In the first track of The Edit, Samantha McLean and Chris Hanley OAM get past the easy answers on trust, hard vendor conversations and the operating rhythm that moves stock in a headwind market.
The market is hard. Volumes are tighter, vendors are anxious and some very good agents are discovering whether the rhythm inside their business is actually any good.
Chris Hanley’s First National Byron Bay business has just had its best year.
That is where Track 01 of The Edit begins – not with a victory lap, but with the question every principal and agent working into a headwind needs to answer: what still works when charm, swagger and waiting for the market are no longer enough?
Hard markets require honest conversations
Chris has spent more than four decades in real estate and describes only three kinds of market: headwind, tailwind and no wind. Right now, he says, too many businesses are still speaking to sellers as though a tailwind will move their stock for them.
It will not.
The work is to list, educate and move stock through the business – every day. That means interpreting the market, using data well and asking questions that help sellers make informed decisions.
“Hope is not a strategy.”
The lesson is grounded in experience. When annual sales in one of Chris’s markets fell from 472 to 225 during the GFC, his team maintained its own transaction numbers. The business did not wait for easier conditions. It changed its conversations and operating rhythm.
Trust is operational currency
The heart of the episode is trust.
“Trust is information well explained. Trust is our currency.”
For Chris, trust is not a vague brand value. It is what allows an agent to explain difficult evidence, help a vendor adjust their expectations and move a property when the market is resisting it.
It also changes the balance of a listing conversation. Where many agents talk for 80 per cent of the meeting, Chris argues the ratio should be reversed: ask better questions, listen for longer and let silence do some of the work.
What you’ll learn
- Why charm and charisma are not enough in a headwind market
- The three markets: headwind, tailwind and no wind
- Why trust depends on explaining information well
- How Chris’s 11 questions support difficult vendor conversations
- Why agents should talk 20 per cent and listen 80 per cent
- The three moves principals should make in the next 90 days
For principals, Chris’s immediate prescription is practical: reattach yourself to the business, get the right data in front of you, keep prospecting and bring the team together for an honest conversation.
Hard is hard. Turbulence is normal. The task of the leader is to remain calm enough to help everyone else move through it.
This is The Edit
The Edit is not a podcast, its more of a mixtape – a series of practical, honest and occasionally uncomfortable conversations with the voices and hard-earned wisdom worth paying attention to.
Each track begins with one hard question facing agents and principals now. Samantha McLean and her co-hosts stay with it long enough to get past the easy answer.
Next track: Fiona Blayney on what a hard market exposes inside your team and how to fix it.