Archive for the 'Being a Business Owner' Category
How and why has Allens Goode Leith Realty Limited just made the most important business decision in its 13 year history? That decision being: Our independent three office Northland organisation with consistent residential market share in our selling district of between 25 and 35% joining forces with the Ray White Group and, as of early October 2011, becoming Ray White Allens.
It all started early this year when an opportunity to purchase the existing Ray White Whangarei business was presented to the directors. That purchase would gain us a rental roll of around 70 good quality properties and the chance to encourage 11 experienced sales professionals to join the Allens team. At this point there was no inclination or consideration of joining the Ray White, or any other, franchise. As negotiations continued it became obvious to the directors that the selling licensee was very enthusiastic about the features and benefits offered by the franchise. Although still not seriously considering this option, we made a decision to meet the CEO of the New Zealand group, Carey Smith, for no other reason really than to discount the idea. Probably the most important decision of all as it turned out …
The old saying “you don’t know what you don’t know” springs to mind at this point. Looking back, meeting the quietly spoken, intuitive Carey was the turning point in the decision making process.
Real estate is all about people, relationships, empathy, and credibility. The way Carey explained what Ray White was all about, what it had to offer and how he believed it could add value to our company was compelling. This and other explanations of features such as their IT platform, marketing, training, networking and reporting systems were well planned, extremely informative and obviously ahead of where Allens was at this point (even though we thought we were well ahead of the game in a lot of areas). The resources that the Ray White organisation have at their disposal allowing ongoing research and development in all the important areas relating to the practise of real estate, combined with the existing high level relationships with supply and industry partners, as well as the stability and credibility of a 110 year old international real estate brand with a global reputation were factors that were starting to become, to say the least, very attractive to us.
On the other hand, the emotional connection to our existing brand was very strong. We had invested heavily, over the last decade especially, in building a local brand that had strong community awareness, equity and market share in Northland. We had a team of salespeople and support staff who had been extremely loyal and who were an important part of the growing of the Allens brand … how would they react to this change? Would they embrace and engage with the benefits and features on offer if we joined the Ray White Group? Or would they react in a negative and confrontational way that could cause irreparable damage to the company brand in these challenging times?
After several weeks of investigation, consultation with business advisors, including our accountants and bankers, proing and conning, the decision was made late one Friday night and from that moment on there has not been one moment of ‘buyers remorse’ – just excitement and enthusiasm regarding the future of our company.
A presentation was made to the two respective teams last week and, although I for one had some trepidation, my fears were unfounded.
The decision the directors had made on behalf of the company was immediately accepted by the two teams with an excitement that exceeded our expectations. It is obvious that the team members were also of the belief that this was something that Allens needed to take the company to the next level; that Allens had maybe hit a ceiling, although very successful as a brand over the last decade or so; that belonging to a globally aware brand with resources, knowledge and systems that can be tapped into with a press of a button, was the way to go.
Someone said to me a long time ago that “opportunities come to pass, not to pause” and we are very thankful that we as directors and later our team members have grabbed this fantastic opportunity before it got away.
Let the rollout begin!
Over the next few weeks our customers will start to see some dramatic visual changes take place as we rebrand our three offices at Whangarei, Tutukaka Coast and Bream Bay. Also undergoing a makeover will be the Allens Minis, website, stationery, flyers and marketing – as we take steps to become ‘Ray White Allens’.
September 12 2011 | Being a Business Owner and Our Community and Why Would You... or Why Wouldn't You... Buy a House Right Now? | No Comments »
Following on from the recent annual Allens Awards we the directors would like to make special mention of how encouraged and extremely grateful we are for the efforts and energy the Allens team continues to display on a consistent basis, especially considering the continuing challenges the present marketplace is providing.
While the Allens Awards represent the achievements of individuals, we are even more convinced that the culture of support and sharing that is so much a part of what makes Allens unique within the real estate industry, allows opportunities and an environment that are advantageous to all the members of this exceptional team.
Everyone is aware of the difficulties of the economy and the effect that has had on consumer confidence in the last few years. The challenges that has caused the real estate industry have been well documented and all of us at Allens have been affected, but the champion spirit still remains in all our team, and we applaud them.
Whether we like it or not, adversity is part of life. Overcoming adversity is one of the biggest hurdles we face. Problems, large and small present themselves to us throughout our whole existence. Regardless of how clever, or happy-go-lucky we are, we will encounter struggle, challenges, difficulties, and at times heart wrenching moments.
Is this meant to be a negative, cynical assessment of what we have to look forward to? Not at all!
