Meeting Member Needs
Doris Nurenberg April 2012
Recap of Rick Harris’ presentation at the National Association
of REALTORS® Association Executive Institute March 17, 2012. Rick is President of Real Estate Seminars in Oregon.
What we do not
know and what we as Association Executives can do about it.
According to Rick brokers are looking for:
·
A fix for the market
·
Good return on their investment
·
MLS at a low cost with great service. 85% of all brokers polled said it was the MLS
service that kept them in the organization.
·
They need forums for networking. Both face to face and social networking on
the internet
·
Solution Based Education to make their agents
more effective
·
Informed Advice on Tools
·
Higher Standards (But, interesting enough, they
are looking for the higher standards in others)
·
Protection from “bad things” – but in a silent
way
Association Executives need to start or continue to dialogue
with their Brokers and begin to organically work together in addressing agent’s
needs.
Become a better business partner
1) Measure
everything – collect relevant demographics on everything. Did you know that 50% of your members closed
not one deal in 2011?
2) Find
out who else is competing for your member’s business. Places like Trulia, Zillow, other syndicates,
and other brokerages are all competing for the same customers.
3) Listen
to your members – and ask relevant questions.
Don’t be afraid of the answers, embrace the challenge.
What Questions to
Ask?
Ask:
·
What issues in your business keeps you up at night?
·
If you could get only one thing from your
Association, what would it be?
·
If you were King/Queen of the world for a day
and could change any one thing at your Association of REALTORS®, what would it
be?
(Don’t be afraid of the answers. Think of them as challenges and find ways to
help your brokers)
Demands of the
Market
REALTORS® have entered an era where they need to know what
the consumers need before even the consumer knows, as the commercial states; “That was sooooo 12 seconds ago!”
Effective Real Estate Agents are
·
Fixers and that takes ego
·
They don’t like change
·
They don’t like rules
·
They don’t like politics
·
They don’t like the Code of Ethics
·
They like to enlist partners to get things done
Today’s consumers are demanding accurate and independent
information. They want to control their
own buying/selling experience. They want
it at a low cost and with very high value.
How can the Real Estate agent help them with this? They need to be the local area experts and
the Association can help with this by providing the information readily
available to its members.
The trouble with our member’s business is that even those
with the lowest of skills can sell real estate, but those that are the most
effective have always been those with the most expertise. That expertise is truly needed today as
Sellers are unmanageable, unreasonable, and scared to death. Buyers on the other hand are unresponsive,
scared, and still fence sitting. Members
have to work longer, harder, and faster and now for less money, so they need
more transactions to make the same as they were a few years ago.
An association can help by having all the information on new
programs available in their area and getting it to the members as soon as
possible.
Now is the time to reevaluate your Association. Change your perspective on what an
Association of REALTORS® truly is and means to its membership. You need to be focusing on your members
business and find ways to be a better
business partner.
Focus on core competencies.
You are strategically designed to foster networking, just do it in a
more member centric way and don’t forget the mobile and social internet aspects
of that networking.
Do a much more through job on information analysis. This is a key service that most Associations
can do very well and can be a critical part of a brokerages success.
Know what tools are out there, which ones are truly game
changers, and then make certain that you have a delivery method to your
membership on information and training on the technology.
Start working on consumer outreach. Endearing the consumer to our industry has
been a afterthought until recently. Make
strong bonds in the community and make consumers feel the transparency of your
organization.
Political advocacy is becoming a critical service that all
Associations must now deliver. There are
tools available from your State Association and the National Association which
will assist you. But be aware, that the
brokers do not want to be associated with patrician politics. They are afraid of the consequences in being
labeled one way or another, as they are providing services to all consumers. Stay in the background when it is not an
issue based avocation.
Focus on what you do really well. Partner with other Association to provide
services.
I know this is pretty blasphemous, but the MLS is a “silver
bullet”. It can be your friend or your
undoing. Brokers need the MLS for data
and compensation agreements. Stop competing
with others and look at the scale of the service area. Can one MLS do a better job that multiple
MLS’s? Think of this again from the
member’s perspective. What would make
them more efficient and be more cost effective?
Brokers don’t want Associations to just give them tools;
they want you to teach them how to use them.
Make certain that tablets are cost effective and that members truly
understand what a dynamic new tool this can be.
Raise the Ethics
bar
Granted the brokers are not specifically asking this, but
they must do business with their competitors, you members, everyday. Make certain that you have an effective
program. That you dispute resolution
process is member friendly and that you offer mediation and an ombudsman when
possible. Disputes, no matter how small,
are huge resource eaters for a brokerage.
Beware of the
“Echo Chamber”
Rick’s terminology is perfect, recycling of leadership seems
to sometimes be the only way to fill out a slate of officers, but begin to
trend away from the mindset. Start or
partner with someone to develop and train new leadership. Remember that a 10 page Strategic Plan is too
large and too lofty. It is not a
blueprint on how the organization will be run for the next year or two. Make certain that your Strategic Plan is just
that, marching orders for the Association Executive and staff for the next 12
months. If you haven’t already done so,
a demographic study must be done to establish who you are serving. Then you must base every decision from
Leadership upon the answer to the question:
“What will this program or policy do to benefit our member’s needs?”
So, you need to partner with your broker members, listen to
their needs, and begin to deliver the correct mix for your area. You are the hub that can be the catalyst to
reinventing the Real Estate business.
Strategically begin to re-craft the organization for efficiency, economy
of scale, and well prepared leadership.
Partner whenever possible. All in all, Rick was completely prepared for
his audience of Association Executives and provided 90 minutes of outstanding,
need-to-know information. I would
recommend him as an educator, at any level.
The following are my picks of Rick’s links to various
websites which will be able to help you accomplish suggestions within this
article.
The Michigan Association of REALTORS® website is a great example of an Association website
that facilitates multiple membership types http://www.mirealtors.com/content/
This is a great
example of a broker counseling hotline from the Greater Boston Association of
REALTORS: http://www.gbreb.com/hotline/
The Minneapolis
Association of REALTORS® is doing an outstanding job with their data management
and the resulting statistical information to be used as a brokerage business
tool. http://www.mplsrealtor.com/market.aspx
Pennsylvania has been able to offer its members group
health insurance, could you? http://www.easystreetinsurance.biz/
Technology is such
a big challenge to every brokerage.
Could you partner with NAR to offer reviews, suggestions, and
assistance?
Could you partner
with Florida, like Atlanta has to offer your brokers a
technology hotline?
The East Bay
Association has put together a “how to” help for your members with the Ipad and
mobile apps applications. Is this
something your members need?
North Carolina has developed an outreach program for consumers which
prove REALTOR® value and drive them to your members. See if you could provide a similar program for
your members.
Rick shared a dozen more links. Email me and I will send you the complete
list. doris@dorisnurenberg.com
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