While some real estate agents prefer to work solo throughout their careers, others are forming real estate teams to help win more deals, share resources, and possibly earn more commission. A real estate team may vary in size and how it operates based on the needs of the market, but the most successful real estate teams often have one major characteristic in common: effective leadership.
As a real estate team leader, you need the right tools and resources to help your team grow both individually and collectively. How do you manage a successful team? Here are some tips and tricks to help you get started.
- Effective coaching and frequent communications
A high-performing team has a proven track record of effective and frequent communications from upper management. Most sales and metrics meetings are long and (sometimes) painfully dull. A great way to combat that is to break up your monthly meeting into four smaller weekly meetings. Share weekly sales and listing goals while celebrating the most recent wins during these meetings to help boost morale. Success is contagious, and if your team sees that their achievements are celebrated and acknowledged, it will encourage them to try harder to get their name on that winning board for the following meeting.
Also, scheduling 1-on-1 coaching meetings with your agents will help increase their performance and top-line revenue. Offer new and experienced agents valuable coaching on lead generation, conversion strategies, setting listing appointments, and closing bigger deals. Not only will this help your team improve individually, but it’ll also help the business’s bottom line and long-term growth.
- Hire the right people
The catalyst for a successful team relies on your recruiting process and whether you’re hiring suitable candidates that fit your business goals. For example, having a variety of new and experienced agents on your team will help diversify your company’s overall skill sets and accommodate different types of clientele (e.g. first-time buyers, the affluent, and investors).
One way to ensure that you’re hiring the right people is to present your business plan, goals, and vision during the interview and set these expectations during the onboarding process, so everyone is on the same page. This means outlining the resources available to your team and providing insights on how you can support each other with each deal. Then, reiterate these expectations in your 1-on-1 meetings to establish accountability.
Everyone wants to be on the winning team, so present your company’s goals and values in a way that’ll inspire confidence and motivate them to join you. Unfortunately, not everyone will be suitable for your team. If you and the potential partner agent don’t align on business values and goals, cut them loose — but don’t burn any bridges in the process because you never know when your professional paths might cross again.
- Create growth opportunities and compensation
The business of real estate runs on incentives and compensation. That’s not to say that compensation is the only reason salespeople are attracted to this type of business, but it’s a prevalent contributing factor for many agents. Create a comprehensive compensation and incentive plan to keep your agents motivated and performing well. When team members are compensated fairly (or better) with various added benefits, they’ll be more motivated to drive business and close bigger deals.
