Nearly 3,000 Ray White members from Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia came together today to learn from some of the best in the industry on how to take their sales game to the next level.
The franchisor conference for Australasia’s leading real estate agency drew a record crowd, marking Connect 2022 as the largest real estate conference in the group’s 120 year history.
Sales agents from across the group attended dedicated sales breakout rooms later in the day to further their skills and learn from top performers in the group.
The real estate ownership journey begins for many as a salesperson within the industry, then to management and on to business ownership via a full purchase or partnership of a new or existing business, and then finally to exit the business in a gradual or sudden process.
Ray White New Zealand CEO Carey Smith and Luke Richardson, head of profit, spoke to some of the group’s most successful business owners about the highs and lows of their career lifecycle journey.
They were joined by Robert Green of Ray White Aspley, managing director of Ray White IMS Paul Hodkinson and Ray White Manukau’s Tom Rawson (pictured above with Carey Smith).
A key takeaway from the session was that succession is a case of time and where people are in their career paths. A lot of businesses change in succession and a lot change in a lifecycle.
Ray White Concierge CEO Kelly Tatlow (pictured above) then hosted a session on the all important prospecting phone call.
Ms Tatlow has pioneered the growth and expansion of Concierge since 2007. She and her leadership team inspire a team of 100 professional communicators and are continually developing innovative offers and programs to enhance the customer experience, strengthen relationships and deliver growth opportunities for Ray White businesses.
Ms Tatlow asked what are the reasons some people excel at making prospecting calls while others don’t? In the session she explored methods to get in the right prospecting mindset, shared great practical communication techniques with the help of top performers Jannine Blum of Ray White South Perth, Riley Neaton from Ray White Rockhampton and Ray White Frankston’s Ashley Weston.
Ms Tatlow asked the panel how being remarkable at making calls has been the key to their success?
“I started as an associate under principal David Bell. Once I went out on my own I started again as David took the data from my time as an associate so I was back to the basics,” Mr Neaton said.
“I was making calls, on social media and marketing myself to build my database back up.”
“I have a database of 2,000 people and I know the turnover of my market in Frankston and it’s a matter of numbers,” Mr Weston added.
Ms Blum started her sales career in off market sales, selling first home buyer stock with an average price of $300,000. She then switched to a higher end market and database around $700,000. She has her rookie agents in the office on the phone all day with a goal of 500 pieces of new data each month.
Leads are our industry’s lifeline. In recent times, new entrants into the real estate world have taken control of an ever-increasing share of this valuable resource. To cap off the day, Ray White CEO (Strategy) Mark McLeod (pictured above) and Ray White Queensland’s Dave McMahon talked about this industry lifeline.
The pair went through the lifecycle of an average person and their experience in the property market, highlighting virtually every touch point of the customer journey from the perspective of cost and value.
“Many owners are disillusioned with how we seem to take their money and never communicate with them again,” Mr McMahon said.
“We are in the business of relationships, our goal is to create long standing relationships.
“We’ve surveyed our buyers and sellers and found 60 per cent pick their agent based on the relationship they have with that agent. That could be a huge missed opportunity for many.”