with Tania Grieg - Barefoot & Thompson
Barfoot and Thompson is no ordinary real estate company. New Zealand’s largest privately owned real estate enterprise, Barfoot and Thompson has 67 branches across Auckland and Northland. Every day, the group sells one in three Auckland homes. Nine thousand auctions were completed in 2014 and 444 sales can be concluded in a single week. That’s a lot of real estate and a lot of transactions.
Responsible for the ongoing professional development of over 2,200 branch managers and salespeople, Tania Greig is Barfoot and Thompson’s dynamic training manager. Tania started her career as a teacher before conquering the world of real estate. Emphatic and competitive, Tania understands how people learn and how to unlock their ability to achieve more. She is deeply committed to providing her staff with the tools and professional development to maintain their domination of the New Zealand real estate market.
Everyone knows Barfoot and Thompson in New Zealand. Tania says, “When we talk to people who want to come into the company, we ask them why Barfoot and Thompson over and above another brand, and they all say, ‘Because you’re everywhere’ - and that’s why clients come to us as well because we are everywhere.” You don’t stay on top without keeping an eye on what’s coming ahead and Barfoot and Thompson have always been committed to do whatever is necessary to maintain their strong position.
Now more than ever, as the internet makes so much more information available, Tania believes it is imperative that agents stay one step ahead of the consumer. She says, “I think New Zealanders are fascinated with real estate and they want to know what is happening in their area, in their street. The minute there’s a sale, they want to know what it sold for. I think our salespeople need to be able to give them that information straight away because so much information is available on the net, and we’ve got to get to them before they can access it themselves.”
Tania argues that training and mobile technology have a vital role in making agents market experts and leaders. She explains, “Our focus going forward is to provide the best possible training for every salesperson in the company at whatever level it is that they need. We’re focused on being the industry leader in training. One of the things that we are doing is running an Accelerator Program - this is for bringing in potential top-performers, giving them the very best tools, so that they have got the very best opportunities. Then, we see them as the next model of real estate.”
Tania and her trainers also run a Total Domination program that teaches agents to protect their turf, build relationships with buyers and see prospecting as an essential pillar of a sustainable business. In that program, Tania explains that the emphasis is on building relationships with potential buyers and getting agents to consider them as potential clients.
She says she doesn’t want agents to think about prospecting ‘because I need to get my name out there’. Rather, she encourages agents to think about prospecting in terms of, “lead generation, driving opportunities, establishing relationships with people, so that they come to you as a salesperson of choice, and so nobody else even gets an opportunity to get in the door because of the relationship that you have got with them.” Potential clients in Tania’s book must become clients.
One of the ways that Barfoot and Thompson delivers their training and approach has been to embed training and professional development in mobile technology through the development of a customised App developed in partnership with Real Estate Academy. The Barfoot and Thompson App has been a game changer.
The company has found mobile technology crucial in terms of aiding an agent’s ability to nurture clients. Tania says, “We now have this wonderful training resource and it’s an App. People have got access to an incredible array of resources that they can use at every level in their business. What we love about it is that a salesperson can say, ‘This is what I need to do. How am I going to do it?’. With a touch or a swipe of a finger, here is this wonderful resource.”
The benefit of mobile over the internet is that it is basically available anytime, anywhere. Tania says, “Basically, what it comes down to is that we’ve got to have what they need available to them wherever they are, and they’re using their phones all of the time. You jump in the car with your phone - but you don’t take your laptop with you, you don’t take your file of papers and resources - and we want people to be able to access whatever they need the minute they need it. We’re living in an instant society and it’s no different for the real estate industry.”
Ultilising mobile technology has other benefits as well in that everyone has a phone so using it as a teaching device provides a bridge to staff who may not have been interested in technology previously. Tania says, “Most people are familiar with, comfortable with, or as many of us would say, lost without (their phones), and that’s probably the key. That’s what you do. You grab your phone and you go. I do the same thing myself. Everything is on there. A mobile is not just a phone. It’s a powerful learning tool that’s with you. Just listen to it, or look at it, or find it when you need it.”
Tania continues, “Each time you grab your phone now, when you’re a Barfoot and Thompson salesperson, you are grabbing a list of audios, of resources, of leaders. You are grabbing all of this information, and it’s right at your fingertips whenever you need it, wherever you need it.”