We Are Selling with Lee Woodward

A Well-Informed Vendor is a Happy One with Fiona Murray and Belinda Riding

• Realtair • Season 1 • Episode 50

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We have Team Fab (Fiona Murray and Belinda Riding) sharing with us on how they use Pitch not just to win listings, but to manage vendors from appraisal to settlement.

• operating as equal partners rather than lead agent and assistant
• using Pitch proposals to win business and continue communication post-signing
• leveraging the calendar as a “source of truth” for all appointments and timelines
• reducing repetitive conversations by centralizing updates in one shared link
• monitoring vendor engagement through proposal opens to trigger timely check-ins
• improving efficiency and accountability between team members
• maintaining strong communication from exchange through settlement
• increasing vendor confidence through visibility, structure, and consistency

A practical example of how digital proposals can evolve into a full vendor management system that improves communication, efficiency, and client experience.



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Lee Woodward:

Hello and welcome to the program We Are Selling. Each month we like to reach out there to the industry, find out what's going on, but also in a modern marketing method. And today I've got a great treat for you as these two amazing women join me. They're called the Fab Team. Please welcome from Independent Property Group down in Canberra, Belinda and Fiona. Ladies, welcome aboard.

Fiona Murray:

Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having us.

Belinda Riding:

Thanks for having the Fab Team.

Lee Woodward:

How do we get the name Team Fab?

Belinda Riding:

Well Team Fab comes from Fiona and Belinda. It's very simple. So actually, Lee, the way you said it before Belinda and Fiona doesn't work. It's not so hard to have. So it is Fiona and Belinda. Fiona always has to come first.

Lee Woodward:

You two lovely ladies came together two years ago, last year, 50 sales in the marketplace. Congratulations. What brought you together as a team?

Fiona Murray:

So we both worked independent, just in different offices.

Belinda Riding:

Um we both met each other and felt very like-minded and we teamed up in that environment, so we kept it, we had to keep each other accountable. So we would check in with each other every week and say, How'd you go here? What did you think? What worked, what didn't work, and then from there we just were speaking to each other more and more, and before we knew it, we thought real estate can be a little bit lonely, and we're actually having more fun being together. And so we trialed it last year, and we our GCI was 525k between the two of us. So and I was actually a new agent, um, only being an agent for six months prior full-time. So, yes, so our goals this year are to better that or surpass that by quite a bit.

Lee Woodward:

Great result. When we're doing the research off-air, one and one equals three. I love that you guys don't have lead agent, PA, or leverage agent. You're both working in parallel. How's that been for the task management of facilitating a sale?

Belinda Riding:

We found that we both of us like doing different things and we don't tend to double up. So Fiona, when we get a lead, Fiona chases down the lead. She's really wonderful at making connections with people. And then from there, I tend to come in, and my forte is the minutia of things and data. So I give all the serious numbers. We tic-tac off each other as we go throughout the whole process. And once Independent brought on pitch as a vehicle to use, we've just run with it, and it's been absolutely amazing.

Lee Woodward:

Incredible results, and I've caught you at a good time. You've just listed eight properties in the last three days. You mentioned pitch is now part of your platform of what you're using. How are you best using pitch? And I'd love to find out because when I first met you, you'd done some extension of that work where you're using pitch not only for the proposals to win business, but also as vendor management. Take us into that.

Fiona Murray:

Yeah, sure. So, of course, with every listing presentation that we go to, Belinda does the finer detail, so she she pulls a pitch proposal together from scratch, and we do take that with us to the listing presentation. And in that we use the calendar, which I think is the most important um aspect of pitch. Well, you know, not the, but it is one of the most important aspects. Demonstrate to the client a timeline of where they can expect things to happen. And once we do get the business and once we do sign them up, we continue to use that timeline. In the listing presentation, it's more of an example. We say to them, if you'd like to put your property on the market next week, this is how quickly we can move, and this is when we can get the photos done, the billing report, etc. etc. But once we have their business, we say to them, This is the source of truth. This is the one, you know, if you need to know anything about any of the appointments you have with us or the timelines for going live, just jump into that link that we send them in an email, and it has the confirmation of photos, confirmation of go lives. We also then report billing reports, exhibition times. Yeah, and once we are live, we then put the exhibition times in there. So we continue using that calendar right up until past exchange. So we will be putting exhibition times in there. If if we change anything in that calendar, we do let them know because that's part of our communication, but it's always in there. So if they're awake at 11 o'clock at night and they're going, Oh, I can't remember what Belinda said about the photo time, they jump into that link, it's all there, it's all great. And I think what it does as well for Belinda and I is that we don't have to keep on having the same conversations over and over again. She can be at home, I can be at home, we can jump into that link. We can see, oh, Belinda's booked the photos, oh Fiona's booked the building report, right? Don't need to have that conversation with each other, it's all in there, it's confirmed, happy days. And then once we get to exchange, we then put in the valuation times, the pre-settlement inspections, all that type of thing. So everyone knows exactly what's going on right up until settlement day.

