Coming Together for Success

How ERA Real Estate turns dreams into reality for affiliates and consumersBy Maria Patterson

(Real Estate, June 2006)-There is no shortage of great ideas among the prolific minds in the real estate industry. Attend any industry think tank and you’re likely to hear many and come away charged. But then what? For most, these ideas never get past the drawing board.

Take a look at the programs, training and systems offered by Parsippany, New Jersey-based ERA Real Estate, and you can’t help but be impressed. There is a program geared toward every person at every level, from brokers and managers to top producers and new affiliates. But that’s far from the whole story, a story that also lies in ERA’s consistent track record of individual needs analysis and implementation of its programs and systems. The real story is how ERA has closed the gap between program development and program execution.

It Begins at the Core
Whether you speak to an ERA executive, broker or agent, you’ll hear the same thing: the successful implementation of ERA programs is part and parcel of the company’s adherence to its relationship culture.

“Our mission is really encapsulated in our marketing theme-‘Always There for You,’” says Brenda Casserly, ERA president & CEO. “It’s easy to say that you have a relationship culture, and easy to say that you’re always there, but that has to be driven through customer-centric tools and accountability.”

According to Casserly, the ERA culture can be measured in many ways, including: the company’s international growth (now in 45 countries); its continued success in customer satisfaction as evidenced by the receipt of several J.D. Power and Associates awards; and its innovative Internet, marketing and training systems that lead to market share growth for brokers and competitive differentiation for agents.

“Our tools are designed not just so we can say we have something that no one else has,” says Casserly. “The real driver and dedication is the consumers.”

In order to deliver for consumers, ERA must work closely with its brokers and agents. “It’s very important for us to have first-and-only tools,” says P.J. Martin Smith, senior vice president of marketing for ERA Franchise Systems, Inc. “But we stand apart in that we develop our tools from the broker, agent and consumer’s point of view, not our own. It’s our first priority to help them deliver a successul transaction.”

While ERA’s growing menu of programs and services has helped its affiliates and their consumers achieve their goals and dreams for many years, there is perhaps no more crucial need for these resources than now.

“We have a new real estate environment,” says Casserly, “and in this environment, there’s a communication gap between reality and consumer confidence. Our number-one challenge is educating the consumer regarding the positive realities of the current real estate market.”

First Things First: Determining Needs
Before any program can be successfully executed, ERA begins working with brokers to assemble an accurate and thorough assessment of their needs. This allows ERA to determine the programs that will be of most value to its brokers and agents.

According to ERA Franchise Systems, Inc. Chief Operating Officer Judy Green, this process begins with the business consultants that ERA has out in the field. A large team of seasoned professionals, many of whom come with in-the-trenches real estate experience, ERA’s business consultants are dedicated to working with brokers one-on-one to establish their goals…and help them get there.

Needs assessment is a critical step for brokers, says Green, most of whom have been caught on the wild roller-coaster ride of the recent market. “This [assessment phase] gives brokers a chance to evaluate their businesses objectively and say, ‘What do I need to do?’ It is extremely important for them to have the chance to look within and determine what the right strategies are to bring them back in pace. We go in and brainstorm with them and create an action plan that both parties sign off on.”

“An analysis is done in order to drill down into what’s working and what could work better and what is most successful,” says Green. This allows ERA to determine which of its many programs would be most beneficial to a broker in his or her respective position. “If a broker tells us that they’re struggling, we can ask, ‘Did you try this program? Are you using that tool or this course?’ What’s important is that we offer them what they need.”

Once the needs of the broker are assessed, the business consultants are able to recommend programs accordingly, including training modules such as the Admirals Academy-which focuses on recruiting strategies-or the Top Gun Academy-which helps agents build listing inventory.

One of the most important outcomes of the assessment process is that it puts ERA in a partnership relationship with its brokers, helping to ensure that programs are successfully implemented. “It makes them really committed to following through,” Green explains. “They hold us accountable and we hold them accountable to meeting goals.”

