Tech of a Life 5: My lessons in leadership

As the UK’s largest multi-brand Lettings and Estate Agency franchising group, The Property Franchise Group (TPFG) is a collection of 13 brands including Hunters, Whitegates, Martin & Co and Northwood. TPFG’s residential Estate Agencies are well[1]recognised on our high streets, with the group generating a network turnover of £163m in FY22.

As Operations Manager, Vicki Cullen leads 17 Hunters branches and 29 Whitegates branches, supporting each business to navigate changing markets and grow their success year-on-year. With 28 years of experience in Estate Agency, Vicki acts as a central pillar for this network of 46 Estate Agencies, uniting them in working towards a common goal whilst empowering them to thrive as individual businesses. Here, Vicki shares her insights into how to lead and inspire a network of branches to work together, move forward and embrace tech, and the industry’s biggest opportunity in 2024.

It’s mind-blowing how many solutions are out there for agents and those who don’t embrace it are going to find themselves on the back foot.

How do you keep a network of franchisees working towards a common goal?

While franchisees are all individual entities led by dedicated owners, they are all working towards the same goal – building a successful and profitable business. With that goal already in place, my role is to help facilitate the network of business owners in sharing ideas. Each Franchisee is very much their own business leader, and there’s no requirement for them to share their knowledge with other branches, but part of my role is to keep everybody on the same page and make sure that there’s space for everyone to succeed together.

One of the ways we do this is through WhatsApp groups where we ask each other questions and share ideas. We have interesting debates in the groups around what products are working well for each franchise, which is great for me in understanding what could be applied across the network.

Another way we ensure we’re working towards a common goal is by holding twice-yearly regional business meetings with the business owners, where we invite expert speakers and external suppliers, who come and present and spark conversation about what’s happening in the market and the differences between different localities. It’s a collaborative way to facilitate conversation and my role is to ask the right questions so that everybody in the room takes something valuable away from the day.

I also share my experience of practices that I used when I was an Estate Agent in the field, ones that I know will work and have the potential to create success for all the branches. Sharing expertise is a key part of the value branches get from us as a franchise – they know they’ve got somebody experienced who they can trust. Keeping relationships between branch owners strong means they don’t have to work in silo and can lean on each other.

How can Estate Agency leaders benefit from introducing tech solutions into their business?

The world of Estate Agency is always changing and today tech is a key part of how we maintain success across various aspects of the business. As a franchise, one of the key benefits we offer our branches is putting market-leading technology solutions in their hands, so they have the tools they need to succeed as individual businesses. It’s mind-blowing how many solutions are out there for agents and those who don’t embrace it are going to find themselves on the back foot. We’ve just rolled out a new tech solution for all our Franchisees and I’m focussed on supporting every branch through the process of bedding it into their daily practices.

How do you lead the branches in putting new tech solutions in place?

With any big change including introducing new tech, there’s always going to be a learning curve and it’s my job to help teams embrace that journey and demonstrate how it will make a real difference to the business in the long-term. This means I need to lead from the front and embrace the tech solutions myself. Recently I did a training course for a new piece of tech to make sure that I understood the real nuts and bolts of it. It helped me feel confident to then sit down with branches and look at how we can use the tech to its absolute full potential together. If leaders don’t buy into something, it’s impossible to expect the wider teams to, so we always take the journey of learning something new together. This process is also a trust building exercise. As a leader, it’s important to motivate and inspire people, and you can only do that if you can demonstrate to teams that you know what you’re talking about and are willing to put the time into it too. Trust is earned and something never to be taken for granted.

What should leaders look out for when they’re recruiting for new people?

People are everything in this business. Software doesn’t sell houses – talented people do, and there are various skills that agents need as a non-negotiable to be excellent salespeople.

I can only speak for the Estate Agency world and am coming at this from a client-facing point of view. The first thing to look for in a new team member is someone who can communicate well with clients. Good Estate Agents must be able hold a conversation, maintain eye contact, and be engaging. From a sales perspective, agents need to enthuse and inspire buyers. For example, when they’re on a viewing, it’s their job to inspire them to picture their lives there.

It’s good to look out for somebody who’s got a little bit of shark instinct – someone who can spot an opportunity and present how our services will fulfil client’s needs. They need to be able to ask the right questions, create conversations and talk to a client in the right tone, all while thinking in the back of their mind about what services the client is going to need, and judging when the right time is to bring that into the conversation.

Compassion is another key trait. Property transactions are an emotionally charged time in people’s lives, so agents are either dealing with some real highs, like people buying their first house, or some tough low points, when transactions don’t go to plan. Being able to manage both is vital. If an agent isn’t sensitive to transactions being an emotional process, that’s when frustration builds with the client and can compromise relationships. It’s a balancing act of getting someone excited and being realistic. Agents need to present the best possible outcome to their client, but also be ready to manage expectations. Also having resilience is essential because agents must be ready to move onto their next sale without letting disappointment get them down, because the business must always move forward.

After these soft skills, industry knowledge is also important to look at. Agents don’t need a set list of degrees or certificates, but what leaders should look for is somebody who has shown that they want to learn because although the industry isn’t regulated from an education perspective, training is still essential in Estate Agency and demonstrates credibility to clients.

Overall, the interview process should give leaders a sense of excitement over the applicant – the right person will be able to show that they have what it takes, and the branch owner should be able to envision taking that person on the same journey that they’ve loved being on in their own career.

If we use Material Information to get vendors prepared quicker than our competitors, we’ll be the first choice for a new instruction.

What do you think is the biggest opportunity for Estate Agency leaders in 2024?

My saying is ‘in a tough market, good agents always rise to the top’. They’ll look for ways to maximise income and spot opportunities to get ahead. Currently, the biggest opportunity is Material Information. Being able to meet the requirements gives us a chance to position ourselves as an agent of choice for clients. If we use Material Information to get vendors prepared quicker than our competitors, we’ll be the first choice for a new instruction.

In my recent conversations with conveyancers, I know they’re seeing it as an opportunity for improving the relationship between conveyancing and Estate Agency. Traditionally each side has blamed the other for difficulties in the transaction process, but we can work together to source Material Information and make sure that buyers and sellers are fully prepared. If we invest in the time and tools we need to manage Material Information properly, I think we’ll see sales transaction times come down, less buyers pulling out because they will have made an informed decision before they make an offer, and ultimately more success for branches with time being spent more effectively.

Hear how Vicki’s network of branches have succeeded with the support of iamproperty.