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-2/
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Running a successful real estate brokerage doesn’t happen by accident. To achieve the best results, brokers must lead the way for their team by creating consistency in their routine and performing essential tasks that affect the growth and stability of their business. Weichert has been coaching brokers for years and supporting some of the most successful ones in the industry. Here are some insights into what our top brokers do every day to propel their results.
Recruit Real Estate Agents Recruiting is the lifeblood of a successful brokerage. It’s the only way to truly grow your business and it’s something you need to do every day to keep your pipeline full. The reality is that everyone will eventually leave you. The best way to withstand the ups and downs of your agent team is to constantly recruit and not wait until you have to. When many of our owners first came to us, they didn’t know how to recruit, were afraid to recruit or didn’t know what to do with an agent once they did recruit to get them up and running. Armed with our recruiting system and our training, our top franchisees have quickly turned into recruiting Rockstar’s. Train Agents on Tools & Systems Having established sales tools and systems in place is critical. Not having established, repeatable systems in place leads to wasted time and energy that ends up being spent on trial and error and reinventing wheels instead of taking a more direct path to productivity. When you can get everyone rowing in the same direction, you will gain tremendous distance. A franchisor like Weichert has had lots of experience in refining a recipe for success. We have also found a definite correlation between success and those who utilize the tools and systems vs. those who do not. However, you can never stand still and need to continually innovate to stay in touch with changes in the industry and the evolving needs of your team and their clients. Promote Their Brand Building a powerful brand that people gravitate toward is not a part-time job. For the independent competing against well recognized real estate brands, this is a particularly important challenge. Successful brokers recognize that they must be cheerleaders of their brand both in the trenches and from a bird’s eye position in the business. The most successful make it a point to incorporate brand-building activities into their daily routine. This means empowering their agents to leverage branded marketing materials for their listings in every print and digital format and making it easy to customize branded templates to their needs. Every community outreach must be branded to your brokerage, no matter how small or personalized, from your email signatures, to the sign on the building. Generate Company Leads Generating company leads are critical to protecting your company dollar, not to mention it helps with agent retention, overall growth and so much more. The best brokers are continually looking for sources and methods of generating brokerage leads. Agents will leverage their own networks for leads of course, but your ability to supplement these opportunities can make your brokerage the place to be in your market. That’s great for business, but also remember that nothing helps your recruiting more than when agents hear that they can work with a company that provides them real leads that they don’t have to fight for. Weichert, for example, offers many sources of lead referrals: Weichert.com Lead Network: Weichert generates leads nationally through their powerful weichert.com website, with up to 3 million web visits a month and thousands of calls. Inquiries through Weichert.com are pre-screened by carefully trained personnel and routed to qualified agents within minutes. You’ll never miss a lead opportunity in your market with Weichert.
For more information about Weichert, go to https://weichertfranchise.com Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/what-top-brokers-do-every-day/ You and your agent team wear many hats: you’re schedulers, problem-solvers, counselors, deal-makers, and sometimes, miracle workers. With your hectic schedule, it may surprise you to learn that in the U.S., the annual hours worked per employee has gone down in the last 4 years. Even though many Americans say they need more hours to accomplish their daily to-do list, in reality they have more free time. So, why does it seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day?
Although we can’t control time, we can avoid the things that derail our productivity to allow us to focus our energy on activities that help us reach our goals. Here are 5 reminders of ‘what not to do’: 1. Don’t Blow off your Yearly Business Plan Update and Review. Seems like a reasonable thing to do, after all you just did it last year right? It turns out that reexamining your yearly business plan is a priceless activity in that it allows you to feel like you are executing a plan and have a strategy for moving forward which is deliberate, not haphazard. In the fast-paced world of real estate, things change, markets are good and bad, agents come and go. Your business plan is an opportunity to retrench and reflect currently realities into a plan and a roadmap for the year and beyond. It keeps you and your team focused on realistic and specific goals for your brokerage and gives you the opportunity to adjust if you are not hitting your goals. After all, waiting until the end of the year to find out you didn’t recruit enough agents or secure enough listings will be too late. 2. Don’t Get Distracted by Disruptors You and your team face the ongoing challenge of keeping up with fluctuations in the real estate market. Beware of disruptors that distract you from your current priority: your business and your customers. Disruptive players continue to introduce different models for operating a brokerage, technology companies are offering a plethora of fancy ways to generate leads. These are often shiny objects that aren’t going to add a whole lot to your business when the day is over. As a broker/owner you don’t have time to chase every new technology or service that comes along promising to change your world. Stick to those with proven systems and proven processes and make sure you see real proof of their success before you leap. 3. Don’t Buy your CRM and other Technology Services with the Herd. Choosing customer relationship management (CRM) tools and lead generation and other services based on popularity and price may be an easy way to make these decisions. It can also lead you to tools and services that are completely wrong for your brokerage. It’s tempting though, given the time this takes and the fact that many brokers are not technology experts. The bottom line is that you must be involved to some degree in all major technology decisions beyond just writing the check. Here are some ideas to help you manage and evaluate these tools.
