A Broker’s recruiting strategy if done well, should attract some experienced real estate agents, but much of your agent growth is likely to come from agents who are brand new to real estate or who have little experience. Your goal with these new associates is to get them up to speed and make them productive as quickly as you can.
After decades of coaching and training brokers and their agents, Weichert understands the most common challenges new agents have. As a broker, you can provide the coaching and training these agents need in order to avoid the common pitfalls associated with learning our industry and make their entry into the real estate world more rewarding and productive. Here are three of the most common mistakes that new real estate agents make and how you can coach them through. 1) Giving Up Too Quickly In the movie “Cool Hand Luke”, Paul Newman’s character famously utters the line: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” He wasn’t talking about new real estate agents, but he could have been. New Agents often take the words “not now” or “in the future”, as indications that there is no sales potential there and they let the contact simply die. But experienced agents and brokers know that lead nurturing in real estate can take weeks, months, or even years to come to fruition. And if you’re not front of mind when a customer is finally ready to move, they will move without you. Successful agents have built a solid lead funnel and steady book of business by leveraging years of consistent follow-up and outreach with their contacts and their local community. It may seem obvious in 2019 to mention that social media can be one of the best ways to follow up and stay front of mind. Despite the current generation’s comfort level with web 2.0 and technology, new real estate agents still generally need coaching on what tactics on these portals will help them build their personal brand without seeming overly spammy. Follow up on social media also has its own set of rules, often depending on the platform you are using. But one rule applies to all of them: no outreach should be ignored or neglected. These little interactions, done in a timely manner, are the bricks they will use to build a real estate career. As author Jim Rohn wisely observed, “The fortune is in the follow-up”. 2) Forgetting to Make It Personal New agents have such a comfort level with all things digital it can sometimes be hard to get them to fully understand and embrace the power of the personal. The power of the personal is at the core of the Weichert philosophy, from our network of owners that know and help each other to our recipe for a successful real estate agent. New agents need to make sure they build and nurture their personal brand in both online and offline activities through both personal and digital interactions. As a broker your job is to give them the tools that they need to develop their brand while being consistent with the message and brand of your brokerage. While digital tools are great to efficiently stay in touch through social media, email and texts, encourage them to get out there and be nose to nose with potential clients. Door knocking, phone calls, open houses, participation in community events and seminars. These are all ways for new agents to have their face seen, make eye contact, shake hands, have real conversations and be memorable. Keeping it personal should be at the core of you and your agents’ communication philosophy. 3) Not Using A CRM System There is no reason why new agents can’t get right into the habit of using the brokerage CRM tool to its fullest potential. An effective real estate CRM can be a big help with staying front of mind, helping new agents organize their contacts and keep in touch with buyers and sellers and other real estate professionals in their ever-growing sphere of influence. Conversely, it’s important that you offer this technology to your agents to help them be as productive and efficient as possible. The Weichert CRM system, for example, provides a central location for storing current and prospective client information and advanced tools for planning and follow-up on open houses ensuring you make the most of those contacts. Other elements include marketing automation that allow agents to send branded emails to select contact lists with minimal time and effort. The mobile app extends this convenience even further, allowing for updates and notifications to happen wherever they are. As a new agent builds their database in the CRM, all sorts of marketing tools and templates will be at their disposal. The work they do now to build these lists, will pay dividends for years to come. Effective Agent Coaching Is Key The best way to make sure your new agents are productive as quickly as possible is to have a proven training system in place that coaches them past these and many other initial pitfalls. Perhaps the single strongest benefit of being a Weichert Franchise are the proven systems we provide to brokers. These have been developed and refined over decades, so you don’t have to develop them yourself. All you have to do is plug in. Becoming a Weichert Affiliate gives you access to effective coaching programs, marketing tools, and a CRM system that supports lead generation. As a Weichert Franchise you have a complete, turnkey system that provides your brokerage with the tools and training that leads to growth. For more information about how affiliating with Weichert can help build your brokerage, call us today at 877-567-3350 or contact our team online. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/help-new-agents-avoid-these-three-critical-sales-mistakes/
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The right time to do a business plan for the year ahead is the October-November the year before. This way you are off to the races come January 1st. If you didn’t manage to get to this last year, you’ll want this to be your first priority in the new year.
