As the year comes to an end it’s time again for introspection, measuring successes and planning for the year ahead. The last few years have been tough for the property profession, let’s face it, with tough market conditions that have made sales difficult to come by, and with unrelenting and spiralling costs.
We understand.
Our goal this year was to work harder to become true business partners with our customers.
We decided early in the year that we wanted to be regarded by you as the most valued property marketplace and to achieve this we had to re-imagine everything we do and how we do it. So we started to re-invent Privateproperty.co.za from the ground up.
In the last few months we have launched a completely different pricing model that allows you to load all your stock for one flat fee. We have revised almost every product to ensure that it provides real value that is in line with the price, and simplified the entire offering into a dozen products. We have changed our sales team around so you have only one sales contact who will be able to invest more time in you, threw out the rule book that made listing a property for sale on www.privateproperty.co.za a frustrating exercise, and have also increased our support capacity substantially.
One of the most effective amendments we made was to change the conversation around what makes a truly valuable portal partner, and thus moved from the measure of traffic to the measure of LEADS. It sounds like smoke and mirrors but this has made a huge difference to the way we think. Our entire design and marketing focus is now on delivering better quality leads in each area. And it is working. There is still much to do, but the results are exciting.
I am pleased to say that in October we beat almost every record that we measure but, most importantly, is that we delivered more than 500 000 leads to estate agents during the month. Multiplied by the volume of stock advertised on our website, this probably equates to around double what our nearest competitor would have delivered.
We are not perfect by any means, but see continually improving on this achievement as a worthwhile goal.
With wishes for a safe and happy holiday season.
Kind regards, Justin
