Real estate is an industry of ongoing learning and constant innovation making training and upskilling paramount to the success of everyone in the industry.

This year, market leading agency Ray White continued to drive and improve its impressive training offering with 47 different training programs on offer and 573 unique training and event sessions, while 401 of those took place online.

The sessions catered to everyone in the group from administration, property management, marketing, business leadership, and sales. Proving that the group's cutting edge technology was a large focus in 2024, there were 143 digital training sessions, along with 140 sales training sessions.

In the property management space, the group undertook 82 training sessions, and administration and operations sessions made up 24 of the total sessions.

Leadership, business management and auction training remained a core focus for the group which offered 103 sessions covering one of the subjects. A further 45 training sessions were offered to members from all parts of the Ray White Group. There were also 15 recognition and community events that took place within the last year. 

The comprehensive framework included network events with exclusive keynote speakers to small group training sessions, and one-on-one meetings with dedicated performance specialists. But one of the things the Ray White Group is famous for is offering its members access to the best in the business from around the world.

“Ray White has always prided itself on being the best agency to start or continue your career in real estate and our training framework is a big part of that,” Ray White head of performance and recognition Bianca Denham said.

“Over the last few years we have really given our training program an overhaul and have split out more programs to focus on particular stages of the real estate career or focus on a particular area of development, which is particularly relevant for our business leaders.

“We have a very dynamic annual calendar with multiple learning opportunities every month, including locally in state corporate offices, at larger events bringing hundreds of Ray White members together and as part of our conference program for our recognition tiers or at our triennial Connect Conference.

“We also hold weekly online live sales training events that are accessible to every Ray White member no matter where we are and each session is unique and relevant for the current market cycle.”

The highlight of the year was the group’s exclusive Leadership Week on the Gold Coast which was attended by 350 Ray White members in February. This was the inaugural Leadership Week conference where the group wrapped business leader recognition events with group wide leadership training over four days on the Gold Coast. Over the week, the audience heard from industry giants such as Ray White chairman Brian White AO and Ray White New Zealand’s Carey Smith.

Managing director and fourth generation White family member Dan White also took to the stage with brothers Sam and Ben White who head up financial services group Loan Market, and property management technology business Ailo, respectively.

There were presentations from top business owners and leading property management specialists in the group around leadership, building culture, and structuring your business for success.

Top cap off the week, Ray White’s Chairman’s Elite business owners enjoyed a case study session with renowned Harvard Business School professor, Boris Groysberg.

The Boston-based professor led a highly interactive session with 320 Ray White members who had travelled from all over Australia and New Zealand. Professor Groysberg teaches courses on talent management and leadership in the school's MBA and Executive Education programs.

He has won numerous awards for his research, which focuses on the challenge of managing human capital at small and large organisations across the world. This is the eighth visit from Professor Groysberg to the Ray White leadership team, and the biggest audience he has taught at Ray White yet.

Vivien Yap, and her son Matthew Yap, of Ray White Dalkeith | Claremont said there were some huge highlights for her.

“I love the collaboration from across the group. All these businesses are sharing the secrets to their success. And it was a wonderful introduction for my son Matthew who has just joined my business,” she said.

“We are a family business operating inside the biggest family business in the property industry.”

Ray White Stocker Preston principal Louis De Chiera said he loved his first Leadership Academy with Professor Boris Groysberg. 

“It was a privilege for us to be there and learn from all the other business owners’ experiences and get some great takeaways to take back into our business,” he said.

“I loved the discussion about team engagement and we have utilised some tips to help with what we are going through in our business.”

Later in the year, high powered US professor Dr Victoria Husted Medvec (pictured above), a world leader in high stakes negotiation, presented as part of the Ray White’s Leadership Academy. 

Some 250 Ray White members, plus its corporate team, were blown away by Dr Medvec’s high energy sessions to help them differentiate themselves during negotiations.

Dr Medvec is the Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management and Organisations, on the faculty of the Kellogg School of Management at the prestigious Northwestern University in Illinois.

She is a global leader in high stakes negotiation and decision-making who has worked with a significant number of Fortune 100 companies, including Google and Facebook.

Ray White Mount Gambier principal Tahlia Gabrielli said her biggest takeaway was to always be well prepared for any negotiation.

“I think everyone should work out what their differentiators are and clearly identify them,” she said.