For many brokers, writing a business plan can easily fall through the cracks while chasing leads, driving closings, recruiting agents, training staff, paying bills or any of the hundred other things that consume the day of a busy broker. The problem is that without it, you meander without purpose and can easily waste a lot of time on the wrong things, instead of being driven by a focused, well thought out plan of attack designed to achieve specific results. Key Parts of Your Real Estate Brokerage Business PlanThere are many templates and formats you can choose for a business plan. Weichert for instance, has guidelines to follow along with business coaches who help you and hold you accountable for completing it. At the end of the day though, the template you use is less important than the thought process that goes into it. Here are a few things you will want to cover in your business plan.
Make sure your plan is something that can be executed within your available resources. 4. Recruiting Plan – Key to achieving your growth goals will be your recruiting plan. Your financial growth goals will translate directly into recruiting goals and without a specific and consistent plan for this we can tell you from experience that it won’t get done. In your recruiting plan be sure to specify the number of recruits you need to bring in each month and the activities you need to complete to get them in the door. Also make sure you have a plan to train new agents and get them productive as soon as possible. Weichert for instance provides its Fast Track training for new agents which is specifically designed to bring them up to speed fast on proven tactics and systems that allow them to generate income quickly. Brokers love Fast Track as well, because it removes much of the burden of new agent training from their shoulders. There are many other elements in a good brokerage business plan but the most important element is to sit down and do it! Once you have done it once, then updating it every year and managing it throughout the year, is much easier and will help you adjust your activities when you go off course. It’s better to know right away that you haven’t met your recruiting or listings goals than to be surprised at the end of the year when it’s too late to do anything about it. And if you feel that you could benefit from expert advice and a business coach to support you every step of the way on your path to growth, then consider talking to the Weichert franchise team today. Go to weichertfranchise.com or call 877-567-3350. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/is-your-business-plan-in-place-to-rock-the-new-year/ In the ultra-competitive market for local home listings, the pressure to discount commissions is ever present. Some brands in your market may even make the discounted commission their primary marketing differentiator while selling themselves as full service agents. How do you compete with that?
Is discounting simply devaluing your services or something you have to do to survive? Here is some insight from the online real estate marketing specialists at Weichert. Educating Clients About the Value of your Services If you want to keep your full commission, you have to sell the value of what you do for it, plain and simple. A 4% commission from the other guy may sound great, but we all know he’s cutting corners somewhere to do that. Yet for clients, cutting broker commission seems to be the easiest route to saving money – and in their heads, this makes sense because they often lack the insight into what it is that real estate agents actually do. Taking the time to keep the client informed of the services you will provide at every step of the way is key. These include, but are not limited to:
Technology plays a vital role in achieving this and is another area where you can show the value you add at full commission. As an agent, you have access to expert online marketing tools for real estate agents, a broker who is able to properly leverage the full power of their local brand and reputation, as well as a network of financing, legal, and construction professionals who you can recommend and help manage for your client. Transform the way you sell with industry-leading real estate coaching programs Built on the expertise of experienced brokers, technology specialists and real estate industry leaders, Weichert is focused on providing effective answers to the challenges faced by today’s real estate agents. From marketing strategies for agents and a cutting-edge lead generation system to the best real estate coaching programs in the industry, we provide all the solutions you need to build your business and succeed in even the most competitive climate. If these tools and solutions sound like a good fit for your brokerage or you would like to find out more about the Weichert system, please contact us today. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/best-way-get-full-commission-2/ As a real estate broker, you are no longer directly responsible for leading buyers and sellers through the complexities of real estate transactions. Instead, you are now charged with the responsibility of successfully leading your team of real estate agents to reach their potential. While there are many traits and skills that make up what most would consider a successful leader, there are a few that serve as the cornerstones for every broker. As you strive to become the best leader you can be for your team and your business, focus on the development of these must-have traits.
