In September, Inman digs deep on real estate teams — what it takes to join or build one, how to optimize a team and even when to consider leaving one. Adding nuance on top of Inman’s weekly Teams Beat email newsletter, this theme month will serve up top insights from the best team leaders across the country.
No one can predict the future of real estate, but you can prepare. Find out what to prepare for and pick up the tools you’ll need at the immersive Virtual Inman Connect online Nov. 1-2, 2023. And don’t miss Inman Connect New York on Jan. 23-25, 2024, where AI, capital and more will be center stage. Bet big on the roaring future, and join us at Connect.
People. Process. Technology. Some call it the “golden triangle,” others think of it as the “three-legged stool” of the business world, and many live and die by the mantra. Whether you think of it as an old adage or use it as an intentional framework in your business, those three components are likely where you spend most of your time and mindshare if you have a growing team.
As you pursue the harmony and symmetry of the framework’s ever-elusive equilateral triangle, here are some ways to evaluate and leverage technology so you can achieve the perfect 60-degree angle on that side of the equation:
Visibility and transparency
As you grow your team, each new team member you bring on comes with the hope of added bandwidth, more deals and an infusion to the bottom line of your business. But, they also each bring the inherent risk of unfulfilled promises, especially if you haven’t worked with them before (and, sometimes, even if you have). That risk multiplies significantly with each milestone of growth.
Will they align with the team’s mission and vision not just in rhetoric but in practical application, too? Will they be as driven as they alluded to in their interview? Will they consistently meet expectations, even when life gets in the way?
It’s the perpetual dilemma of any growing business and the inherent challenge that is permanently affixed to the “people” portion of the triangle. While processes can help combat this through unified direction, technology can be your catalyst for compliance, starting with visibility and transparency.
As you evaluate your current tech stack or look for new products, whether it’s for lead generation, nurture or some element of operations (transactions, etc.), evaluate the efficacy and degree of visibility across multiple planes:
- How easy is it for you to view a team member’s assignments and activities in real time? And, how easy is it for the team member to see exactly what they need to do, whether it’s completing a task, calling a lead or any other action you expect the tech to help drive? Look for features like work queues, aggregated dashboards and priority-based filtering, which can help team members minimize misses and provide you with the transparency needed to inform day-to-day operations.
- What type of reporting or analytics is offered to monitor trends at the micro (team member) and macro (entire team) levels? This can help you identify areas of opportunity, provide more value to team members through informed goal-setting and coaching and empower you to make quick decisions on team composition when needed.
- Does the visibility offered require manual data entry or crosswalks to other third-party systems? The more manual work that’s required and the more systems you need to work with, the more points of failure you’re forced to contend with down the road.
- Is it mobile-friendly? With so much of real estate happening on the go, the value of visibility is greatly limited when your tech can’t meet you where you’re at (literally).
Automation
While automation is far from a new concept, it’s quickly becoming the name of the game with the emergence of viable AI. But how do you know if you’re automating the right things and leveraging them in a way that will truly move the needle for your team? The short answer to this increasingly nuanced topic is to evaluate automation across a couple of key areas:
- Weaknesses: What are areas within your team where there isn’t sufficient bench strength? For example, if you’re light on transaction management personnel, look for tools that can automate task creation and assignment. If property descriptions are a pain point, generative AI tools, especially those with models trained in real estate, can be helpful. To that end, be mindful of the strengths your team brings to the table and avoid automation for the sake of automation, such as automating property descriptions when you have a team member with creative writing chops.
- Monotony: Are there any monotonous or repetitive tasks team members are constantly dealing with, such as manually moving data across multiple systems? Sometimes these opportunities are hidden under the surface as team members may become desensitized to such tasks over time. When identified, they present areas ripe for automation and can be isolated through process mapping or periods of intentional time tracking.
As AI continues to develop and evolve, there will likely be opportunities for automation around personalization for clients and other meaningful tasks, but even existing automation opportunities can translate to competitive advantages and recruiting incentives for your team. Leveraging automation will also help liberate you from the handcuffs of quantity and instead allow you to maintain focus on the quality of new recruits.
Safeguards
At the intersection of visibility and automation sits one of your greatest tech assets – safeguards in your systems and guardrails around your processes. Depending on the intended purpose of the tech you’re evaluating, identify what hard stops, automated escalations, and real-time alerts are available.
For example, if it’s a transaction management system:
- Are there hard stops when required documents aren’t submitted?
- Are there reminders around required tasks and automated escalations when things are overdue or at risk?
If it’s a CRM, how will the system notify your team members (and you) when a follow-up deadline is missed, or a lead hasn’t been touched in a certain amount of time?
Can the associated notifications be surfaced to different modes of communication, such as text messages? How customizable are they to your internal processes and local nuances? In other words, can they alert you in a way that will consistently and practically capture attention without too many false alarms?
Leveraging automated safeguards can help team members, especially those who are new, ensure process adherence and can help you drive real-time intervention when an issue is occurring, as opposed to figuring it out at the deal’s post-mortem.
Client experience
At the end of the day, the biggest driver of success and fuel for growth lies with your clients and the experience you and your team are able to provide them. Although not all technology is client-facing, it all has an impact on your client’s overall experience and can be used to further improve it.
Improvements may come from direct mechanisms, such as collaborative tools that make the buying, selling or homeownership processes easier and more digitally streamlined. Indirect mechanisms may include behind-the-scenes automation or efficiencies that allow you to repurpose time toward client-facing actions that are more personalized or hands-on.
Either way, looking beyond the inner workings of your team and mapping the ultimate value (or lack thereof) to your clients before you pull the trigger on new tech will help you make the right decision when evaluating options and inform how you can effectively use it.
Although growing a team in a sustainable and meaningful way is far from an easy feat, finding and leveraging the right technology can help you effectively manage your people and processes and keep you on an efficient path to your next growth milestone.
Sheila Reddy is the founder and CEO of Mosaik, an operating platform and client experience engine for agents, teams and brokerages. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Instagram.
