Embracing the brand means embracing a community of like-minded individuals who excel in their fields.
As tennis legend Arthur Ashe once said, “Success is a journey, not a destination.” There is more than one way to lead and inspire teams to do their best work.
Today, we’re going to hear from Corey Marie Birger, Chief Operating Officer for Corcoran Reverie. Corcoran Reverie has more than 150 agents representing neighborhoods across Northwest Florida, specializing in the luxury home market.
Q: What are your tips for building a successful real estate brand that supports the growth of your business and your agents?
Corey: Every day I encourage the agents to leverage the brand across the board—from listing presentations to social media posts and more. This not only creates a sense of unity, but also allows the marketing efforts of Corcoran to further push Reverie’s brand, as well as each individual agent. By focusing on the same keywords and hashtags on social media, they typically see an expanded reach.
The same strategy then comes into play for business planning. We leverage the tools that are already prepared and ready for execution instead of trying to create the process from scratch. By taking advantage of the brand in all aspects of the business, time is saved – giving back valuable minutes that may make the difference between making it to your son’s t-ball game or not.
Q: What are your strategies to coach your agents to leverage the power of your company brand to grow their sphere and business?
Corey: At one of our new agent boot camps, which is a 2-day immersion into our culture, history of the company both locally and globally and best practices, I explained the importance of the brand as if they were the creator of a fantastic new running shoe.
Let’s say you created a look, a style, and a logo. You knew you had the best shoe—then suddenly everyone wanted it. Soon, Nike reps approach you and say, we want to buy your shoe.
I remind them that this is what Corcoran and Corcoran Reverie are doing for everyone in this room. By simply adding us to your name, your value has increased substantially. You are still doing what you love—except you now have a marketing department, an R&D division, a PR department, a contracts department and so much more. By shifting the mindset, the “brand” no longer feels cold. Just like Nike does, we are simply elevating the experience for consumers by adding a name that instantly increases value and recognition worldwide,and giving you the tools to reach more people.
Q: How do you engage your agents in the development or evolution of your brand strategy?
Last summer, we decided to offer a unique experience to our agents: we told them anyone that had sold (or had pending) $5M or more by September 1st would be eligible for a trip to Agent Studio for specialized training. We were able to create an amazing event where nearly 30 Reverie agents and leadership went to New York City to enjoy a full day of training at Agent Studio—with sessions from Ida Fields, Kate Weis, and others, It was amazing! From this, a fire was ignited and agents came back more invigorated and excited about what the Corcoran Brand could do for them. The end result was a beautiful site to see…agents strategizing for 2022 to ensure they would qualify for the trip, not wanting to miss out, understanding how special this trip was and what it could do for their businesses.
The fire continued when for our company Christmas party, I approached Ida and asked her if we could auction off an hour session with her for our agents. She gladly said yes, which resulted in two agents having the chance to sit down and go over their marketing challenges and plans for 2022 with one of the best and brightest in the business. The agents walked about with more than they could have ever hoped for, learning to leverage the brand in a beautiful and authentic way. And their excitement is contagious.
Q: How do you use your brand strategy to recruit and retain agents in your organization?
Corey: The tools and training that we offer are intended to create one voice that is used by many to sing a beautiful melody together. I always recognize the diverse strengths in the agents and encourage them to leverage that for themselves. But I always lead them back to our foundation, what has been created and fortified for them, what has been built so they can step up to the next level in their businesses and personal lives.
The fundamentals of the brand are readily available. The coaching and training are excellent and provide tangible results. Embracing “the brand’ is the single thing I would encourage any agent to do. By doing this you’re embracing a community of like-minded individuals who excel in their fields, whether it’s sales, marketing, public relations, or client services. Everyone’s sole motivation is to further propel your business. Plus, it’s always nice to have a team that will cheer you on along the way.
Let us know what you think! How do you engage your agents in your brand strategy? Have you found success using your brand strategy to help with recruitment? Let us know. We want to hear from you.
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*Please note this document was published prior to Realogy’s rebrand to Anywhere Real Estate Inc. on June 9, 2022.
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