Authenticity The greatest leadership wisdom taught in lofty places like Harvard has to do with being authentic. Authentic leaders are said to value input and feedback, are positive, truthful, and open. They build trust and generate enthusiastic support that improves both individual and team performance. Consider that a career in real estate can feel like a roller coaster, full of ups and downs. For some real estate agents, the downs can lead to doubts in their abilities and fears about their future. As their broker-leader, you can help shoulder those burdens by being an authentic leader who has both empathy for their situation, but whose enthusiasm and positivity helps them stay focused and motivated. Being an authentic leader, also helps creates the authentic culture in your brokerage that will minimize turnover and help improve production. Recognition There is nothing more demoralizing than having those you look up to ignore your strengths and accomplishments. As a leader, it is your job to give recognition to those agents that perform well and showcase exceptional talents. If you hold team meetings, you may want to consider regularly giving out awards or tokens of recognition to worthy individuals. Certainly top performers should be recognized, but there are many things you can recognize people for. In the spirit of being authentic, just make sure they are recognized for real achievements. If you look hard enough, everyone has something meaningful they have achieved that you can hold up for your team. Humility Everyone makes mistakes. The difference between an average joe and a successful leader is that a leader is humble and willing to admit their mistakes. This is another attribute of the authentic leader, the willingness to admit mistakes. In fact, as a real estate broker, you have a special opportunity to use your hard earned knowledge to save your agents from wasting their own time, money, and resources in the same ways you may have as an agent. By exercising humility and openly leveraging your mistakes into lessons, your entire team can work smarter and will have deeper respect for you as a leader. Empowerment One of the first things you had to learn to do as a broker was to stop selling homes yourself. Now the next part is actually empowering your agents to do the selling and make them as good at it as you were. Don’t be a broker who swoops in and personally fixes everything, whenever a deal hits a rough spot. Instead give your team the training they want, the advice and support they need, and the encouragement to be successful. Agents who feel empowered and supported, and who are not micromanaged, will take more initiative and over time will develop into more productive and motivated sales associates. Accountability If you strive to lead an all-star team, you must lead by example by being accountable for what you say and do. This really means getting back to some basics like saying what you will do, and doing what you say you will. Since the buck stops with you, some things will naturally float up to your level, and when agents see that you will jump in and handle the big challenges, their confidence in your leadership will grow. Accountability is actually one of the important skills Weichert teaches its brokers through the Weichert Management Academy. The academy, open to Weichert owners, brokers and managers across the country, teaches attendees all the important elements of building a successful team and managing a successful business. In this training the behaviors that constitute accountable leadership at every level are discussed. Being accountable means employees will feel your organization is solid, and that they are both well supported, and empowered to move their business forward. There’s Always Room To Be A Better Leader As a real estate agent, you successfully developed your abilities as a salesperson. As a broker, your focus shifted to being an effective leader. If you think you could benefit from leadership coaching and training programs, as well as a collection of production boosting tools and systems for your agents go to weichertfranchise.com or call 877-746-2067. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/undeniable-traits-of-a-successful-leader/ As a broker, it may often feel as though you have a to-do list that is a mile long and always growing. Sometimes this can lead to neglecting things which may not be as urgent, but which are equally important and integral to the big picture of your brokerage’s success. For many brokers, team building exercises are one of those things that typically falls through the cracks. Brokers may view their agents as silos who mostly work independently or for whom such comradery has limited value. As everyone knows, growing a brokerage has constant challenges related to recruitment and retention. The fact is that team building activities are beneficial to you, your agents, and your overall mission of growth. So finding a way to incorporate these activities can be an investment in achieving that.
Here are a few of the benefits you can expect when you choose to engage in regular team building exercises:
