curve to then relegate that? And then who what it what are the types of stresses we're dealing with to find the right number for a starter. So something like this, don't get that. It's like unlimited. You don't have to flex and stretch and pull it back. As you as you as you meet the demands, demands get greater and they get greater and they get greater. You know, like his air doesn't come along and go, I'm burnt out. I need like a m two month holiday.

SPEAKER_05 30:09

Because I've there's done 10,000 importers with meet you and announced that you had a sold. Doesn't forget any buyer that's ever registered with you, it doesn't forget any of your USPs, any question that comes up, it knows the perfect fucking replies.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

I worked over the weekend, can I have Monday? Yeah.

Redeploy Time To Revenue

SPEAKER_05 30:27

Yeah, I'm not gonna be able to hit my target this week. Uh there's just it doesn't do any of that stuff. So I'm not saying get rid of all the people. I'm saying even the shift for some of the best estate agents I've seen make the shift from what you would consider to be traditional estate agency over to the iceberg ecosystem of CRN marketing and all the other sort of stuff. Even the best ones, they still they bring their old habits with them as well. So, yes, they let the they let the computer follow up all their view and feedback, but then they jump in and do a Bitman Mini as well. And yes, they let the computer qualify all their portal inquiry, they then they jump in and do a bit man mini.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

No.

SPEAKER_05 31:07

You know more. You cannot afford to pay someone an hourly wage to chase viewing feedback that's already been chased by the computer because they ain't got nothing else to fucking bit. Like, if the person was going to give you feedback, or if they wanted to make an offer, they would have done that. You needed the feedback, obviously, to feedback to the vendor. Ayala's doing it. It's gathering the feedback, it's putting even putting together the vendor report, care report for you every week with a summary of all the feedback, what happened with all the viewings, who we've been able to get through to, who we haven't, how many viewings we've arranged, how many times it's been looked at, all that sort of stuff. It's all being done. You're just clinging on to the past by going, yeah, I know that I'll follow up with I'll follow up with these ones that haven't replied yet.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

No, no. Like even this started to pull you back. So there's still about, I remember used to have like three-back Fridays and just had the team sit down. We wouldn't be able to put bureans in. And how many were in the team? Uh we had three, three, three of a half. Three and a half average hourly wage. I don't know, between twenty, twenty grand, twenty five grand a year.

SPEAKER_05 32:20

Right, so let's just say about twenty pound an hour. Yeah, fifteen pound an hour, let's say, right? So, and how many hours is feedback Friday? Uh three hours. Three hours. So three hours, three and a half people, let's say twelve hours or ten hours, let's say ten hours of work, fifteen pounds an hour.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

It's already it's just at the point whereby like it you have to redeploy that money, yeah. We've got to redeploy that money into revenue creating tasks.

The Metric: Revenue Per Employee

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Yeah. I I mean just it just might like even that flip. So not even just the saving of that, like you said, it's like we'd block out a whole morning on a Friday, no viewing, to do the and it would be a copy and paste template because we'd have you team sat there trying to think of a new area you'll see then. Yeah, so no it was like filling the blocks, yeah. And that what's this, what's that? Exactly what you just said, and they'll push a button, it does it anyway, if not, does it anyway, but even better because it can collect the data like that, yeah, rather than a person having to go and hunt for that data and put it in place. Yeah. And then so that I I already think that then it's not only just uh the time spent on that. I'd be thinking if they weren't doing that, that'd open up three hours worth of revenue joke. Revenue seeing clients, chatting to clients, doing viewings, speaking like in a different even to the point where you could like Yeah, that point there, it's like I can let you get three hours sat there with them uh creating their own video bits for just for socials, yeah. And doing like stuff that you would see as what's kind of doing that, that's not doing it like but that's in that's the the sprinkle on top, which makes agency more humanistic, some of it, right?

