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Whether building an independent agency from scratch or standing on the foundation laid by established brands, up-and-coming agency owners are often led by distinct skill sets to tread a certain path.
This year, the Your Future Network report uncovers the characteristics that make Aussie agents shine in their careers, which areas they want to work on, and how the uniqueness in their ready bag of tricks fuels them to run an independent office or a franchise.
In the study, more than 700 participants were asked to select the skills they excelled in, specifically in key real estate areas ranging from branding and marketing to people management and backend services.
From the responses, two dominant personas emerged: those of a business manager and a sales-focused professional.
Overall, both types are adept in people-facing aspects of the business, such as building client relationships, handling negotiations and people management.
Meanwhile, both identified that they could benefit from gaining more confidence in payroll and accounting.
Business managers, who comprised approximately 46 per cent of the survey participants, embody attributes that enable them to build from scratch.
They are particularly more confident in having the skills to cultivate their brand, with more than twice the number of survey participants reporting the same attribute as their sales-focused counterparts.
A substantially higher number of business managers also indicated they are good at running backend services, including payroll and accounting, although the area evidently is considered a space for improvement for both cohorts.
Excellence in systems and processes has been also identified as a particular strength among business managers, as approximately eight in 10 are positive it is their strong suit, compared to only three in 10 among those who are sales-focused.
People management is another specialty that notably emerged in the cohort, as indicated by eight in 10 participants. This is in comparison to that of the real estate professionals, where five in 10 registered their skillfulness in the area.
Meanwhile, sales-focused professionals, which comprised 54 per cent of the respondents, said they thrive in prospecting and marketing. They also consider themselves excellent at maintaining client relationships, handling negotiations and closing deals.
These professionals are more than twice as likely to select prospecting as an attribute they are most skilful in compared to business managers. The ability to cultivate client relationships and close deals is also reported as substantially stronger among this group, with the latter being twice more prominent in this cohort than among their counterparts.
The study also sheds light on how more work can be done in the people management aspect, especially relative to responses from the business managers, as well as in upping their game in areas belonging to backend services.
Overall, these skill sets reflect the sales-focused professional’s persona and their knack for utilising already laid-out support structures that empower them to connect with suitable clients and build rapport.
To thrive in such a cut-throat industry, real estate professionals require a holistic set of skills in their bag of tricks.
Mindy Powell-Hodges, Head of Network Raine & Horne Group, said the "insights that we have gathered from this report has been incredibly beneficial for the Raine & Horne Group to better understand the skills and dynamics of franchise vs independent models. From the inception of this report, we have noticed an uptake of agents reaching out to know more about how a franchise real estate model can help support them day-to-day."
Your Future Network 2023 uncovers the respective skills catalogue that lets business managers and sales-focused professionals propel their careers and navigate this competitive arena.
Access to this information allows up-and-coming runners of the real estate game to acquire the tools they need to offer their clients the whole package and run their agencies at their optimum.
