Who?
Purplebricks is a leading, publicly-listed UK estate agency. Established in 2012, it has grown rapidly by successfully disrupting the industry with a focus on technology and innovative pricing, achieving 4% market share.
The challenge
After almost a decade, Purplebricks growth had begun to stall and a combination of factors were threatening market share:
- Competitors were replicating their business model
- The revenue driver, the sales function, was made up of third-party contractors and inhibiting Purplebrick’s ability to achieve its next phase of maturity.
To address these challenges a new, bespoke Sales Operating Model was required and we were tasked with a clear set of goals to guide it.
How we helped
We reviewed Purplebricks’ existing Sales Operating Model and held a series of discovery interviews and co-design sessions with the leadership teams.
We then developed a targeted customer-centric value proposition that reflected the firm’s future ambitions and designed an updated Target Operating Model (TOM) with their technology-led offering acting as the golden thread to meet Purplebrick’s strategic goals.
The structure of the project team meant that whilst Moorhouse provided strategic programme leadership, change management and organisational improvement expertise, Purplebricks applied their internal knowledge to develop the detailed design at pace. By acting as a trusted adviser and providing strategic counsel to the executive leadership team, we were especially valuable during the periods of high workload and stress.
A core transformation was the change of contractual status for the Sales function. As this change impacted every part of the Operating model, we also worked closely with the Finance, Sales leadership and HR teams.
Outcomes
By working collaboratively using Moorhouse’s TOM framework, the team brought a structured, yet flexible approach that considered seven elements: value proposition, key processes, design blueprint, people, data and technology, legal environment and managing success. As a result, we:
- Maintained BAU during a disruptive period
- Improved “Sales Conversion Rate” (customers choosing to instruct Purplebricks following a valuation appointment) by 2% despite challenging market conditions
- Delivered +0.6% increase in overall UK market share (from a 4% baseline)
- Increased ‘Sales conversions’ by 4% and mortgage referrals through Purplebricks by 22%
- Retained excellent Net Promotor Scores throughout the customer journey lifecycle
- Surpassed the Sales function retention target of 75% within 4 weeks, hiring over 95% of the target workforce into over 540 roles.
- Attracted over 4,500 job applications into the newly designed roles since September 2021
- Achieved near-total adoption of Purplebricks’ industry-leading technology platforms, compared to an inconsistent adoption before.
Working with Moorhouse was a fantastic experience. They took time to understand our culture and the leadership dynamics which enabled them to seamlessly integrate into our business creating a partnership relationship. I could not be happier with the outcomes of this project, from a successful implementation, to the early green shoots in the performance results and the platform it has created for us to accelerate our growth.”
Helena Marston, Chief Operating Officer, Purplebricks
