Bess Freedman, Serhant Butt Heads (Once more) After Weird Gross sales Pitch To BHS

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Ryan Serhant is understood for making daring strikes. However this time, the dealer and CEO of SERHANT. might have overstepped his boundaries.

An unidentified salesperson at SERHANT. Ventures, the brokerage’s academic department, despatched Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman a pitch final week for a “tailored” coaching program for the brokerage’s brokers, which would come with a gross sales playbook, efficiency teaching, a social media boot camp and mentorship from Ryan Serhant himself, in line with emails The Real Deal obtained.

To make certain she understood the supply appropriately, Freedman reportedly requested if the deal was to pay Serhant to coach her brokerage’s brokers, and the SERHANT. Ventures rep stated, “It might appear unorthodox, however you’re understanding it appropriately.”

Freedman apparently wasn’t going to let that stand.

“There’s a superb line between being unorthodox and being a schmendrick,” she replied, using a Yiddish phrase which means “idiot.” “Thanks, however we’re going to cross.”

The president of SERHANT. Ventures, Kyle Scott, advised The Actual Deal the supply was made in good religion.

“We don’t view the business a lot as a collection of opponents as we do one giant group,” Scott stated. “We associate with dealer/homeowners all all over the world to assist prepare their brokers.”

BHS has its personal in-house coaching, advertising and marketing and know-how packages for brokers, together with BHSOne, its digital hub for agent design, advertising and marketing, schooling and extra, and a not too long ago unveiled metaverse and cryptocurrency coaching program launched in partnership with the Metaverse Institute.

Freedman advised The Actual Deal she maintains “unimaginable respect” for Serhant, however that she turned down his supply since BHS has already invested “a lot cash” within the firm’s personal advertising and marketing and know-how.

She additionally felt that Serhant’s outreach was very focused to her agency particularly.

“I requested different brokerages and he hadn’t requested some other corporations,” Freedman advised The Actual Deal. “It looks as if he reached out particularly solely to BHS to poke a bees’ nest.”

Serhant advised The Actual Deal his coaching program already consists of some BHS brokers who joined of their very own volition.

This isn’t the primary time the 2 NYC-based CEOs have butted heads.

Throughout a panel at The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum in May, Freedman, alongside Douglas Elliman CEO Scott Durkin, advocated for the previous guard in actual property, emphasizing the significance of relationships, whereas Serhant stated agent manufacturers and advertising and marketing had been the spine of his enterprise, and a manner for brokers to maneuver into the long run.

Serhant and Freedman then went on to debate the deserves and pitfalls of actual property actuality TV, with Freedman arguing that it cheapens the business (and specifically, represents girls in a demeaning manner), whereas Serhant stated the platform allowed the business to attach with a wider viewers and grow to be extra related.

“We’re trying in the direction of the long run and approaching our enterprise strategically — which means with tech, content material, leisure, and schooling — and we’re doing this as a result of agent manufacturers and properties have to stay in a searchable, social, digital approach to succeed and promote globally,” Serhant stated in an announcement emailed to Inman in Could.

“That is what we find out about media and tradition,” he added, “and that is what we’re making use of to our enterprise strategy at SERHANT.”

Electronic mail Lillian Dickerson