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I always find it frustrating when I sit down with a real estate director and they complain about their salespeople’s inability to sell advertising.  I always ask the question “what sort of scripts and dialogue training are you running for marketing?” which is inevitably greeted with a blank look.   You’d be surprised how many top agencies are comfortable asking for $20,000 advertising budgets without giving their salespeople any training.  So why do we push such large budgets?  Is it a self-interested attempt to promote ourselves at the expense of the vendor?  I don’t think so.  While I’m the first to espouse the benefits to the agency of vendor paid advertising (VPA), VPA has an important role to play in the sale of property.

I find that the starting point for any VPA script is the establishment of a framework.  I’ve seen agencies use lots of different frames (mainly talking about casting the net or taking the buyer on a journey) and I’ve developed a few frameworks of my own (I use a funnel and a circular journey).  Regardless of what system to you use, your agents need a simple way to describe the strategy you are looking to achieve.  Let’s look at an example I developed, the buyer funnel:

This model starts with a state newspaper with broad reach, then moves to smaller and more specific mediums as the buyer search narrows.  You’ll notice that as the funnel moves towards the buyer that the number of consumers targeted narrows.  This strategy is designed to reach buyers at all levels of the market and helps justify an entire schedule.  If the vendor questions the use of The Age, the salesperson can simply point to funnel and explain that the Age is designed to reach a large number of out of area buyers.  If the company’s magazine is challenged, the salesperson can explain that the magazine is designed to drive buyer enquiry from local and qualified buyers that are in the market.

Regardless of the system you use, it’s crucial that your sales team understands how the items on the schedule work together to drive increased buyer activity.  You owe it to the vendor.