All the noise is causing "tech fatigue"

I was recently in a meeting with a large brokerage who is very impressed with what we are doing with our technology and is interested in talking to us about it. The problem is he feels there is so much noise and so many tech vendors who each think they have the best, shiny new object that "tech fatigue" is setting in with his group.

As someone in the real estate tech space, I agree completely with this sentiment.

I write this article with brokerages and their agents in mind because, at the end of the day, I view myself as a consultant of sorts.

Because there are so many tech options in our industry (over 2,000 BTW), I feel it's important for brokerages to question anyone pushing a product on them without asking a lot of questions:

• What is your current tech stack?
• Where do you derive the best ROI?
• What tools do you have that actually engage consumers throughout the homeownership lifecycle?
• What are you and your agents doing to stay in touch with clients?
• What’s the value of your agents’ sphere?

Once you understand all these things, you need to quantify the opportunity cost of not taking action where action is clearly needed.

Many brokerages know they have certain issues they would like to solve. This is called an "implicit need". An example would be a brokerage knowing they and their agents need to do a better job of staying in touch with their sphere and monetizing their database.

Everyone knows they should but never get around to it.

However, once a brokerage understands the value of not solving this problem, it starts to be come an "explicit need". In other words, if they determine they are leaving X amount of dollars on the table by not addressing this particular issue, it becomes the thing that makes them take real action.

Consultants do this sort of thing. Transactional sales people don't.

So back to the broker conversation I opened with...

He said, "Jose, if you can show me where you fit in my tech stack and how I can explain this to my agents, I will be much more open to introducing your tool into our company."

I love this!

It's the exact thing every broker should be doing. Understanding their tech stack, where they derive the most direct ROI, and what helps them and their agents provide a better experience for their clients thus leading to closings and revenue.

Then, and only then, will they know where some new product they see ROI potential in actually fits.

I am very familiar with broker tech stacks and often marvel at how much money they spend on things that either don't provide direct ROI or don't get a lot of adoption (or BOTH) all so they can tell their agents how much tech they have.

No wonder there is so much "tech fatigue" out there.