Matthew quit.
Why?
No reason given.
Matthew was given a unique opportunity, to be trained from scratch, to be an important addition to our business... our "next generation."
The trust initially given young Matthew was based on knowing his family well, whom we have known for decades. We literally watched Matthew grow up with our kids at church and home school events. Today our families are intertwined. It was natural to trust Matthew because of the many common friendships and family bonds.
Initially we transferred several dozen lake lot listings to start his momentum. After a year of being an assistant to Keith and doing well in lake lot sales, we began to train Matthew to be a future administrator for the company. We shared with him much more than we would with any sales associate, including trade secrets and inside market knowledge. We had encouraged him to get his drone license, we gave him photography equipment, and we constantly pushed him to increase these skills. We also inspired him to enroll in the Realtors Land Institute and paid for education so that he could expand into land sales. Again, our business relationship with Matthew went far beyond a mere salesman sponsorship.
ALL our veteran agents mentored him and included him in sales negotiations. None of us held back an answer to any question Matthew asked and trusted him with everything. Because we taught Matthew how to prospect and gave him company generated leads... Matthew had well over one thousand leads being nurtured through our company contact management system at the time of his unexpected departure!
Well, Matthew did thank us "for the opportunity" in his brief termination email. He knows he left us well equipped to enjoy a lucrative trade no matter where he goes. But Matthew was also clearly told on many occasions that it would be wrong to use the skills we taught him and the knowledge we gave him to compete against us. For clarification, Matthew signed a Noncomplete Clause the market area of Possum Kingdom Lake in his Independent Contractor Agreement because of the unique training he would be receiving plus the unusual high number of company generated leads. After receiving his termination letter, management replied that we would be supportive of his efforts to be a Realtor, but in any other market than Possum Kingdom Lake.
The team’s investment in Matthew’s future was substantial, and we had hoped Matthew would honor our trust.
Within a few days, Matthew announced on Facebook he had joined another broker and would continue to service the Possum Kingdom Lake market.
Question is... how else do small companies invest in the future if they are not trusting and sharing with the next generation like our mentor Mary Lou Palmros did for us?