In fact, thank goodness for adversity! Learning to deal with, and overcoming adversity, is what makes us who we are. Every challenge, every difficulty we successfully confront in our life serves to strengthen our will, confidence and ability to conquer future obstacles. When you respond positively and constructively to your biggest challenges, the qualities of strength, courage, character and perseverance emerge from deep inside of you.
We all need to remember that the difficult times in life help us appreciate when things are going smoothly and be grateful for and enjoy what we have. We need to decide whether we will allow our experience to make or break us. Depending upon how we choose to perceive it, it could go either way.
We intend to continue facing the adversities of the marketplace with strength, courage, resilience and humour, and to take every opportunity we can to provide the vision, direction, platform, environment, systems and structures to enable and assist all our team to be the very best they can be. We believe the attitude, professionalism, determination, knowledge and skills of our sales team, so ably supported by our superb admin, marketing, reception and Property Management teams will ensure any challenge thrown our way will be overcome with the spirit and determination so bravely shown in recent turbulent and unsettling times.
August 04 2011 | Being a Business Owner and The State of the Market and Why Would You... or Why Wouldn't You... Buy a House Right Now? | No Comments »
Where do you find good sales staff – and how do you attract them to the profession???
In one of our team planning meetings recently it was recognised that while we are fortunate to have a stable group of sales staff – we also have an aging core of sales staff, and 2-4 of our key salespeople are looking at retiring within the next five years. While Allan Sykes and I (being two of the three company directors here at Allens) may be over 50 and a hell of a lot closer to retiring than Vanessa – the facts remain that we have an ageing team. And we really don’t think it’s just limited to our office… instead thinking it is perhaps representative of the industry as a whole.
We once had dreams of a “super office” taking in people new to the profession, training them til they reached their maximum potential then elevating them to the “top” (both literally and figuratively in terms of commission structure as well as moving them to our top floor offices). We soon realised that both the economic climate, population declines and seeming loss of talent to overseas markets as well as media negativity towards the industry, new regulations and increased costs taking the “shine” off an already challenging industry. Now we are by no means knocking the REAA – the changes this body has brought about to the industry have been positive.
So we decided it was time to embark on another recruitment mission - to further extend our service to Northlanders, and to ensure the longevity of the Allens brand. Now, it’s not just about numbers, it’s about finding the right people – and hopefully finding a spread of people across the ages who are passionate about real estate and passionate about doing good business.
Now we’ve all tried throwing money at recruitment campaigns – full page glossy ads in a variety of media – but with markets becoming more segmented, we have to get more savvy. We needed to sell the brand, sell the team, sell the passion and we need to do it face-to-face and continuously. At Allens we are fortunate to have a fun, loyal team who are passionate about the industry, their jobs and the community. Our team are regularly “out there” in the public eye – actively raising money, getting involved and having fun. This is one of greatest recruitment strengths. We want to use it – we want to promote it – we have a culture and we love it. We firmly believe our teams public profile are one way of promoting Allens as a great place to work – however, people still rarely knock on our door to join our sales team.
Although we have strong brand loyalty and agent loyalty – it is extremely hard to recruit young energetic people to the industry – specifically in Whangarei. We’ve seen the likes of international companies recruiting and headhunting business graduates in centres such as Auckland and even in Australia – and we see some truly amazing young business savvy people speeding up the ranks in such centres. But how do we achieve this in Whangarei – how do we lure university graduates back to Northland, but even more simply – how do we simply recruit young people (graduates or not)? When was the last time you heard a teenager say that their career goal was to become a real estate agent? It just doesn’t happen. So how do we recruit young energetic well educated and dynamic people to Whangarei – when, in all honesty, they could go work in the big smoke – and no doubt earn a hell of a lot more?
So, we took these questions to the team in an “Allens Team Discussion” titled: Recruitment: Moving Forward. Setup in our auction room the meeting was non compulsory, simply a round table “discussion” with us asking for everyone’s ideas and input. We had a great response and massive team turnout. Yes, we needed to overcome the fact that we are asking our own team how to recruit more people to this industry which would ultimately mean more competition to them – but the team took it well, understanding the benefits to them collectively oh having an even bigger, even stronger, sales force. (We were all in agreeance of course that we need the right people and the issue was more than just sourcing bums on seats.) Surprisingly everyone seemed to embrace the challenge and positively contributed.
Interestingly between the time of our initial Directors meeting and the time of the team meeting we had the NZ Herald delivered to the office and the front page feature article was “Quarter of Estate Agents Walk Out” which highlighted a drop of 26% of agents Nationwide leaving the industry. Now I can confidently say although we have said goodbye to a few people over the last 24 months – our losses have been nowhere near as high as this.