Belinda Riding:

Amazing thing about it is because we can see when a vendor clicks into it, we know that if they've clicked into it twice in a day, we're probably thinking we should give them a call and just to touch base with them and see how they're going and how they're travelling, if they have any concerns. And it's sort of like an umbilical, another umbilical cord to the client. So we're just all um we're a team and that's sort of the source of truth.

Lee Woodward:

I think this is such a valuable moment. And I met both of you this year at the complete salesperson course in-house for independent, you're doing the private course. Because everyone loves the proposals, we see that they get opened, we get those notifications. But once we sign up the property, we think, okay, that's done. You've kept it alive, you're using it as this and I love the term, source of truth. You're training the owner that that is where all your information is that you need to know. So keep going back to there. So you've built a vendor progress report right up until settlement, which means it cuts down on your other reporting that you have to do. What was the thinking or who came up with the brainstorm to say, well, why don't we just keep using this link or document in pitch?

Belinda Riding:

That has to be the Fiona over. I think it was it just actually happened organically. I did the CMA, the pitch proposal at the beginning, and when Fiona got in there, she went, Oh my gosh, this is she loves writing lists and having calendar dates, and it just worked with her brain.

Fiona Murray:

She um I knew she would be very particular, and I think I put a bit of thought into how we could make sure that Luna and I and were in sync with what she needed and she knew what we needed. So kind of just yeah, organically evolved, and all of a sudden, you know, we could see every day when she jumped in, and she's a bit of a list person too, and I could see that as Luna said, if she was in there two or three times a day or something, and we give her a call, and the surprise in her voice was like, Oh, thanks for calling. I was just had a bit of a query, and it could be a query about something totally different, but they go into there as the first point, so they're not ringing us up every single time, they go in there to try and find them, and then we kind of if they're in there three or four times, then we know they can't, and then they're you know, they start asking some questions about something. So yeah, it's really good. We it's made um our efficiencies so much better.

Lee Woodward:

Yeah, and I think you've tapped into something really special here, and for all our real tear listeners out there, you're thinking, I've never thought to do it for that. You could also add sections into the future, and that's why I wanted to do this interview today called recent competing sales. So Ray White just sold this one, Hook has just sold that one, but these buyers came through your one or withdrawn interest could be another heading in there. And because it was proposal to live on market, to calendar, to interest and feedback, but by displaying those other sales in there you know, an owner would start to see and Fiona, when you mentioned about the checklist, you know, if we show the owner we've already done thirty-five things in the first two weeks on your home or a hundred and thirty-five things, they're less reluctant to say, but you've done nothing. Uh you've only had it a week. And we know 70% of the checklist is in the first two weeks before the first eyeballs see it. And this is the thing this is where I think you've really cracked it for the vendor progress report being the proposal, and it's just one place that you guys have to check rather than all these different parts of the business that's holding information.

Fiona Murray:

There's a definite gap, and I think you mentioned that at our training course, there's a gap between exchange and settlement, where you know we've had such an intense experience with the owners and we've been ringing them every day and there's been offers and that type of thing, or there hasn't been any offers and we're still talking to them and talking about the current market. We go from this intense relationship to all of a sudden exchanges and you've got nothing. So then if they see that we're we're still looking after them, that we're putting in dates for valuations, that we're making sure they can make it, or you know, all those types of things, it's it's another communication tool, it's another one to say that you know we're still thinking of you, you're still front of mind.

Lee Woodward:

Bionna, you were telling me off air a great little story that you've got a property about to come on the market, you're updating their pitch so that everything can go in there. What happened with that one?

Fiona Murray:

So it was really great because um Belinda and I are in and out of the office at the moment. We're both on a bit of leave here and there, so it's hard to stay in touch. You know, we're not often in the office at the same time, but today is a great example of where that pitch came in so handy for us. She was out this morning, I got into the pitch presentation for the Lynham property. I put in all the little bits and pieces about what needs to happen, all the confirmations for the owner for the next two weeks before we hit live. I put in um all the bits and pieces. Um Belinda came in the overseas. Oh, yes, sorry, they're overseas. I um copied the link, put it into an email, wrote to them, said, I hope you're having an amazing time overseas. Click on the link to see how we're going with the property, when it's going to be going live, when the open homes will be. Belinda walks to the door, I said I've CC you in on an email. The owners at Line them are all updated. She says, Great, done. And as I turned around to check my emails again, it said the owners picture notified me that the owners have opened it up. So I know somewhere in the world, wherever they are, that they know that we're taking care of them and that they know what's happening, and we haven't even had a conversation. It's a wonderful thing.

Lee Woodward:

Nailed our tip for today, which is a well-informed owner is easy to manage. Congratulations on the results. Thanks for sharing that one brilliant tip. You know, for anyone out there listening that's already got this technology, why not just use it? It's not costing you any different, you're not learning another system. But we found another brilliant use to extend that proposal. But Belinda and Fiona, or Fiona and Belinda from Team Fab, thank you for joining us.

Belinda Riding:

Thanks so much, Lee. Absolutely, our pleasure.