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In line with its goal of delivering “people-centred innovations”, the network has launched a new function providing behind-the-scenes and on-demand support for real estate agents during a sales process.
Laing+Simmons’ Centralised Agent Support (CAS) function offers the services of a custom-built team of onshore professionals to assist agents with administration and marketing tasks throughout the selling process on a per-listing basis.
Touting several features, including timely response times, callbacks within 30 minutes, and regular anonymous feedback to ensure efficient real estate sales processes, the newly launched service is accessible to all agents and businesses operating under the brand at a fixed fee of $650 per listing. The fee includes access to several essential subscriptions, such as Realtair tech.
Headed by centralised agent support manager Michelle Jones, the network noted the new offering is executed by a “team of experienced real estate professionals” focused on “ensuring consistent compliance, high-quality marketing standards and extremely efficient turnaround times”.
Head of growth and development Harriet Saunders, who spearheaded the implementation of the CAS function, highlighted the new innovation aims to enable agents “to do what they do best” including “serving their customers, building strong relationships and talking to buyers”.
“All real estate businesses increasingly need and demand some kind of centralised support service from franchisors. Laing+Simmons Centralised Agent Support is a new way of delivering this increasingly important function because it breaks new ground in cost and time efficiency, quality of outcome and comprehensive critical task expertise,” Ms Saunders says.
In addition to empowering sales teams to be “as dollar-productive as possible”, the executive emphasised the new service also provides efficiency benefits for business owners.
With the assurance of total compliance, Ms Saunders noted business owners can trust that their Class 1 licence, or any licence classification depending on the state/territory that allows them to operate their own real estate agency, is in “safe hands”.
“Importantly, it’s a tax deductible expense for the owner as opposed to a human resource, which would otherwise incur payroll tax, so it drives a lean and efficient business model which is especially advantageous in times of market uncertainty,” she added.
Ms Saunders noted the new offering also provides a “huge advantage” to up-and-coming agents, as it allows them to “scale and build their sales business without having to hire non-dollar productive team members and carry the burden of payroll tax early in their growth plan”.
Unlike many franchisors which use offshore time-based agent support services, the executive highlighted the new offering stands out with its per-listing fee model which allows businesses to avoid unnecessary costs during slow market periods and eliminate overhead expenses, ensuring costs are only incurred when listings are made.
“It’s not just what we built; it’s the way we have built it and structured it which makes it so revolutionary. It’s a plug-in, plug-out service which agents can tap into on an [as-needed] basis, and which costs nothing unless they’re actively earning income from a listing,” Ms Saunders said.
With Laing+Simmons’ innovation approach driven by a commitment to “continual improvement”, the network indicated it already has plans in the works to expand CAS with additional services for agents.
Additionally, as CAS evolves, the company also plans to establish an internal real estate school to provide specialised training in prospecting pitches and buyer dialogue, thus enhancing the CAS team’s ability to make effective prospecting and buyer calls.
Chief executive Leanne Pilkington says the launch of CAS aligns with the network’s ethos to “prioritise people over profits”.
“Our approach begins with taking the time to listen to our network to truly understand the pain points our people are experiencing, and the inhibitors to them maximising their performance, and then innovating to alleviate these,” Ms Pilkington said.
She highlighted CAS as “the latest incarnation of this systematic approach to innovation”.
“It’s made possible through our unique ownership structure, which continues to redefine the role of franchisor in a modern real estate context — that role being to support the people and businesses in our network above all else, including profits,” she concluded.
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