In a recent post I waxed on about the type of agents I would recruit if I started a brokerage.
As someone who believes branding results from the conscious decisions you make about what you want the world to remember about you, well, I’d create something memorable. And a brokerage filled with salespeople isn’t memorable. It’s commonplace.
So why duplicate that?
Especially when it appears that isn’t working out for most brokers.
But how?
I’d know my target customer. I’d understand their pain points. I’d offer simple, clear solutions for them. I’d operate from a set of core values and weigh every decision against them. I’d never waiver. I’d obsess on how those values are made manifest across every touchpoint – digital, terrestrial and interpersonal. My agents would abide by that commitment from day one.
Now mind you, until these things are practiced like a religion they are, well, just things. Brands are created when peoples’ perceptions, interpretations, thoughts, gut feelings, and beliefs are in line with with a company’s vision of itself.
Then I’d let lose with many of ideas I’ve had over the years. Infuse some flair mixed with a little eccentricity. Just enough to push the envelope. To innovate. To attract people who are cut from a different cloth.
Here are some of the things I’m thinking about:
My eccentricity would force me to design the most amazing restroom space imaginable. Web connected touchscreen in the wall. Smart phone recharger. Electronic TP dispensers. High-end toiletries on the counter. A room people will talk about. A touch of kindness in a place most companies ignore. I’d also tackle the age-old yard sign and try to get Jonathan Paul Ive to design something breathtaking. People talk. My brokerage will give people something to spread around.
I’d master the social web and create digital assets laser focused on educating and captivating my marketplace. I’d generate leads, which I’d send to my agents based solely on finding the best match between agent and client, not how much I could profit from the distribution.
Customer service would be paramount. Think Four Seasons. We would offer a comprehensive set of post-closing services and benefits that would leave competing brokerages standing at the end of the exit ramp with a cardboard sign. Birthday cards? Give me a break. I’d (in tandem with the agent) make donations every year on behalf of each client on their birthday – to a cause that matters to them.
My commitment to my agents will run deep. I will attend to their continued education. Not on the things they should already know, like how to use a computer or how to write capably. The ones who need help with those things can work for the other guy. My agents will know how to price homes to sell. And how to turn down a listing if the seller thinks they know better than we do. When the best conferences in real estate take place, I’ll send my agents on my dime. My agents will be at least three years ahead of the competition.
My brokerage will master its marketing. Online, offline, there’s not a platform I won’t own.
Grandiose? Sure. That’s what it takes. I’ve been there before. And done that.
How does it pencil you ask? It pencils because as the broker I will deliver value: a brand that means something, principles that guide action, a marvelous experience and marketing support, training and technology that don’t suck.
I will know everything there is to know about everything
My brokerage would have one goal in mind: to be so different, so special, so obviously better, that we don’t run neck and neck in market share with everyone else year after year.
Our profits would be invested wisely and not squandered on insane splits with “top producers” and ball-and-chain vendors pimping inferior products. As the owner, I will know everything there is to know about every thing I could get my mind around. Intellectual curiosity is underrated in our business.
If I recruit young and inexperienced agents, they will mentor with the veterans for one solid year before they call a single closing their own. And I’d make that clear in my public messaging because when I tell consumers that real estate is the most important transaction they will ever execute, I want them to know I really mean it. And honor it.
My brand will not be built on a promise.
It will be built on a promise kept.
Every single time.
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A mist of difference
“Brands are created when peoples’ perceptions, interpretations, thoughts, gut feelings, and beliefs are in line with with a company’s vision of itself.”
“My agents will know how to price homes to sell. And how to turn down a listing if the seller thinks they know better than we do.”
“Our profits would be invested wisely and not squandered on insane splits with “top producers” and ball-and-chain vendors pimping inferior products.”
“Intellectual curiosity is underrated in our business.”
“If I recruit young and inexperienced agents, they will mentor with the veterans for one solid year before they call a single closing their own.”
Insightful and well thought as usual- BRAVO!
“My brokerage would have one goal in mind: to be so different, so special, so obviously better, that we don’t run neck and neck in market share with everyone else year after year.
Our profits would be invested wisely and not squandered on insane splits with “top producers” and ball-and-chain vendors pimping inferior products. As the owner, I will know everything there is to know about every thing I could get my mind around. Intellectual curiosity is underrated in our business.”
Have you calculated what the premium you would need to charge would be in order to justify the extra cost you’d incur for being so different?
