You need to know what you want from a superteam so you can articulate that vision.

Topic – 5 S’s of Agent Superteams

Mentor – Michael Sheargold

• The 5 S’s
• Articulate – they need to buy in
• What is the plan – the numbers?

Property Management Matters with Tara Bradbury – We asked and you responded.  Today we start to respond to your questions.

Transcript:

Kevin Turner: Tuesday morning, good morning and welcome to ReUncut. I’m Kevin Turner, and today’s show produced in association with Property Tree from Rockend, Beepo, PrintForce, LockedOn, and View; everything you need to know to build a better business and all in short sharp show every day. Find us at Facebook and Twitter as Real Estate Uncut.

How you can make your office more productive, profitable, and efficient with Beepo. Beepo, they are experts in real estate outsourcing. Let’s get underway with today’s show.

Voiceover: The Real Estate Uncut Property Management Update, presented by Property Tree from Rockend, the most widely used cloud-based property management application in Australia.

Kevin Turner: In my ongoing discussions with Tara Bradbury from BDM Academy, we struck on the idea of asking you what you wanted to know. What are the questions you would ask Tara if you had the opportunity? Honestly, we received so many.

G’day, Tara. How are you doing?

Tara Bradbury: I’m very well, Kevin. Thank you so much. I’m a bit like yourself; I’m quite delighted to see so many questions come through, which is great.

Kevin Turner: What we’ve discovered is that the questions are so good, to cover them in this segment that we do for Property Tree every week is going to be really difficult. So we will touch on them by all means, we’ll acknowledge the people who have sent them in to us, but we’re going to produce a special podcast or a series of podcasts that will deal with these in some detail. So watch out for that, that will come out as a bonus on REUncut. If you are a subscriber, you will get to hear about it.

Tara … Once again, we’ll invite anyone to ask any questions. We may even get a couple of these people on the phone to maybe have a conversation with us. We’ll touch on that a little bit later.

Tara Bradbury: Yeah.

Kevin Turner: If you’ve got a question, just send it in through the website or send it in to me directly, kevin@realestatetalk.com.au. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of people ask don’t use my name, or just use my first name. Which I’m very happy to do, because some of the questions are quite sensitive and I can understand they wouldn’t want them to get out.

Tara Bradbury: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Kevin Turner: Examples like, I did get one from Kirk and thanks for sending it in, Kirk, he says, “Where and how do you recruit the best BDMs?”

Tara Bradbury: Yes, if I had the golden ticket to make that nice and simple for all of our business owners. But I can certainly provide some suggestions of where I have found it has worked for my clients, and also some of the things to look for. Hopefully, that will help answer your question there, Kirk.

For me, it’s a smaller area of our industry in the sense where it’s a unique personality type that can actually do BDM. They need to be a very confident, very bubbly, very vibrant type of person. The last thing you want to be doing is having to push your BDM every week when it’s KPI time. In some cases, you actually want to be having to bring them back in and keep an eye on them and they’re just going too fast, too quickly. That’s the type of person that you’re wanting to find that’s going to be very relevant to the role. I’ve found that there have been businesses that have had success at finding that opportunity in-house. It certainly does happen, and it’s always good to have that open conversation with your team to find out if stepping into a role of BDM … Or you might even discuss the role of sales is something they’re potentially interested in doing.

Kevin Turner: Yeah, one of the things that occurs to me is that the property management business is very process-driven. A lot of processes and systems you’ve got to follow and so on. Whereas in a BDM role, it’s not quite the same. While there are some systems to prospecting and so on, you’ve got to be very keen and willing to get on the phone and have conversations and follow people up-

Tara Bradbury: Yep. Absolutely.

Kevin Turner: It’s a different role.

Tara Bradbury: It is. A lot of people, Kevin too, will actually take on the role of property manager first because they’ve got a comfortable opportunity of knowing they’ve got an ongoing salary they’re getting paid. Now, while that’s still the same in a lot of cases for BDMs, there’s an extra level of pressure of expectation and new business they need to sign. Some people just aren’t ready to take that one in the very beginning, and in fact in a lot of cases the BDM will generally have a lower base salary than the property manager will. So they need to be getting the new business in order to catch up obviously to the property manager’s income, and then to go beyond that. That can sometimes take some time as well.

