It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I wrote the blog post entitled, Game On: How 36 Hours Changed Everything. The Product Studio and Coldwell Banker’s senior leadership had just come from the Product Summit, and days later, President and CEO M. Ryan Gorman announced Coldwell Banker’s intent to bring the affiliate network and the company-owned brokerage support teams together in an effort to look toward the future and proactively, strategically position the company for competitive advantages. The move would help the company leverage the full scale and size of Coldwell Banker to create a singular voice in the industry.
Our objectives for the Product Summit were clear: build a plan toward a “One Coldwell Banker” product suite, build clarity around the Coldwell Banker CRM strategy, define and execute on the open ecosystem strategy and prioritize agent experience improvements.
The intent was for us to identify the best technology quickly, build the strategy and execute fast and aggressively. Through that meeting, we focused on these core principles:
- Help our agents sell more homes, make more money and work more efficiently
- Keep the product line simple, focusing on products that are based on the moments that matter most
- We build products with agents, not for them
One year later, it’s incredible to see what a team of passionate, relentless product owners and team members can accomplish when they put their mask-wearing, social-distanced heads together – despite a year of challenges that only 2020 could bring.
We’ve immortalized the work in the Technology Mission Video unveiled at the 2020 Coldwell Banker Virtual Gen Blue. For those curious about how we got there, the big question is “What has The Studio accomplished one year later?” If you think we’ve accomplished a lot – you’re right!
When the CEO tells you to move fast and aggressively, you do. By uniting behind-the-scenes teams to work toward the same common goals, we’ve been unstoppable. By the end of 2020, we will have launched seven new products to the affiliate network along with countless UX improvement updates across our existing product suite. With more than 650 brokerage companies across the Coldwell Banker network, we still have a ways to go to achieve a true One Coldwell Banker product suite. But to think, a year ago, Coldwell Banker affiliates and the company-owned brokerages were worlds apart, and now we’re in a much stronger, unified position as a company – the progress is incredible.
And best of all, we are beginning to see the business results of this unified plan. Among them:
- Desk, our virtual office for today’s real estate agent and the foundation by which our entire product suite is housed, launched in August across the Coldwell Banker network and into Canada. Throughout August we’ve seen a 78% product adoption rate.
- Exclusive Look, a product that helps agents share Sneak Peeks, Brokerage Exclusives and Buyer Wants and Needs, also launched in August to the entire Coldwell Banker domestic network; within days of launch, we saw a 73% increase in product usage.
- Uniting Coldwell Banker’s award-winning CBx Buyer Locator application with a best-in-class CMA application, Moxi Present, we will next roll out CBx + Moxi Present – a proprietary version of the application that no other competitor can offer. Our first grouping of some 300 affiliate brokers begins rolling out in October 2020.
- Prospect Square, an all-in-one integrated email marketing solution featuring Market, Area and Quarterly Reports plus property email marketing, digital newsletters and more, also begins rolling out to some 300 affiliate brokers in October. Prospect Square already sends an estimated 3 million emails each month via Coldwell Banker Realty users, and that effort will only expand the upon the company’s market presence and capabilities as we onboard our affiliate partners.
- BrandSrv, a digital content management solution and digital asset generator, launched earlier this year across Coldwell Banker Realty and our affiliate network. The product gives agents and staff the ability to create simple, customized digital assets in mere minutes, and with users increasing by 95% month-over-month, it’s clear they are liking what they see.
- Finally, we will finish the year off strong by piloting two of our concierge products within the affiliate network – Listing Concierge and Design Concierge. Both products were previously rolled out nationally to some 45,000 users across the Coldwell Banker Realty operations, and we couldn’t be more proud of the benefits and results our agents and clients have witnessed firsthand, including:
- Properties that use Listing Concierge sell 35% closer to list price than those that don’t.*
- Properties that use Listing Concierge close with a 1% higher sale price than those that don’t.*
- On average, sellers whose agents use Listing Concierge benefit as well with a 1% higher sales price. With a national average sales price of $539,682 and a 1% increase in the sales price, that equates to an additional $5,300 in our sellers’ pockets, on average.*
- Agents that use Listing Concierge are twice as productive as those affiliated agents who don’t.*
So, there’s my one year: a big Coldwell Banker update. I told you 36 hours changed everything, and they certainly did. While 2020 has thrown plenty of punches, I couldn’t be more confident in our strategy and proud of where these efforts will take our agents, our clients and our company.
A very special thanks to our affiliate companies and their respective teams who helped pilot, provide feedback and who have championed product use across their companies. I’d also like to thank everyone in our amazing Brand Ambassador team who became product experts overnight, working to bring this amazing product suite to life across our network.
Here’s to finishing the year strong and making 2021 a year to shine like no other. Stay tuned, because The Studio is just getting started.
*Based on Coldwell Banker Realty Listing Concierge usage data reported through May 31, 2020
