The Talent Developers
As the fifth generation heir to a 150-year-old real estate company, Stephen W. Baird is bucking the turbulence roiling his industry – from the turnover of personnel to the consolidation of independent firms. His chief tool: training, training, and still more training. From his full-time training and development department to annual management retreats and one-to-one coaching for all managers, Baird is equipping his 247 employees with the information and confidence to effectively compete.
"We're in a people business," says the president and CEO of Chicago-based Baird & Warner, the oldest independent real estate broker in the country. "We go out and get good people, train them, and give them the resources they need. We want our people to feel that we are supporting them."
Over the course of its history, Baird & Warner has played a vital role in the development of Chicago, its neighborhoods, and suburbs, and has been nothing if not adaptable. The firm has been, variously, a property manager, investor, and developer. But, for years, Baird & Warner, with $5.4 billion in total sales and $143 million in commission revenue, has focused on residential brokerage. And, the firm has successfully adapted again, responding to powerful industry changes – shrinking commissions, the increasing role of the Internet, and the gobbling up of independent firms by such giants as Cendant (owner of Coldwell Banker and Century 21) and GMAC.
Baird, who succeeded his father in 1991, faced two crucial challenges in the new real estate environment: finding the proper mix of managers who could answer to the changing industry conditions and establishing a common set of expectations across 35 offices. That's when Baird seized on the importance of a formal, and ongoing, training program.
Baird's first training initiative in 1998 – a several-day course offered to managers – served up an important lesson. No more than 10 managers signed up – after all, it cost them $3,000 each – and, as Baird notes, "they were our best." The problem: Those most in need of training weren't getting it.
"I bit the bullet," Baird says. "I realized that if we were going to be serious about this, everybody was going to get trained, and we were going to pay for it."
Since that first year, the realtor's training program has taken a huge leap forward. The first stage for all new managers is a week-long boot camp, where the recruits are introduced to everything from financial and management processes to recruiting. (Not all make it through.) Then, each year, all managers participate in a three-day, out-of-town retreat, where, of course, long-term strategy always is on the table for discussion, but, more importantly, executives are encouraged to brainstorm, role play and dream.
In between the annual get-together, training takes on a different dimension. Each month, Baird gathers all managers for a half-day meeting, much of which is devoted to exchanging insights into recruiting and training sales associates. Following that meeting, Baird taps the Managers' Advisory Council, a smaller group elected annually by other managers.
But, there is more: When Baird launched his annual retreat, he also decided to offer an outside coach for regular one-to-one meetings for all managers. Now, each manager meets either once monthly for an hour or twice monthly for half an hour on both professional and personal matters. The coach reports back to Baird on general management concerns such as effective cold-calling, but not on personal issues. And, finally, to ensure that Baird stays in touch with field staff below the managers, he visits a different office for a Brown Bag lunch each week, where he hears about everything from health care benefits to advertising support and takes the time to spread the word about company strategy.
Through all of this, what is Baird expecting? Above all, creating clearly understood values and a culture of accountability, consistency, and responsiveness. "We are defining what it is we want, what kind of person we want, and what the expectations are," says Baird. "This is the best way to send the message about what you expect from your people."
In fact, a crucial part of creating a common understanding across the firm is "the script." Every policy change, every new program is carefully scripted by Baird's executive team and the managers. There's a buyer's script, a seller's script, a cold-calling script – nothing is left to chance. "I had a hard time initially – it seemed a little like Big Brother," says Baird. "Now, I'm a total believer."
A major test of training and the script came in the fall of 2002, when Baird & Warner faced the option of ending a lucrative, long-term contract with a major national realtor to provide corporate relocation services or joining forces with a smaller firm. Baird weighed the revenue stream from the larger player and the risk of losing the business to his No. 1 competitor against a restrictive contract. Baird decided to move on, and at the annual management retreat engaged his colleagues in role-playing, scenario planning, and scripting a coordinated rollout of the exact same announcement across all offices at 10 o'clock a few days later. Since then, Baird & Warner has indeed partnered with the smaller firm and built a tidy business. The larger lesson for Baird: "We do not fear any challenge."
For managers like Laura Ellis, of suburban Bolingbrook, Ill., the formal training programs came as an initial jolt, and a number of her staff departed. Once the dust settled, her colleagues understood the rationale for the rigorous training. "We are all focused on the customer entirely," she says. "The best thing about the training is the definition, boundaries and standards it provides."
What about those scripts? "All agents are expected to use the scripts without question," says Ellis, who has been with the firm six years. "Whoever walks through the front door gets the exact same message no matter which agent talks to them. That way, the same level of service is delivered to every customer."
Baird is quick to point out that none of this comes about without hard work – and money. Indeed, Baird & Warner's training budget has grown four-fold to $200,000 a year. And, trying to link the cost to a direct dollar payback doesn't work. Yet, Baird is convinced of the pay-off: "The quality, productivity, and profitability of our managers are so much higher," Baird insists. "We could never have done our repositioning in this industry without the training."
Company: Baird & Warner
Web site: www.bairdwarner.com
Industry: Real estate
Location: Chicago, Ill.
Number of employees: 247
Sales: Over $100 million
