Question 1

Will you tell me to rip out my CRM?

Accepted Answer

Almost never. Most agencies are running maybe a third of what they already pay for, so the first move is usually to make the existing system do the job it was bought for. Where a tool genuinely cannot do it, we say so and show the cost of staying put against the cost of moving. You decide.

Question 2

What if our data is a mess?

Accepted Answer

That is the normal starting point, and it is a finding rather than a problem for us. If the numbers cannot be pulled without someone rebuilding them in a spreadsheet first, that tells you something worth knowing about how the agency is run. We work with what exists and mark clearly where a figure is an estimate.

Question 3

Who sees our numbers?

Accepted Answer

The three of us doing the work, and nobody else. Nothing is shared with another agency, published as a case study, or used in a talk without your written say-so, and the peer figures we compare you against are anonymous and grouped by type and size. If you want the whole thing under an NDA before we start, send yours over.

Question 4

Do you work with agencies near us?

Accepted Answer

Ask before you book and we will tell you straight who we already work with in your patch. Neither firm takes on two agencies competing for the same stock without both knowing about it first. If that rules us out, better you hear it now than after you have paid.

Question 5

We already have a marketing agency.

Accepted Answer

Keep them. Nobody here is pitching for your retainer, and the marketing half is a read rather than a replacement. Adam and Lucy assess how the business is found and what happens to an enquiry against how property marketing actually works, which is a narrower thing than marketing in general: a decade of it inside national property networks between them, and six years selling houses before any of it. If your agency is doing a good job, you get that in writing and something concrete to hold them to. If the enquiries are arriving and quietly dying before anyone calls them back, you will know that too, and so will they.

Question 6

We do sales, lettings and block. Does it still work?

Accepted Answer

That is the reason the five stages have three journeys behind them. A valuation, a move-in and a tender are not the same event, so they are not scored as though they were. Agencies running all three usually find the ceiling sits in one of them and quietly drags on the other two.

Question 7

Do I have to take both halves?

Accepted Answer

We would recommend that you do. They run on the same business at the same time, so the two reads line up instead of contradicting each other, and the join between them is where most of the money turns out to be. Either half can be bought on its own, but the half you leave out is usually the one holding the other one back.

Question 8

Does my team have to be involved?

Accepted Answer

Not unless you want them to be. Nobody is interviewed and nothing lands on their desk. What is needed is read-only access to what the agency already runs: the CRM or property management system, the works order and compliance records, the website and ad accounts, and the last few months of numbers. The more of that is available, the less of the report rests on assumptions.

Question 9

What if I do nothing afterwards?

Accepted Answer

The report is yours either way. No retainer attached and no obligation to take it further with either firm. It does not expire either, so plenty of people read it, sit on it, and act on one thing six months later.