Inman Connect 2008: A True Connection
July 28, 2008
Inman Connect 2008…what a great trip! We had five Enterprise clients join us at the conference and numerous meetings with new potential Enterprise Network Members. As always, it was well worth the trip.
After reviewing last week’s events and the impact that Inman Connect had this year, I left with the feeling that Brokers are finally starting to embrace technology! However I must include that it did take a huge market slump and all time high foreclosure rates to get them to finally let go of the old security blanket. That aside, change is in the air.
Still, with one mountain behind us, there are always more to climb. How do companies begin to implement all the technology available and also build a corporate culture that will embrace these new tools? In the many hours of dinner meetings and presentations we’ve had, the common thread was always, where do we start? For many Brokers, this simple question is overwhelming.
This got me thinking. This new era of technology is still being supported by a broker infrastructure that hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. So the next wave of transformation won’t come in the way of new applications, it will come by developing teams and departments within the brokerages that can adapt and implement the technology at the street level.
Our first questions should be, what does this new model look like?
For me, it’s a customer centric model in which small teams and departments are formed to help support the agent and the customer. It’s built around trained teams that can help agents embrace the new technology. It includes customer LifeCycle teams that help in the management of data and can nurture and support customers through the process. These are only a few examples to consider but the point is, all the technology in world is not worth it if you don’t have systems and roles in place to support it.
As a result, The Active Website Enterprise Network has set a new goal for Inman Connect 2009. Our goal is to be able to show quantified data from our systems implemented.
In some of our next posts we will be discussing some of the system upgrades we will be implementing as a result of all that we walked away with from this great conference!
John,
I’m really glad you got some good value and inspiration out of Connect SF ‘08.
As a REALTOR, and member of a 3-person family brokerage, I can certainly identify with the sentiment of being overwhelmed that you ran into from brokers. I would imagine that for large brokerages, the feeling is exacerbated. Your idea of having smaller departments and teams is interesting, and is probably much more suited to the larger brokerages. I think that one thing that is critical is that brokerages need to have management teams in place that are willing to have an open mind and listen to folks they might not have relied on before. Technology implementation, especially in real estate, seems to go bottom-up. If adoption is to be more widespread, the folks at the top are going to have to be willing to trust and rely upon some of the folks who are traditionally at the bottom.
Can’t wait to find out how Connect has inspired new upgrades and implementations for you.
Comment by Daniel Rothamel, Inman Community Manager — July 30, 2008 @ 11:21 am
Daniel, thanks for the post. We will be releasing some of our upgrades in the weeks to come so stay tuned. In regards to a management team with an open mind, I couldn’t agree more. We can take these brokers to areas uncharted but we need a support network so it has a higher success rate.
Comment by John Sable — July 31, 2008 @ 12:38 pm