SPEAKER_05 34:00

Yeah, uh matches it, right? All of that sort of stuff is just in in in businesses outside of a state agency, most people are familiar with the metric of measuring revenue per employee as a measure as to how fast you're moving, how successful you are, how much work you're having to put in in order to generate some money. In a state agency, you celebrate eastern's. It's just crazy. So stop, stop it. Stop celebrating this and start looking for how to increase revenue per employee, and you will absolutely trantle over everybody in the era. They just can't you can't keep up with me. If my revenue per employee is consistently, let's just say, uh£100,000. If you've got 10 staff and your turnover is 500 grand, you know, it's that agency, then your revenue per employee is 50 grand per per person. You're not making much more than what what you've got to be paying people. There's not a lot left over to be investing this stuff. If I'm if I'm in your area and my turnover is 500 band and I'm only employing five staff, my revenue per employee is£100,000. There's a lot of money left over if you need to start doing shit. I'm going to kill you. It's what can keep it at£100,000 per. Like, if I can make it, if I could push it and go£150,000. You know, look at technology companies, they're crazy. You look at companies like Google, it's like millions of pounds revenue going through it, and then you work your way back down from there. But it's that's the metric that we have to start looking at in this industry, and though it's not about whether you need to do this in order to stay ahead with the blood grinder and the corner who's like a bit sheer. It's now that this technology is available, a revenue per employee could be high enough for serious players to enter this market. Serious come here to go, you're going to if you go into a state agency with the right technology for another 150 grand revenue per employee, I guarantee you some serious players start entering the funky market.

Strategy Over Shiny Tools

SPEAKER_00 36:03

And and and going back to Ash, you you just like what that that just highlighted the point on there factor of like five members of staff and ten members of staff, like if you were in a fire bunch, you're doing half a million quid, and then you're doing 700, you're doing a million, like it's the staff doesn't really change the numbers. Yeah. Because really, when you look at the output, uh inquiries coming through, uh taking doing those messages, uh feedback, like again, all computer driven. So the computer could deal with 10,000 transactions in one guy, and it still can come back to the same five people. Yeah. And that's the bit where the revenue employee, as it expansion grows, so I was only having to chat with a client the other day, and like he's expanding at the moment, and I we were having a conversation with a member of staff and's paying uh you know good money that he's you know undecided whether to keep them or not. And we're talking about the journey jobs that they do. And I was like, about a year, like that's doesn't even exist. And you're like, worry about it, like again, time's that multiply that, and he's growing. So like even if he kept his team at seven or eight now, and he grew three or four times in using that technology, it just it just needs getting grating rates like he's gone from fifth or sixth in the market now to like number one in the market. Like, those are your competitors coming through now, and then you're gonna wonder, like, hang on, how do they how do they do this? And by then you're thinking they're like too late. Really too late. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

It's just like I say, it's like, but you know, a lot of people say um Blockbuster didn't adapt. They did adapt. Like they made Blockbuster online, they ripped off Netflix, like Quixel for Pixel, and and they thought that they were doing the same thing, but they weren't doing the same thing. And then Netflix had an algorithm man underneath that were monitoring what people were looking at and putting new things like that in front of them. They weren't they they flipped the entire model. Blockbuster was just serving go go to the video store and pick what you want. Like they never installed cameras in the video store to see what, you know, encourage people to go anywhere. They Netflix flipped the whole model and that's what what they're talking about here. Like, if you as a business have got this the leadership and the screen to flip the entire model, you can be the one that does this. That someone's gonna do this. We should wait for someone to do it and then go, how are they doing that and try and catch them? Good luck with that.

Flip The Model Or Get Flipped

SPEAKER_00 38:30

And do you like a probably a question? Like I was chatting to actually Toby and our team about and do you find that now I'm biased because I'm now on this side of the fence for quite a few years now and I've got enough experience on both sides now, that we've always had a strategy around why we're doing what we're doing, why we release particular tools to enhance our like that whole thing, to support our clients' growth. And but then you have others who just release tools for the sake of releasing tools, got no real strategy behind it. And then like I always feel like the last year, two years, three years, five years, ten years, it's the same conversations that most agents have out there. They've already accessed these tools, but they still find it hard. But then you've got clients who are having extreme growth with a strategy behind it.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

