Michael Minard – How

How ‘Forward Thinking’ Keeps You Ahead of the Competition

Commentary by Michael Minard

How do you keep ahead of the competition? The late Apple Founder Steve Jobs said it best: “Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.”

He then quoted innovator Henry Ford, who once famously said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’”

Jobs concluded, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them...Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”

That’s forward thinking. We take this same approach to help our clients get—and stay—ahead of their competition.

Focus on What’s Next Forward thinking requires you to emulate hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, who famously said: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Today, we are not building what our customers need now. Instead, we are creating what customers will need 18 months from now. Leveraging new technology and innovation for the future needs of our clients means focusing on automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Forward thinking doesn’t exclude listening to our customers. Like Apple, it’s just the opposite. We use a client advisory committee to give us ongoing feedback to iterate and perfect current offerings. This information also informs our forward thinking.

Having constant real-world feedback helps us improve our automated valuation model (AVM) and find inventive ways to integrate AVMs into the core marketing tools agents use, such as a CMA platform to generate more seller opportunities.

The next generation of brokerageprovided tech must empower agents to do fewer mundane tasks and focus more on what they do best.

We all know that when a brokerage provides agents with the right technology, it changes the conversation when it comes to recruiting and retention. However, having a competitive differentiator means more than offering the latest shiny object.

All-in-One Tech Stack Brokerages have an avalanche of choices when it comes to real estate technology. But it’s nearly impossible to build your own tech stack and maintain it to remain leading edge.

Time has shown that relying on a proven, trustworthy brokerage tech solution from a provider that is driven, every day, to look further out and anticipate what their customers will need keeps a brokerage ahead of their competitors.

Looking Ahead This year, we coined the phrase “allin-one when you want it, best-in-class when you don’t” to capture the idea that the all-in-one solution works best for most brokerages. But others may be missing a piece in their tech stack and need a plug-and-play, best-inclass solution to fill that void. Our approach is to offer both.

The key is to make sure we are building technology today to help our clients in the future. We all win when we figure out how to skate to where the puck is going to be. RE

Michael Minard is CEO and owner of Delta Media Group, a leading and trusted technology partner for many of real estate’s top brands, and 100% family-owned and operated.