According to research conducted during Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Survey, having a good friend at work can boost one’s engagement level by up to 50%. (1) Team building helps to foster those relationships. Here are five ways to build winning chemistry amongst your agents through team building exercises. Team Building Exercise 1 – Share The Mission Of Your Brokerage Of course, everyone working in real estate is hoping to make a good living at it. Selling lots of big homes, being a million dollar agent is the dream of every serious real estate agent. But your mission as a broker and the person responsible for helping achieve this has to be better than just “make a lot of money”. Helping people buy the home of their dreams is a tremendously positive and impactful service you provide. Your mission statement should reflect this. It should be formal, and it should be a collaborative effort between you and your team that you revisit periodically. It should include things like how you will present yourself to clients and the community, how you will treat your clients and partners, and how you will delight and exceed expectations at every step of the process. A jointly developed, “feel good” mission for your brokerage creates team cohesion around a common set of principles beyond “make a lot of money”. Print it and post it proudly in your office. Team Building Exercise 2 – Develop And Incentivize Mentor Relationships As agents are new to real estate and new to your team, they are usually in search of guidance and support from more seasoned agents that can show them the ropes. As a broker, your success derives from your agents continuously growing both personally and professionally so that they can close more deals. The larger you grow, the less time you will have to be able to offer that coaching to your agents on a one-on-one basis. Mentorships are valuable among your agents as it will save you from having to mentor each member of the team yourself individually. Develop a program in which more successful and experienced agents mentor new team members, welcome them, and help them become acclimated to your policies, practices, and strategies. Team Building Exercise 3 – Have Weekly Meetings and Awards Even if you believe in fostering a strong sense of independence in your agents, it is wise to keep all of them grounded to your overall success as a team. One way to do this is to bring the team together regularly for a fun, open discussion with some monetary reward and recognition for significant achievements. You may want to present them with fun certificates for them to display in their offices, as well as, gift cards or cash. Holding these meetings puts you out front as their leader and keeps you connected to the team in a more personal, fun way. Plus, the positive incentive will further reinforce your agents’ productions levels and loyalty. Team Building Exercise 4 – Sponsor Non-Sales Group Activities Of course, sales are a top priority to both your agents and to you as their broker. Without sales, nobody eats. However, bonding together as a team should not always revolve around driving more sales. One way that you can encourage more engagement amongst your agents is to sponsor non-sales activities. Ideally, you would do this for teams that achieve something significant such as attracting the most new agents to the team, developing a new streamlining process, closing the most sales for the period, or successfully incorporating a new technology. When you do this, other teams within your brokerage will take note that you are supportive of such healthy practices and become motivated to work harder themselves. Team Building Exercise 5 – Become Volunteers and Role Models In addition to creating a positive public image for your brokerage, your agents working together for a greater good is a powerful shared experience. Try to choose a cause that is meaningful to your agents, and in line with your brokerage’s values, to increase their engagement and participation. If you hold monthly meetings, present your agents with two or three options that are all aligned with your mission and will require your team to work together cohesively to move the needle forward for the cause. Then have them vote on the cause that they would prefer to support. Send out reminders leading up to the event and generate additional interest on social media. Following each charitable event, be sure to thank your agents, share the difference that they made, and highlight the importance of working together as community role models, not just real estate professionals. A Worthwhile Investment In Your Growth Some of these team building exercises are easy and simple to do, while others require more time to plan. Whatever time you can spend here however, is well worth the investment. As your team grows stronger together, your brokerage will become a place everyone wants to be a part of, and no one wants to leave. At Weichert, we offer support to our affiliates so they can accomplish many of these types of activities and strengthen their brokerages. National and regional Awards & Recognition programs, workshops and conferences, inspiration and public relations support for community involvement and one-on-one coaching to develop solid recruiting and retention programs are just some of the many things we provide. Ours is a people-first philosophy based on building and cultivating relationships, whether it’s a client or an associate. For more information on how to support your team for growth and continue to move forward, call 877-567-3350 or visit weichertfranchise.com. Sources: (1)http://www.gallup.com/services/176708/state-american-workplace.aspx Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/5-fun-ways-to-build-winning-real-estate-team-chemistry/ 7/17/2018 Franchise Success Spotlight Profile: Weichert Affiliate Beth Dickens—Weichert, Realtors® – Team RealtyRead NowNot more than 25 miles northwest of Fort Worth sits the charming rural community of Springtown, Texas, where long time affiliate Beth Dickens runs Weichert Realtors – Team Realty. With a population of close to 4,000 and within commuting distance to downtown Fort Worth, Springtown has seen its fortunes rise slowly over its rich, 160 year history. Housing in Springtown and throughout Parker County represents a rural, farm and ranch lifestyle that Beth Dickens has called home since she was a child. “As a girl I had a doll house.” she remembers, “I would pretend to try and sell it to people. I