Category: Commercial Real Estate–Advanced Topics
Keywords: cre millennials broker agent real estate agent baby boomers technology cre technology cre tools
Landing Page URL: https://newsletter.homeactions.net/landing_page/18476/36378
Article Summary:
If you’re a typical brokerage, your top agents span generations from millennials to baby boomers. Getting millennials on board with new technology is relatively easy but how do you get your whole CRE team on board? Click through for 3 ways to encourage your CRE team to adapt to changing technology.
Full Article
You’ve heard a pitch from a CRE tech company about a brand new app that can streamline your vetting process for prospects, organize your teams’ schedules and aggregate important real-time market data. You think, this is perfect for my team!
You spend money on training and implementation only to discover that none of your agents actually use it. It happens, but there are 3 ways to encourage technology adoption even among the most resistant group of agents and brokers.
1. Show Your Team How It Will Help
The pitch got you hooked but how will it help your team? If you are trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, the only thing that your fancy new tech tool is going to be good for is a few snide jokes in the break room.
Before you can get it by your team, you have to show them how this new tool is going to make their job easier and their results better. Have you chosen a program that is easy to adopt or will it take weeks and weeks of training?
Make sure the technology is solving a problem that actually exists (and your team agrees exists) and make sure that the technology actually solves the problem for your team.
2. Offer Training and Implementation to Your Team
You would think tech-centric millennials would have any easy time adapting to new technology; however, this isn’t always the case if you don’t have an implementation and training plan in place.
Don’t forget, your 40 and 50-year-old agents also grew up with technology. In fact, this generation grew up at the beginning of the tech revolution. They may not need a lot of training to get on board. Your millennials may not want any training – just give them the link and off they go on their own.
Your older team members, on the other hand, may need more hands-on training to implement new technology. Keep in mind that 60-year-olds feel uncomfortable enough knowing less about new technology than co-workers their grandkids’ age.
Provide different training programs by allowing your team to select the program they want. For instance, you could have those who are interested sign up for an all-day training session. Others can do the online training on their own if they so choose, that way no one feels singled out and can learn at their own speed.
3. Be Flexible as Your Team Adapts to New Technology
Older and more experienced agents may scoff at new technology simply because they feel their record speaks for itself. Why fix what isn’t broken? Again, many new tech tools streamline processes, giving your team better and more accurate data. But once you’ve illustrated that to your team, be flexible.
Over time, your agents may use the scheduler more than the CRM module or vice versa. Give your team time to adapt so that they can do what has worked well in the past while integrating the benefits of new CRE tech tools.
