Product Adoption

Case Study: Driving MLS Adoption in a Resistant Market

Challenge
In a competitive market, agents were fiercely loyal to their existing local MLS, and felt their identity, credibility, and client trust were bound to familiar tools. Asking them to switch wasn’t just a technical challenge: it held emotional weight.

My task was to grow product adoption through training. In response, I built relationships with leaders across territories and embedded trainings directly in broker offices. I invited agents to teach me their system to affirm their expertise and scaffolded side-by-side property searches that revealed how REcolorado’s MLS could save time, enhance service, and complement their existing tools. By reframing adoption as an enhancement rather than a threat, I built credibility and trust.

Adoption steadily increased, brokerage leaders emerged as champions, and agents shifted from resistance to advocacy. My work expanded REcolorado’s market footprint and driving tangible revenue growth.

My Role
Change management strategist, facilitator, and instructional designer.

Assessment & Understanding the Problem

  • Partnered with leadership, marketing, and product teams to analyze adoption and membership trends, revenue data, and regional market share.

  • Collaborated with trusted leaders in competitive territory and held listening sessions to surface concerns and loyalty factors.

  • As I gathered data, I identified the real barrier wasn’t skill or product capability, but brand loyalty, trust, and identity. Agents feared losing client confidence by appearing unskilled in a new system. Their resistance was emotional (comfort, local pride, risk-aversion), not just functional.

Process

  • Positioned the MLS as complementary rather than competitive, framing it as a tool that would enhance rather than replace their current approach.

  • Designed side-by-side comparisons and researched/shared real-world client scenarios to show agents how the MLS could strengthen their value proposition.

  • Built emotionally intelligent communication campaign that acknowledged agents’ expertise and emphasized confidence, credibility, and client service.

  • Trained select industry and brokerage leaders as champions of change and equipped them with reinforcement materials and coaching techniques.

Deliverables

  • Live listening sessions + onsite orientation/training sessions in competitive territory offices.

  • Supplemental on-demand technical training.

  • Side-by-side product comparison tools.

  • Leadership reinforcement materials.

Impact

  • Adoption steadily increased across brokerages, driving 20% growth in membership within the first year.

  • Brokerage leaders became active advocates, normalizing MLS use in day-to-day operations.

  • Agents began promoting the MLS as a selling point with clients, driving more users to our search site and shifting the narrative from resistance to advocacy in members and users.

  • Expanded REcolorado’s footprint in a previously resistant market, translating into significant revenue growth.

Insights Learned: Driving Change That Sticks

  • Resistance is rarely about skill: it’s about identity, trust, and perceived loss of credibility.

  • Listening is data. Stakeholder fears and loyalties reveal the real adoption barriers.

  • Frame change as an enhancement, not a threat. People embrace what affirms their value.

  • When influence is your goal, serve food and caffeine. Always.

  • Equip leaders as champions. Change spreads fastest when trusted voices model it.

  • Blend head and heart. Training needs both rational comparisons and emotionally intelligent messaging.

  • Momentum matters. Small early wins build confidence and shift group norms.