How the Right Partnership Can Improve the Consumer Experience

by Chris George

To see the full interview, visit www.cmgfi.com/jv-partners/sevengables-chat

Mike Hickman

President, CEO and Broker Seven Gables Real Estate www.sevengables.com

values and cohesive company culture. The right joint venture partnership brings all of that together. How do you align your vision with your joint venture partner? MH: The very first time I had a phone call with CMG Financial, the first question I asked everybody on the phone was “could you tell me about your values?” I listened very carefully to what they had to say because I was in this frustrated mindset from previous partnership experiences. And that led me to an instantaneous connection because—I know this about partnerships, I know this about joint ventures, I know this about friendships (whether they be in business or outside of business)—when your is what drives our business; and values are aligned, it works beautiwhat customers want, the right joint fully and it works smoothly. We’re a venture can give. If you’re focused values-oriented company looking for on the process of providing the cus- other values-oriented organizations. tomer with a better experience, the How can joint venture part- right joint venture partner will What services did you gain from nerships prepare brokers take care of everything else. your joint venture partnership? for real estate market MH: Combining marketing forces changes? What should you consider has been especially beneficial. Our Mike Hickman: Like other before forming a joint marketing director has been able organizations in the real es- venture partnership? to leverage the in-house marketing tate industry, we are coming MH: Choose a joint venture agency at CMG Financial. The more off of an incredibly busy year. Hickman partner that complements creative minds approaching a camWhen you’re experiencing the what you’re already doing. For paign, the more solutions you’ll find. type of volume that we’re experienc- us, our lender partner takes care of I’m really impressed with the look ing now, a combined effort between the fulfillment side on the back end, and design of our marketing efforts; a lender and a broker is more im- allowing us to focus on taking care it’s helped us establish a bigger portant than ever. I think that most of the customers. Before forming a footprint in our market. customers don’t understand how joint venture partnership, I’ve had a the purchase process relates to the lot of agents call me expressing fruslender and the broker. The closer we tration with other lenders missing are in terms of communication, the closing dates. We’ve even had banks better communication the customer say, “well that’s just a target date.” gets from all parties. The closer we That’s a real disconnect when you’ve are in terms of fulfillment and opera- promised the customer an on-time tions, the better experience the cus- closing. With our joint venture parttomer is going to have closing their nership, our agents feel confident loan. with the experience they are prom-

Through our joint venture partner- ising their customers because they ship with CMG Financial, our fulfill- trust our lender partner. Trust is the ment has been like clockwork—it’s foundation of any joint venture partbeen great. The customer experience nership, which goes back to shared What do you expect from your joint venture partnership in the coming months? MH: I’m very excited about it, and I’m looking forward to working together—our combined efforts will lead to something that a lot of people in this industry haven’t seen before. RE

Chris George is the CEO of CMG Financial. For more information, please visit cmgfi.com/jv-partners.