by Matthew Ferrara | Feb 7, 2011 | Blog, Featured, Management, rssfeed, Strategic Thinking
If marketing departments spend all their time and money telling consumers how a company is unique, why do brokers and managers spend their time trying to recruit their competitors’ agents? Here’s a question for brokers: If you believe companies have cultures, that...
by Matthew Ferrara | Jan 18, 2011 | Company, Featured, Management, Next Generation, Opinion, rssfeed, Strategic Thinking
Today’s customers are too demanding to take “good enough” from trusted brands. Yet many companies release untested products and services on their customers every day – damaging more than just profits. Just ask Samsung. After months of frustration, I’m throwing out my...
by Matthew Ferrara | Mar 29, 2010 | Blog, Featured, Opinion, rssfeed, Strategic Thinking
Recruiting has long been the magic talisman of the real estate industry. Mistaken though it might be, the idea that adding more bodies to the salesforce solves everything just won’t seem to go away. Until managers become fully committed to productivity, not body...
by Matthew Ferrara | Jan 18, 2010 | Featured, Management, Next Generation, Opinion, Real Estate, rssfeed, Sales
Readers of this column long know of our contrarian opinion of most traditional real estate practices. None more frequently irks us than the idea that all problems in real estate can be solved by increasing the body count, er, recruiting. Even amidst the worst downturn...
by Matthew Ferrara | Oct 19, 2009 | Blog, Featured, NotEvergreen, Real Estate, Research, rssfeed
Real estate is essentially a research industry: trouble is, most agents and brokers think the most important research is about houses, prices, square footage and such. Considering the data that sits in most MLS systems – unverified and incomplete –...