Reaching Every Level
ERA has several programs in place for brokers at every level. ERA’s Leadership Academy, for example, which Green describes as an intense, seven-month program, is targeted toward top brokers and specializes in several key areas. “Brokers who have gone through this program had positive production increases in their respective markets.
According to Green, ERA also offers the “Blueprint for Success,” targeted toward its mid-market companies. As she describes, this nuts and bolts course teaches brokers how to create the right culture, put together a business plan, and bring in the best recruiting and business-building strategies.

ERA also has programs in place for new companies-including a 90-day plan to get these firms enmeshed in the culture, tools and systems that ERA offers. “We don’t leave their integration up to chance,” says Green. “We have a solid 90-day program that helps them understand how these tools will help them be more successful and how to integrate them into a business practice.”

Choosing Wisely
Once needs are assessed, ERA then helps its brokers and agents select the best programs and tools to address those needs. This process is supported on the TeamERA intranet site with ERA Elements, a program designed to guide affiliates through the process of building their ERA Toolbox.

“ERA Elements is just one tool that helps brokers and agents understand what might be best for them to use based on their location and their years of experience,” says Martin Smith.

“The system devises a plan of top items they should focus on,” she continues, and then actually sets deadlines for implementing each product, providing automated reminders along the way.”

The TeamERA intranet site easily helps viewers navigate through the various options available to them and shows them the top tools they should consider implementing in each of these five categories. The “QuickLinks” on every product page, offers program overviews, FAQs, PowerPoint presentations and step-by-step information slides on how to accurately and efficiently implement these programs.

“We really have everything they need in one spot so brokers and agents can go right out and utilize the products successfully,” says Martin Smith.

Facilitating Communication with Consumers
In order to help ensure that its affiliates are executing successfully with clients, ERA has developed several important tools to help manage communication to home buyers and sellers. The Direct Marketing Resource Center (DMRC) and the Quick Market Presentation (QMP) are two examples.

Introduced in 2006, the DMRC is a database tool that helps agents manage and stay in touch with their clients. The DMRC organizes and tracks all important information that passes through a real estate company, including closed sales, new listings, leads and when a client has moved.

More importantly, this program organizes specific details about each customer, enabling agents to more effectively target the print and e-mail marketing materials made available to them through the system. “In this day and age, consumers want customized service. A customer who might have a million-dollar home does not want information on an adjustable rate mortgage,” Martin Smith explains. “By clicking on a few buttons, agents can designate customers as luxury buyers or first-time buyers or Hispanic buyers. The communications that are sent out are then built around that specific group of people and their interest.”

ERA’s QMP program is designed to help agents elevate their level of technology prowess, says Martin Smith, “without them having to do a whole lot.” The QMP allows agents to choose among the 50 pages of ERA content and their own local market information to create a full online marketing presentation and attach it to company and MLS information for clients.

Ultimately, all of ERA’s tools and programs are designed to benefit and empower home buyers and sellers to address their specific needs and current market conditions. A perfect example is the Gold Star Property Program.

According to Martin Smith, this preferred property program was created to address the needs of the new marketplace that arose in 2006: “This program designates a home as a Gold Star Property based on meeting specific and strategic criteria. It empowers sales associates to help consumers understand that if they properly position their house to sell before it’s put on the market, that their house will sell for more money in less time with less aggravation.”

To help build use of the program, agents who simply visit the Gold Star Property splash page are entered into a drawing to win $10,000. According to Martin Smith, incentives like this are important for building buzz and implementing new programs.

Implementing the Right Marketing
ERA is also helping brokers and agents understand how to better reach today’s consumers based on their respective regions of the country. “With the many, many varieties of media available, it becomes really difficult for a company to understand the best way to spend advertising dollars and really understand the return on investment of that spend,” Martin Smith explains.

To that end, ERA is working on programs to help their affiliates understand the best advertising gameplan for their business in their market. Through a wide range of media-print, Internet, television and radio-ERA will make a variety of advertising options available to their brokers.

“ERA is building a product for brokers to help them really understand media terminology and learn the questions they need to ask,” says Martin Smith. “It will help them learn how to understand the numbers so that they can determine what’s a good media buy and what isn’t, and how they should be spending that money. We are are also continuously developing our strategic partnerships to support the procurement of local media buys for our affiliates.”

