Have you heard of that word before? It is a blend of cooperation and competition. I think the word was coined by Dale Waltrip while announcing NASCAR races.
During a NASCAR race, especially on the higher speed tracks, like Talladega and Atlanta, a single car is not as fast as a group of cars. For those unfamiliar with racing, the group of cars draft off of each other. By running tightly nose to tail, they are able to lower the overall aerodynamic drag, and go faster. In NASCAR, they have taken this one step further, and created the bump-draft. Not only do they run nose to tail, but the following car will actually bump the lead car to lend a little extra power and speed them up.
While NASCAR has become a team sport, with almost every serious team fielding several cars, it goes beyond that. There are alliances of allied teams (Rousch cars teaming up with cars with Rousch engines), manufacturers (Fords helping Fords), and even family (Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch come to mind). However, if a driver is in second place, the best car on the track to team up with is the car in third... and even if the driver is from a competing team, competing brand, and not related... it may be in their best interest to help. The second and third place driver can team up and use their aerodynamic advantage to both pass the first place driver. They both are in a better place than they were before.
"But Lane, does that have anything to do with real estate?"
Everything. Let's look at this for a moment. We are an independent breed. We are on loosely based teams (Mine is Century 21 Network Realty in Tucker, GA). We have manufacturers (Obviously, I'm with Century 21). There are other alliances (I'm a REALTOR(R), and chair the DeKalb Association of REALTORS(R) RPAC, and proud to be a contributing member of communities like Active Rain and REW). Those agents that are on teams have a further alliance (we'll let it function as family here).
Despite all of these things that tie us together, we are competitors.
However, for the vast majority of us, we can't succeed without the cooperation of our competitors. Agents that specialize in listing or selling can't get by without each other. Heck, most of us aren't selling out own listings much of the time. The whole purpose of the MLS is to allow us to cooperate.
Without cooperation, we are not at our best.
Back to motorsports for a moment... I used to participate in SCCA Solo II competition. I met one of my best friends that way. We were competitors in the G Stock class. We usually finished first and second in the regional events. During "fun runs" after the actual competition events, we would often swap cars. However, when one of us had a car issue that might prevent competing for an event, we would share a car. I wanted to beat him on his best day, not because he was having an off day. He wanted to beat me on my best day as well. We watched each other. We critiqued and provided constructive criticism to each other. We coached and mentored each other. And we were the fiercest of competitors.
Our coopetiton made both of us better competitors. It gave both of us more success that we would have enjoyed otherwise.
I think we need to treat our real estate businesses the same way. Those of us in the draft will blow past those that go it alone. Here is one option I'm offering...
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