4. Don’t Get Sucked Back into the Sales Game This cautionary tale never gets old. Many brokers are afraid to stop selling, fearing their agents are not equipped to replace that production. It can also be tempting to step in and generate some additional revenue for yourself by listing and selling a few properties. The thing is, when you’re managing listings, you can’t manage your business at the same time. You’re diverted from the important longer-term growth drivers for your brokerage. Resist the urge to take on these sales yourselves. Give them to that bright, energetic new recruit who’s struggling to get started. Make sure you have repeatable systems in place to help them succeed. You’ll make more progress against your goals by focusing on broader activities like lead generation, recruiting, training, coaching, and brokerage marketing. 5. Don’t Wing It This is a particularly easy one not to do. If you have systems in place that are set and repeatable, you will be so much more efficient in what you do. Whether it’s recruiting, developing a business and marketing plan or selling systems for your agents, have a structure. Without it, you’ll feel like you are constantly treading water and that is not a productive way to operate any business. This idea of repeatable systems may well be the strongest value and focus of a real estate franchise system like the one Weichert provides. While other big box franchises offer little more than their name, Weichert has taken its decades of growth and distilled it into processes, training and lead generation systems which have fueled the success of hundreds of offices. This includes a regular and repeatable recruiting process which allows you to attract both new and experienced agents. It also includes some of the strongest coaching programs in the real estate industry. Our programs give you a diverse baseline of materials and tactics both online and in person which can then be customized for your business and presented to new team members with much less effort than would be required to develop these from scratch. From our online university content available 24/7, to our much beloved “Fast Track” training program for new agents which gets them producing fast, our support is comprehensive. Not to mention a host of tools, technologies, and lead generation tools that can be game changers for brokerages. Proven Real Estate Selling Systems When you become a Weichert affiliate, your brokerage can stop the “Don’ts” and focus on the “Do’s”. You’ll gain immediate access to Weichert Support including our recipe for success, coaching, and technology. You’ll have the support to help navigate the current landscape and avoid costly mine fields. If you’re ready to focus your energy on the customer activities that build your brokerage, let us show you how partnering with Weichert will help. Call us today at 877-567-3350 or contact our team for more information. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/want-to-be-a-better-broker-stop-doing-these-things/ As you recruit agents into your brokerage, it’s important to acknowledge there are differences in the way various generational groups communicate, respond, work and interact. Understanding these differences can be your secret weapon in motivating and communicating effectively with your team. Millennials currently make up the largest portion of the workforce and account for 50% of workers in the next 2 years. Here’s how you can make sure your brokerage is a good fit.
Values That Match Their Own As an experienced broker, you already have a good handle on the basic qualities that an agent looks for in evaluating a brokerage: leads, commission splits, support, education, etc. However, if you want to both attract and retain Millennial real estate agents, you’re going to need to appeal to more than just those cornerstones. The desire for self-fulfillment is strong in this generation and drives them to seek out companies that strongly support their growth and learning at this stage of their career and down the line. Millennials are especially driven towards companies that promote a positive, well-rounded and healthy culture. If they do not form a strong connection with your company culture and trust in its genuinely altruistic nature, they will not hesitate to leave for greener pastures. This is a key difference from the Baby Boomer generation who has more of a “pay your dues” mindset and would usually stay with a job for years to gain experience. By contrast, a Millennial will leave quickly if the fit isn’t there. Technology That Supports Their Goals Although it is not their top priority, tech is still an important factor for Millennials that have grown up with it. Tech-savvy tools like a CRM, modern website, and lead generation systems are mandatory to them. Like your company culture, this is an area where you will need to both talk the talk and walk the walk. If you are not yet familiar with all things mobile and social, now is the time to bone up. Remember, these tech-savvy newbies are looking for you to take them by the hand as their leader and show them the way. If you can’t show them at least some acumen and understanding with social, mobile and technology as well as real estate, you will struggle to convince them that they are in the right place. Someone to Turn to For Guidance Taking less experienced agents by the hand and making sure that they know they can turn to you for help or guidance is crucial; a rule that applies to new agents of any age or generation. Millennials seek out leadership that frequently engages in positive reinforcement. One way to do this is to find regular ways to recognize your agents for their various accomplishments. If you hold regular team meetings, this would be a good time to hand out various awards for goals reached or at least acknowledge those agents that are making progress towards goals set like listings taken or open houses held. This will also contribute to the positive company culture you are trying to foster. Team Meetings Team meetings help to build camaraderie and give a brokerage that familial feeling that Millennials crave from their place of work. The more that you can make them feel