So don’t always close the book on your team, because I do think that some people will choose to take that role because they’ll think, “Well I need to be a property manager first for two reasons; one there’s a bit of comfort in income, and to know and understand the industry a bit better.”

If we look at the flip side, however, you can have people that come external to the industry. I have had some of the greatest stories I’ve heard from many of my clients where they have found their BDM has come straight out of a Telstra shop where they’ve been selling phones across the counter. Or their background has been in car sales. Or they’ve actually stepped out of the industry, because they have maybe made the decision to start a family, and they want to come back and they can step into that role in a pace where they don’t have to necessarily go full time straight away, and test it out to see if it’s something that they enjoy. That can also be another positive as well.

Kevin Turner: Yeah, look this is such a big topic and Kirk I want to thank you for sending that question into us. That’s all we can deal with today in this show, but I promise you Kirk we will deal in a lot more detail on this, because effectively we’re going to start recording this podcast almost straight away. So that will be the first question we will cover. If you’ve got any questions at all, send them in through the website or directly to me; kevin@realestatetalk.com.au.

Next week, I’m going to ask you a very sensitive question that came in from someone who doesn’t want to be disclosed because it’s to do with work/life balance and her manager pushing her based on numbers. But we’ll do that next week, Tara. Thanks for your time.

Tara Bradbury: Sounds good, thanks Kevin.

Voiceover: Property Tree is the cloud-based property management software designed by Rockend. Being cloud-based, this means that you can work any time, and anywhere. Providing you with the ultimate in flexibility, so you can focus on other things. Rich in a range of features and benefits, talk to Rockend about making your working life simpler and how to grow your business with Property Tree. Call 1300 657 700, or use the link at REUncut.

More thoughts now from this week’s mentor.

Kevin Turner: The close of the show yesterday when I was talking to Michael Sheargold I promised we’d talk about the event coming up on the 31st of July, which we will do. But I want to dig a little bit deeper into this subject we’re talking about, superteams. Yesterday a great definition by Michael of what makes up a superteam, we’ll talk more about that structure later in the week.

Can I talk about the strategy, let’s take us into that. What’s the thinking behind this, Michael?

Michael S: Fantastic, Kevin. I think one of the first things, the concept behind superteams that I work with … So whether it be one-on-one, I work with a team one-on-one, or at the superteams workshop, is we work through these five S’s.

Very very quickly, the first one that you need to get sorted is your Strategy. If you’re a solo agent, you can keep your strategy in your head. But as soon as you move to a team, you’ve got to have other people who buy into that strategy, so you’ve got to articulate that.

Secondly then, what’s the right Structure to put in place, and I know we’ll talk about that tomorrow. From there, then what are the Standards and Systems that you need within the business that allow you to deliver a consistently high level and a high experience to your clients. The final s is Style, Kevin. We’ll talk about that obviously on Friday.

That just sort of frames it up as to what we’re focused on. If we come back to strategy, strategy answers the ultimate question which is what’s the plan? As simple as that is, if I’m starting to bring on a team of people to deliver a level of service I’ve got to be able to articulate what the plan is. What does a great listing look like? What are the areas that are the priority areas for us to focus on? What’s the position that we want to own in the marketplace and how are we going to get out there? How many listings do we want to produce? How many sales do we want to actually produce? What do we want our average fee to be? How are we going to promote ourselves and build momentum and build client loyalty in the market?

So they’re really good questions, I think, to ask. Someone might want to slow that down and replay that bit and sort of start to bolt into those components. But you need to have a superteam plan, and a plan that you can articulate to someone either coming on board, or there’ll be a lot of people who are listening to this who are already in superteams that it is worthwhile saying, “Hey, where am I at with this? Do I need to redefine the strategy?” Maybe it’s, Kevin, popping away for half a day with the team you’ve got right now and saying, “Let’s get clear on the strategy. What is it we’re focused on achieving?”

Kevin Turner: Yeah, I’ve been to a number as you probably have to, I’m sure you have Michael, of those strategy-type days. They’re very empowering, but it demonstrates to me every time I go to one just the vision of the leader. The leader has to have that vision before they go there. You can’t go there with an open book. You’ve got to have some idea in mind.

I guess-

Michael S: Can I just jump in on that one?

Kevin Turner: Yep.

