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The key to sales agents providing more rental referrals may be smarter incentives rather than bigger incentives.
Speaking at the BDM Academy Innovate 2015 conference in Sydney, Belle Property Neutral Bay's Kate Towerton said targeted incentives will get a better response from sales agents than simple cash gifts.
Ms Towerton, who is head of property investment management at the agency, said the key is to combine two great lures: money and status.
“I have been very surprised that the leader board and winning the $250 dining prize has been more valuable in the sales team’s minds than the half-week's rent they get for referring the property,” she said.
Ms Towerton said it plays on sales agents’ competitive nature, making them unable to walk away from a chance to one-up each other.
“It was the last day of the month and I sent an email out on Saturday afternoon to say, ‘last chance to get your open home registers in, you have to have them in by midnight tonight’,” she said.
“I had people calling me for extensions because they didn’t want to miss out on the $250 prize they were going to be presented at the sales meeting.”
Ms Towerton said it didn't necessarily have to come down to spending a lot of money, as long as the incentive included an element of competition.
Adelaide agency Toop&Toop creates synergies between property management and sales by having BDMs attend sales meetings, according to head of property management Suzannah Toop.
“We [also] incorporate referrals into our quarterly and annual awards to recognise those sales agents who refer business to property management, and vice versa,” she told Residential Property Manager.
“This method is more recognition-based and shows the support the two sides provide each other. We think it works better than a purely monetary incentive.”
Ms Toop said agencies can get great benefit from bringing the property management and sales divisions together, but that it is easier said than done.
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