Last week saw my go back to Dawsons Estate Agents in Swansea to check in on them. I wanted to see how things are developing after the training we did together at the end of last year.

Swansea is a long, long way away but it was worth the trip.

This is a high volume business that has 7 sites doing residential sales. There is fee pressure from competitors, with some fees being charged at as little as £900.

Commitment of the Leadership – The Essential Component

I’ve been discussing Flexible Fees with Ricky and Joanne for some time, probably 7 months. They analysed the impact carefully and then decided to commit fully to the change.

In January they have achieved a 46% penetration with some form of pre-payment. Whilst I’ve had other clients produce similar and sometimes higher penetrations it was the culture that impressed me the most.

What does full commitment mean?

Fundamentally the leaders communicate that this is their decision, it’s something that they believe in and it’s the only way forward for the business.

There is nothing wrong with trialling it as a leader (in particular in a big business) to be able to reach that conculsion. A great business I’ve worked with in the North East which has 15 offices ran a 5 branch trial first. This was incredibly helpful in doing two things. The leaders could see and measure the results and the people not involved in the trial could see and hear that it is working.

This then allowed the leadership to demonstrate the confidence that I referenced in them standing behind it.

Why ‘we are going to try this’ doesn’t work

There will be team members within your business who don’t want to change. Probably most of them. Especially if they are personally doing well out of the status quo. Imagine you are a branch manager who is happy earning £50k+ inc commission. Suddenly the owner wants to change something as fundamental as how you charge, then this probably seems like a bad idea.

If you sense, either implicitly or explicitly that the owner isn’t sure, they will push hard against it.

If you lose a listing, you will blame the strategy rather than look at yourself. In many ways it’s an ideal excuse, it wasn’t that I didn’t do a good enough job, it’s your fault and this fee structure.

The more weakness the team members detect, the more they are incentivised to fail and push against it.

There are two types of people, those who think they can and those who think they can’t. They are both probably right.

One of the genius elements of Foxtons selling a 2.25% fee is that there is NO negotiation. It’s part of the process, so complaining about it isn’t on the table. The consequence, people worry about other things – not arguing about the fee.

Offer Lots and Lots of Support

There is a second essential element to accompany an unshakable clarity on the direction.

The explicit open conversation about the fact that we are going to help and support anyone and everyone to make the change.

Every week, all of the team making the change, have a video call to discuss successes and challenges. Ideas are shared to create a positive ‘can do’ environment.

Incentives are created and delivered with the best team members being made hero’s so that they can see their colleagues are enjoying success. Gradually the ‘this won’t work here’ becomes more and more hollow. They realise it’s a them problem rather than a strategy problem and the final few stragglers get on board.

Observations in the living room are an essential part of the support. You can tell in an instant if this is an ‘every day’ habit. The alternative is that you can see that they are not giving customers the choice about how they pay, rather making assumptions on behalf of the customers.

Final Thoughts

What made the Dawsons team such a pleasure to was the positive attitude of the team. That was driven by the culture, created by the leaders. The more and more businesses I work with the more I understand how important this ingredient is. To say it’s everything is too strong, but it’s the defining ingredient of a business that can adapt to change.

When I asked them if it was more or less difficult than they imagined when I first delivered the training to them, they all told me it was easier.

If that doesn’t tell us that the issues is one of our belief’s and habits, I don’t know what it.