Michael S: I think, Kevin, there’s two things we talk about. We talk about this at superteams. You either create a shared vision or you share a created vision.

Kevin Turner: Yeah.

Michael S: Now let me give you the two times you’d use that. Creating a shared vision; let’s say you’ve been operating in a superteam for a year or two. We’ve got some people that we work with who’ve been in teams and have actually been a structured team for many years. So it would be crazy for the leader to say, “Here’s the vision,” when they’ve almost got a 2IC within the team. It would make more sense at that strategy session to say, “Let’s look at where we are heading and what we want to achieve along those lines.” Because it’s an experienced team coming together to actually look at where we want to head.

Versus if I’m a brand new team, or I’m stepping into a team, I need the lead agent to give me clarity, “Here’s the vision that I have, do you want to buy into that vision?”

So I think both are valid depending on the age and experience of the team. But without a doubt, if someone doesn’t have clarity; where do you want to head? What’s the position you want to own in the marketplace? Why do we want to actually get out there and grow our market share and do great things? The ability for the leader to articulate that and have it shared and understood by all the team is significant in the process.

Kevin Turner: How many times … Sorry, let me rephrase that. How important is it, in your view Michael, for the leader of the team to go to one of these strategy sessions, whether they’ve got a clear picture in their mind or not of where they want to go, with a totally open mind? Understanding that people are going to bring to the table stuff you might not necessarily agree with upfront, but it could be for the benefit of the team?

Michael S: Yeah look, one of the simplest things to talk about … I know Kevin you’ve heard me do this in sessions, what’s working and what’s not working? Well, pretty clearly if it’s working, how do we supercharge what is working? If it’s not working, is it having a negative impact on the business? If it is having a negative impact, then what are we going to do about it?

Notice I’m now talking about an agent’s team as a business. It is a business [inaudible 00:11:50]. You start to think a bit more entrepreneurial about this, and you’re now employing people, you’re now responsible for people to achieve things beyond that. I think this is a really important point when we start to look at strategy. I either see the person who is supporting me as a pawn that I can move around, or I can actually see them as talent that I’m going to develop over the next 12 months, two years, three years.

The interesting thing is, when the lead agent sees the team as talent to develop, I guarantee the longevity of that team and the sustainability of that team, is significant.

Kevin Turner: Yeah.

Michael S: Versus if you see someone who is like, “You just do this for me,” as opposed to, “You’re on a journey and by actually us working together we’re going to advance both our journeys in a super effective way.”

Kevin Turner: Yeah [crosstalk 00:12:44]. Absolutely. I love what you’re doing with your superteams day in Sydney, 31st of July. You’re actually offering the opportunity for two people to come along. In other words, you’re not selling individual tickets, it’s a ticket for two because that’s the definition of a superteam, isn’t it? I’m going to take you on this journey with me.

Michael S: Yeah, at least two people and sometimes people want to bring their entire superteam. It’s a super effective way. I talk about … It’s a workshop, Kevin, so it’s actually where the guys get to sit together and they’re working on the business for the day. We all know the distinction of working on the business verus working in it, to time out and have me facilitate over the course of a day, and help them get clarity as to what they need to put in place is absolutely significant. I talk about learning should have a level of education, it should have some inspiration, but you’ve got to then do the implementation afterwards. Too often a lead agent goes along to something, they’ve been educated, they’ve been inspired, but no one else has in the team. They’ve got to turn around and do that education and inspiration themselves. They typically get back, they’re running at a million miles an hour, so they don’t actually do the education and the inspiration and they wonder why, “I’ve lost value in investing that day.”

By setting superteams up as a workshop where the team comes along, it makes a massive difference to that implementation component. Because the team are inspired, they know what they need to do.

Kevin Turner: So there you go, superteams. It’s on in Sydney, 31st of July. You can get all the information by using any one of the links on any one of the pages on REUncut, or go to resultssuperteams.com.au.

Michael, back again tomorrow. We’ll talk about structure tomorrow. Gee, we’re unpacking this nicely. Talk to you then, mate.

Michael S: Thanks, Kevin.

Jet Xavier: Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” Make sure your discussions are proactive. I’m Jet Xavier, have a great day.

Michael S: Thanks, Jet. That’s it for today. Thanks for your company. Look forward to catching up again tomorrow morning.