Business Planning (submission - needs most changes really)

Question 1

How does your firm market itself using a range of marketing and promotion techniques?

Answer 1

• Television, media and social media adverts
• Sponsorship of clubs/sports teams
• Hosting promotional events
• Word of mouth
• Research publications

Question 2

How do you contribute to business planning within your company? SAMPLE Q - COULD USE.

Answer 2

• By preparing responses to invitations to tender.
• I took part in a tender interview for Project Management services for development works at the Britannia Leisure centre, Hackney .

Question 3

What performance measurement techniques have you used in your work? SAMPLE Q - COULD USE.

Answer 3

I understand the importance of the performance appraisal process to set short, medium and long term
targets for myself and how I fit in with the wider targets of the department and business.

Question 4

Tell me about some cross-selling you have done? SAMPLE Q - COULD USE

Answer 4

Although I have not directly cross-sold services within the firm, our department have recently cross-sold
building surveying services for a number of large transaction instructions for schedules of condition and this is something that is a focus for our team.

Question 5

What would you put in a business plan? (got in L1 Qs I think)

Answer 5

.

Question 6

What are your employer’s business objectives, key revenue streams and future plans? /
What is your firms vision? /
What is your firm’s business strategy? /
What are the business objectives of your company? / What risks does your firm face? /
What opportunities does your firm face? /
What can you tell me about you firm’s business plan and corporate objectives?

Answer 6

• Business objectives and future plans:
  o Currently, in difficult market conditions:
   Move towards paperless office, for sustainability and reduce physical space requirements.
   More working from home and hot desking – reduce overheads, provide greater flexibility to employees, be well placed for any future pandemic scenario
   Seeking more agency clients in industrial sector, moving away from retail due to sudden market changes.
   Greater integration of departments, to provide a better service to our existing clients and to generate greater fees for firm.
   Looking for valuation work which is lower risk and in our specialist areas, thereby generating the highest fees and lowest risk liability in period where PII premiums are increasing.
  /
  To be the real estate adviser of choice in the markets they serve. They did not wish to be the biggest, just the best (as judged by our clients)
  /
  Aim to increase the revenues from lower-margin, non-transactional business lines such as property management, in order to improve the overall resilience of the business during economic downturns
  /
  • To develop and grow the business sustainably in the sectors:

o Commercial
o Sports & leisure
• Retain existing and gain new clients
• Retain and train staff
• Grow team to support senior members of staff
/
• Threat of COVID-19 impacting on transaction volumes in the Real Estate sector
• Disruptors in the industry e.g. Purple Bricks
/
• Business is relatively small across continental Europe and there is the opportunity to grow market share
• Founded new subsidiaries to keep pace with the changing nature of the market e.g. Workthere
• Aiming to be a market leader by creating a database to store commercial property information and provide unrivaled insights
/
To improve efficiencies, introduce hot-desking and improve sustainability. In my sector, to integrate fully as
a national team with a national P&L.

Question 7

Why is BP crucial for enhancing productivity and business growth? / How can you improve business efficiency?

Answer 7

Team understands goals etc.
Revisit if not clear from Level 1 Qs.

Within our department we have regular work in progress meetings to understand what each person is
working on and to allocate the correct resources to each job. We also liaise whether additional support is
needed on particular jobs to pull together to ensure that jobs are completed to a quick timeframe and can
be billed within a short amount of time.

Question 8

What do you contribute to and analyse in monthly meetings? / What can you tell me about steps your firm takes to analyse business performance? / What business planning have you done during your training? / What happens in your business development meetings and why are these important?

Answer 8

• Consider our annual business targets and discuss timescales and fees for completed, ongoing and new instructions – for instance identified agency, particularly investment agency, was not performing as well as previously, therefore seeking more clients in industrial sector.
• L&T work decreasing fee YoY, more commercial and residential valuation work.
• Identifying opportunities including cross-selling initiatives and clients to target – i.e. for new agency instructions can identify if EPC is required, or for properties we manage can identify potential asset management opportunities (RRs/LRs) that could be undertaken by leasehold advisory team.
  /
  Each teams P&L are analysed against targets. Each office has targets to reduce costs for the region to
  improve business efficiency.
  /
  I am involved with both regional and departmental business planning updates, with regular meetings to
  discuss work in progress and targets. We also have regular team meetings to discuss target lists and business developments as well as personal development through the appraisal process.
  /
  We discuss current performance against targets, the allocation of workload and business generation.