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The number four ranked agency in REB’s Top 50 Sales Offices 2023 said a willingness to invest in marketing, and embracing new technology has yielded results.
PRD Hunter Valley grew its year-on-year settlement values despite selling fewer properties compared to the previous year and dropping from third rank to fourth this year, according to the Top 50 Sales Offices data.
While it sold 527 properties in the 2021–22 financial year (down from 739 the previous year), its settlement values increased by 14 per cent to $511.5 million.
The agency’s principal, Luke Anderson, told REB that their success boils down to a willingness to “spend money to make money”, building a strong social media presence, and offering training and development to staff.
He also highlighted the challenges it has faced with recruitment, and why it decided to outsource some tasks offshore.
What has been driving your agency’s results?
We’ve built a really good foundation as a business around training and development of staff, which has allowed us to bring many amazing agents through the ranks. Our retention has been really great too. Moreover, we’ve had a philosophy of always being at the forefront of marketing and technology, and we’re willing to spend money to make money. We don’t run the business tight at all.
What sorts of training and development do you offer your staff?
We’ve got a pathway program that requires our agents to have done at least 100 transactions under a senior agent before they can start working as the lead agent. This is why we’ve got a very small number of listing agents and assistants who seem to hang with us for a lot longer so we don’t have large numbers of them either.
What’s your main marketing strategy?
We really pushed social media in a big way about eight or nine years ago. We’ve got a huge audience of around 11,000 followers on our Facebook. Through our community partnerships program, we partnered with our local sporting clubs and asked a sporting team to take control of our Facebook page for a week. The thinking behind this was that we wanted to attract ultra-local people to our page. So, the sporting team would post on their page and link to our page. For every person that followed our page, we’d pay $2 to the sporting club. We were quite transparent about what we were doing. It took two years and a lot of monetary investment to build up that following.
Did you get good returns on your investment?
Unbelievable returns. The good thing is it would be even harder to achieve today and would cost around $100,000 so I can’t imagine anyone would attempt to do it. We spent around $30,000 back then.
How has the demand been for property in your area?
Demand has not been great at the moment. It’s a tougher market. But the good news is that there isn’t a huge amount of stock on the market, so buyers don’t have a lot of choice. So, it’s not a deflated market as such. It’s just a tighter market.
What challenges have you faced in the last year?
Two of our senior agents started their own business last year. We’re very proud of them but it has been a bit challenging for us. When you factor in the market downturn as well, it certainly has been interesting. We’ve had to restructure and work really hard. Recruitment has been hard, particularly in property management. We’ve also got positions available for two sales assistants but we haven’t been able to find the right candidate. It’s been a tricky environment with labour shortages.
How have you tackled these challenges?
Unfortunately, we’ve had to outsource some tasks to the Philippines. On the other hand, we have managed to recruit a great agent. Overall, everyone in our team has had the opportunity to see what was left in the pie and they’ve lifted their game to help bring the numbers up.
What are your plans for 2023?
We want to run a more streamlined business by systemising more segments and bringing in more efficiencies. By doing this, we can improve our service levels and quality control.
What tips would you have for other sales offices to succeed?
Make your agents the superstars. Some agencies hesitate to do this because agents can walk out and start their own ventures. But agencies have to accept this, and trust that they’ve implemented systems and processes to develop more superstars. You’ve got to encourage huge personal branding.
To see the full list of the Top 50 Sales Offices for 2023, click here.
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