What a mixed bag of comments we hear in today’s real estate world of professionals. Some say it is a slow or sluggish time and others say they are looking to add a buyer’s agent(s) to work inquiries the agent can not get to.
There are two categories of thought with our “belt tightening” mentality in our brokerage offices. The first one is the easy one that comes out of the accountant’s mouth, “you must cut your expenses”. This recommendation doesn’t require you to be a CPA or have a degree in accounting to know it helps to practice this activity in a crunch; however, it is not the best focus. It is not the best focus for a number of reasons.
Putting out the memo or edict of cutting expenses is a negative thought process that goes into the owner’s brain and is repeated or observed by the members of the office family. It brings on negative comments such as, “well, what will be cut first, our receptionist or the extra ink pins?” People start thinking in the down, negative mode and wondering if not verbalizing “how does this affect me and my family”? All thoughts tend to be on the survivor mode level and not the upbeat sales mode that is 100% necessary for a brokerage to survive and thrive.
The focus I suggest for a sluggish period in your business is to focus on increasing market share and generating more revenue. This is the time for contests in the office for upbeat, competitive, healthy focus on increasing your company’s market share. Your family of agents are putting revenue generating thoughts into their focus all day long which indeed will surpass any savings realized from firing the receptionist. The team and management are encouraging each other on what new listings, leases, pending sales, closed sales, prospects, outgoing referrals they generated over a 2 week, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual, period of time. The best contests are those that are “tracked” on a short term basis to keep the momentum going strong. Openly complimenting the leader in the contest as the contest progresses keeps the leader focused on winning or “generating revenue” while keeping other office agents engaged in the competition of the contest.
The true outcome of a positive focus on market share occurs as the market “continues its upswing”. Your company acquires market share to generate revenue that surpasses previous years. Your company is now positioned for great successes. Those looking on the outside will say, “you are very lucky to get through the downturn and be positioned so strongly”. You know that you created your own luck through focusing on growth during those years.
