Lee Dahill, Director of Sales for the Today publications and The ValPal Network

Who are you?

I’m the Director of Sales for both the well-known industry leading Today publications and The ValPal Network.

Leading publications: Estate Agent Today, Letting Agent Today, Landlord Today, Property Investor Today and Introducer Today.

The ValPal Network: generates vendor and landlord leads for agents through lead conversion tools, Google PPC, social media, bespoke content and design.  

What does it say on your business card?

Director of Sales and Brand Management

How do you help industry suppliers to partner with estate and letting agents?

One of the areas I use to help clients make connections with agents is via advertising on the very publication this interview is being published in as it offers a great platform to raise your profile to the industry.

I have outlined some other areas below that I recommend to my clients. As with all good marketing campaigns, it’s important to have multiple touchpoints so you appear to be everywhere and not reliant on one source:

• Advertising in the publications, using smart marketing techniques

• Outbound calling activity to complement advertising activity

• PR

• Google PPC

• Social media

• Bespoke content

• Design

What are the best ways for suppliers to raise their brand profile to agents?

By having a conversation with me or my team – only playing, that was too easy!

If you’re starting out on really low budget, you’ll want to utilise the resources you have in-house. For example, cold calling, running your own Google PPC and Facebook Ad campaigns until you have built up enough revenue to launch a heavier hitting campaign.

If you’re ready to raise your profile through a heavier hitting campaign, I like to recommend the below three areas to my clients as a good starting point:

• Advertising in the Today publications, using smart marketing techniques

• Outbound calling activity to complement advertising activity

• Public relations to position yourself as an industry expert, building trust and allowing you to wave your flag in a different way to advertising

Don’t just take my word for it. Watch this video testimonial from amazing automated rental payment platform PayProp to see how it all works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYQhKksDzVk

What is your greatest achievement in your current role and what made it so special?

I can’t narrow that down to one thing, it’s just too hard. So, I have made a top five highlight reel, in no particular order so I don’t get in trouble with any of my clients!

1. Being involved in the launch of Fixflo to the UK market. This is an amazing product and Raj (MD) isn’t too bad either! The reason this is so special to me is because it was very early on in my career in the property industry and for Raj to trust me as much as he did, it meant a lot and I will never forget that.  

2. Nick Lyons at No Letting Go allowing me to come on board the team. He was my first ever client and over eight years later we are still working together.

3. Being involved with PayProp’s UK marketing drive from the early stages (since 2015, Neil, can you believe that? How have you put up with me?) as I love knowing my involvement in a company creates growth – PayProp are huge now.

4. Working with Zoopla as their ability to promote so many brands to the industry keeps the partnership evolving and planning the marketing activity with the team is great as we’re able to be so creative.

5. Being back in partnership with Virgin Media as they always make me feel like I’m part of their team, which allows me to perform better as I have deeper understanding of what is trying to be accomplished.

What is the most satisfying part of your job?

Being accepted by a client to join their team and being able to bring the whole Angels Media family on board.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing property industry suppliers at the moment?

1. Tenant fee ban

2. Brexit

However, I do believe there are several solutions to help agents to combat the tenant fee ban:

Tenant fee ban:

Talk to every supplier that is advertising they can generate additional revenue for you.

Whether that is:

• Building on the service you already provide, so you can justify a price increase to your landlords

• Receiving a clip of revenue through Phone, TV, Broadband, utilities etc.

I'm not saying this is going to replace all the revenue, but these are just a few ideas which are good starting point for you to build on.

Brexit:

I try not to focus on all the negativity surrounding the subject. Instead, I stay positive and am willing to work twice as hard for the same result (I write this on a Sunday afternoon with only a few days off so far in 2019).

Country house or city apartment?

As I live in West Malling, I have to stay true to my roots and choose country house.

Trendy roof terrace or traditional English garden?

English Garden. I love sitting out on the decking with my wife in the summer.

Would you rather be a free-moving tenant or settled owner occupier?

Settled home owner. I like to set myself up with a base and then build on it until I’m ready to move onto the next bigger adventure.

What is your favourite room in your home?

The kitchen-diner as this doubles up as my office on the weekends.

Homes under the Hammer or Location, Location, Location?

Sorry, Phil, but I have to choose Dion Dublin every time. I hope you don’t bring this up with me at the ESTAS!