How amping up their sales meetings changed everything for one agency

Ben Hatch, director of Harcourts Mandurah, describes the regular meet-ups he hosts with the sales and admin personnel as the most important activity of the week.

“This is one area of personal development which is a non-negotiable for our team,” Mr Hatch said. The strategy appears to be paying off. According to CoreLogic data, the office consistently sells a third of the properties that hit the market in Mandurah, even though dozens of agencies operate in the postcode.

With such impressive results, it’s easy to see why five Harcourts Mandurah agents were named in the recently released 2023 REB Top 50 Western Australian Agents list.

Alison Hobbs topped the list from the office at number seven. Michael Goodwin, Nicole Hindmarsh, Paul Harris and June Robertson also made the ranking.

Mr Hatch and his co-director, Lee Perry, are both non-selling principals, while a third partner, Clare Seamer, works with them on strategy and functions as a sales executive in the 13-year-old business. But this hasn’t always been the structure at Harcourts Mandurah.

A business reorganisation several years ago brought about a different way of working for the firm and highlighted the importance of regularly sharing knowledge between colleagues and for the benefit of the business as a whole.

Up until roughly eight years ago, the trio at the helm conducted 70 to 80 per cent of sales. That, they felt, had to change.

“We wanted to pivot the business so that it wasn’t as reliant on us,” Mr Hatch explained.

Sales meetings weren’t new to the team, but Mr Hatch and his partners realised that with the level of engagement they were getting, perhaps their strategy needed a shake-up.

“When you go back maybe eight years ago, there were certainly people who did not want to rock up to a sales meeting because there wasn’t any involvement from the staff. And that was the big change: getting the team involved. We made an environment where they feel able to say anything without being looked down on — no question is too light, too difficult or left of centre.”

He has seen it function as a jumping-off point for an individualised approach that allows all his sales associates to function to the best of their ability.

“At the end of a meeting, I’ll often have a one-on-one with someone who has raised a question.

“It could be something like an agent could be struggling with fees. ‘I’m finding it really, really hard; with all the low-paying agencies or the boutique agencies cutting their fees, I’m finding it hard to maintain my fee’.”

The way Mr Hatch views it, that’s the best outcome of one of his training sessions, because it offers an opportunity to go through an exercise that might provide an agent with the recharge they need to get excited about connecting with potential clients.

“What we do then is sit down with that particular rep and go, ‘Let’s evaluate every way in which we offer a point of difference. How do we deliver it?’ Our records speak for themselves so we run through all that and refresh them. Then we give them a little bit of a task to work on. We’ll say, ‘Okay, go back to your last five appraisals and ring them all. Here’s your new script, jump on the phone and let’s try and convert some business back to you”.

The challenge, he said, should be achievable in order to give the agent a boost in their self-belief. It also offers something to share with the team and a reason to celebrate a small win.

Set people up for success, because success breeds motivation to go out there and aim for bigger goals, Mr Hatch believes.

It’s an approach that has certainly caught the eye of the network’s state head, Shane Kempton, CEO of Harcourts Western Australia.

“What impresses me the most about Harcourts Mandurah is their leadership, both at the director level, but also from the individuals’ personal leadership perspective… Everyone believes in and is passionately committed to our mission of providing the finest experience in real estate,” he commented.

“The directors’ leadership style is one of empowerment, encouraging and trusting all of their people to put their clients’ needs as the highest priority. The synergy of an organisation committed to the same objectives is represented in the success Harcourts Mandurah has displayed for over a decade,” he added.

And though Mr Hatch spends a lot of time training and educating in his current role, that doesn’t mean he has stopped taking notes on his own way of working. The principal has taken a leaf out of Mr Kempton’s book in shaping the future of his firm.

“As our CEO of Harcourts WA, Shane Kempton, says, ‘Success leaves clues, and this starts with great people’. I believe Harcourts Mandurah has some of the best people in this industry,” Mr Hatch said.