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Real estate businesses need to improve the working relationships between their property management and sales departments, according to a leading property management expert.
Business development coach from bdmcoach.com.au Deniz Yusuf told Residential Property Manager that sales and property management were often viewed as separate entities within a single office.
This was also due to the poor perception of property managers nearly a decade ago, which is now changing.
“Six or seven years ago, you could easily say property management was just something you did on the side," he said.
“I think when the GFC hit in 2008, owners and principals realised their only form of income was from their property management, and they saw the light.
“It's only becoming a subject in the last few years when principals started realising the importance of it, so it's now about training the salespeople that property management does work and that we do care about it.”
Mr Yusuf said a business development manager essentially had the same role as their sales counterpart.
“They take an enquiry, they go to a house, they sell their services, they sign them up. Rather than selling it, they manage and look after it for 10 years, rather than having a three-month relationship,” he explained.
Mr Yusuf said both property managers and sales staff needed strong relationships in order to refer business to each other.
One practical method was having the business development manager or the head of the property management department attend sales meetings.
“If they attend some of the sales meetings and they provide rental opinions and statistics, the salesperson then becomes a bit of an expert in property management and it makes them sound smarter when they answer enquiries," he said.
“On the other hand, the sales guys should also attend a property management meeting. They would respect each other more if they knew how hard it was to do this job.”
Another way for property managers to boost their relationship with the sales team is to invite them to their open homes.
“If I ever had a person that wasn't sure if they wanted to rent or sell, I wouldn't take it for myself," he said. "I would actually invite the salesperson along and say 'Hey, I've got this person who's thinking about renting or selling'. That way, I'm making that first step and then in the office, the salesperson will think ‘Deniz is involving me, I should get him to come to mine'.”
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