The single most important word to keep in mind when growing a real estate business or team is “people” – because understanding people and knowing how to connect with them is critical.
It sounds simple, but real estate is a relationship business, and improving your relationships can have a direct impact on achieving your growth goals. Using market-proven strategies and tactics, leaders can attract productive agents, enroll them in a relationship, and build a community they don’t want to leave.
The Broker Team Profit Machine program concentrates on three areas every real estate leader needs to double-down on to build business. Attract. Train. Retain.
You need to continually attract productive agents to your team or firm, drive consistent production in your agents (yes, there’s a science to this that’s different from what you’re probably doing right now), and put a system in place that helps them see the value in staying with you.
Here are three keys to doing it:
Nurture Strong Relationships
The best brokers and team leaders view their agents as partners. They are authentic, vulnerable and able to execute on strategies that create a community agents never want to leave. In other words, they allow their agents to see and know them as the people they are. That’s where trust is born.
Agents in such a community perceive their fees as a worthwhile investment they’re happy to make. Sure, the business equation is about investment and return. But it’s also a psychological, emotional bond.
How many of your current agents could go cut a cheaper deal somewhere else? The answer: All of them. But think about it – if it was only about money, one model would put everyone else out of business.
Understand it’s All About Them
Agents are drawn to you – and stay – because of who you are and all you bring to the relationship. Ultimately, humans choose with the heart and justify with the mind.
Hammering your agents on KPIs will not make them productive. In fact, it’s probably the #1 growth killer. Realize that your to-do list is not their priority. The #1 way to get someone to take positive action is self-discovery. So help them in ways that matter to them. And then love and recognize them publicly for what they achieve.
The saying, “there is no ‘I’ in team,” rings true in real estate. This is not a hands-off industry. One-size-fits-all leadership and training will not grow an organization. Growing a business requires GRIT.
You can’t make your agents productive, but you can facilitate the best condition for them to choose or choose not to be productive.
Support Professional Growth
When agents take steps to improve their skills, they’re taking steps to strengthen their relationships with potential clients. Invest in new technology tools, marketing courses and skills training in vital areas like video marketing so agents can beat out the competition.
Many brokerages or teams spend too much time worrying about the arrival of new business models. The real opportunity lies in how you attract, train and retain productive agents to stay with you for a lifetime.
Productive agents are drawn to leadership far more than to bells and whistles and other “stuff.” If you bombard agents with what’s important to you, you’re not listening and delivering what’s important to them. No one wants to be “sold” with features. Most agents just want a leader who can help them grow their business and change their life.
The bottom line: Be visible and make constant deposits in the business relationship equity accounts of people you value and want to work with. Stay focused, take action and you’ll get the results you’re after.
RE/MAX recently announced that Jon Cheplak’s Broker Team Profit Machine online course is available via RE/MAX University.
Jon Cheplak’s no-nonsense approach to business has made him one of the most sought-after real estate coaches in the world. His strategies on development, recruiting and retention provide you with a blueprint for achieving your own goals, and becoming the leader agents want to work with. Jon’s message: “Agents don’t join or leave a company, they join or leave leadership. Be the leader of choice in your market.”
