Transform PM 2016 has been an intensive process of learning and reflection that included attending ARPM 2016, coaching and mentoring sessions, and an ‘Amazing Race’ finale. Here are 50 top tips from our Transform PM coaches and the Dynamic Dozen.
1. “You have to be able to do more with less. You just have to, it’s not an option. All I see us doing in our industry is actually adding to the complexity of what we do every day.” – Fiona Blayney
2. “We need to understand what our client is buying. Once we know what they’re after, what their concerns are, what their fears are, then we can make our point of difference really meaningful and relevant to them.” – Hannah Gill
3. “When I knew that I had to go back and report everything [to Heidi Walkinshaw of Real+], I knew I had to get a plan in place.” – Kira Bauerle, Zelle
4. “[Setting] KPIs is effectively reverse-engineering your vision. You are looking at what your vision is, what your goals are. Then the KPIs are basically what make the goals happen, and then the goals make the vision happen.” – Sophie Lyon
5. “We are encouraging our tenants to pay monthly because it minimises the amount of times you have to get on the phone to chase arrears.” – Mary Karam, R+W Marrickville
6. “…People will buy from people they like and people that they trust, and often they will buy on emotion and justify it with logic. So remember, there is always ‘a right reason’ that people bought something, and then there’ll be a real reason.” – Samantha McLean
7. “As a leader, pick one thing at a time and do it strategically and make sure you’re going back, and reviewing the value that you’re getting out of that action.” – Tanja M Jones
8. “Tenants’ search behaviour: how many pages do they view? About half the audience get to page two, which is about 40 listings in, and then they stop. It’s important that you are up the front of the search results.” – Richard Bray, realestate.com.au
9. “It just makes sense if you bring those people who are going to be in their flow in particular areas and put them into the right job because that’s where they’ll bring the most value naturally to your business.” – Julie Davis, Agent Dynamics
10. “Ask your clients what is the one question they would like to know more about or a problem they would like solved when it comes to property management or property investment.” – Josh Cobb
11. “We need to be evolving; we haven’t yet forced ourselves to change as an industry.” – Fiona Blayney
12. “It’s your job to adapt and understand that people don’t necessarily want to be treated how you want to be treated. People want to be treated how they want to be treated.” – Sarah Bell
13. “A lot of people have worked out that it’s not the cheapest agent who’s the best agent. They’ve worked out that it’s the agent who can get the job done.” – Charles Tarbey
14. “It’s really important, especially as a leadership team, that you have someone that you can just ‘park your funk’ with and get stuff off your chest because, as I said before, it can be lonely at the top.” – Tanja M Jones
15. “Our market is always changing. We know that, and if we’re not agile to adapt to those changes, we’re going to fall behind.” – Hannah Gill
16. “They [clients] are wanting to receive information in an easy to understand, easy to consume way” – Helen Mitchell
17. “Being a little bit self-aware of how you approach a situation and I guess that comes down to your personality type as well; working with those.” – Rachel Torney, Harcourts Adelaide Hills
18. “You are either all in [with helpful content marketing], or you just keep going out and interrupting people, the same way that real estate agents have done forever.” – Josh Cobb
19. “I have a long way to go still! I am still working on removing the fear factor and connecting with people to grow the database.” – Hayley Hawkins, PMHQ
20. “You can see when it comes to tenants or people looking to rent a property, it’s mobile [that] is king. Everybody is on their mobile so what are the tools? How easy are you making it for your tenants to engage with all things mobile?” – Richard Bray, realestate.com.au
21. “We have broken down our property management into packages to give landlords more choice of what they can get for their money.” – Robert Bell, Zelle
22. “Everyone calculates a cost/ benefit value equation, as they make decisions on what they’re going to buy. They’re going to look at what the cost is, whether they like the options that they’ve been presented, and what else they might like.” – Samantha McLean
23. “Systems are lacking in property management…It’s not the lack of work ethic, it’s the issue of having information at your fingertips, and the ability of the customer to get that information immediately.” – Charles Tarbey
24. “One of the most important parts of my experience has been following up until you get a decision. I’m not talking about stalking people, but I’m talking about continuing to contact them until they say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.” – Hannah Gill
