The silence tax
Ask an agent why a deal died and you will hear about rejections: the buyer chose another property, the seller went with a cheaper agency, the offer was too low. But pull up the same agent’s phone and look at the pipeline honestly, and you will find something different. Most deals in Dubai do not die from a no. They die from silence. The buyer who said “not yet” in March and never heard from the agent again. The landlord who said “after the summer” and got no call in September. The viewing that went well, followed by nothing.
I call this the Silence Tax: the commission you lose every month purely because the conversation stopped. And unlike the market, DLD fees or your split, this tax is entirely optional.
Why agents stop chasing
Fear dressed up as politeness. “I do not want to be pushy” is the most expensive sentence in this industry. Here is the reframe that 23 years of deals has proven to me: professional persistence is not pressure, it is service. The buyer who said not yet has a life that changes. Rents rise, families grow, salaries improve, and the agent who stayed politely in touch is the one who gets the call when “not yet” becomes “now”. Being forgotten helps nobody, including the client.
What a real follow-up system looks like
Not “I will try to remember.” A system: every no, not-yet, and quiet lead gets a next-action date in your CRM or even a simple spreadsheet before you close the file. The cadence I teach is straightforward: a value touch within 48 hours (send the thing you promised, a comparable, a market note), a check-in at one week, then a rhythm of every two to three weeks with something useful attached, never just “checking in”. Rotate the reason: a new listing, a price movement in their building, a market update, a question. Twenty deliberate follow-ups a day means nothing in your pipeline ever goes cold by accident.
The maths that should scare you
Most agents stop after two attempts, while most conversions in a considered purchase happen after the fifth contact. Sit with that. The majority of agents are exiting the race before the point where most of the prizes are handed out. In a market as competitive as Dubai, this is the quietest edge available: simply still be there at attempt six.
Silence is the only competitor that never sleeps, never discounts and never loses interest. Stop paying it.
My online courses cover the full follow-up cadence, scripts included, from AED 147. And if your pipeline is full of quiet leads right now, book a free strategy call and we will look at it together.
Want a second opinion on your numbers?
Book a free 30 minute call with Ashley. No pitch, just the numbers and what to do next.
Or start here: Winning Listings, the listings course.
Ashley J Hawthorne is the founder of Your Real Estate COO and Managing Director of a Dubai brokerage, with 23 years in real estate across the UK and Dubai and nine industry awards. More about Ashley.
