Sawyer & Co: Winning streak

Andrew Kay talks to Chris Sawyer & Adam Farrell of Sawyer & Co about being awarded the prestigious Guild of Professional Estate Agents award

It’s over 12 years since I started to write for Latest Homes. Back then I was pretty new to the whole estate agency thing and, like so many people, I had preconceived ideas of what kind of people estate agents would be. I know, so very wrong of me to prejudge, but we can all be guilty of that kind of mistake, and I have to confess I was very, very wrong.

Over the course of those years I have learnt that those preconceptions are today pretty rare and that estate agents are, for the main part, a rather nice bunch. Well why wouldn’t they be? In a very competitive market, being nice has to come high on the list of essentials. These days I count a great many agents as friends and even more as valued work colleagues.

So when a call came through asking me to go out and talk to the team at Sawyer & Co about what they have been doing I saw it as a great opportunity to see friends and catch up with their latest news.

Chris Sawyer and Adam Farrell are good company and they run a good company too. I went down to their prestigious Church Road office in Central Hove to catch up on their news and get their views on the current market.

The hot news is that they have just been given a very much coveted award by The Guild of Professional Estate Agents. The Silver Award Winner is for Estate Agent member of the year 2013 in the Southern Region and they showed it to me with deserved pride.

A winning submission
To win, the team had to make a written submission answering a lot of questions that probe the standard of the service they offer and their commitment to the business of estate agency and upholding those standards.

“We were asked to summarise our current market position. They were extremely impressed with both offices’ market share in terms of properties sold, but they were also impressed by other key performance indicators such as time on market and sale fall through rates, which were well below the national average. We have also seen the quality of our instructions improve, fees have increased and we strengthened our position in the ‘prestige’ market. We are very proud that our average time on market is better than any of our main competitors.”

Getting results
“We are known as a company who get results,” Adam continues. “We won’t over promise on valuations. We carry out meticulous preparation for valuations so that clients can be confident that our advice is based on fact and not “hot air”. We are so confident about securing the trust and confidence of our clients, we are also happy to work on a no tie in period basis.”

Chris adds: “Not only has our Portslade office maintained its position as the number one agent for property sales in Portslade for 2013, we have done it by a considerable margin!” The Judges were able to scrutinise Sawyer & Co’s market share and performance by using data supplied by an independent company called Vizzihome.

Never rest on your laurels
“We never rest on our laurels though, and continue to improve. The improvements we have made in the last 12 months have further strengthened our position as market leaders. The average time on the market for the Portslade office is six weeks – an improvement on last year. This is an outstanding average which is a testament to the pro-active approach of our company.” They go on to tell me that the whole team have now passed the Guild’s Associate Scheme and that they are all expected to undertake inhouse training and to meet with other business professionals in related fields.

“Making sure that we are all up to date in every aspect of what we do is very important to us and the way that we operate,” says Adam.

“Moving our Hove office to its new location on the corner of Grand Avenue and Church Road has been an important part of our recent success. It provided us the extra space we needed to hire more staff to cope with an ever expanding business and this premier location has been great for promoting our brand. This is why we were happy to sign a 12 year lease.”

New ideas
“The Guild also looks at any new ideas that we have applied and rewards us for being innovative in our business and our marketing ideas. I think they liked our branded ice scrapers that we got up at the crack of dawn to put under the windscreen wipers of local cars when the frost was really bad.They also loved our idea of giving out Sawyer & Co umbrellas to passers-by on rainy days!”

They go on to tell me about their continued involvement in local groups, their sponsorship of school sports teams, their commitment to advertising, editorial promotions and working closely with other local businesses.

So what other factors do they think led to them being given this prestigious award? “We care deeply about our business and our profession,” says Adam. “We work tirelessly to be the best firm we can.”

A superb team
“We are proud to have assembled a superb team, half of whom have worked for us for nearly a decade. Our staff are valued, and share our vision for Sawyer & Co. In a different company many of our experienced staff would have left to pursue branch manager position. We have kept these staff by making them feel valued, that they have a voice and contribution to make in how Sawyer & Co evolves.

“Regular training and appraisals help to keep everyone fully engaged. All our ombudsman reports have been outstanding with our clients giving us an average mark of 9.6 out of 10 for customer service, and 97% of clients saying they would recommend Sawyer & Co to friends and family. We also receive glowing reviews on the independent review site ‘Allagents.co.uk.”

“My sincere congratulations go to Sawyer & Co who should be very proud of winning this hard-fought and prestigious award” – Marcus Whewell, CEO of The Guild of Professional Estate Agents

Marcus Whewell, CEO of The Guild of Professional Estate Agents, said: “It is my honour and privilege to be able to celebrate the outstanding achievements of our member agents, who are great ambassadors for The Guild and the industry. The quality of award entries this year was the highest ever, indicating how our organisation is moving forward and assisting its agents to give a truly outstanding service. My sincere congratulations go to Sawyer & Co who should be very proud of winning this prestigious award.”

Professionalism & integrity
“Our company is known for its professionalism and integrity,” says Chris. “In addition to being a member of the Guild, we are an Association of Residential Letting Agents [ARLA] & National Association of Estate Agents [NAEA] licensed agent, a member of the Property Ombudsman – Lettings, Sales & Block Management, and a member of the Brighton & Hove Estate Agents Association.

“Winning this award is a great achievement for this special group of people. I believe that it will spur us on to keep improving year on year.

“We are proud to be members of the Guild and the Relocation Agent Network. Membership of these organisations allow us to market our clients properties via a UK wide network of offices. This is especially important for the London market. We are associated with around 120 offices in London including our associated office on Park Lane, Mayfair. We hold regular Exhibitions from the Park Lane office which promote the Brighton & Hove lifestyle and all the city can offer together with our clients’ properties.

So things are good at Sawyer & Co, their market presence is increasing, their public image is good and their staff are a happy band. 2013 is already a good year, figures are up and show signs of continuing to rise and their commitment is stronger than ever.

Fitting the bill

A client of the company and friend of the business recently called Chris and Adam and offered them an opportunity to acquire a prominent billboard outside Hove Station. “We leapt at the opportunity but we were determined to do something special. A very happy client who is an artist had been in to see us and had painted a great picture of our Hove office and building.

It was obvious to us that this was the image to use and Amanda Davidson’s painting now forms the heart of our new hoarding which, when in place, will look so good and so different from what any other agent is doing. We like that, being different has certainly helped us to get noticed and the painting and site is already having an effect.”

A new member of the team

Chris and Adam are delighted that the team has a new member, Natasha Dunk. With such a solid record of retaining staff, Sawyer & Co are delighted that they have expanded. Natasha already has estate agency experience but her main focus will be on marketing and embracing the increasingly valuable field of social networking.

Sawyer & Co Hove,
52 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2FN
Sales: 01273 989062
Lettings: 01273 989063
Portslade Office, 10 Station Road,
Portslade, BN41 1GA
Sales: 01273 989088