At the time of me writing this blog, Boris Johnson has announced lockdown will be officially ending on 2^nd December and the Tier system will be resuming.

I am sure I was not the only one who sighed and felt slightly depressed when it was announced we would be going into lockdown for November. For me it was a kick in the teeth, but I was determined to not let this lockdown affect the momentum we had gained as a team with new business. You have to be resilient and remain positive, not just at work but also at home. In the first lockdown morale was low for the whole country and at times there was no end in sight, but this time was different. Most companies had now adapted to the new norm, we had a proposed date for lockdown ending and Christmas was round the corner.

As a business we have been able to operate as normal thankfully, but with some limitations. For me the hardest part of this lockdown was not being able to meet new clients face to face over a coffee or some lunch. I am much better in person than I am over Teams/Zoom call, there is no personality to these calls, it is hard to click with someone and to be honest I find them awkward. I am not sure about you, but I have had half the ‘camera’ meetings compared to the first lockdown which has been great, but I have still been able to connect with new companies and discuss new business. In my opinion a good salesperson is able to adapt and overcome obstacles which get in the way of the end result for them.

One of the challenges for me as a land agent has been the postponing of meetings with landowners who are members of the public where it is not a priority for them to sell. Hopefully these meetings will now be rebooked for December, but some are not doing anything until the new year as Christmas is now 4 weeks away.

As a Land Team we have had a strong lockdown 2.0. We have exchanged on two deals, completed on a site and plenty of irons in the fire for other sites. Our Commercial team have also been able to perform as normal, agreed deals on stock which was sticking and a healthy amount of lease completions.

Overall, lockdown 2.0 has been better than the first, we now have three proposed vaccines and a cold pint of Birra Morretti in a pub seems possible. Hopefully, I don’t have to do another blog on lockdown again, but I wish all my friends in business and competitors a good end to the year!

Ben Howard, Land & Development Manager