by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting
I’ve often made the point that a real estate office is like a small business community.
Some communities thrive and grow while others stagnate and barely stay alive.
Online community expert Rich Millington estimates that 90% of communities are in the second category.
How do you fix a community (or a real estate office) that’s profoundly struggling?
Rich offers this advice:
It’s tempting to keep trying to generate ever-bigger, temporary, spikes on the community EGK chart. You might believe that if you can just get a big enough spike the community will magically come to life.
Alas, it’s not going to happen (and nor will a technology change fix the problem).
Your problem isn’t technological, it’s perceived value.
Members don’t see the value of joining and participating in the community. You need to revamp the concept and try again.
That means tweaking the target audience, the purpose of the community and what happens within the community.
You haven’t failed, you just tested an idea that didn’t work. Now it’s time to move on to the next idea.
The real failure would be to stick with a failing idea.
For many leaders, this is difficult advice to receive, digest, and act upon. It’s why most real estate offices maintain the status quo and hope for the best.
