How To Transform Your Brokerage Through The Power Of Technology
Greg Dipaolo
July 20, 2016 | comments
The revolution in connected technology seems to have been tailor-made for the real estate industry. But just bringing in new devices and software does not guarantee that your business will improve. Transformation requires putting your bigger purpose first.
Technology Is No Longer The Magic Bullet
Twenty years ago, investing in new technology almost guaranteed increased productivity. Upgrading computers and operating systems allowed everyone to use more powerful software. Going from pagers to cell phones meant you were in contact with your agents wherever they went. And we might think fax machines are archaic now, but they made it possible to send documents across town or across the country in minutes.
But today, upgrading to the latest technology doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you and your agents will see any productivity gains. In fact, in many cases it has the opposite effect. People have to learn to use the new system, and if you already have some organizational dysfunction, trying to get everybody to use a complex, new platform can make matters worse.
When you have a people problem, it’s tempting to reach for the technology cure-all. Unfortunately, if it’s not part of a bigger transformation plan, it’s not going to work.
What Technology CAN Do For You
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, professors Donald A. March and Joe Peppard have identified three key areas where technology has the potential to improve competitiveness and increase productivity.
Improving Collaboration
Beyond simply working in documents together, collaboration is a way for team members to pool their expertise and share what they’ve learned from experience.
But to realize the biggest benefits of collaboration—learning from each other’s mistakes and failures—your organization must have in place a culture of trust. People will not volunteer this information unless they are sure they are in an environment where it’s a given that everyone has room for improvement.
March and Peppard have found that while true collaboration is not easy, they believe “that it is increasingly a competitive differentiator between individual teams and companies.”
Gaining Power Over Information
These days almost everybody has access to the same data. It’s those who are able to use it for problem solving who have the advantage.
Technology, whether in the form of an app or a whole platform, has the power to help you discover, manage, and use information. It may be information that’s right under your nose, like your own client data, or it may be data that’s freely available but that no one else is taking advantage of.
Huge corporations like GE are investing billions to move to information-oriented business models. A smaller firm like a typical brokerage has the nimbleness to make this transition with much greater ease.
Differentiating Yourself
The relatively low cost of cutting edge technology makes it available to almost everyone. So just owning the most advanced tablet or “going paperless” doesn’t give you any real advantage in the eyes of your potential customers.
The key is using technology in a way that differentiates you from other brokerages.
The speed, adaptability, and connectedness you gain must be used to improve your decision making, how you operate internally, and ultimately how you innovate in the eyes of your customers.
Differentiation is a moving target. Even when you’ve found a better way to interact with clients and your team, you can’t stop there. To stay “different” you must continually evaluate your process to see where it should change and improve. This is not just a job for you and other managers. Your whole team should be thinking creatively about how to better leverage the technology.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
There are three major errors brokerages make when faced with the option of investing in new technology.
- Believing they’re buying the magic bullet. This is where you simply hope that acquiring better technology will solve your business problems. If it’s a people problem you’re trying to fix, it most certainly won’t. But the allure of the shiny object and the hope that it will change everything can overpower your healthy skepticism.
- Going with BYOA. Telling everyone to just “Bring Your Own Application” avoids the problem of having to manage the adoption of a new platform. It simply throws the challenge of how to work effectively back into the laps of your agents. Unfortunately, without a cohesive plan and no intentional leadership, this option makes new technology a problem rather than an advantage.
- Doing nothing for now. Put off any decision as long as you can. After all, if you’ve been successful up til now without the latest technology, why is it all of a sudden essential? Maybe this whole information revolution is just a fad.
You can actually get away with this type of thinking—for the short term. But like ocean-front property where the yard is gradually being washed away, you can only procrastinate for a limited time before disaster strikes.
By deciding to do nothing (and simply getting by using the technology you’re familiar with), you are essentially choosing to go out of business some time in the near future. Only those brokerages that are willing to adapt to changing market conditions and client expectations will survive.
If these are the wrong ways to think about technology, is there a way to do it right? Can you actually leverage its power so you and your agents can be more effective?
Yes, but before you take that leap forward, you may need to take a couple of steps back.
How To Adopt Technology That Will Transform Your Business
1. Define Your Culture
Before doing anything, narrowly define your business target. As a brokerage, what exactly are you trying to do? What problems do you really need to solve? How do you want to delight customers in a way that nobody else is?
You must first have a culture that can be defined in concrete terms of what you do and don’t do. You can’t simply be everything to everybody.
Get everybody’s input on what this is. According to Adriaan van Wyk, writing for Entrepreneur, a culture that empowers people to identify problems and also holds them accountable to find solutions will help them fully buy into your technology mission.
2. Assess and Plan
Now that you know what the goal is for your business, you can determine the steps you’ll need to reach it, assess the technology that will help you achieve those steps, and finally come up with an overall plan for implementing your transformation.
The plan doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to let each person know what their role and responsibilities are. If everybody in your firm agrees on what your goals are (your strategy), you can collaborate on how best to achieve them (your tactics). This kind of collaboration will not only help you get better ideas, but will increase everybody’s level of commitment to its success.
3. Choose Your Technology
Find the platform or system that’s best going to help you accomplish your plan. Here’s where you need to align the power of the technology to create operational efficiency. Let it do the heavy lifting.
For example our transaction platform is designed specifically to streamline the real estate process. The software manages the data-heavy tasks, like information and process tracking, so that agents can concentrate on what a computer can never do–connect with people to get deals done. And brokers are freed from the need to micro-manage the nuts and bolts of day-to-day operations, and are able to devote their time to taking a strategic view of their team.
Additionally, you should be thinking about how the technology will grow with you in the future. Does your software partner have a track record of innovation? Will their platform position you as a place that younger agents are going to want to work?
4. Lead the Change
Now that you’ve chosen your technology, and have a plan for implementation, it’s time to lead by example.
One of the reasons Napoleon was so difficult to defeat was because his men would do anything for him. He earned this trust by going against the advice of his generals and wading into battle to personally rally the infantry and direct artillery fire.
You don’t need to wave a sword at the Prussians. Just be among the first to adopt the new technology and be transparent about any challenges you’re having.
5. Support Full Adoption
Do what it takes to see your transformation through. Make sure everybody has full access to the technology, then follow up with the accountability and support to make sure everybody is onboard.
Have regular meetings where people can talk about their progress and their challenges. At the same time offer regular training so your agents and staff don’t lose their early momentum. If they get frustrated, they’re going to be tempted just to go back to doing things the old way.
Keep reminding people of the goals you’ve all agreed on. This will help keep them accountable for reaching the milestones necessary for successful adoption.
Believe That Transformation Can Happen
You can transform your brokerage, and technology can help you do it. You just need to make sure that it’s you in the driver’s seat and not the technology. By itself it can’t take you where you want to go.
Before you can start you have to believe that your company can change. Once you know what that change is supposed to look like, choose technology partners who can help you reach full adoption by your staff and agents.
Successful transformation isn’t easy. But in the long run it’s the best challenge you can take on.