“There’s honestly been so much I took from Dr Medvec, she was amazing. I love going to these days. I love networking with Ray White friends and meeting new people and levelling up my skills to be a better business owner in my market.”

Ray White Ferntree Gully managing director Patrick McConnachie said he loved the camaraderie of the Leadership Academy.

“I go to these events and see the same people and I then follow them personally and professionally. Then I will catch up with them outside these events and stay in touch,” he said.

“I also liked Dr Medvec’s tip to ‘stop being blinded by your own ego’. If you stop thinking only of what your needs are and if you start thinking about what the other person is trying to achieve, you’ll get a better outcome. That really resonated with me.”

Three times a year, the group hosts its international appraisal drive event, Real Estate of Origin. Since launching Real Estate of Origin, it has inspired teams to book over 125,000 appraisals in 16 events across five years.

In 2023, the game changed when the group introduced cutting edge sales management platform NurtureCloud to the event to validate and track appraisals in real time, marking a shift toward transparency and precision.

A key program for the group is Pathways. Ray White’s national Pathways program has been a springboard for success, nurturing many of the group's top-performing agents since its inception. Pathways is an invitation only program for experienced agents at the group’s Premier status or above who are looking to take their business to the next level.

“To date, we’ve seen 301 agents complete the Pathways program across Australia. Each of those participants have had their own bespoke plan, working one on one with their accountability coach,” Ms Denham said.

“While not all of the work conducted during the Pathways program can immediately point to an uplift in commission revenue, the results are in the consistent growth over time that overwhelmingly outperforms the averages for the overall sales network.”

On average, the commission earned by a Pathways participant in the financial year prior to entering the program was roughly $505,000 and rose to an average of $1,188,333 in the following financial year.

Number of sales grew from an average of 36 per annum to 58. This equated to a 135 per cent increase in commission income year-on-year and a 62 per cent increase in number of sales.

After a successful tenure at Ray White Norwood as one of Ray White South Australia's top sales agents, Stefan Siciliano stepped into business ownership two years ago with the opening of Ray White Prospect. Mr Siciliano said being brought together collectively for the first time through the Pathways program really helped his team grow together.

“We had the opportunity to succeed without feeling like we were doing it all on our own, and questioning if what we were doing was right or wrong all the time,” he said.

Ray White Officer principal Gavin Staindl also recently stepped into business ownership after consistently ranking as one of Victoria’s top sales agents. After participating in the Pathways program he said it had unlocked a whole new world of real estate he hadn't explored before.

“Topics surrounding profit, scaling and managing teams helped ensure that my last 12 months were my best 12 months on record,” he said.

“On top of that I was able to network with people who are operating at a similar level to me.”

Ray White Bulimba principal Brandon Wortley said he and his team joined the Pathways program because he had noticed a really distinct lack of structure, both within his agents’ and his personal teams.

“The most important tool we learned from the program was providing agents with the confidence to ask better quality questions, which in turn led to better consistency for their businesses,” he said.

“I would highly recommend Pathways for any agent or business owner who's looking to tighten up their structure, increase their capacity or increase their market share within their core market.”

In November, the Ray White Group also kicked off a 10 week accountability program, the Prospecting Boot Camp, to provide a framework for high performance over the seasonally slower summer months.

The new program attracted a staggering 1,157 signed up agents, associates and business leaders, with an additional 126 members coming onboard since its inception.

"We have always accepted there is a large portion of the industry who switch off from mid-December to late January, meaning productivity, and consequent listing and sale activity grinds to a halt. We wanted to see if we could influence that trend for those agents who were keen to keep going when everyone else is on holidays,” Ms Denham said.

“Unsure of what the appetite would be for an initiative like this, we were hoping to attract around 800 registrations from across Australia and New Zealand. As we launched on Monday, November 18, we were staggered to see 1,157 members sign up for boot camp, and registrations have continued with an additional 126 members coming onboard since.”

Sales associate Jacqui Porter from Ray White Upper Blue Mountains and agent Jodie Bell from Ray White Surfers Paradise both said the boot camp has already helped them set their businesses up for success in January.

“I've been watching these sessions via the recordings and I'm getting so much out of them. I'm still new to my role and these sessions are really helping my prospecting calls,” Ms Porter said.

While Ms Bell commented that she felt “part of something bigger”.

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