Matt Wyble moved his 14-person team to CENTURY 21 New Millennium in Serverna Park, Maryland, in the blink of an eye. Nora Aguirre moved herself to CENTURY 21 Americana in Las Vegas. Find out what they did before the move that helped the transition go smoothly.
When Matt Wyble, team leader for the Matt Wyble Team, CENTURY 21 New Millennium, found out his old brokerage was merging with another company, he knew that it was time for a move. “Our old brokerage, Champion Realty, was no longer going to be in business as that brokerage, so it was the perfect time for our team to move to a new brand,” says Wyble. “We used this as an opportunity to go out and see what the best option was for the team and me.”
Within a week, he interviewed with several brokerages. “I call what I did speed dating,” says Wyble. “We had quite a few calls from brokerages but only took interviews with companies that had already been courting us.” Wyble says this was not a decision that he took lightly. “When you have 14 people on a team, then include spouses and kids, you realize how big an impact a move could be.”
CENTURY 21 New Millennium’s leaders talked about family and, says Wyble, “It spoke volumes to me. I didn’t want to hear about numbers. When CEO told me that he’s still able to coach both of his kids and still produce top numbers, I thought, this is the place for me.” Within a week, the transition to the new brand was complete. Within the first 11 days at the new brand, Wyble’s team sold 10 houses.
Here’s how the transition was able to take place swiftly and with little pain.
- Get team buy-in. Wyble headed an emergency team meeting to let everyone know short-term and long-term goals and tell them about the potential move. “One of my top-producing agents called it to a vote, and it was unanimous to move to C21,” says Wyble.
- Know your brand. “If you’re an agent or team of scale in your market, know who owns your brand,” says Wyble. Do you own your domain name? Do you have your own email? What about your logo? Who paid to design it? “If you can set it up at the beginning that you won your brand, it’s a lot easier to change brokerages,” he says. “When I talk about owning a brand, I’m talking about the front end and back end. But, I will take advantage of the stuff the company offers to help us sell listings faster or be more efficient.”
- Assess your tech platforms. “Do you use all of your brokerage’s technology? Is it backed up to the Cloud, like Dropbox?” says Wyble. Before you even consider moving to a new brand, build your business plan around being able to transition your technology, contacts and more easily. Wyble had all of these things lined up before he had any plan to move. “Knowing I fully owned my entire brand, I was able to make a quick decision. It was basically unplugging at one location and plugging back into another,” he says.
Check it off. Nora Aguirre, who recently moved to her team, The Aguirre Team, to CENTURY 21 Americana in Las Vegas, says creating a checklist of everything she needed to change was vital to a smooth transition. “There was an actual checklist for every item that needed to be done, such as switch Linkedin and Facebook pages, change voicemail, etc. I went down the list and just checked things off,” she says. She also created email pieces announcing the move that she sent to her database. “We also sent out a mass text message to my database to let them know about the new brokerage. Our focus was on our clients,” she says.- Pay someone to move you. “The physical move was something I would redo if I could. My business partners and the team rolled up their sleeves to move offices. However, I would hire someone to move us next time—no matter how painful putting out that extra money may be.”
- Ease team members’ minds. Your team members need you to know more than ever. Answer their calls and listen to their concerns.
- Celebrate. Once the move was complete, Wyble and the leaders of his new brokerage had a party for the team and the agents in the office. “It was a welcome experience,” he says.
For both Wyble and Aguirre, the most important thing is to have a plan and stay on top of it.
“Don’t get overwhelmed with the details. There will be bumps in the road during the transition, but nothing that you can’t handle,” says Aguirre. Wyble agrees. “It’s exciting. There are all these new tools and training, and you’re absorbing it as fast as you can, but at the end of the day, I want to make sure my team and clients are taken care of.”
