Meet Jeff Lobb
Jeff Lobb is Undisruptable
“Our number one priority should be our relationship with the consumer.”
Jeff Lobb lends a significant voice to the real estate industry and is committed to helping agents navigate business and accountability issues through his coaching platform Coach52. He’s had an inside view on where agents can get lost among the noise of the industry and day to day struggles that affect productivity. He understands the importance of creating balance and a business aligned with lifestyle goals. But, more important than anything, building the trust and the human connection to create a lasting, emotional connection.
“Your reputation is not only what you stand for, it’s the actions you take, and people will see the actions you take by living it every day. There’s never a time off in building your reputation, so it’s the number one thing you should focus on.”
And Jeff’s business is thriving. He’s using his wisdom to teach agents and brokers from coast to coast. All while infusing the industry with thought-provoking guidance and expertise as he continues to learn and stay on top of the latest technologies and industry innovations. This is what makes Jeff undisruptable.
Read more from our conversation here:
Jeff Lobb: My name is Jeff Lobb, founder and CEO of Sparktank Media.
Molly: Tell me what it means to be undisruptable for you?
Jeff Lobb: To be undisruptable in this industry is really getting deeper and more focused on our clients, and what they do in their lifestyle, in their livelihoods. It’s not about going wider and wanting more, it’s about getting closer to the client versus trying to take on more. So I think a deeper integration into the client’s lifestyle, and how we can help them impact their lives.
Molly: Perfect. Tell me a story of where your business, that you’ve been undisruptable for your client base?
Jeff Lobb: Okay. At Sparktank Media, we focus on a coaching platform that not only helps agents change productivity, we help dive into how it actually helps change their lifestyle. We want an agent not only to be successful in the business, but to have more of a balanced life, and a more successful career for longevity.
Molly: Tell me a story about an agent that is going above and beyond.
Jeff Lobb: We have agents that vary from brokers to team leaders, and I’ll share with you a broker recently that was really focused on their agent’s goals. While we all have goals, hitting them is a big mile marker for a lot of agents today. Recently an agent was really striving hard to hit this goal, and fell short by about $800, literally $800 at the very end. This broker leader of this office decided that she was going to take her own personal money, and give her that $800 as a bonus, so that she walked away with a win, and knew that she could hit that goal and how important it was to her. So, while it was a financial share, it was more of an emotional, and a personal share to show that she can win and set next year’s goals even higher.
Molly: What does that mean to you? That connection between them, those people?
Jeff Lobb: The connection between the client relationship is so important because it’s got to build the confidence and trust that we’re behind you, that the company’s behind you. It’s not just about you’re a person, I mean a client or a number. It’s about being the person behind the lifestyle. We have to make sure that we not only impact their business, we’ve got to really get a handle on, how do we help them as a person? A lot of it’s mindset, a lot of its goals, but a lot of it’s their family.
Molly: What does your reputation mean in this business?
Jeff Lobb: Reputation is everything in this business. It’s almost all we have to hang our hat on. We always talk about like and trust. However, like and trust sometimes can only go so far to build your reputation. Your reputation is not only what you stand for, it’s the actions you take, and people will see the actions you take by living it every day. There’s never a time off in building that reputation, so it’s the number one thing we can focus on.
Molly: What would you say to agents to safeguard their business? What’s the most important thing they can be doing?
Jeff Lobb: Agents right now need to get rid of a lot of distractions. They need to stop looking at the next best thing in tech, and all the shiny objects. We need to focus on that, while tech and marketing may change and evolve, our number one priority should be focusing on my relationship, or their relationship with the consumer. How do they continue to trust us and leverage the technologies? Not necessarily let technology try to replace us, because I don’t believe it’ll ever happen. What will happen is, technology is there to help us empower; creating and nurturing better relationships. Our focus; more people, better relationships.
Molly: Why do you think that the technology will replace someone?
Jeff Lobb: Real estate… technology will not replace the real estate agent. And let’s clarify, maybe the better real estate agent. There are going to be some agents that will get shifted because they’re not doing transactions, they’re not focused on relationships. The better agents will not get replaced because of the fact that real estate is an emotional process. The transaction is emotional. Technology might be great, but technology doesn’t share emotions. It cannot be human, and we need to add that touch, and help people through that process of the emotional world.
Molly: What would you say to an agent, your best advice to somebody who’s worried about all of the disruption all around them, and fear-mongering?
Jeff Lobb: So the fear of technology being replaced needs to be, it just needs to be blocked out. We just need to learn, take technology, and learn ways to leverage it and not fight it. However, if you just took your clients and the customers itself and stopped, or even worrying about the transaction, worry about how you make them feel. My big push is, everything we do from a social media standpoint, from a communication standpoint, we always say, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”. I want to add one more layer to that, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it, but, it’s also how do you make people feel when you say it?”. I want you to think of the end result. When you make a post on social, or when you communicate by text, what’s the end result of how you want them to feel will make all the difference in the world of how you build that trust?
Jeff Lobb: An agent that might be concerned about technology and disruption, and being replaced as an agent, I think only has to worry if they’re not taking care of the customer, and if they’re not doing transactions. There are some agents that will just not make it in the business. However, the good agents, the good agents will focus on the people, learning more about them as a person, and more importantly, and I try and share this all the time, that when we’re communicating in today’s world, today’s world is a very emotional world because of social media, and because of the way we’re communicating. If we focus on how we make people feel, and to know that they matter, will make all the difference in the world. That applies from social media, to text communication, to email. Let’s stop worrying about what we’re going to say, or how we’re going to say it. Let’s worry about how we are going to make them feel when we say it.
Molly: Perfect. Anything that you want to say about being undisruptable? Anything that’s on your heart?
Jeff Lobb: I just think we really need to focus on being undisruptable, due to the fact that there’s so many things going against us in this industry, and people trying to create distraction. We always find that people are going to say that the market’s changing, or politics is changing, and this is changing, when all that is being said. If we just got rid of all of that noise, and stopped thinking about it, to say that the market will always change, people will continue to change. You just need to change with them, and continue to take care of the people who took care of you, and grow that business, and you will have a thriving business.
About RateMyAgent
RateMyAgent is an Australia-based review platform now expanding rapidly in the United States. In Australia, RateMyAgent is used by agents who sell 80% of property across Australia and get reviews for 1 in 3 homes sold nationally. RateMyAgent launched in the United States in 2018 and has partnerships with MLS’s from Florida to California, including CRMLS, the countries largest MLS. They are the first review platform to be included and endorsed by the National Association of Realtors® 2019 NAR’s REACH Accelerator Program. RateMyAgent is listed on the Australian stock exchange. More information about RateMyAgent can be found at www.ratemyagent.com
