Have you been underestimating the value of the individuals in your real estate company?
Every employee has the power to make a significant difference in a company. Your team, for that matter, is a decisive factor in both the future of your real estate company, and your personal future. Don’t believe it? Here are seven ways that the talent you bring in can have an impact on your real estate business:
1. Focusing Your Efforts: The individuals you have in their various roles, and your managers, will determine how much you have to do. Their roles determine how much you’ll have to babysit, how many people you’ll need in each role, what level of micro-management (or not) is required, how much time and effort needs to go into training, and ultimately, what you as the owner get to focus on. What do you think the CEOs of your top competing real estate companies are spending their time on? Hiring the right team will allow you to focus on what matters. Trust the team around you to do what you hired them to do, and focus your efforts on money making tasks.
2.Your Real Estate Brand: The individuals you hire will directly impact what people think about your company, and tell others about your company. This is not just about resumes, or the prestige of who works for you – though that certainly plays a part. If you manage to hire truly great talent, and create some buzz in the press about it, you would be surprised at what it could do for your brand.
You may not realize it, but the people you hire are important to your community, in your target markets, at events, and for actual business. Of course, I’m talking about what they do off the clock, how they treat people in local restaurants, and how they drive on the road. Have you ever been cut off by someone speeding in a branded vehicle with one of those “how’s my driving” stickers? You might not call, but you’ll remember the brand. At least you’ll remember not to do business with that company. You’ll probably remind quite a few others not to either.
Make a consorted effort to hire people that fit in with your company culture. A cohesive office environment is critical to your company’s success. What kind of people are you hiring?
3. Efficacy: Efficiency isn’t just about putting qualified bodies in seats, giving them quotas, and paying the minimum viable salary. Different individuals are going to pump out significantly different amounts of work. Some are going to deliver a lot more per hour, and are going to find ways to bring even more efficiency to the whole organization. Others are going to absorb your resources, even if you don’t notice right away. The most efficient company has the competitive advantage.
4. Conversion Rates: At every stage of your business, individuals impact conversion rates. Everything from published content and social media projects to marketing for leads will impact your company’s bottom line. The key is to get everyone working on the same page. Conversion rates impact revenues, ROI, and what you get out of the budget. This is where efficiency comes into play. If everyone on your team is working towards the dame goal, your business will be rewarded accordingly.
5. Social Media: The individuals in your company can make or break your social media success. There is a massive disparity between the social media success of those firms that have all of their team members engaging in and sharing posts versus those that don’t have a plan for it. Some are pouring money down the drain on poor social media, while others have a major edge in free media by leveraging in-house power.
6. Recruiting Power: Who you have makes a massive difference in who your real estate firm can attract. Winners attract winners. A great team is going to draw more great players. The same holds true for poor working environments as well. Make sure you are hiring the best employees, and there is a good chance their presence will draw the interest of similarly talented individuals.
7. Worth: Some of the biggest and most notable buyouts of the last decade haven’t been about proprietary technology. It has been about acquiring top talent. Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, are all hot on acquiring the best hires. Sometimes buying the whole business is the only way to do that. The same applies to real estate companies. The right staff can seriously elevate the value placed on your business. Hire the best, find ways to afford them, and unleash their full potential.
