By Paige Tepping
During RISMedia's recent webinar—"Avoiding the Squeeze: How to Stay Profitable Amidst Shrinking Margins"—panelists DeLisa Rose, broker/owner of eXp Realty; Paul Wells, broker/owner of RE/MAX of Barrington; and Stefan Peterson, chief data officer at zavvie, shared their tried-and-true tips for making agents more competitive and adding more value to win listings as the market continues to consolidate.
The webinar was sponsored by zavvie and moderated by Sherri Johnson, CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting.
Key Takeaways:
- Working with new entrants coming into the marketplace, including Power Buyers and iBuyers, can help brokerages deliver and monetize new ancillary services.
- If you're not talking to your customers about real estate, someone else is—and that's a great way to lose business.
- You can't have a top-heavy office. Growing the middle of your company is a great way to get more people doing more.
Here's What Our Esteemed Group of Panelists Had to Say:
"Stop doing the same old stuff that doesn’t work, and focus on the stuff that does work. We need to not just recruit hoping that the successful people will rise to the top, but helping the people we recruit to know the business, develop their skills and be able to be more productive. One thing I've done is opened up all the resources to our agents, and we operate as if we are one big team. And I'm really holding them accountable, not just to the work and being productive, but to what their life goals are." -DeLisa Rose, broker/owner, eXp Realty
"Remember that the first two hours of your business day are by far the most important. That's where the gold is made. If you don't focus and write down what's important first, and do it first in your day, it will not get done. And for your agents to do that, you have to practice. We talk about being proactive, but I reverse that around and say you have to be an active pro. You've got to get active in your agents' minds. The only way to do that is through contact. Emails don’t work. You have to call them. You have to write them personal, handwritten notes all the time." -Paul Wells, broker/owner, RE/MAX of Barrington
"An obvious approach that we've seen some of our broker partners use that's really paid off is focusing on the middle group. It's the largest group, and that's where you have the most headroom to see some gains in productivity. It's also the agents in that group who, on average, are more open to using new solutions. It's with this middle group that I think you have the most openness to try new solutions, especially among younger agents. You grow it from there—one agent at a time. Activate those agents, then generate revenue from the middle." -Stefan Peterson, chief data officer, zavvie
For more information on how to stay profitable amidst shrinking margins, check out the full webinar here.
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