How you can use a growth mindset to drive our industry (and your business!) forward.

I’ve been to a lot of industry events recently and most of the conversations continue to focus on the short game—the top of the funnel. I find myself wondering after all these years and despite the many innovations in real estate tech to support the entire buyer/seller life cycle, is it not he stuck as an industry in a focused mindset, can you move beyond lead gen? As someone who has worked in real estate technology for the past 15 years, I understand why today’s agents—and the team leaders and brokerage owners who manage them—can feel stuck, paralyzed by fear and uncertainty. While today’s real estate professionals continue to weather storms, instead of putting off leading brand jobs—ones that may be easier to achieve—this is the time to focus on the long-term view and embrace a growth mindset to support a sustainable career. This is also exactly where technology can play a key role in helping agents, teams and brokerages overcome short-term barriers and top-of-the-funnel focus.

One of the biggest challenges I keep hearing from consumers about technology is poor user and feature acceptance. In many cases, agents do not use the full capabilities of the technology platform offered to them, and in the 20-25% of agents among brokerages that use the platform, they still use a limited number of features. With thoughtfully designed tools to drive better conversion rates, automate social media marketing, and streamline time-consuming tasks, technology is key to growing a business, but only if it’s fully leveraged. Agents need to go beyond a fixed mindset when it comes to technology and invest time in learning the field. Those agents who do will succeed while others who continue to focus only on the top, will find themselves struggling to survive.

To help today’s real estate professionals overcome current market challenges, develop a growth mindset and leverage technology from search to payment, I recommend the following best practices:

• Once upon a time: At first glance, a new technology platform can be difficult to navigate and often a source of frustration, leading to low adoption rates. Instead of trying to tackle the entire feature library at once, take it one at a time. For example, use social media automation to establish your online presence and ensure consistency. Then consider another feature – from IDX templates to smart apps – that can have an immediate impact on your business and get information about which tools will help you organize your daily life. Before you know it, you’ll be mastering the entire field, freeing you up to focus on money-making activities to grow your business.
• Lead by example: The most effective way for brokerage owners and team leaders to motivate agents and encourage adoption is to demonstrate how they are using technology effectively. Driven by a growth mindset, real estate leaders can serve as role models for many agents struggling to leverage technology beyond furniture. Hold monthly interviews to highlight popular features and demonstrate ROI. Offer tips/hints based on personal experience and schedule training sessions to give agents the support they need most to overcome common obstacles.
• Integrate into the recruitment process: The next generation of agents is more technologically savvy than ever before and likely depends on the growth mindset. Take advantage of this natural interaction to innovate in the recruitment process. Show the platform you offer agents and secure commitment from new agents to learn and use the technology from day one. By integrating the platform into the onboarding process and integrating technology into the fiber of your operations, you’re more likely to attract smarter agents and increase adoption to drive business growth.

These are exciting times for our industry and technological innovation continues to evolve to support the needs of today’s agents. AI for example, continues to take center stage and rightly so. AI eliminates menial, time-consuming tasks and empowers agents to instead focus on revenue-generating activities and delivering valuable customer service to sales-ready prospects. From intelligent chatbots to strategic marketing campaigns, social media content optimization to intelligent follow-up, AI is the lynchpin in keeping the agent top of mind among sales leads that are ready to drive long-term success. However, agents and buyers need AI to engage with prospects and customers in a reliable and consistent manner. This can only be achieved if agents use a growth mindset and take the time to understand and learn how to use technology effectively.

While real estate professionals continue to weather the storms, it’s important to remember that technology—especially the platform that seamlessly delivers on the hiring process—isn’t a barrier to growth, but a real enabler. While top of the funnel jobs are easily accessible and fill an immediate need, the real benefit of a lead type is found when these leads are nurtured and ultimately converted. This is achieved quickly and efficiently by relying on an end-to-end platform designed to support the entire process—from search to resolution. By embracing the vision of growth and increasing technological development in their hands, agents, groups and brokerages will be better placed to achieve unprecedented business growth and ensure long-term professional success.

Stuart Sim is VP of Industry Development at Lofty.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the editor responsible for this piece: [email protected]

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