Mega-broker Long & Foster Real Estate in Fairfax, Virginia has a successful approach to train agents to become more tech-savvy. "An Evening With Mike" is a series of technology seminars that has attracted over 10,000 agents, an increase over 3,729 the previous year. Is that among the reasons why the brokerage increased sales to $23 billion from $18.5 billion in 2001?

"As we all know, real estate customers are becoming more and more tech-savvy with every passing month," explains Joe Pickett, spokesperson for Long & Foster. "More than 80 percent of consumers conduct property searches and research online, and those customers want instant responses to their e-mail queries, or they move on to another agent or company. A real estate company that can attract the best technically-able agents to cater to this growing segment of the market has a big edge on the competition."

There are plenty of good real estate companies out there, so attracting those agents sometimes requires something extra. Long & Foster meets this challenge with technology seminars, usually held by CIO Michael Koval several times throughout the year to cover some of the latest technology in the marketplace and how Long & Foster agents use that technology to drive their careers.

A recent 'An Evening with Mike' covered a variety of technology topics that agents can use, including:

• Mobile Computing - The latest laptops, tablet PC's, smart displays, PDAs, SPOT technology, and alternative input devices.
• Pen-Based Computing - New digital pens such as the Logitech Io.
• Wireless Connectivity - How to connect to Long & Foster's network in a sales office with no hard wire connection.
• Mobile Wireless Broadband - The basics of emerging wireless technology that offers real-time computing, always-on functionality, increased efficiency and reduced down times.

So how does Long & Foster get agents to attend? The company promotes the seminars "relentlessly" on the company Intranet site, says Pickett, and it also holds a prize drawing for the thousands of agents who attended 'An Evening With Mike' that year. Recently, three lucky Long & Foster agents walked away with a Dell laptop computer, Dell desktop, and a Sony digital camera, just for attending one of the seminars in 2002.

One of the winning agents, Carol Evans, was enthusiastic about not only her new Dell Latitude laptop computer, but about the technology seminars overall. She says, "'An Evening With Mike' is a great seminar! I teach new agent classes and I tell my students to attend 'An Evening With Mike' all the time. The seminars are great for learning what features are most important on various pieces of technology equipment, like laptops and digital cameras."

"The leadership of Long & Foster also recognizes the importance of 'An Evening With Mike.' Says Long & Foster President P. Wesley Foster, Jr., "With the emergence of the Internet, the process of buying and selling real estate has changed drastically in the last several years. It is imperative that our sales associates keep up with what the public wants and needs. The 'Evening with Mike' seminars enable our sales associates to keep up with the latest in technology in order to provide more professional service to our clients."

So, to attract new agents and to get your current agents thinking about how to make better use of new technologies, consider conducting technology seminars sweetened with prizes. Long & Foster says it works.

Published: May 1, 2003

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