as though they are a part of a family working towards a shared goal, the more invested they will become in the overall success of the brokerage. Again, injecting your team meetings with positive reinforcement and recognition for a job well-done will resonate with Millennials. They are also a great time to offer continuing education on day-to-day issues that real estate agents face and technological advances that could help the team with their goals. Do You Have The Right Stuff? As Jim Weichert emphasized when he started Weichert, Realtors® over 50 years ago, it’s all about the personal. As a successful real estate broker, connecting with people on a human level is in your wheelhouse, so don’t be afraid to tap into those fundamental skills when working with Millennials. Making your brokerage more attractive to Millennials is just a small evolution, not revolution. If you have a holistic company culture, tech-savvy tools, an abundance of leads, and good systems for ongoing education, then Millennials, and everyone else will want to join you. Weichert supports its affiliates with things such as sales meeting templates, an awards and recognition program, ongoing training, technology support and more, providing a perfect plug and play system to help brokerages create an optimal fit for Millennials. With Weichert at your back, you can do even more. Give us a call today at 877-957-9692 or visit us at weichertfranchise.com for more information. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/how-to-make-millennial-real-estate-agents-feel-at-home-in-your-brokerage/ 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/ Gen Y, more commonly referred to as Millennials, have now become the most populated generation in the USA, surpassing Baby Boomers. That means that they are one of the largest demographics of home buyers and sellers and are in the crosshairs of real estate agents and brokerages eager to build a profitable business. However, the buyers and sellers of Gen Y are unique in their interests, priorities, and especially their behaviors when it comes to buying and selling real estate. Selling to this tech-addicted generation will require you to be savvier than the competition and to do things a little differently than you did when you were starting out as an agent. Here are three useful tips that can help the modern broker prepare their agents to sell homes to Gen Y.
1. Ad Content That Doesn’t Sell! Millennials grew up in an age of digital marketing with its ever present ad mechanisms, making them somewhat impervious to more blatant forms of advertising. In fact, the more that you try to directly sell members of this generation, the less effective you will be. That’s not to say advertising is ineffective here, but the style and nature of the content has to be more helpful, relevant, or entertaining and less overtly service focused. Millennials respond to creative that is more visual and will be attracted to video content using mediums such as Facebook newsfeed ads. And don’t forget Instagram. Offer free and convenient tools to help, like an online mortgage calculator, or a downloadable neighborhood or local school analysis. The more free tools, tips and services you can offer in your ads, the more likely this generation is to trust your agents, and your brokerage. 2. Supply Your Agents On-Going Training Now, more than ever, the technology and platforms that are used to reach buyers and sellers are complex. Furthermore, they are forever evolving and shifting in popularity. If you want to enable your agents to close deals with the Millennial set, you’re going to need to provide them with ongoing training on topics like social media, mobile marketing and digital marketing, in general. This is an area where big name real estate brands sometimes have an advantage. Weichert for instance, has both proprietary technology and processes that make marketing to Millennials (and everyone) less complex and more efficient. Add to that the training provided by Weichert training teams and its ongoing University approach, and you leverage a powerful educational infrastructure that keeps you and your team on the cutting edge. 3. Enable Prompt Follow-Up Growing up in the most technologically advanced era in human history has had many effects on Gen Y. One of the largest is their increasing desire for instant gratification. This means that when a Millennial expresses interest in buying or selling a property, or has a question about a property or a town or neighborhood, they expect to hear from an agent right away. In fact, agents that fail to follow-up with a lead within 30 minutes or less, will usually fail to convert that lead. They simply won’t wait to hear from you. What is your system for getting immediately back to leads, however and whenever they come in? Do you pass the 30 minute rule, even in the off hours? Brands like Weichert have systems in place that help the agent both get leads and automate the follow-up. Once a lead comes in, Weichert has a call center that handles pre-screening and forwarding, putting incoming leads into the hands of a live agent within minutes. Accepted leads are then fed directly into the brand’s proprietary CRM. As a broker you need to consider tightening up your lead response times and follow up to be sure you’re making the most out of your opportunities. How To Plan The Future With Gen Y As an experienced real estate broker hoping to attract business from the country’s largest demographic population, you understand that your agents require advanced technology and training. You also know that trying to supply all of that tech and training on your own can be a challenge. If you feel that you could benefit from a system of tools and access to the most advanced training programs for selling to Millennials and any consumer category, think about teaming up with Weichert. For more information about our proven strategies and resources go to weichertfranchise.com or call 877-746-2067. Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/real-estate-crm/3-tips-for-selling-homes-to-gen-y/ 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/ |
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