At the start of 2019, Grant Gavin, the Broker Owner of RE/MAX Panache Durban North and La Lucia, sat down with his branch manager, Joshua Friedman, and they committed themselves to being the best in the country. On Thursday, 20 February 2020, at the RE/MAX National awards’ ceremony in Sun City, that commitment paid off with Grant taking the coveted Best Broker Owner in South Africa award and Joshua awarded Best Broker Manager.
“This is the first time in the history of RE/MAX that these two awards have gone to one franchise,” said Grant. “It was such an honour and really special to see our hard work acknowledged on such a big stage. I recall saying to our franchise consultant, Valerie Kritzinger, last year that I wanted to set two massive goals – I wanted to be the number one franchisee in the No 1 real estate group in the country, and I believed Joshua could be the number one office manager. I remember her reaction. She got goosebumps.”
This isn’t Grant’s first award – in 2009, and 2011 he received the National Leadership award, and then in 2013, he won the Franchisee of the Year Award, becoming the youngest person in RE/MAX Panache to ever receive this honour. “We had a good year in 2013 but I was surprised with the award. I felt I was lucky,” recalled Grant. “2019 was special though. Everything we did was intentional and the result of a plan we put in place to come out on top.”
The RE/MAX of Southern Africa network, which also celebrated its 25th birthday this year, has more than 2 400 agents operating across 160 offices registered in 10 different regions across Southern Africa. For Grant, who has been a RE/MAX Broker/Owner the past 15 years, the awards were validation for the dedication shown by him and his team over the past year.
“We knew what we needed to do to achieve our goal, but I realised the chances of winning both awards were very slim,” said Grant. “It is a national company with so many worthwhile candidates, but I knew that even if we took home one of the awards, it would be considered a massive team success.”
When it comes to assessing candidates for the annual awards, RE/MAX considers a number of factors including agent growth, sales and commission growth, network inspiration, brand ambassadorship, as well as contribution to the local community. In terms of sales’ growth, RE/MAX Panache was up an impressive 15% on the previous year, with an increase in 10 agents – quite a jump considering the entire RE/MAX network grew by 47 in total.
As an international speaker and performance coach, Grant has managed to inspire those in the global business community, as well as extending his reach through the distribution of his weekly newsletter, the Sunday Startup, currently read by 4 500 people. He has also pioneered a programme, ‘Millioneers’ which is designed to push sales’ people to the R1 million earnings target. Having run Millioneers at his office over the past three years, the branch has seen a 275% increase in millionaire producers, with plans in place to roll the programme out nationally through RE/MAX.
As an organisation dedicated to supporting their local community, Gavin’s RE/MAX branch runs quarterly blood drives at the local SANBS offices; supports the local Reach for a Dream foundation which realises the dreams of children with life-threatening illnesses; as well as hosting a North Durban Family Day.
“I really feel like everything is coming together now,” continued Grant. “Being a strong leader is all about being who you are – it’s about authenticity. People need to identify with you, both with your strengths and weaknesses, and then you can grow together. I feel like these awards are really just the start for us, there is so much more to expect! Nothing is impossible.”