Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Relocation Department?

When brokers wisely hire a Relocation Director and set aside some budget to start a department, sometimes they think they are done. They sit back and wait for the magic to happen. And sometimes it does. With the right person in place, a relocation department can thrive. But what happens when that person gets to a point where they can’t grow the department further? That may be due to their limited expertise, allotted budget or lack of support and resources. You may not be fully utilizing the talent you have right before you.

What could you do if you had unlimited resources?

How does a broker owner know when the department has reached its capacity? Ask. Ask the person in charge what they could do with extra resources. How much more business could they generate if they had another staff person to free them up so they could focus on strategic business development? How much more revenue could they generate if a consultant came in to help them craft some new deliverable revenue generating programs? What would they need to take the department to the next level? You might find out with a small investment, you could get a huge return.

Relocation Directors are not always comfortable raising our hand to say we need help. Sometimes we just get comfortable doing the volume we can handle and bringing in more business would make more work. And sometimes we just don’t know what we don’t  know. Or we may feel it makes us appear weak or unqualified if we ask for help. But it doesn’t. It shows we are insightful and committed to the growth of the company. We all have to know our limitations and settling for the status quo doesn’t help anyone in the long run.

Just because a relocation department makes money, doesn’t mean it can’t make a lot more money or generate more value and customers. How might the services be expanded to incorporate other offerings besides relocation? How can it help with recruiting and retention? The beauty of a relocation department is that they are structured to be able to handle multiple lines of business. When a department is highly focused on customer service, it can do just about anything. They are made up of service oriented, flexible staff. Rental assistance, internet leads, license holding company, concierge program, international assistance, moving services, affinity programs, etc. to name a few programs they could handle. Let’s face it, real estate and all of the peripheral services that can feed into it are all about customer service and delivering value to the clients and agents. Just make sure as your department grows, your Director is financially rewarded for their efforts.

Think and Act Big

I think some brokerages think because they are small, they can only do so much relocation business because they compete with bigger players. I have seen small regional brokers gain national notoriety and generate huge volumes of relocation and online business by staying visible and being involved in the industry on a national level and aggressively marketing. Use your market expertise to your advantage.  The people that give out the business don’t really know how big your company is, so if you puff up your feathers, you can give the illusion you are a much bigger player than you actually are. It’s all an optical illusion. Think big and act big and they will think you are big because sometimes they think big is important. It’s not, it’s about dedication to the business along with market and industry knowledge.

So brokers, ask the leader of your relocation department, ‘if you had an unlimited budget, how much more business could you generate and what would you need to do it?’ and ’if we had someone to come in and advise us on how to strategically grow the business, would you be open to it?’ You may be surprised at the answer. If they don’t jump on the opportunity to grow and expand their services, then you’ve got the wrong person running your department. Don’t settle for status quo. Here’s to going big in 2021!

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” ~ Norman Vincent Pearl, Author