Why we like favours
One of the big benefits of networking is accruing friends in every industry. Someone we can turn to and get quick answers to easy questions.
Favours are invaluable. Asking a knowledgeable friend or associate to sit and talk about an issue, getting their viewpoint and input can transform your business.
(And if you read our Ultimate Guide to Property Networking eBook, you’ll have seen that favours can actually be a secret weapon in networking)
But a lot of times, favours are unnecessary. Especially when you could get the answer yourself.
You get what you pay for
Let’s say you see a site with some potential. You need to move fast (and want to save some money). But it’s fine – you know someone who works as an estate agent. So you give them a call and get a rough idea for a £/sqft value. No fuss.
The reality?
That someone had 15 other calls from “mates” that week.
When you ask someone for a “quick favour” they have three choices:
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Drop their paying clients to look into the data and find you a number
In a perfect world, that’s what we hope is happening. But you aren’t paying them.
No matter how much they like you, the paying customer comes first. (After all, would you like the people you’re paying dropping your work to help out a mate?)
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Tell you honestly that they’re too busy to look into it
Honesty is the best policy, but… there’s a line. It’s a bit rude to just say “sorry, I’m busy.” And after all, they do like you.
While in the long run, this might be the best option, there’s another path they’re likely to pick. One of even less resistance.
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They give you a ball-park figure
They want to be helpful. And they want to keep you sweet (who knows, they might get an instruction from you in the future). So they come up with a vague number.
“Yeah, it’s between £600-£750 per square foot”.
That’s a difference of 25% – which could be the difference between profit and loss.
Favours aren’t inherently bad, wasting them certainly is.
I don’t want to sound like you should never help someone, or never ask for help. Sometimes you need the favour.
My point is this – should you really waste a favour on something you can find out for yourself? And get a more accurate answer for?
Do you know what’s better than favours? Insights.
Instead of relying on the time and goodwill of your network why not get the answers yourself?
Get a system that lets you find the data you need, when you need it, all without calling in favours.
A system that lets you get a more reliable number, faster.
A system like LandInsight.
Find answers for yourself
Let’s run through that £/sqft example again.
You find a site. You want to know the £/sqft. But instead of calling in a favour, you simply run a search, drop the figure into your appraisal tool, and find a more reliable answer in seconds.
In fact, here’s what it looks like:
Reliable data, almost instantly. It’s even faster than picking up the phone.
And it means you can save those favours for the stuff that really matters.
Interested in finding out more about how LandInsight can help you?
Let’s talk.