25. “It is always the person in a business that says ‘no, no, no. I don’t need any training’. They need training.” – Fiona Blayney
26. “I’ve leant more towards treating property management as the most important thing…I’ve seen dividends of it already.” – Trent Shorland, Harcourts Adelaide Hills
27. “The big thing for businesses is, over the next five years, with the massive growth of video, how are you going to manage all that stuff? Where are you going to put it all?” – Helen Mitchell
28. “It [property management] seemed so negative, chasing arrears, and I thought, ‘what is this?’…I believe you need to stay positive and don’t forget who you are in your role.” – Kim Clewett, PMHQ
29. “It [technology] takes away from the property manager being the bottleneck of all information, to a platform being the holder of information.” – Alister Maple-Brown
30. “We want things yesterday; we want it quickly, and we want information pushed to us.” – Fiona Mott, Rockend
31. “We’re about the restoration of relationships, and we’re about moving forward because that’s the best thing. It’s a long game. It’s not a short-term fight that we’ve got to win. It’s about a long-term relationship that we’ve got to preserve.” – Sarah Bell
32. “People often forget that it [the rent roll] is a multiplier of profit… How do we get one more dollar to the
bottom line, and not just the top line?” – John Knight
33. “Transforming is allowing transparency” – Fiona Blayney
34. “Here’s the database. Call everybody. How many properties do they have? Who do they know? To get to the next step, this is what we’ve got to work on.” – Adriana Dendrinos, R+W Marrickville
35. “A lot of businesses believe that cloud technology is the same process, it’s just deployed differently. Whereas the reality is, it’s an entirely new paradigm of how to communicate with people.” – Alister Maple-Brown
36. “Sometimes it’s not about getting more tech, it’s about knowing what you’re not using that you’ve already got”. – Fiona Blayney
37. “The concept to continually identify the things that go wrong, [and to] put a procedure in place to stop it from happening…Eventually, most of the problems that I had in business don’t exist anymore…” – Charles Tarbey
38. “We used to do a listing presentation. That was never really, to me, about what [the landlord’s] needs were, or what their expectations are. We have changed the whole scope of that now.” – Kelley Seaton, PMHQ
39. “Avoiding conflict is a conscious decision to drag it out and it can escalate the position of both parties.” – Sarah Bell
40. “I think it [the cloud] puts another level of accountability on the property manager to make sure the job’s done correctly because the client’s got access to it”. – Philip Bell, Zelle.
41. “Fundamentally, everyone wants to feel they’ve got a high level of contribution to what they’re doing. Everybody wants to experience a high degree of satisfaction and show up every day in their ideal role playing their best game.” – Julie Davis
42. “We might have a benchmark profitability percentage, but if you are at capacity that may not be sustainable.” – John Knight
43. If we now look at why people invest…65% of landlords want to grow their wealth…44% want an income during retirement…33% are doing it because they want to reduce tax. These are points to reiterate back [to clients], especially for the BDMs when they are out there.” – Richard Bray, realestate.com.au
44. “Confidence when you deliver the fees is so important. You have to own it, because if they get any hint of a lack of that, one, you’re going to lose that trust, and, two, they’re probably going to try to negotiate, so you want to nail the fee part of it.” – Hannah Gill
45. “We reviewed our tradesmen [maintenance contractors] and then we interviewed some new ones and they have come in and been brilliant.” – Mary Karam, R+W Marrickville
46. “Don’t collapse one ‘failure’ into ‘I am a failure’.” – Tanja M Jones
47. “84% of people still want to use property managers because they consider it value for money, and they consider you as an employee that’s looking after one of their most valuable assets.” – Richard Bray, realestate.com.au
48. “In our industry, our words are our tools. We need to have the ability to give clients a clear understanding of our jargon to resolve issues and manage conflict successfully.” – Kira Bauerle, Zelle
49. “Marketing and branding; it’s not just the paper; it’s not just the website. It is the living, breathing brand.” – Fiona Blayney
50. “For me, my property management team will continue to get some coaching on a regular basis; apart from Fiona keeping me accountable, it’s been Rob, myself and Kira holding each other accountable on the journey as well.” – Philip Bell, Zelle.
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