guess I was born to be a real estate agent.” After years as an agent Beth and her business partner Lorene, finally opened Team Realty as independent brokers in 1998. The pair did moderately well, but Beth recalls the constant challenge of recruiting and keeping new agents. “We went from 5, to 10, then back to 5 again, we just couldn’t get to that next level and sustain it. It’s hard for an independent in a rural market with so many other well-known brands around.” Over the years Beth and Lorene had flirted with the idea of affiliation with a national real estate brand and had entertained pitches from RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Keller Williams and others, but hadn’t really felt compelled to make a move. But in 2007, someone from Weichert® came knocking on their door. The Weichert story felt like something different. “The sophisticated Weichert internet presence and reach was quite amazing to us. There’s no way an independent can compete with that kind of investment and those kind of systems,” notes Beth. What appealed to her was the Weichert internet marketing approach that brings over 40 million visitors a year to their website from around the country. Leads are routed to their call center and calls are carefully screened by trained operators and sent to live agents typically in under 2 minutes. There was, however, another thing they both noticed in their dealings with Weichert that was equally appealing–their ethics. This was the first franchise team that really made Beth and Lorene feel like they cared about their success as a brokerage and as individuals. At the time of these discussions, they were actually on the verge of opening another office, but Weichert asked them not to. “This was Weichert walking away from money because they felt we needed to be more successful out of the one office we had before we started another one. That really impressed me”. Beth & Lorene had about 8 agents when they joined Weichert and Beth admits that some of them were worried about the affiliation. “A few people got hung up on the fees”, says Beth “but the great majority of them saw that it was better for them long term”. Getting Up To Speed With Weichert And so Beth and Lorene signed on with Weichert in 2007 and became Weichert, Realtors® – Team Realty. Joining the partnership was both a relief, and the beginning of exciting changes in their professional life. It was a relief in that the Weichert coaching team, and its proven systems had the answers to so many of the growth and business development challenges they had struggled with as an independent agency for years. It was also exciting as Beth and her husband bought Lorene out in 2008 and dove headlong into the Weichert training and systems. Almost immediately, they noticed an odd thing when they put the Weichert sign on the building. “Suddenly recruiting got a whole lot easier,” Beth recalls. Starting with about 6 agents, in 2007, Beth and her husband slowly built up their team, following the Weichert Methodology. Change is Good….Really. Beth and her team loved the training and coaching opportunities afforded by the new relationship and embraced things like Weichert University, Weichert Management Academy, and new Weichert systems and technology. Beth describes Weichert’s listing presentation system, “DOORS”, as a game changer. Not only is it automated online and easy to create, but it is homeowner centric not brokerage focused. Beth notes that the “price trend analysis” provided by Weichert is also so much better than the simple comparative market analysis they did previously. The combined effect of better training, better materials, better data, and a solid brand affiliation created a noticeable improvement in their closing rate. Another way in which Weichert was different is in their processes around running open houses. In an internet age where so many agents will tell you “open houses don’t work” or “they’re just for the seller”, the comprehensive Weichert process around running open houses really works. Everything from signage, to balloons, door knocking, and all the online and printed material that goes with it are covered by the proven Weichert open house management system. But the proof is in the results: Beth’s team sells at least one house per month from leads that come from her agents’ open houses. Results Weichert, Realtors® – Team Realty has just moved into their second decade as a Weichert Affiliate. Starting from their modest single office with 6 agents, Beth has indeed opened that second office, and boasts a staff of 28 agents serving the rural farm, ranch, and residential markets surrounding Fort Worth Texas. But most impressive is her top line growth. Beth has overseen the growth of Weichert, Realtors® – Team Realty to more than 20 times the revenue they had before they joined Weichert. To hear Beth tell it, “These folks have done for me everything they said they would do. If they told me I had to stand on my head to sell more houses, well I’d start yoga lessons tomorrow…” The Weichert Way Being a Weichert affiliate is a partnership, a collaboration, done with great respect for what you’ve already achieved and learned. After all, you’ve already built a successful business. We can help you do more For more information on becoming a Weichert Affiliate, call 1-(877) 746-2067 or visit www.weichertfranchise.com. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/franchise-success-spotlight-profile-weichert-affiliate-beth-dickens-weichert-realtors-team-realty/ Hungry for a sale, an agent blankets the neighborhood with Open House signs and then waits eagerly for a bite. Their efforts may drive traffic to their Open House and perhaps even bring the gold prize—a qualified buyer. But the question remains: Did this Open House, while effective, reach its full potential?
