Speech for the Canadian Real Estate Association on "communications and trust"

For the past couple of days, Pierre Beauchamp and I have been talking to a great many of you about the issues that are important here in New Brunswick.
 

It has been extremely eye-opening to get a fresh perspective from a different part of the country.
 

We'll be getting a lot more of those perspectives, because in the past year, your national association has been taking a new tack.
 

We have been trying to steer your national association back into your hands.
 

We've amended and democratized our governance and we're putting a much higher priority on communications.
 

I say that with some trepidation, because too many people have sung that song.
 

By now we've all tired of phony stakeholder consultations and blustery PR programs.
 

So when we say "Your opinions are going to make a real difference from now on," it's hard to make that sound convincing against a backdrop where dozens of other bodies have promised the same thing, and where dozens of other bodies have reneged.
 

Nevertheless, your opinions are going to make a real difference from now on.
 

Last year we realized that we hadn't paid enough attention to communications.
 

Members weren't aware of what we were doing on their behalf, and they were feeling a little disconnected.
 

So we asked a consultant to take a look at what our communications needs are.
 

One of the first things we heard is that communications have to run both ways.
 

Trying to run purely informational public relations is like having a conversation with yourself.
 

For communications to work, you have to set up a feedback loop.
 

It works like this ... I tell you what we're doing ... you might tell me that we're on the right track, except for X, Y and Z ... I go back and we try to change what we're doing so it's closer to X, Y and Z.
 

Then I come back to you and the whole process starts again.
 

That's the difference between talking and communicating.
 

Your national association wants to do less talking and more communicating.
 

This brings me to another aspect of what we heard from our consultant.
 

Everything you do has a communications aspect to it.
 

If your lawyer sends you an invoice, the way that invoice looks communicates something ... whether or not the invoice thanks you for your patronage tells you something ... the letterhead used communicates an image.
 

We have to bear that in mind and make communications an integral part of everything we do at CREA.
 

Our conference, for example, is a wonderful networking and professional development opportunity, but it is also a communications opportunity.
 

In fact, if you think of a typical day in your office, there is little that a REALTOR does which doesn't in some way involve communications.
 

Our new identity program will be an extension of this line of thinking.
 

Let me explain.
 

In the US, NAR calls itself "the voice of organized real estate."
 

It has a consistent image based on the needs of its members, and everything you see from NAR reinforces that image.
 

It uses the same symbols on its letterhead, on its fax paper ... everything.
 

You recognize something when it comes from NAR, and you recognize what NAR stands for.
 

We want to do the same sort of thing at CREA.
 

We want to be seen as THE source of information on the Canadian real estate industry.
 

All of our communications activities ... all of our communications vehicles ... will be designed around that over-riding goal.
 

All of this might sound airy-fairy, but solid communications can lead to tangible results.
 

Here's how.
 

One of our goals will be to build greater trust and co-operation between CREA and its members and with the Boards and Associations.
 

By keeping in touch with each other, we can avoid the communications mishaps that needlessly erode trust.
 

With more solid bonds between national office and the grassroots, we can work together and work even harder towards our mutual goals
 

We want to be THE source of information on Canadian real estate, but you're the ones with the information.
 

By combining our resources and talents, we can become a powerful team.
 

But we won't be communicating exclusively with our own members.
 

In fact, CREA was formed to communicate with a different audience altogether ... the federal government.
 

When World War II ended, there was a real fear that temporary wartime measures ... such as rent control ... would become permanent.
 

By banding together we made our point and won the day.
 

And we've been doing that ever since.
 

We've been advancing REALTOR interests both in Ottawa and in the provincial capitals.
 

Just recently, for example, your own lobbying here in New Brunswick has been leading towards co-regulation.
 

Amendments to the New Brunswick Real Estate Act will let your provincial association become more self-regulating.
 

Instead of two overlapping authorities, there will be one strong authority that can enforce the ethics and principles we all hold dear.
 

Similar activities are going on federally.
 

To give you just one example, we have long been trying to persuade the government to list its surplus properties on MLS®.
 

On January 24, we went to a meeting requested by Public Works and Government Services Canada.
 

Things are still tentative, but I can tell you that we are making tremendous headway, and REALTORS in Atlantic Canada should be especially happy with the results we're expecting.
 

We've talked about our communications with REALTORS and with government, but there are many more audiences than that.
 

We need to get our message across to our own employees, to our volunteers, to home buyers and home sellers, to related organizations and to the real estate industry as a whole.
 

An important key to reaching those groups is our communications with another important public ... the media.
 

CREA has its own newspaper ... Canadian REALTOR News ... that reaches some of these publics.
 

In fact, it is the ONLY vehicle we have right now that goes out to every single member of the Association.
 

But our newspaper doesn't reach all of our other target audiences
 

To reach them, we have to have some influence with the mainstream media.
 

Our newly restructured communications department will make media relations a high priority.
 

Too often, PR people fire off an endless stream of meaningless media releases to a random collection of journalists.
 

We want to go beyond that ... we want well-crafted releases targetted carefully to specific journalists with a demonstrated interest in our issues.
 

A media relations campaign reinforces our other communications activities.
 

A home buyer reads about our Internet home page in The Globe and Mail.
 

A minister's aide reads about our policy positions in her hometown paper.
 

And REALTORS from coast to coast see their national association in the news.
 

But let me show you how that kind of communication leads to results.
 

The home buyer looks up mls.ca and finds an agent.
 

The minister's aide comes around to our way of thinking on an important bottom-line issue and makes recommendations to her minister.
 

And the REALTOR sees that his national association is out there protecting his interests.
 

Better still, that REALTOR can pass on his opinions of our performance the next time he sees someone from the Board ... perhaps at a meeting very much like this.
 

The feedback loop begins again, and gets stronger with every iteration.
 

That's the kind of powerful reaction you get from effective communications.
 

That's the kind of communications we want to have at CREA and with our new communications plan, that's the kind of communications we will have.
 

Thank you.