“We are the competition creators, the ones who engineer urgency and create energy, street by street. This four weeks of training in 45 minutes,” said Ray White NSW Head of Performance, Alex Pattaro.
“Auctions have been in Ray White’s DNA since the company began in 1902, and some of the group’s leading auction experts hosted a session about how to list, set, and sell via auction.
Ray White chief information officer Ben Cowie hosted a session on cyber security with Alex Heidenreich, executive director at industry leading cyber security firm CyberCX, called “How to lose your business in 10 days”. The session brought to life and demonstrated real cyber risks facing real estate businesses.
Mr Heidenreich covered critical topics including evolving threat tactics, harm minimisation techniques, and how real estate professionals are personally targeted.
He said disruptive cyber extortion attacks were the highest impact threat to the sector as well.
“Globally, cyber extortion groups claim at least one real estate and property sector organisation every week,” he said.
Mr Heidenreich also mentioned that threat actors are adopting harm maximisation strategies to increase the likelihood of obtaining a ransom payment.
Ray White NSW|ACT head of people Bridgette Collis lead a session with Ray White Queensland CEO Jason Andrew and Ray White Collective’s Haesley Cush and Kim Olson, Ray White New Zealand chief executive Daniel Coulson and Ray White Mairangi Bay|Milford’s Shane Coote and Kris Cunningham, and Ray White South Australia CEO Matt Lindblom and Ray White Norwood’s Jason Spagnuolo and Flavia Ingegneri.
The crowd received insight from the panel of business leaders who are actively at the forefront recruiting and securing high performing agents.
Mr Cush and Ms Olsen shared insight into how their partnership came about, with Ray White Collective having just opened an office in Ms Olsen’s key area, Clayfield, when she first joined their business.
“We really liked each other and had to have the conversation about how we open another business within a business in the same area,” Mr Cush said.
“How do we have the Ray White Kim Olsen Property thrive just 200m up the road from Ray White Clayfield?”
In the first 12 months, Ms Olsen said they had many open, honest discussions about how they would make the partnership work.
Mr Cush said he implemented some advice he learned before he got married.
“Sometimes 70 per cent is the closest you’re going to get to agreement,” he said.
“Figure out if that last 30 per cent is worth fighting over. Sometimes 70 per cent is good enough.”
In a classic tale of enemies to business owners, Mr Coote and Mr Cunningham didn’t like each other at first. But after some social conversations, realised they both had ambitions for growth.
“When I made a move to Ray White it wasn’t particularly strong in our area yet,” Mr Coote said.
“I knew having someone like Kris come across would really strengthen that.
“It opened more conversations because people would say ‘hang on, if Kris joined Ray White maybe I should join Ray White as well’.”
Mr Spagnuolo knew that if he wanted to increase his growth, he would have to hire a full-time recruiter. After Ms Ingegneri’s first 12 months in the business it was a huge success.
“We needed to grow to be viable. When I realised the time that went into recruitment I realised I couldn't put the energy into it that I wanted to,” Mr Spagnuolo said.
Ms Ingegneri said the structure around established talent was important.
“This structure was born of Jason’s sales process. Search for the data, people who will help us build market share and help us build our brand and presence.
“Then I would start with an intro call where I would get nothing out of it other than making an introduction and complimenting them as a sales person. Then it goes into nurturing the relationship where there will be multiple touch points.
“If we start to see cracks then those people would go into a pipeline or a hotlist and we’d help those people work through any blockages holding them back.”