Even in this digital age when buyers rely so heavily on the Internet, the open house remains a cornerstone of real-estate sales and prospect marketing. At Weichert, Open Houses are deep rooted in our “people first” philosophy. Statistics published by NAR in 2017 show that 73% of homebuyers visit at least one Open House prior to purchasing.* Weichert open houses, specifically, attracted nearly one million potential buyers last year.** If you have the means to assemble a pool of buyers and sellers in one place where you can directly interact with them and sell them your value vs. your competitors, why wouldn’t you want to make the most of that opportunity? But as every broker knows, a great open house event requires excellent conversational skills and a positive attitude. But more importantly, for it to be successful, it requires careful preparation, execution and follow-up. The question is whether the full potential of this type of event is being realized by your agents and for you the broker. After all, this isn’t just finding a buyer for the property being held open, but this could help you connect with your next client(s). If you haven’t recently examined how you and your agents are promoting, conducting and following up on data from open houses, you might want to consider it. As a start, take a few tips from the team at Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. who coach and train brokers across the country every day on best practices for open house management. Let’s focus on how promotion plays a large role in Open House success: Promoting Your Open House In the performing arts it is often said that “less is more”, but when promoting your open houses, actually more is more! More signs, more brightly colored balloons, more promotion starting at least a week ahead, and in more places. Traditional methods like postcard mailings and supermarket community board tear off’s should all be already part of your arsenal. Knocking on neighbor’s doors and door hangers are also part of this. The real estate coaches at Weichert teach a philosophy of keeping it personal, so there’s nothing like a phone call or personal note to get a response from the hotter prospects in an agent’s sphere of influence. But what about the digital world? Promotional strategies that do not fully include digital are leaving behind an increasingly large segment of buyers, especially millennials. Here’s a quick checklist of activities you should consider for promoting your open houses online:
Use the Open House Management Features of your CRM Most brokerages employ a real estate CRM of some type, but many just use it to send out invites or enter contact data for only the hottest prospects. If your agents are guilty of this, or your CRM lacks robust features around open house management, you may be leaving money on the table. Weichert, for example, has a proprietary CRM which provides an open house management environment that is simple to use before and after the Open House for both promotion and follow up. Weichert also has an Open House sign in tool that feeds the CRM for follow up by agents. Contacts can be tagged for immediate or subsequent follow up and all contacts are instantly available to the agent for future marketing initiatives. Reminders and easily customizable email templates and graphics round out the capabilities that diligent associates will use to improve the reach of this open house, and all future open houses. Good Open House Promotion Pays Off Open Houses require a lot of planning, but if you do it right, the upside is tremendous. We can tell you from experience, a comprehensive, energetic and positive attitude toward open houses and having a structured system of executing them makes all the difference. The opportunity is there, you just need to know how to harness it. For more information on how Weichert gives brokerages a winning edge in all aspects of real estate, call our team at 877-567-3350 or visit our website at www.weichertfranchise.com *2017 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Buyers and Sellers. **Based on a private study by Weichert, Realtors. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/the-open-house-in-2018-promotion/ Independent Brokers have generally learned things the hard way: through trial and error and experience and there are a lot of land mines out there. You may have loved the idea of being a broker and have achieved certain milestones, but the road to success can often seem like a never ending trek uphill. Is this the right direction? Am I choosing the right tools and software? Is my marketing message right? Is there more I should be doing? The challenges of lead generation, recruiting, and brand perceptions are significant and always there, especially in tight markets.
It turns out that you are not alone. At Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. we talk to independent brokers across the country every day. They are universally a motivated and experienced bunch and have a great deal of local market knowledge. These brokers often wonder what it is that they have left to learn from a national franchise brand like Weichert that they haven’t already learned at the school of hard knocks. Often you don’t know what you don’t know. While every broker is unique and has unique challenges, there are a number of common problems that create hurdles to growth in brokerages. Has your own business or business practices been “stuck” on any of these areas? No System for Recruiting and Retention Recruiting and retaining agent talent is really the foundation of a successful brokerage. Independents face multiple challenges here, often because agents have similar perceptions to home buyers. They are often attracted to well-known brands due to their lead generation potential and resources. As if this perception wasn’t tough enough, many brokers don’t have a structured recruiting system and portfolio of materials to attract and create a pipeline of new agents to draw from. Then once you recruit them, you need a way to get them up to speed – fast – so they can start contributing to your brokerage production and earn an income. There is no single magic bullet to solving the recruiting problem, but a proven process that incorporates multiple things is required. Do you have a business plan with growth goals? Have you translated those goals to specific business and recruiting activities you must engage in to be successful? Do you as a broker “know your numbers”? At Weichert, part of our job in coaching new affiliates is to teach them a system. Our system is comprehensive and includes marketing materials and training to attract and get new agents up and running once you get them. Once you have them, it’s incredibly important to provide value to keep them from walking next door. Creating a supportive culture, offering them an expansive suite of tools and marketing materials to help them market themselves and their business and providing opportunities to constantly learn and improve their skills are all ways to do this. Owner/Broker That Are Still Listing and Selling Houses Chances are if you’ve become a broker, you are highly experienced in real estate and were a darn good sales associate. It can be hard to stop doing that, even though it is actually a distraction that takes you away from the other activities you need to focus on to build and manage your business. The idea of “letting go of the bench” is a concept every broker struggles with at some point in their career. Are you that broker who feels like he needs that extra income that comes from listing and selling his own properties? Weichert business coaches will tell you quite simply, that it’s time to stop. