Cause & Effect

April 2020 – A Personal Account

It’s clear that for every negative change being thrust upon us in this unsure world, there is also a positive one. It’s simple cause & effect at play.

It’s almost the end of April and I’ve taken a step back from my role as Head of Innovation & Marketing for a mid-sized independent real estate agency in Sydney due to the impact Corona Virus is having on the business. Not by choice, mind you – they’re absolutely terrified about what might happen if this lock-down scenario continues for much longer or worse still, gets more strict than it already is.

Can I blame them? Yes and no. I totally get that the prospect of a heavily reduced revenue stream over the next few months (or longer) is scary but I also don’t believe the right thing to do is reduce resources to the point that it becomes difficult to act appropriately when opportunities come into play. And in this environment, opportunities abound! It’s those companies, which truly think outside the square and push forward into new areas without relying on “old faithful’s” to fall-back on, that will prosper in the mid-to-long term.

When I started with the business 2 years ago, I quickly learned that its people have amazing person-to-person sales techniques taught by prime Director, Steven Devine, who is well known for his ability to teach second-to-none negotiation tactics and is a master salesman himself. They were, however, lacking in some areas where I could bring great benefits – primarily technology and business efficiency systems. So, over the course of my time there I set about improving these aspects and turned the business into an industry-leading, forward-thinking, nimble operation, that has seen sales & marketing processes streamlined, reducing marketing spend (by 6 figure numbers) and still grow brand reach & effectives throughout a difficult period in real estate – the 2018/19 property downturn.

The company came out of that down-turn with amazing prospects through the last quarter of 2019 and first quarter of 2020 – breaking all kinds of sales & leasing records with a big reduction in on-going marketing-related costs.

What happened next no one could have foretold…

Covid-19 took grip of the world’s economy and in a matter of just one month, the powers that be concluded that they were no longer going to invest in innovation, regardless of the gains and opportunities it brought to the business in the time I was at the helm. Instead they were going to consolidate, constrict and re-purpose to the point of “hibernation”.

So, for me, whilst I am no longer directly employed by this business, I am now a free agent and able to help others – cause & effect.

It is for this reason, I am writing this article. To give other people, near and far, some hope that there are opportunities in this current climate and also to show businesses what I am capable of – to continue to build my own.

I have amassed a wealth of experience over my 23 years since finishing school and I’m in that sweet-spot generation (Gen-X) that totally understands the power of tech but also knows how to get things done, old school. For what it’s worth, I’m also double-degree qualified in both Marketing and IT.

Here is a short list of some of the areas I can be of use to your business:

• Streamline Sales & Marketing systems & processes to reduce costs & increase efficiencies
• Brand Marketing to maintain or improve relevance and appeal
• Digital & Social Media Marketing Plan to increase reach, engagement and ROI
• Content Development & Management for Digital & Social Media
• CRM/Database System development and integration
• Information Systems & IT Help – Mac/PC, iPhone/iPad/Android, Software & Hardware
• Content Development – Advanced Graphic Design, Copywriting & Basic Video Shoot + Edit, Websites
• Analysis of current activity and marketing sources to work out where to spend money to make money (ROI)
• Sales/Marketing Department Budget Analysis
• Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligent Systems, Automation – You know you want this stuff, you just have no idea how to make it work for your business!

If you’ve read any of the above points and said, “I want that but I don’t know how to make it happen” or if you’ve had to let go some or all of your marketing people to keep costs down but still have an eye on what’s next then contact me.

Regards,
Sascha Percuoco