You’re Not Competing with Other Agents

Because, in truth, you’re not just up against other agents. You’re being judged against every premium brand experience your client has ever had.

This is not a popularity contest within your postcode. It’s a credibility test conducted across categories. Your clients don’t silo their expectations. They don’t lower their standards simply because they’re buying or selling a house. Quite the opposite. Property is personal. It’s visceral. It’s one of the few remaining transactions where emotion and equity collide.

And that means your real competition isn’t the high street agent with better drone footage. It’s the lifestyle your client already leads.

Your clients dine at Soho House, holiday at the Rosewood, and shop with personal shoppers at Net-a-Porter. They drive a Range Rover that remembers their seat position and books its own service.

So when they engage with your agency, they’re not benchmarking you against other agents. They’re subconsciously comparing you to their private banker, concierge, and the seamless luxury apps that pre-empt their needs before they’ve even voiced them.

If your service feels templated, your brochure forgettable, and your communication sporadic, you don’t just look second-rate. You feel it. You become the weak link in an otherwise polished lifestyle.

Many agents fall into the trap of thinking brand is just a logo, a tagline, or a colour palette. In prime, brand is the emotional residue left behind after every interaction. It’s the tone of voice in your updates, the punctuality of your follow-ups, and the care in how you stage a hallway or narrate a viewing.

Your brand is not a veneer. It’s a throughline. And if it frays under scrutiny, so does your credibility.

If you’re presenting a £3 million home, but your pitch lacks the polish of a Bentley showroom or the grace of a Fortnum’s hamper, no matter how good your Rightmove listing is, you’re not delivering the standard your client expects. You’re breaking the spell.

Too often, agents see operations as something separate from the brand, the backstage mechanics that clients never see. But in prime, operations are brand. They are the delivery system of your promise.

Seamless onboarding. Proactive updates. Discreet problem-solving. These aren’t frills. They’re the invisible proof points that determine whether your client recommends you at dinner or quietly swears never again.

Discretion and delight go hand in hand when it comes to referrals in the upper quartile.

They’re not comparing you to other local agents. They compare you to their architect, art adviser, and wealth manager, who knows when the school fees are due. That’s the real benchmark.

So instead of obsessing over what the agent down the road is charging or how many Instagram followers they have, ask yourself: What would Breitling do? How would Amex Black handle this situation? What would Mr and Mrs Jones expect from their interior designer, their trusted solicitor, or their private office?

Then do that. With elegance. With consistency. With intent.

Because to your client, you’re not just an estate agent. You are either a seamless extension of their lifestyle or an unwelcome deviation from it.

Choose wisely.

Simon Leadbetter, Unchained.Marketing