Being No.1 shouldn’t be your No.1 priority

2020 – A Year for Being Your Local No1 or Making Profit?

2020 is well underway with January now behind us with high numbers of agents reporting a bumper start to the year; great for the heart and morale, but what about the bank account?

Typically, we come back after the Christmas/ New Year holidays full of enthusiasm, bristling with energy – as we should!

A common New Year aspiration we hear from so many agencies is they aim to be Number 1 in their area in the coming year. What we don’t hear is…”this is a year we going to make  fantastic profits”

Why don’t we hear the profit goals enough, and for those agencies focused on being Number 1, is this your slow death march?

What is Number 1?

There is no one common definitive answer to this, as being Number I means different things to different people. Some define it by brand awareness, feedback from agency portal reviews, perceived market share, number of sales, highest profile sales people, social media profile or low days on market.

Granted, these are all important factors for agencies and agent profile, but most are unquantifiable – and that’s the risk. If it’s not adding to your profit –  it’s merely ego stroking.

What are most agencies focusing on in 2020?

From a survey we conducted at the end of 2019, a high number of responded that making profit is “right up there” with being the best/biggest/highest profile agency in their neighbourhood.

The survey crystallised our observation that many respondent agencies:

1. Focus sales turnover as being their priority.
2. Are keen to attract the right sale people.
3. Grow property management but have limited or no ability to do so in a structured manner.
4. Profit – defined by most respondents as debt consolidation.

What are the quiet achievers addressing?

We’re fortunate enough to work with a group of agencies across the industry spectrum, from various independent offices and those from franchise groups, both and big and small.

As an overview the common thread for 2020 from these businesses are:

1. Focus on profit first, asset accumulation second and market share third.
2. Focus on improving the business culture for every staff member, not just sales staff.
3. Learn from the market challenges following the market correction of 2018 and most of 2019.
4. Be great leaders inside their businesses who know their strengths and weaknesses and encourage staff to reach the business and personal goals.
5. Understand their businesses to know its sales and property management profit points and work to these.
6. Actively engage outside consultants to regularly review the performance of the business.
7. Focus of both debt consolidation and asset accumulation
8. Have regular holidays.

We expect these clients to continue achieve their profit forecasts regardless of market fluctuations.

2020 is going to be great year ahead and we wish everyone enjoys the fruits of their labour while remembering “Profit is a Beautiful Word”