So where do we find the right people, and how do we lure them to the industry?
Some really interesting stuff came from the meeting. To target a younger demograph ideas included offering apprenticeships to school leavers to give them a “taste” for the industry as well as targeting careers counsellors and Polytechs. But then we also looked internally – at our branding – making that more vibrant and dynamic, embracing new technologies to sell the sizzle of the industry (and also help promote ourselves as industry leaders). We looked too at changing our current Allens Education Foundation Scholarships (currently given to school leavers looking to further their education… which primarily goes to those wishing to undergo University studies) to include an apprenticeship or “special” scholarship component specifically for someone wanting to enter a career in the property market.
We looked at other ways to give people a taste of the industry – to overcome the fears associated with not always having a steady pay check/income – whether it be by employing “buyers” agents and telephonists and take advantage of government subsidies and grants currently available.
Leads are scarce – having the opportunity to talk to someone about the profession is gold! To overcome the fact that people rarely knock on our door or answer recruitment ads (even in times when it is increasingly hard to find salaried employment) – we created an internal lead reward system (or “finders fee”) for agents who recommend someone to us. We’ve said it before that success comes back to “people and attitude”. The ideal candidate is someone with enthusiasm, business savvy, strong communication skills, with a competitive streak. People who have a passion and a desire to win while still possessing the ability to empathise. People who are prepared to learn and continually up skill and better themselves.
And for those already in the industry we talked about head hunting existing agents in our area, and outside areas too – selling the sizzle of Northland (after all we’re passionate about Northland – why wouldn’t you want to live here!), and we even talked about offering relocation packages from Christchurch based real estate agents.
Head hunting existing agents – now this is something I’d like to elaborate on a bit more – we have resisted head hunting from other agencies. We don’t do it because we wouldn’t like it to be done to us. We presented this to the team. When we asked how our agents felt about this there was an overwhelming majority in favour of it – “why not” being the common response. I guess real estate is a slightly ego driven industry – why wouldn’t you like to know you stood out as a peak performer, why wouldn’t you like to know you’d been recognised… and valued. Collectively as Directors through – we remain in limbo about the morality of this one.
So what came of all of this?
Well, we are continuing to run recruitment ads (in both traditional and non-traditional media) , but now too have measures in place to achieve recruitment (or at least enquiry) targets. We’re continuing on with our community involvement. We’re continuing to use social media, and we’ve set the wheels in motion to review our internal systems and ensure we are at the forefront of technology – to help us deliver an energetic, forward moving brand (and we remain hopeful that we can recruit some “youngsters” to the team).
We know we’re not the only ones facing these issues – but what are others in the industry doing about it?
Just out of interest, here’s a copy of one of our ads:
July 28 2011 | Being a Business Owner and Marketing and Our Community and Recruitment and The Role and Resposibities of a Real Estate Agent | 1 Comment »
It’s TRUE … adversity makes you stronger!
The last three years in real estate have been the most challenging I have experienced in my 27 years in the profession, as they have been for most of us I am sure. There have been many times over this period where I have asked myself: “what’s the point?”; “how are we going to get through?”; and “when is this going to end?”
What I have sometimes discovered in myself and others around me faced with similar challenges is a mental strength and perseverance that has rarely surfaced in our lives before.
Being of the ‘baby boomer’ generation things have been relatively easy for many of us in business over the last couple of decades or so, especially when we have listened to good advice, implemented proven business disciplines and strategies, taken some calculated risks, and had more of a ‘work to live attitude’ than the generations before us. Those of us who experienced and benefited from the property boom of a few years past had never had it so good and although we knew it wouldn’t last forever, probably didn’t plan and prepare for the inevitable as well as we should have and were not as mean and lean as we need to be now.
The resilient attitude and determination that many of us are now showing is something that we have seen often in individuals from the sports arena and our pioneering and war time past, and although we may not be in as much physical danger, many feel under as much emotional pressure as arose in those circumstances. Those of us who are battling through should be proud to pat ourselves on the back and take a bow, not in a vainglorious way but to remind ourselves that we have survived (so far!) and by doing so have been able to help others along the way, including family, team members, and clients by staying positive and keeping on track (most of the time!)
As always we should be thankful for that which we do have. Think of those worse off than ourselves and with what has happened to some Kiwi families and communities in recent times, especially Greymouth and Christchurch, it does add some reality to our own situations no matter how dire we think circumstances are.
I would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year
and in the words of Winston Churchill … “If you are going through hell, just keep on going!”
December 08 2010 | Being a Business Owner and Case Studies and Experiences and The State of the Market | 1 Comment »
