Blog / Leadership
How to Structure Elevated Success with Rohan Calder Noel Jones Blackburn
with Rohan Calder noel Jones Blackburn
2015 was a watershed year for Rohan Calder and Troy Sheehan, owners of Noel Jones Blackburn in Melbourne’s burgeoning eastern suburbs. They interacted with more than 800 clients, had over 300 sales, hit a suburb record with a $2.2m sale in Box Hill North, and hit another two records in neighbouring Blackburn with one property going for over $5m and a second just under $5m. These stunning results have been the product of a deliberate strategy to implement a more structured approach to their already thriving business.
Rohan’s office is in one of the most dynamic areas of the Melbourne market. It has experienced enormous growth in average prices in the last few years as buyers are attracted to a mixed range of dwellings, outstanding transport links, excellent schools and great restaurants and shops. He says, “It's a very good market. It ranges from $500,000 units and $800,000 - $900,000 homes, to knock downs for $1.2 million, to stunning brand new homes for in excess of $2 million.
It was while attending Lee Woodward’s management course in Hawaii, Rohan had something of an epiphany. He realised that his business was in the right place at the right time and by introducing more accountability and structure across all aspects of the business, the business could power to even greater heights. He came home, and did just what Lee advocated - introduced tighter, more transparent structures and processes across the business which has in turn powered the business into another stratosphere.
Rohan says, “That two million plus sale in Box Hill North was certainly a big stepping stone for us, because it's pretty rare for a residential home to be selling above $2,000,000 in Box Hill North. That's pretty much in the league of Mont Albert, Mont Albert North, Balwyn, Balwyn North. That's exactly the market that we wanted to enter."
So what are some of the tweaks Rohan made to his business?
Lee’s Visual Business Framework really resonated with Rohan. He says, “It was all about the structure. It was the discipline. It was the accountability. It was the responsibility. After completing the salesperson course in Hawaii, I realised there and then, I had a whiteboard, but it wasn't a functional whiteboard. I came away from that course, and first thing I did was paint my wall blue. My business partner Troy said, 'What do you need to do that for?'. I said, 'Trust me. Just trust me. I know what I'm doing. It's in my mind. I've got to complete this'. We bought a whiteboard, and I looked at that and thought, 'How can I visually put that right in front of me?'."
Rohan says, “The health of the business is laid out on that board. It is in your face. We can’t hide. The responsibility is clear because of the visual aspect of it. Everyone knows what's happening, everyone knows what's ahead. There are rules around the wall for the reason being, that it is our responsibility. That's our accountability. We produce it, so we're going to own it, and we're going to make sure that we're in full control of where those magnets are going so we know exactly when they're dropping in."
With the board and rigorous scheduling, Rohan explains, “Now, I'm really, really clear with what I've got to do each day. I felt like I never really had that in the past. In the real estate business, everyone's so busy running around and to spend some time with someone, I always found that was really difficult: A) as a sales person, and then B) as a leader. But now, because I've got absolute clarity in regards to my week, I can actually spend time and not even panic, because I know where I've got to go. I know where I've got to be, and I know what I've got to do next. I'm really happy about that."
Rohan says, “We have a column for leads, we have a column for the three month pending sellers, one month sellers, and also pending which rolls straight into the auctions or for sale campaigns. Once we find a potential lead from an open for inspection, or from a database call, we actually hand write it on the whiteboard, and then we create a Dymo label. With the whiteboard comes a Dymo machine, and then that sticks onto the leads. Then, we categorise it into a three-month, or a one month pipeline."
He continues, “The pending list is the hot column, and we look at that, and we're in constant communication pretty much every second, third day, they're receiving something from us or we're talking to them. The dollar value underneath is basically a rough guide - might be $20,000 GCI, it might be $13,000 GCI, whatever it is, but that gives us a really good idea of what's pending in the next 30 days. Right now, it’s at $250,000."
“Once it's listed, it slots into an auction time frame. We're very specific with our auction time frames. We don't want to be rushed, just in case the property passes in and we have to negotiate afterwards. Also, we don't want to book in five or six auctions on a Saturday like some agents do. We want to maintain our fees at the same time, so we're very, very specific with the business that we take on, and we earn our fees. You hear about this a lot - we want to earn our fees so we've got a system in place for Thursdays, we've got a system in place for Saturdays, we're open for inspections. We want to maintain that service."
Rohan is also very consistent and structured with how he deals with appraisals. He explains, “We have specific days, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays for market appraisals and set times - 1:30pm, 3pm, 4:30pm, and 7:30pm. There are 600 spots for 2016. Once a spot is taken, we just tick it off. It's visually right in front of us, so it's a pink highlighter and we run it straight through."
Isn’t it amazing what a little structure can do?
← Go back
