It's a Small World After All!

It's a Small World After All!

Set amongst the world of Starbucks, Theme Parks, and stuffed Disney characters, you still couldn’t miss the 18,000 Realtors from across the globe at this year’s National Association of Realtors Convention (NAR) in Anaheim. Fiona Blayney, invited to speak at the Convention for a record fourth year in a row, gives us a wrap up of the event.

Each year tens of thousands of agents descend on a lucky destination to share ideas, meet new friends and reacquaint with old, filling their minds with the latest in technology, real estate trends, and leadership insights. For many, it is simply time to spend submerged in thinking about how they can improve for 2012.Armed with a swag of Australian colleagues we headed for the land of opportunity and discovered two truths: The land of opportunity is exactly that, and the land down under, should potentially be called the land on top.

With a full room for my session,“Property Management Bootcamp – Real Solutions Real Results”, our American friends agree, “Property Managers in Australia do it better”. Julie Ryan packed the house for her session Marketing without Money, to show the world how opportunities exist for everyone. 

After showing them how it’s done, what were my key takeaways from NAR 2011? What can we learn from businesses that have 80,000 agents in one group, or 200 realtors connected to one office? 

There are so many, some small ideas with big impacts; others need a grand master plan, here a few to get you thinking.

THE FINANCIAL BOX 

There is always one stand out presentation, and it will be different for everyone. This year mine was Michael Eisner (ex CEO of Disney), perhaps it comes down to the headspace that we are in, or the need for the message; it may simply be the “ideas” person in me. The basic underlying message for Michael Eisner was “Create a financial box”. The financial box is the constraint that you set for your business in terms of expenditure, and ensuring that no matter what you don’t go outside the box. 

Great ideas, Michael said, come often from the least amount of financial investment, get creative with your thinking, “Creativity doesn’t need to be constrained, but you do need strong fiscal discipline”. 

“Creativity doesn’t need to be constrained, but you do need strong fiscal discipline”.

FIND YOUR NICHE?

With 100’s of thousands of Realtors across the US, you can only imagine how important it is to build relationships and gain a clear point of difference. With this in mind, I stumbled across agents, who had carved out a complete niche within their own market, one agent “Valerie”, had carved out an individual niche within her brand of “luxury” across all property styles. In support of her “niche”, Valerie had created supporting materials to reinforce her position as leader in this field including a micro site, published book, YouTube channel, Social Media pages, blog, and international referral partners. Taking ownership of a niche like this, or specialising even further like “Colleen” who transacts properties for professional athletes, creates a serious unique point of difference in a very competitive market.

CONFRONTATION WITH REALITY 

David Knox is a well-known favourite of many an Australian agent, this year his message to confront reality is as important as ever. As many clients see a shift in the market and a need for sales agents to step it up a gear in marketing, prospecting and building relationships, so too is it necessary for “managers” to step up the reality discussions. 

Quite often, the best conversations we can have in our business are those that come with a “reality check” followed by a “30 day plan”. Planning, with small achievable actions, allow the individual to have small wins whilst working towards a bigger goal, and the manager has the ability to maintain clear accountability. 

Ensure that everyone knows what will happen at the end of day 30, if we haven’t taken the steps, or we haven’t achieved the goal. Check in daily!

RE-RECRUITING 

How often do you recruit your current team? Do you recruit them once, and expect them to stay for years to come? Reflect on the “courting” stage of a prospective recruit, how were they treated pre-employment? What did they experience for the first 30, 60, 90, 180 days? How did it change?

Caring about the people in your organisation is prevalent when retaining your team, helping them to grow, creating a healthy, ethical environment and leading by example, were high on the hit list of both Michael Eisner and Richard Flint this year. Look after the people you have! 

DATA, DATA, DATA

As we continue in the age of communication, where some consider the level of personal success by the number of “friends” you have, I finish by asking you to review your most valuable saleable asset – your data! What is the size, quality, and frequency of communication to your database, your company “friends”. You can spend endless amounts of money on finding contacts with properties to sell and lease, but once you have them, how do you keep them? 

With the NAR expo containing hundreds of exhibitors, there was an endless supply of paraphernalia available to send / email / Facebook/ MMS to would-be clients – but what’s the point in having all the toys, when you have no one to play with?

As we continue in the age of communication, where some consider the level of personal success by the number of “friends” you have, I finish by asking you to review your most valuable saleable asset – your data.

With a list of websites to visit, Facebook friends to make, businesses to “research”, I still find being submerged for four days allowed me to created my list of 40 must dos and a swag of “nice to do’s”. What about the agents from the “land on top”?Maybe we will one day see 18,000 agents at AREC and ARPM, so we can show them what is possible in the “land of opportunity”.  

Fiona Blayney is the Director of Blayney Potential Plus, a Business Consulting Coaching & Training Company specialising in the Strategic Planning and Growth for Property Management businesses and their teams.  Fiona is the author of Property Management Bootcamp, plus top selling training materials such as Growing Inside Out and Communication Concepts for winning and maintaining business.  For more information visit www.blayneypotentialplus.com.