Working the Street

by John Passmore

The letting agent looked at the Money Presentaton lying on his desk and pushed his calculator to one side. The figures it had churned out now lay in neat columns, getting bigger and bigger as they went down.

“Of course this is based on our figures here in Colchester,” he said. “It’s not representative of anywhere else.”

“Well, no…”

“So if we were to run this in all 20 offices, presumably we could multiply the figures by 20?”

“Mmm, yes… I suppose you could…”

So, you see what I mean when I say the day started well – even if he does want to trial it in his Ipswich office first.

By the time I ended up back on the street, the adrenaline was in full flood and since the car park in Colchester demands a minimum four hours’ fee, I decided to spend a little time seeing whether I could do any better.

In the next couple of hours, I visited every letting agent and Financial Advisor in the street. After six, I stopped counting the number of times I did the 30 second thing.

What I concluded is that over the last 12 months there has been a distinct and measurable sea-change in the way people look at what we have to offer. Essentially, they’re a lot more ready to look.

Take a typical example: I walked in, went up to the man at the desk and said: “Hello, I’m John Passmore. Is this your business?"

"Well, I'm a partner..."

"I've just spent and hour with So-and-so at Thingummy & Co. Do you know him?”

“Well, not personally…”

“Yes, I was showing him how he can make an extra income alongside his lettings business. He decided it was worth a go and so we’re going to start it off in his Ipswich office. Would you like me to show you what he’s going to do. It takes about five minutes.”

And then I sat down next to him, flipped through the European Business Magazine, the FT and Which? and then went straight into the Money Presentation. One small change I make is that when it comes to the big calculations, I get the prospect to work them out on their own calculator. That way they can’t doubt the totals.

He pursed his lips and looked at the figures (they all do that). “What doesn’t add up,” he said in a voice heavy with suspicion. “Is that although I’ve heard of TelecomPlus, I’ve never heard about this before. I’m going to have to check it out.”

So I left him to check it out.

I left him with the first two pages of the accounts too – IFAs love those.

So a good morning, all in all.

For the afternoon I got on with the rest of life - even though I couldn’t resist an admiring appraisal of the way the woman behind the counter in Boots asked every customer to fill in their satisfaction survey.

“I’ll fill one in,” I said. “You ask so nicely… actually I’m always looking out for people with great people skills like you. Let me give you this…”

Funny that, I hadn’t meant to be still at work. But after a morning like the one I’d had, it’s hard to stop.

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