The Race to Relevance: Why Relevance to the Consumer is the Key to Scale, Team Building & Expansion w/Century 21 CEO Rick Davidson

There’s a lot of momentum around teams and scalability right now, but is this conversation giving enough attention to relevance? Are you building a real estate business on the right foundation? On this episode, Century21 CEO, Rick Davidson shares valuable insights on real estate teams, leadership at a global scale, and why everything comes down to relevance to the consumer.   How do we stay nimble enough as a really big company, in order to respond to the speed of the market, at the speed of the customer? -Rick Davidson Takeaways + Tactics If you're not relevant to your customer, you're not going to be able to scale. If you're a broker, keep an eye on the consumer and helping the agent be more relevant to them. Agent teams have to understand that brokers have to be profitable. You cannot build a team model that doesn't allow the broker to make a profit. Many people talk about scaling, growing and developing multiple streams of income - they forget that they actually have to execute. At the start of the show, Rick shared how he helps the team keep their eyes on the summit. “You have to understand where your organization is going in the long-term, and ensure you have frequent and consistent messaging.” He also shared how the organization keeps itself nimble to move with the market. Next, we talked about scalability, and how it relates to relevancy. We went on to talk about teams, “you as an individual, need to be as strong a member of that team as everyone else.” Towards the end of the show we discussed how market disruptions can be prevented by being more relevant, and getting ahead of the needs of the consumer. Rick also shared insights on: Getting agents focused in the right direction Establishing goals to achieve the overall vision How the agent’s relevance to a consumer connects to the broker’s relevance to the agent The proliferation of teams in real estate How value takes care of the compensation conversation How brokers can be more relevant to agents How Rick stays energized and maintains his enthusiasm for life and work The importance of doing good and doing good business The market is ripe for external disruption, and that only happens when the market gives room for it. We must anticipate disruptors, and understand what’s needed to be relevant to the consumer. We must position ourselves to provide a distinct and unique service by building the right structures for win-win scenarios for the broker, agent and consumer. The agent has to be relevant to the consumer. The broker has to be relevant to the agent by providing the culture, platform, tools and resources to flourish. Guest Bio Rick Davidson was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Century 21 Real Estate LLC a wholly owned subsidiary of Realogy Corporation (NYSE: RLGY) in February 2010. In his role, Davidson leads the world’s largest real estate franchise organization of approximately 6,950 independently owned and operated offices and more than 106,000 independent sales professionals in 76 countries and territories worldwide. For more information, send an email to  [email protected].