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Want to be a ‘digital dominator’ in your local market? Here’s what not to do

By Grace Ormsby
14 October 2022 | 6 minute read
Tom Panos Mar2022 reb

While a lot of agents do have an appetite for technology, it’s too often a “short-lived” relationship with tech providers, according to Tom Panos.

Speaking on a recent episode of Real Estate Exposed with Phil Tarrant, Tom Panos discussed the upcoming REInnovate event in Melbourne on 25 October 2022, at which he will be delivering a keynote presentation.

He said that the real estate agents who are dominating in a post-COVID world are the ones who are “high-tech, high-touch agents”.

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These real estate agents are not using technology to substitute them, but rather “to complement them and give them scale”.

“And there’s a lot of different parts of tech that are really good,” he remarked, listing off: “If you’ve got a really good text messaging system; if you understand how to use artificial intelligence to allow you to have more targeted, intelligent prospecting; if you’re able to actually use a lot of the social media products in an intelligent way that helps you retarget the right people, not having a shoot and pray strategy.”

From Mr Panos’ perspective, by using technology in the right way, “you can actually devastate and dominate and be a digital dominator in your marketplace”.

Considering that technology does allow agents and businesses to “actually do more work with less labour”, the coach doesn’t believe he is seeing enough of this uptake, despite the appetite for technology being there.

Instead, he lamented that it’s very easy for the industry to “really get sucked into these digital companies that are coming out with products”.

The problem with that is that “often, the sales spiel is a lot bigger than the implementation spiel”.

“They buy it. They’re paying the subscription fees. [But] in terms of execution and implementation of it, it is very low — sometimes somewhere between zero and 10 per cent on what it is capable of doing,” Mr Panos said.

When this is the case, Mr Panos said that people would stick with the provider for six to 12 months, then decide “it’s too glitchy — it doesn’t work”.

“Often, what it means is that it’s a short-lived relationship,” he said.

Those who haven’t been sucked in and instead have taken a measured, well-thought-out approach to their tech adoption are the ones that now have the first-move advantage.

According to the coach, they’re the ones taking the opportunities that are out there — especially when it comes to immediacy and scale.

Listen to the full conversation with Tom Panos and Phil Tarrant here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Grace Ormsby

Grace Ormsby

Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.

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