It's just they're just gonna let you in something different, aren't they? Yeah. You know, I'd have to say like your your standard conversation that you would have with an estate agent, I would say, would be about them increasing their market share, increasing their revenue. You know, some of the most successful ones that I talked to are in the millions, they're turning over millions of pounds. They're not stopping to think, what's my revenue co-employee? When you work it out, it's fifth it's fifty grand. It's like it's not things haven't moved on. They've actually gone backwards from when it was like the two founders and a couple of startups, that that point they probably had like, you know, 80 grand revenue co-employee. Now they're in the millions, they're successful, they've got branches, they've got that, but like it's 50 grand revenue per employee. It's like, listen, that it's going backwards. And you said it yourself, like, you know, you you you grow, you stretch, have much going stretch before we get another person, you get another person that like they don't they just start doing the ad me. There's no revenue growth here. We're just, oh, we can all breathe a bit easier now. Thank God we've got to that stage. It's not a s it's not the right strategy. So I think well what we're thinking about is we're we're bringing in a different strategy, and that's what feeds what tools we'll build. So you quite often we get we get customers that would come or we get prospects that would say, I would join you if you just built this. No, but there's no there's no reason for us to build that. No, I know, but I'm I like to be able to like make a hinted grocer, and uh until I can, I won't I won't use the software. Okay, well because you want to do that software, not in a not in a I don't mean that in a um kind of stubborn way. No. I just mean in like it just doesn't fit at all into the strategy of increasing revenue per employee, being more efficient, like making more money, giving a bit of customer experience. Like we've we've mapped it out, we've proven it works. We've got clients up and down the country that are doubling, tripling, quadrupling their revenue. You know, then at Keystance, probably the best example of it, you know, the story that you told at Estate MCX, a single branch estate agency turnover of 120 grand a year struggling. The same single branch estate agencies, not more branches, not really any more style, is turning over 700,000 pounds. That's crazy. Because there's a strategy, because you work with us on the technology front, you work with you on the strategic front, you came on our accelerator program to look at the business and try and organise that side of things, right? And so we're then making tools that enhance all the things rather than just like, you know what, seeing a really good tool out there, maybe we should add that because it seems quite popular. Well, how do people use it? How does it fit into this idea?

Choosing Partners With A Plan

SPEAKER_00 42:17

The mayor just it's an interesting point because I think like if you're out there listening and then looking at taking a new bit of tech, software, new provider, like ask them like, what is the future business strategy that you're developing for us? Where are we leading this down the line? If they turn around and say, Oh, we haven't really got a plan, but you know, we're just offering some free tools out there, or we'll give you this, we'll give you that, or would you be a voucher for coming on a fucking call with us? Yeah, like doesn't it sound good? You're just thinking, like, like, that's get like moves the dog over here, and and and actually when you really look at it, partner should partner with a partner who it's like um and they always talk about I've seen this sort of sort of phrase they say it's like difference between a nice guy and a good guy. So the nice guy is actually a dangerous guy because he's just nice, he's forgiving, he's always gonna give in to you. And they say actually a good guy based on morals, values, they've got direction. Like so they might make decisions for the greater good, but not just being nice. Yeah. And the same with like suppliers and technology partners and partnerships with people like a nice supplier would do anything for you, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the greater good for you. A good supplier, if they if they they bel truly believe in the direction that they are gonna lead and support you in, they will have a strategy in place and they'll have reasons behind that. Not we're just gonna create this just to try and say you all get a bit more market, get a bit more to share out of you, or sign you up with a car against another supplier. Yeah. Because that's what we've done for so many years in this industry, and for 99% of the sayings out there, it just doesn't know what they're doing. We did our four. And that's and and like that, and I and I remember experiencing that in 2017, 1617, I was scratching around thinking, where do we move forward? And we I tried with those tools. And it was only when I met you and we read I read that first book, and I thought, I don't need to take I can't take the step anymore. I need to take the lead. And the leap is into faith and hope that we're gonna go greater beyond all these round here, but it has to be the hope towards that direction that's that you don't know the existence of it yet because you are leading it, not following. Yeah, and and I think like say just out there, anyone listening out there, just ask the people you're about to sign up to, or new if you're having a new call with someone saying, like, where where's your strategy for the next three to five years? Where do you see the industry going? And how do you feel like uh asked as a partnership, as a collaboration, what are you gonna support me dynamic? I better turn around and say, gonna give you a new tool, like a Bow Powell tool, instant valuation tool, or we're gonna give you a free website, you've got to be questioning like, well, what what does that do? Like, if someone else comes on and does it and has that same thing and you're gonna give them that tool, it's not just a where's the difference?

SPEAKER_05 45:11

We could get you get get more listen, give them the leads. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we've been talking about forever. We're talking about revenue per employee is what you need to be thinking about in this new way. I can finish it really by saying like State Aden CX at the end, I was just saying they didn't come here today to talk to you about the end of a state agency, and you came here to show you a beginning.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

That's exactly what we're talking about. The companies that are starting now haven't got all these issues you're talking about. It's a fucking no-brainer for them. They're going to eat you alive unless you decide to be where they go.

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SPEAKER_02 45:51

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