Sarah Smith has joined Queensland’s RE/MAX Results with her eyes firmly set on solid growth targets, including boosting the group’s GCI, rent roll and team numbers.
As head of growth Ms Smith, nee Dickenson, will be responsible for recruitment and growth across sales and property management at the four RE/MAX Results offices in Morningside, Mackay, Alexandra Hills and Cleveland.
She said one of her key aims was to increase the number of agents from 50 to 75 by the end of the year.
“Recruitment is a main goal, as is really smashing out our GCI goals as well,” she said.
“Our goal is to hit $20 million GCI this year and 2000 doors under management as well. At the moment we are at 1000 (doors), and last year GCI was about $17 million.”
In the real estate industry since 2010, Ms Smith has worked her way up from an assistant asset manager at Townsville Rentals to work for international recruitment company Hays, in business and property management operations for Coronis Group and, most recently, she was a business development executive for Ray White in Queensland.
Ms Smith said RE/MAX Results would be looking to hire both million-dollar agents and those at much earlier stages of their career.
She said what she looks for when recruiting new team members is whether they ‘fit’ with the agency’s culture.
“Culture, first and foremost, is the most important thing for me, and having the drive and the personality, because if someone has all of that, nine times out of 10, you can teach the skills,” Ms Smith said.
“And coaching and training is something I’m really fluent in.”
Ms Smith said how you would approach recruiting and coaching a multi-million-dollar GCI agent was entirely different to how you would secure and train a new agent.
“When you’re looking at recruiting $3 million agents, that’s more of a service piece about how we can really align with them so that, together, we can ensure we can further their milestones in their career,” she said.
“As opposed to a new associate where you’re really just looking for drive and the cultural representation that they want to succeed.”
Ms Smith said another goal was to assist high performers in the team with scaling out their businesses so when they go on leave, spend time with family or are away from the office, their GCI doesn’t dip.
“The value for them will be around how I can provide that flexibility more and how I provide and enable them to do their job, and the bits of their job they love doing” she said.
Hayley Van de Ven heads up RE/MAX Results under the Limitless Group and said she was excited to have Ms Smith join the team.
“Last year was about consolidation and steady growth,” she said.
“With the acquisition of two new offices we needed to take a minute and look for the right people to take the next steps with.
“Growth should be purposeful and not just for the sake of it, and I wasn’t prepared to move on anything until the right people presented themselves. I feel Sarah is the absolute perfect person to head up growth in sales and PM in our group.”
Ms Smith said when she met Ms Van de Ven she instantly felt they were reading from the same page.
“Meeting Hayley there was so much drive and ambition,” she said.
“I had that connection with her in terms of morals and value alignment.”
RE/MAX Australia Managing Director Joel Davoren said Ms Smith would help the group reach new heights.
“This is an exciting appointment for the group and I have no doubt Sarah will flourish with the mentorship and strategic growth that Hayley is known for,” he said.
“What I’m particularly enthused to see is the Limitless growth mentality of bringing great people into the business and affording them the opportunity to think bigger and grow to all new heights, without the typical glass ceiling. This is what the RE/MAX Network is all about and it’s beautifully demonstrated here.”
