Magic Happens When Broker Culture Fits with Technology Offerings

As consultants, we are constantly asked about the "best technology," and my answer is commonly "the one that you use." It is a short conversation that's loaded with reality. No two brokerages are the same, nor are technology solutions. On countless occasions, we have watched multiple brokerage firms purchase the same technology and have very different results.

There is so much that goes into success. Obviously, choosing the right solution for your company is very important. But the truth is that most of the leading technology vendors serving brokers in America are pretty good. RE Technology has a list of 117 technology vendors for the category of Broker Website. That is a crowded field.

We ask our clients to pick their top six for an initial interview then narrow the list or expand the list from there. The choices that the brokers make are typically related to reputation. There are excellent brokerage forums like The Realty Alliance, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, some franchise broker groups, and websites like RE Technology that craft those reputations. Brokers hear what works from other brokers and listen to feedback from top agents and teams.

What Do Brokers Want Driven by Technology?

1. Agent Satisfaction
2. New Agent Recruiting
3. Business Growth
4. Great Support
5. Great Training

It is a subtle clarification, but remember that brokers do not sell real estate. Licensed brokerages supervise licensed professional agents. Brokers are in the people business. Successful brokerages are built upon successful agents, and the growth of successful agents. Office managers are a key to success also.

Technology does not sell real estate either. Technology allows people to process more volume in less time, and some technology is good at driving business opportunities, but success comes from execution.

I was excited to see that our friends from The Keyes Company are executing effectively after changing technology platforms. They chose Inside Real Estate's kvCORE platform. They drove 12,000 leads in the first month. They diversified their lead sources to pull in new customer opportunities from different places. Their cost per lead dropped from $150 per lead on advertising portals down to an overall lead cost average of $10 per lead.

Inside Real Estate – KV Core Video

This platform is highly focused on using automation to help agents harvest the most business opportunity possible from their existing customers by making it easy for agents to use the CRM. Remember, it's the technology you use. The CRM automates the nurturing for both new and sphere of influence contacts and reminds agents to do something helpful to engage customers.

Another feature that is highly used by Inside Real Estate is their digital marketing platform that makes it easy to market on Facebook, build squeeze pages for lead capture, and so forth. Inside Real Estate CEO Joe Skousen asks the question, "What do you have more of—time or money?" Tech savvy agents and teams typically use a little bit of both to find the sweet spot.

The best report from The Keyes Company came from Mike Pappas, President and CEO: Technology has created a "boon" recruiting period greater than they have ever seen in the company's history.

It's time to add The Keyes Company to the list of tech enabled brokers alongside Redfin, Compass, and eXp Realty. They have demonstrated that magic happens when you align the culture of a brokerage with solid technology and a lot of dedication to executing effectively.

There is no doubt, The Keyes Company may have been able to apply their culture and dedication to another broker platform and have the same outcomes. But the good news is that they found a great match with their vendor.

Next month, we hope to share an equally inspiring story about Fox and Roach and one of their technology partnerships that is producing excellent results.

If you have a success story, reach out and let us know. We love to hear from our audience!

WAV Group is happy to help develop your path to successful growth and innovation. Get started by contacting us today.

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