Per-Agent Productivity: The Career-Changing Number to Know

Here are two simple questions for any serious sales professional: Is your productivity as high as you’d like it to be? How important to you is the productivity of your office?

The answers to these questions can have huge implications, depending on how you view and perceive the word “productivity.”

With “productivity” in mind, let’s look at RISMedia’s recently released 2018 Power Broker Report & Survey, which ranks the nation’s top brokerages by total transaction sides and total sales volume.

Diving a Little Deeper
It’s no surprise to see mega-brokerages from the big brands at the top of the list, including offices from Realogy, Keller Williams and RE/MAX. All of them have massive production totals.

But dive in a little deeper and it gets more interesting. You start to see that the highest-ranked brokerages don’t necessarily have the highest-producing agents, because total production isn’t the clear-cut measure it might appear to be.

For example, take an office like RE/MAX of Reading in Wyomissing, Pa. With 3,698 sides, it ranks No. 225 in total transactions—almost right in the middle of the list of 500. Is this a high-productivity office, encouraging and supporting high productivity among its agents? You better believe it is.

It’s easier to see once you look closer. When you factor agent count into the equation, the 146 agents at RE/MAX of Reading averaged 25.3 transaction sides each. That’s the seventh-highest per-agent productivity among the 500 brokerages.

Digging a little more, it’s worth noting that the agents at the brokerage that ranked one spot higher in total transactions (No. 224) averaged just 10.8 sides each. The firm at No. 223? 4.6 per agent. No. 222? 3.4.

That means you have four brokerages, with only 23 transactions separating them, ranging from 25.3 to 3.4 in average sides per agent.

That suggests a stark difference in “productivity” among these closely ranked brokerages. Surely there are systems, philosophies, competitive advantages and environmental factors that differentiate an office with 25.3 sides per agent from one that closes essentially the same number of sales but requires eight times as many agents to do it.

Beyond the Numbers
Here’s the takeaway: Total transactions tell only part of the story. In some respects, they even cloud the issue. If you want to measure a brokerage and its commitment to agent success, per-agent productivity is the number to know.

That’s not to say agent count isn’t important. It is. RE/MAX of Reading has nearly 150 agents, and together they create a dynamic, bustling environment that’s both motivating and inspiring. It’s virtually impossible to be around highly productive people—and see them enjoying the fruits of that productivity—without aspiring to be highly productive yourself.

That’s why the two questions I started with are so important for agents to consider and ask themselves. The fact is, agents who want to be more productive should find and join an office where high per-agent productivity is a priority.

Or, putting it another way: Would you rather be part of a brokerage where many agents are doing less business each, or fewer agents are doing more business each? Your career (and your bank account) could be greatly shaped by your answer.

Adam Contos is CEO of RE/MAX, LLC. For more information, please visit www.remax.com.