THE EVOLUTION OF A ‘POD MODEL’ …

This week’s reflection is about a topic that is taking up a significant amount of my time lately.  I will try to make it generic enough to have a wider application, but no guarantees.  As with all of my blogs, the goal is to have you ask yourself how is this relevant in my life or in my business?

As you know Keller Williams Coastal Properties (“KWCP”) is currently recreating its Company model.  A new vision with several service platforms intended to improve the experience of all customers, including agents, buyers, sellers, employees, service providers and contractors. 

The question is how can you provide a level of services for your employees, partners and independent contractors so that you create a ‘raving fan’ outside the walls of the Company?  Within the independent contractor model this is challenging due to the relationship between agent and broker.  One of the drivers in the new vision for KWCP is the creation of ‘agent pods’.  The genesis behind this idea came indirectly from the book ‘Open Book Management’ by John Case read over twelve years ago.

The KWCP agent pod model is where the agents are organized into teams of 9-10 agents per pod with a total of 28 pods.  The pods will meet weekly for no longer than 90 minutes at a time.  The meetings will be structured to start with themes proposed for the first ten or so until rapport and understanding of the value and goals is clear with each member of the group.  Also, initial pod leaders will be trained as to the vision and goals prior to the first meeting.  There are three critical features to this pod model, we call them the KWCP 3Cs – coaching, collaboration and communication.  The pods are not intended to replace the agent business model, but to augment what the agent is doing and to bring a level of support and services not readily available within the traditional brokerage model. 

So what will these pods look like at Keller Williams or for that matter your organization?  Once each pod overcomes the inherent distrust within the ‘old’ economic model through the sharing of stories there will be several potential benefits for the agent participants.  The first is peer-to-peer coaching (mentoring).  The goal here is to enable vested relationships to form that provide support, experiential guidance, peer mentoring, opportunities for role play, practicing of scripts, mastermind opportunities, and brainstorming about business development, sales and marketing.  Keller Williams does a great job providing formal classroom training and training materials from Keller Williams International.  But for several reasons this training becomes diluted at the field level – timing, relevancy, apathy, schedules, lack of quality teachers, etc.  What is that saying … “experience is the best teacher” … well multiple that by nine and you now have a unique out of class room opportunity for growth and learning. 

This peer-to-peer coaching also has several ancillary benefits.  For example, a few agents drain the Company’s resources dealing with reoccurring questions and issues that come up throughout the marketing and sales transaction that could easily and quickly be disposed of at the pod level.  This will free up the Company resources to concentrate on other revenue generating and support functions.  This will also reduce the disenfranchised feel within the organization – a few agents feel left out because they don’t get the attention, recognition and assistance they require to move forward in their business.  Either they find another source for help or they end up dissatisfied, and eventually leave the Company.  Unfortunately, they don’t typically leave with a good experience and create a negative energy surrounding the Company – the opposite of a ‘raving fan’.

The second feature of the 3Cs is collaboration – the golden egg that has the most significant upside potential (it can also be a train wreck if not managed properly).  Agents typically are ‘lone wolfs’ that are highly territorial with their piece of the pie (agents believe they own or have ‘cornered’ certain market information or contact data).  This mindset gets in the way of true collaboration.  The goal is to have people come together within the pods and look for ways to joint market, collaborate in certain niche markets or micro-markets, share networking opportunities, etc.  By working together agents can reduce their expenses while potentially gaining access to markets they may not have under normal conditions.  Yes, at some level a ‘sharing of the revenue’ is appropriate and the questions involved with that boil down to ‘how do I know the effort extended by each person will be equal?’  The easy answer is you don’t … but the potential of exponential growth is worth the trial.  At the very least this collaboration model will enable a sharing of ideas and market information that will allow each participant to be a better realtor.

The third feature inherent within this pod model is communication.  The broker will be able to efficiently communicate ideas, policies, market trends and training ideas through the pod leaders.  The pods will be able to discuss information disseminated, as well as other information and data collected by the people ‘in the trenches’ everyday.  New ideas or repackaged ‘old’ concepts will bubble to the surface and fed back to the executive team and broker for consideration.  This feedback loop is healthy, nay critical, in any profitable organization.  Throughout this process the Company can determine its ‘holes’ or ‘blind spots’; and then fix them quickly by adapting to evolving markets and customer demands.  Beyond this sales and marketing information can be collected that has financial applications within the Company – i.e., unlike most traditional businesses bean counters can predict cash flow streams due to revenue projections of its sales staff; but in a brokerage model that practice is unreliable because there is no short, medium and long term look into the pipeline because the broker (if they are lucky) only sees or tracks what is in escrow.  There are a few software applications beginning to track more data points within the transaction pipeline from first contact, through list, to sales contract and closing (see KnewVantage).

I encourage you to look at your business model for potential applications.  These agent pods can be adapted to your business model whether it operates within your company or morphs outside involving a group of industry peers.

I hope you enjoyed the reflection, and let me know how you embrace change even through its uncertainty.  Most of all I hope you make it a GREAT day and week!!  If you wish to read all the other Monday Morning Mojos written for you, then visit: http://mondaymojo.blogspot.com.  Or if you or a friend is looking to buy or sell real estate anytime soon, please look us up at www.coastalcommunityhomes.com. 

As always, I welcome your feedback and your reflections (please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with me).  If I can be of service to you or your friends, please let me know.  And, thank you for your continued support and inspiration … each of you are a cherished gift that enriches my life in ways you will never understand … Thank you!!  Jim Peys