Ray White lights up Queensland with Ignite 2019

Hosted across capital cities by Australasia's biggest real estate group, the Ignite 2019 program would provide a new and improved training format for salespeople and property managers.

The sessions were designed to help its agents navigate and adapt to current market conditions.

Ray White Group Managing Director Dan White (pictured above) said following the launch of the Ignite program earlier in the year, he was proud to see such impressive numbers once again.

"We were very excited when we launched this new training program at the start of 2019 and to follow up with 700 members is just fantastic to see," Mr White said.

"We started the year with some nervousness with a lot of headlines predicting we would have a bad year, but like Ray White always does, we persevered and still had a great year.

"It would have been easy to lose our heads when our customers needed us the most but success comes from hard work, effort and decision making.

"The game never ends when it comes to pleasing our customers. Through the market correction, we've increased our market share and we've never been in a better spot to keep improving."

Ray White Queensland CEO Tony Warland (pictured above) praised the work of the Sunshine State's members and put a focus on the customer experience.

"The expectation of our clients is that they get an excellent service and have the best experience possible with us every time," Mr Warland said.

"We have to understand that we're ultimately in the customer experience business and when a client has a great experience, we need to find ways to go above and beyond that.

"We have a great collective of people that have either been with us for many years or are just starting out and I thank every one of them for their hard word during a challenging market."

Speaking to the full venue, key speaker and former Lonely Planet CTO Gus Balbontin (pictured above) said the quest for improvements, no matter how successful you may be, should never end.

"Whatever service or product you are providing to your customers today, it will get better, so it's up to you to make it better or your competitors will," Mr Balbontin said.

"There's a key difference between resources and resourcefulness and it's not the strongest or the most intelligent that survives, it's the one that's most adaptable to change.

"The problems and challenges we face today are far more complex than they've ever been so you need a strong team to work on it collectively."

The full house was then treated to two case studies that proved even in the most difficult of circumstances, success was always possible.

Ray White Canberra Sales Consultant Phyllis Tidmarsh said the pillars that underpinned a successful real estate business were the same for every agent, no matter what stage of career.

"Your ability to provide framework and structure in your business will help achieve clearance for your clients and simply, you can't get where you want to go without hard work," Ms Tidmarsh said.

"It's not about coming to an event like Ignite, it's actually about taking the learnings from here and implementing them in your own business, and that will provide confidence to your colleagues."

Ray White North Quays Sales Consultant Ben Keevers (pictured above left with Head of Growth Mark McLeod right) said everyone must buy in to the learning culture to get better.

"The only currency you have as an agent is the hours you have and how you use them, I utilised my Ray White auction training to convert older stock to auction campaigns," Mr Keevers said.

"Auction helped me dramatically reduce the number of days on market for my stock and that allowed me to build extra capacity for new campaigns.

"The resources at Ray White are fantastic and if you want to get better, this is the place to be."

Ray White National Head of Property Management Emily Sim (pictured above) reminded the PMs at Ignite 2019 that growth was 'everyone’s responsibility'.

“The state of play is this - you are all working with the number one brand in Australia in terms of property management and sales,” Ms Sim told the attendees.

“If we can understand where we are then we’ll understand where we want to be in the future. Tracking business performance is the only way to improve."

The event was well received by members across Queensland and they praised the value that both them and their teams would get out of it.

“Days like today are fantastic. Gus was great and he set up the day well. That concept of moving out of where you are and not just taking small steps, but big steps, I really loved that," said Ray White Surfers Paradise CEO Andrew Bell.

“I loved the case study about pipeline as I can think of a lot of girls and guys in our office who are not using pipeline and she (Ms Tidmarsh) explained it better to me than I've heard in 38 years at Ray White. Ignite 2019 is a great day and I like the format.”

"What I've learned from Ignite 2019 is in the ever-changing fast industry that is real estate, if you don’t evolve, you will become obsolete," said Ray White Buderim Senior Property Manager Kristy Southam (pictured above).

“I needed to hear about the pipeline structure as I’m in sales. Structure and process is everything. It’s been a great day," said Ray White Alderley Sales Agent Alison Turner.

Ignite 2019 moves on to Victoria on Friday.