The Relationship Company at All Levels
While ERA goes to great lengths to build relationships with its brokers and agents so that they can in turn build strong relationships with their customers, the relationship concept extends an important step further-between broker and broker.

“ERA is different,” says Martin Smith. “At our events ERA brokers and sales associates are very willing to share what works for them. This energizes the whole franchise.”
“Our ‘Always There for You Culture’ extends beyond the broker, sales associate and consumer,” says Casserly. “It’s the most striking and unique feature of any network I’ve been involved in. Our brokers are there for each other, too.” RE

The Payoff for Brokers

This past April, Jim Napier, president of Richmond, Virginia-based Napier Realtors, ERA, received the prestigious Cartus Broker Network Cup for outstanding performance in each of the Cartus operating divisions.

Part of the worldwide relocation organization for 27 years, Napier has been an ERA affiliate for the past seven years. The Cartus Network consists of 375 principal and 600 associate brokers.

For Napier, winning the award is reflective of not only the hard work of his team, but of the overall culture and strategy of his company. He credits ERA’s relationship-oriented culture as a key component of his success.

“The biggest benefit to being part of ERA is the access to a network of talented and successful brokers,” says Napier. “There are a lot of best practices that are shared. Whenever I have an issue, I call up an ERA broker in another part of the country and they will freely share their ideas and best practices.”

Napier also points to ERA’s many training programs and unique services as key to his firm’s success, in particular, the Sellers Security Plan, which famously states that ERA will sell your house…or buy it. “We’re the only ones that can offer that to a client,” says Napier. “It helps us win the day in the marketplace.”

ERA’s eCampus menu of programs and courses is also of great value to Napier and his team, from helping them improve negotiating and communication skills, to helping them build client relationships.

“ERA’s education and training programs dovetail very nicely into the training for our relocation team,” he explains. “They all deal with being accountable and providing superior service. And those are the same basics in which you become a good relocation agent.”

On receiving the Cartus Cup, Napier is understandably thrilled: “This is something you really strive for. I told our team, ‘We have to hold ourselves accountable to high performance standards-that’s what needs to happen for us to win this.’”

Napier pays special tribute to his relocation director, Fran Hessler, for winning the award. “She has provided the leadership in that department to really get us to the level we needed.”

Looking ahead, Napier believes that ERA’s programs will continue to keep his company successful and thriving. “ERA is always revamping their education offering and looking at new and emerging trends and what makes sense for us as a brand.” The value of being part of ERA is clear to Napier: “They do things for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves. You’ve got to leverage the relationship the best you can and you’ll be successful.”

Featured Programs: At a Glance

ERA offers its brokers and agents a wide array of programs and training, both live and 24/7 through its online eCampus venue. Here, highlights of just a few of the company’s most important tools for success:

ERA Direct Marketing Resource Center: A truly unique program that combines two powerful components: A comprehensive consumer database that offers unsurpassed access to and management of valuable consumer data; and
a diverse selection of ERA-branded print and e-mail direct marketing programs to help you prospect and stay-in-touch with many different types of consumers.

ERA Elements: Designed to help agents in building their real estate business, from prospecting to creating customers for life. ERA Elements highlights the tools and products available to agents to help them succeed. Also provides a survey for agents in order to create customizable career-development strategies. This program is beneficial for both new and seasoned agents.

The Gold-Star Property Program: A preferred property program designed to help the average property stand out from the competition. Provides strategies, techniques and marketing components to maximize selling price before a property goes on the market. ERA sales associates evaluate a home and make suggestions on improvements to sellers. Each Gold Star Property owner receives a free, comprehensive 16-page staging guide.

Quick Market Presentation: Allows agents to customize CMA presentations with specifics about their office, their own individual strengths and local market statistics. Agents can use materials from the ERA Personal Library, Company Library, ERA Library and Recent Sales.

The ERA Leadership Academy: An interactive program for Top 200 brokers to help them develop strategic business plans and growth strategies to help increase their bottom line. The seven-month program includes four live classroom events, 10 virtual classroom sessions and multiple fieldwork assignments.

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