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it has to happen in order for you to focus your attention on business-building, rather than selling. Once that happens, you’ll start to see your business grow, rather than continuing to run in place. Figuring all that out yourself is hard, which is why partners like Weichert exist to bring you proven systems that take the guesswork out of managing your brokerage. Difficulty Competing Against Recognized Brands A recognized brand can be a powerful magnet for drawing buyers and sellers into your agency, as well as recruits. If you are an independent broker, you understand this having spent years building a local reputation to compete with more recognizable brands in your local market. But for sellers who don’t know you or don’t get explicitly referred to you, not having the backing of a national brand can make you work harder for listings and recruits. We hear it all the time, a variation of “…my recruiting problems basically ended the day I put the Weichert Sign on the building…” Consider Whether A Partner Is Right For You. While independent brokers may face stiff challenges, they are not insurmountable. Sometimes a leg up from the right partner can be just what you need to get over the top of that seemingly endless hill. A recognized brand can help you stand out for sure, but the real power of plugging into a known brand are the assets, marketing and support and proven systems they bring to you in your local market. Couple that with other benefits such as investments in lead generation and technology, investments that few independent brokerages could develop or sustain on their own, you have a powerful formula for success. Your identity doesn’t go away, it gets amplified ten-fold. That’s why the Weichert system is so much more powerful than just our name and could be the right partner for you. Please consider contacting the team at Weichert to discuss your unique situation, we can help: 877-746-2067 or weichertfranchise.com Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/the-top-3-challenges-to-brokerage-growth-and-success/ One of the best things you can do for your agents is help make their job easier. The more your brokerage is able to offer them, the more valuable they will be in the eyes of their clients and the more valuable you’ll be to your agents. That’s great for business and great for agent retention. But where should you start? Brokerage Differentiation 101There is clearly a wide variation in the quality of service provided across our industry. As an independent broker, being able to offer a unique set of capabilities, track record of success, or partner relationships will help set you apart in your market. Even if these capabilities are not exclusive to you, presenting them in the right way to potential buyers or sellers, makes all the difference in how your agents and your brand are perceived. Consider the following:
Want to offer your agents more? From proven systems, to real estate brokerage coaching to effective marketing tools, Weichert has so much to offer to complement your existing business and help you differentiate your brokerage. To learn more about the advantages of becoming a Weichert Affiliate, contact 877-746-2067 or go to www.weichertfranchise.com . Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/differentiate-your-brokerage-and-help-your-agents-stand-out/ In the ultra-competitive market for local home listings, the pressure to discount commissions is ever present. Some brands in your market may even make the discounted commission their primary marketing differentiator while selling themselves as full service agents. How do you compete with that?
Is discounting simply devaluing your services or something you have to do to survive? Here is some insight from the online real estate marketing specialists at Weichert. Educating Clients About the Value of your Services If you want to keep your full commission, you have to sell the value of what you do for it, plain and simple. A 4% commission from the other guy may sound great, but we all know he’s cutting corners somewhere to do that. Yet for clients, cutting broker commission seems to be the easiest route to saving money – and in their heads, this makes sense because they often lack the insight into what it is that real estate agents actually do. Taking the time to keep the client informed of the services you will provide at every step of the way is key. These include, but are not limited to:
Technology plays a vital role in achieving this and is another area where you can show the value you add at full commission. As an agent, you have access to expert online marketing tools for real estate agents, a broker who is able to properly leverage the full power of their local brand and reputation, as well as a network of financing, legal, and construction professionals who you can recommend and help manage for your client. Transform the way you sell with industry-leading real estate coaching programs Built on the expertise of experienced brokers, technology specialists and real estate industry leaders, Weichert is focused on providing effective answers to the challenges faced by today’s real estate agents. From marketing strategies for agents and a cutting-edge lead generation system to the best real estate coaching programs in the industry, we provide all the solutions you need to build your business and succeed in even the most competitive climate. If these tools and solutions sound like a good fit for your brokerage or you would like to find out more about the Weichert system, please contact us today. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/real-estate-coaching/best-way-to-get-full-commission-know-your-value/ |
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