Running the Ultimate Team With the Right Systems and Assistants

Teams are becoming more prevalent today because of the complicated nature of the real estate business, as well as the desire among agents to provide excellent customer service while still having a life. Business owners today search for technology to streamline processes, as well as talented people to run those systems. The goal of leveraging both people and process stems from the need to excel in both business and life.

Most agents fail in hiring assistants because they don’t take the time to create systems and move what they do so well from their minds to a system. This becomes frustrating to the assistant and the leader, as neither can get on the same page.

Here are three things to consider when deciding what to do, or what to delegate:

If you do any task three times, you must create a system for it. To scale your team, you must have duplicatable systems for all redundant processes in order to teach others how to do things as well as you. For example, you should have systems in place for the pre-listing process, the listing process, open houses, when a listing goes under contract, when a buyer goes under contract, client appreciation events, and more. Often called workflows or action plans, once you work through the activities in each area and document the process, you then have a system that can be duplicated. Use a tool such as zoom.us to record yourself doing the process so that you can document it for the person who will be doing the tasks going forward.

Your focus as a team leader should be in two areas: business development and people development. If you’re doing a task that you could hire someone else to do for $15-$20 per hour, stop immediately, and look into outsourcing that particular task. While you could do many of these tasks—and you honestly believe that you’re better at doing them than anyone else—this thought process is the limiting belief that will keep you producing at your current level, not allowing you to be present when you’re with your loved ones. Dare to delegate, and your life will be improved.

Hire for 30 days at a time. When you don’t believe that you can afford to hire an assistant for $30,000-$40,000 a year, the best thing to do is hire for 30 days at a time. This also means committing to moving your behavior toward dollar-productive activities once you’ve brought an assistant into the mix. If you spend the 20 hours a week prospecting, working your database and meeting with buyers and sellers—rather than focusing on the activities you’ve delegated to your assistant—you won’t be able to afford to let your assistant go. The key is to change your behavior and focus on the right things, which also means letting your assistant do their job.

Running a team is all about creating leverage and intentionally creating the life that you desire. You can have a great business, amazing client support and a great life outside of work, but you must decide to leverage your technology and human resources to achieve it.

Verl Workman is the founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems (385-282-7112), an international speaking, consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and building successful power agents and teams. Contact him at Verl@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com. For more information, please visit www.workmansuccesssystems.com.