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Jack O'Neal
... A Manager's Perspective

Jack was a manager in the "old" days but he didn't like his job very much. Stress, long hours, high turnover and lack of appreciation among traditional agents took the fun away. Today he loves what he does and is well rewarded. Jack manages or "supports" about 50 agents scattered around Silicon Valley and the South San Francisco Bay Area. Almost all his agents are "mobile," Internet connected, and maintain their own home offices. They rarely come to the branch location where he and four traditional agents have offices and two multimedia conference rooms. Ironically, synergy among his agents is even more effective and focused than the old days. This is because the collaborative videoconferencing tools of the Net allow them to "meet" with each other in any numbers, at almost any time, regardless of their physical locations.

Jack's primary function is to support his current sales associates and to recruit highly experienced Internet savvy agents. He targets agents specializing in various types of services - exclusive buyers' agents, property marketing specialists, relocation specialists, and several subcategories of each, including those willing to work for fee versus commission only.

Recruiting on the Net
The Internet is Jack's primary tool for finding potential new sales associates. Using his company's proprietary intelligent "Agent Finder," he scours the Net for real estate licensees who best meet the criteria for the specialty he currently seeks. The Agent Finder locates licensees who are active on the Net, and compiles a preliminary sales and psychological profile of each candidate based upon the content of their Web sites.

An intelligent "Compliance Agent" checks the respective Web sites of possible recruits for potential regulatory problems. It also queries the Department of Real Estate for a complete report on their respective real estate license histories. When Jack enters into serious discussions with recruits, each will complete several comprehensive online personality profiles. These will give him a clear picture of the candidate's suitability, measuring many factors including adaptability to ongoing change and innovation.

Managing
Jack occasionally hires someone new to the business, but fledgling agents will "apprentice" for one to two years as paid assistants to one or more of his seasoned sales associates. Recruiting and training totally inexperienced agents tends to be time consuming, frustrating, expensive, and unrewarding.

Jack's careful recruiting methods and support of his current team members has resulted in less than a 10% turnover per year. Also, Internet based marketing and operational efficiencies have resulted in an average of 5-7 transaction sides per agent per month. Of course there are superstars like Sally Walker who do considerably more than that.

High averages are a direct result of the Net enabling fewer agents to complete many more transactions. Because of the emergence of fee-based services, many of these transaction sides will not result in traditional full commissions.However volume and Net-based operational efficiencies more than offset reductions in gross commissions paid per transaction.

Supporting
In addition to recruiting, Jack uses the Net to support his associates. Almost all corporate information and operational processes are accessible via the company Intranet. Jack can tap into the company's Internet Sales Tracking & Reporting System to see a real time picture of any agent's productivity.

Jack can also profile assistant turnover rates, vacation frequency, and progress with the company's continual learning programs. Armed with this information and productivity figures, he can see the beginning signs of stress and potential burnout well before the agents themselves. When Jack sees someone getting a little out of whack, he makes a personal effort to help them get back on track.

Jack treats each of his 50 agents as unique "clients" with specific needs, and maintains this support (vs. control) because of the tremendous operational leverage the Net provides. Agents depend on him and the company to help them stay up-to-date and on the competitive edge without becoming overwhelmed. Video conferencing, Net-based self-paced training programs, real-time Intranet reporting systems, and proprietary Web applications are invaluable for this purpose. Despite this level of support, costs per agent are far below traditional offices that still house personnel in offices or cubicles.

Senior Management
-Keeping an Eye to the Future
Visionary senior managers know that in the fast paced world of the Internet, business models need to adjust more quickly than in the past.The winners will recognize and adopt Internet innovation, sniff out new trends and plan strategically for the best ways to adapt their business model to take maximum advantage of evolving conditions.

Successful companies will strive to continually build Net-based brand awareness while providing unique and attractive support services to recruit and retain the best agents.Web based "back room" applications will allow their executives unprecedented span of control over the entire company using a simple Web browser-from anywhere in the world.The bottom line is that commitment to continuous innovation and supportive leadership will lead to Net-enabled increased profits and successful competitive positioning.

Knowing exactly what products or services will be available to enable these possibilities is not as important as realizing that a dramatic, consumer-driven shift is under way. The biggest risk for anyone serious about their longevity in this business is to ignore the Internet as both an agent and tool for change.

Contributing Author
Michael J. Russer
Michael J. Russer, President of RUSSER Communications, is an internationally recognized speaker, writer, and strategic consultant for the real estate industry about the Internet. His 22 years experience in the real estate field include the development of marketing and software systems as CEO for a high-tech mortgage consulting firm he co-founded. Also an authority on Internet risk management, he recently authored the industry's first comprehensive Internet policies and procedures manual for those companies that have agents active on the Net. He can be reached at (805) 882-1170 or mrusser@russer.com.