Differentiators rely on price premium over and above the cost of differentiating. I’m not yet convinced that the consumer would pay the premium.
-rsh
“I’d master the social web and create digital assets laser focused on educating and captivating my marketplace.”
OMG If I didn’t think the world of you before I would totally do so now!I don’t know how I could be more enamored of your mind
“My agents will know how to price homes to sell. And how to turn down a listing if the seller thinks they know better than we do.”
Actually – my agents do know this and do this – but it is so key and so often ignored when people talk about brokerage models that I applaud you for making it part of your piece.
“Our profits would be invested wisely and not squandered on insane splits with “top producers” and ball-and-chain vendors pimping inferior products.
Please note ladies and gentlemen the skill with which the veil is pierced and the truth is revealed – and the truth as we all know shall set you free! – During the last recession there was a cartoon circulated through local real estate offices that said “Dear God, Please give me one more Boom and I promise I won’t P*ss it away”. I guess only a few of us read it
Let me know when we open…(I really want to see the bathroom completed and the sign design)
Thanks for the question.
No, I have not calculated any premium charges and feel there is really no reason to do so given my penchant to over deliver and under charge – a ethos of mine that has proven itself time and time again over the past 30 years, several very successful companies and a comfortable life.
Personally, I view the current percentage of 6-7% charged to the consumer as premium having been a consumer in dozens of real estate transactions. Some of the checks I’ve cut for real estate services have been considerable for a job that was far less than. So the problem as I see it is not the revenue it’s a) the services rendered that need to be increased b) the splits c) how a brokerage manages its earnings.
This post is about ideas. Insights. Expanding the boundaries of what a brokerage is and what it can evolve into if it so desired. It’s about making a difference. Building something special in the marketplace. A business that people respect. And want to hire for services by the masses.
There’s enough money being made from the current formula to make everyone happy and paid for a job well done if distributed with wisdom and fairness. The problems arrises when “greedy” is thread through the model by a shortsighted needle.
That is the brokerage I have been looking for.
“There’s enough money being made from the current formula to make everyone happy and paid for a job well done if distributed with wisdom and fairness. The problems arrises when “greedy” is thread through the model by a shortsighted needle.”
I have been pondering this thought for the last couple of years. I opened my brokerage about 8 months ago. I have yet to hire any agents because I do not believe in the traditional brokerage model.
I believe that to have a successful company we need to get away from the whole “agent is an independent contractor” mindset. Not only is it, IMHO, the cause of the general public looking down on our industry, it is impossible to run a successful BUSINESS when you have 100 people running around out to protecting their own interests, building their own brand, and believing that they are their own boss with no one to answer to.
I say put all the agents on the payroll so you can control their activities, assign territories, and make them have some accountability. AFAIK, the real estate business is the only industry that has the independent contractor exemption for salespeople and it was only put into place so that brokers wouldn’t have to pay payroll taxes and insurance on non-producing agents.
Pay them a flat fee for each closed transaction so the client doesn’t have to worry that they are being up-sold on something to pad the agent’s pocket. Give a bonus if they brought the client into the brokerage.
Mandatory training, required 1 year apprenticeship for new licensees, and require that all salespersons obtain their broker’s license within 3 years. I would cover the costs of the required coursework if they sign an employment contract agreeing to stay with the company for at least 3 years after obtaining their broker license.
I’m sure there’s more, but these are some thoughts that have been rolling around in my mind as I think about trying to grow the business or just stay a mom-and-pop shop.
Marc,
Consider this my plea for you to continue to put “pen to paper” on the Davison Realty model. You are tossing out some serious ideas for industry leaders to chew on.
-A fan
Perfect Marc.
Forms of this type of brokerage are out there already, I see it in bits and pieces. Thanks for keeping the spotlight on it.
[...] Brokers: embrace difference, love the eccentric – Marc Davison of 1000watt Consulting talks about what he would do if he was a broker, right down [...]
Marc,
Hello from up in the Great White North! Great post, and great food for thought. The industry is constantly cheapened by bad agents collecting premium commissions. People want options, and there are better ways to run a business and still turn a profit while working towards overall positive public perception (which obviously has not existed for some time now).
Great suggestions, let’s see what the innovators can spawn from them!
OK, got to go. Glad I could help.
[...] Brokers: embrace difference, love the eccentric by Marc Davison at 1000Watt Consulting [...]
Great Ideas!
Real estate need a Purple Cow!