Shore Up Your Brand Image with Sources of Business Through Strategic Action
While we all have had our challenges with ‘preferred or requested’ agent referrals from relocation management companies (RMC), those challenges may extend beyond that single transaction and often go unnoticed by you.
RMCs have databases for the brokers they use. Some are locked down, some are not. Some allow their Consultants to enter broker data, or there aren’t many roadblocks preventing people with permission from entering it on behalf of the Consultants. There may be many entries for a single brokerage with slight name variations or address differences. And sadly, sometimes a requested agent will ‘imply’ they don’t have a Relocation Director or that they are the Director, and it goes unchecked. RMC Consultants are busy; they don’t have time to manage the broker information, too.
Don’t assume everything is hunky dory.
Relocation Directors spend a significant amount of time building their personal and professional brands, just as their brokerage has. Whether you work for an independent firm or a franchise brand, that company evokes a perception, whether you like it or not. And that perception may be ‘I have never heard of them’. Not great, but better than a bad impression. So just because an RMC Consultant hasn’t heard of a brokerage doesn’t mean they won’t give it a try if it's in their database.
One bad transaction with a preferred agent, particularly if they are unsupervised, can mar our company’s image with that RMC. My antenna always goes up when I hear a Director say they abruptly stopped getting business from an RMC. Don’t assume their business is off…question why. You should be doing a year-over-year comparison, month by month, to see which sources are off and then determine why.
As the one responsible for those accounts, we need to be very proactive in ensuring the data on your company is correct in those systems and that there are no red flags. Because if we aren’t looped in on those ‘requested’ transactions and they go south, your brokerage could suffer long-term consequences without even knowing.
Let’s not forget, you, your agents, and your company are downline providers for the RMC. And the RMC is a downline provider for the corporation. All of us serve the transferee. Everyone has a vested interest in having the best, most accountable providers serving their clients. That means making it easy for them to choose service providers by ensuring your firm's information is accurate and up-to-date.
Control the narrative.
Periodically, reach out to whoever is in charge of the RMC ‘broker network’. There is always someone (even if they are behind the scenes) who is ultimately in control of that database. And it may not be the person with the Vendor, Broker, or Supplier Manager title. You may have to ask the person with that title a lot of questions to get help or reach the right person to review your data.
It may take a minute to get to speak to someone or get a response, but stay vigilant. Ensure you have the right person, then ask to send updated information so your company is represented correctly. Question if there is any reason you may not be receiving referrals, if you did in the past. Also, reach out to Morreale and Fidelity to ensure how you are represented there, as many RMCs use them to support their broker network and closings.
Here is what to send on an Excel spreadsheet:
The legal name of your brokerage, along with any DBAs and any other names that it might have known as. For example, some franchises may have crept into their system as Coldwell Banker, instead of Coldwell Banker Smith and Jones. This is particularly challenging if your company has had a name change in recent years. Tell them how your company should be listed.
Corporate office address (you may want to also send branch addresses and tell them to take anything with those other addresses out of their system)
Federal Tax ID Number
Contacts: Primary Contact and all other people in your department or company with whom they might interact, including their titles, roles related to the RMC, and phone and email addresses. And make it clear that if they aren’t on this list, they should not be in their system unless they have an active referral with that person. In that case, the RD should be added to that requested agent file. Ask them to delete or hide that agent's information once the referral is complete.
It might also be a good time to remind them that you offer paid tour and rental services (if you do).
Then, on a separate tab in the spreadsheet, add:
State, county, city, and each zip code (not ranges) of your service area so they can be easily dumped into their system to override any information that may be incorrect or outdated. Ensure you have at least three relocation-trained agents experienced in servicing each area before submitting it.
Once you have your information cleaned up, it couldn’t hurt to reach out to everyone who has supported you in that organization over the years to say ‘thank you’ and remind them that you are ready, willing, and able to continue serving them. Your job is to make theirs easier.
It is tedious work for the RMC to determine accurate information about each brokerage. Make it easy for them. There are thousands of real estate companies out there, and when we include the transferees' requests, it stretches well beyond brokers focused on serving the relocation community.
They want to work with the sanctioned department and the staff of companies that are committed to this craft, for their own best interests. And you need to ensure that the reputation you have worked so hard to develop is accurately reflected in your excellent work (and in their database).
