Last week, at ‘Blue Sky Dubai’, 14 top EA business owners from Australia and the UK spent three days together discussing how their different models work and learning from each other. As is often the case, 80% of the business operations are near identical but 20% are different, in some ways markedly so.

In the first session it became clear that the main focus in UK agency is to win the instruction, sometimes even at a reduced fee, listing the property at an inflated price if that’s what it takes. The Australian agents on the other hand expect every single property they list to be sold within 30 days and they call every client every day to discuss what each party needs to do to achieve this result.

Another main difference is the viewing process. In the UK agents will make individual appointments whereas in Australia nearly all properties for sale and to let are scheduled for block viewings, “open for inspections”, with just 2 or 3 set times.

A third major difference is the Australian approach to Lettings – they were somewhat bemused that the UK agents offered a let only service. Nearly every single property let down under is with full management, indeed they don’t call their service “Lettings” but “Property Management” which includes finding a tenant.

It wasn’t all one sided – the UK agents gave as good as they got and when it came to discussing brand, both employer and consumer, they showed their Australian counterparts a few things. What struck me most was how the UK agents’ operations result in several inefficiencies causing a significant reduction in overall transaction value. The agents present at Blue Sky Dubai now have an action plan that will result in transforming their profitability.

One action several of the UK agents will now be adopting followed on from identifying there’s a hierarchy when it comes to prospecting and top of the list is your own, and your team’s, personal network. In what for many was a “GOBO” moment, (a glimpse of the blindingly obvious), the Australians have a structured contact process for their own personal networks, (resulting in a listing per month per person on average), something few agents seem to have in the UK.

We will be discussing all the other lessons learned and actions to be applied that surfaced in Dubai with our Mastermind Group Members at our May meetings – if you would like to attend a free trial here’s how.