Drive Sales, Add Value and Increase Retention Through 5 Key Categories
Every agent is different, and they all have their own nuanced ways of attracting and servicing their clients. From the perspective of agent management, however, the success of each individual agent’s business can still be measured and influenced by a few universal metrics.
Knowing key numbers for your agents will allow you to effectively guide, motivate and recognize them to greater real estate success. Here are the five key categories of metrics that you need to know to help your agents succeed:
Past Performance: To guide an agent forward, you need to know where they have been and where they are now. It is important, as a manager and as a mentor, to know exactly what their production has been (units, volume, and income) and note any meaningful trends in raw numbers, average price and other metrics. Also, know their numbers about sales-producing activities—how many calls were made, appointments were held and open houses were hosted. Some of this you may know and some you will need to get from your agents, but having a clear picture of the past will be invaluable in guiding them toward a successful future.
Goals: As well as past performance, you should know your agents’ goals for both sales-producing activities and for production. When setting production goals with your agents, I always recommend setting three numbers for income: their “have to” figure, which is what they need to make in order to stay in real estate; their “like to” figure, which they would see as a successful goal; and their “dream of” figure, which would be incredible and they might not even believe they can achieve. The key here, as their manager, is to inspire them to go after that dream number! Set activity and production goals based on that and they will have a much better chance of having a fabulous year and career no matter the exact end results!
Prospecting: Know how your agents plan to reach the goals that they have set. Mainly, this means prospecting, so know how each agent’s strategy and specific activity goals for time-blocked prospecting hours, calls made, appointments held, etc. Enabling, encouraging and holding them accountable to these numbers—more than anything else—will be the most effective way to drive sales, income and overall success.
Pipeline: With our coaching clients, we preach the GoldMine PipelineTM approach to building consistent, predictable monthly income. Hope is not a plan, and purposefully building a meaningful pipeline of potential business is much more conducive to success than hoping that the phone will ring. As your agents’ broker, leader or mentor, knowing their pipeline will help you know if it is sufficient to meet their goals, manage it for best results and focus on expanding it ASAP, if necessary.
Actual Results: Accountability is a proven driver of exponentially increased performance. Knowing your agents’ actual results—both for production and for sales efforts—and discussing them on a regular basis, will encourage consistent engagement and prevent against lack of execution.
This is a very manageable list of measurements, and an important one for driving and achieving increased results. Set them and track them with your agents on a consistent basis, and celebrate them when achieving both their activity goals and those for production. Doing so will lead to greater agent success, which in turn will increase your value to them, increase your company’s success and ensure greater agent retention.
For a free copy of my exclusive “Short Term KPI Tracking Sheet” to help agents succeed by setting and tracking dollar-producing sales activity, click here.
Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 25 years of experience in real estate as an agent, broker and executive, Johnson now shares her proven methods through coaching, consulting and keynote speaking services nationwide. She is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour and is the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. Johnson has also been named an RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker in 2020 and 2021 as an Influencer and Thought Leader. Schedule a free 30-minute coaching strategy session or visit www.sherrijohnson.com for more information.
