When you set up your team and have everyone in the exact right seats on the bus and the results are not happening as quickly as you projected, it is time to take a look at a few areas and see not only what is happening, but also what may not be happening day to day on a weekly basis.
Take a look at these indicators and follow the strategy to correct behaviors to lead to greater success for your team, and increase their effectiveness and incomes:
- Everyone seems busy, but listings and sales aren’t happening. I call this “busy work” versus “dollar-producing work.” It’s easy in this business to appear busy and look like you’re actively working with buyers and sellers when, really, nothing is happening. Getting sucked into non-dollar-producing activities—or, even worse, working with only a couple buyers and doing hours of research per day—gives a false sense of accomplishment, even though there isn’t money being made.
The Fix: Have your agents time-block their activities on their schedule and share the schedule with you for accountability purposes. Have them make prospecting calls a priority on the “My Ideal Week” worksheet, and they’ll be doing this on purpose. Also have them focus on dollar-producing activities versus busy work to get more buyer and seller leads on their Pipeline of Leads worksheet. The more people they have in the pipeline, the more A-level activities they will be doing: e.g., going on appointments, not in the office doing busy work. If they have more clients, they will have more opportunities, and not spend hours researching. Instead, they’ll be busy setting appointments with lots of clients, rather than spending four hours on one client a day.
- My agents have leads, but no appointments. Based on their list of buyer and seller leads, they need to convert these leads into appointments. They have contacts on a list, but have no plan and aren’t converting that lead or new client into actual appointments, which is the only way they will list or sell a house.
The Fix: If they’re having a hard time getting an appointment, they probably need some training or coaching on how to convert leads into appointments and new clients. Hold a session or several where you teach them the scripts and strategies to turn leads into actual new clients and into appointments. Hold these sessions weekly to accelerate their results, and your overall team goals will start turning into results.’
- Agents are holding opens, but not getting leads from them. Again, most agents don’t have an effective strategy, especially when it comes to holding an open house. They end up holding the open house and losing opportunities because they don’t have the skills to overcome a difficult open house attendee and lose the opportunity.
The Fix: Hold a session at a vacant house to actually show your agents the most effective ways to host an open, drive traffic and convert leads into listing and buyer appointments. Have your team members watch my “Make $50K at Your Next Open House” webinar (below) to learn the strategies on how to make the open house their most productive and profitable 2-3 hours of their week.
- Agents lack new leads in their pipelines. Most agents are only giving attention to the 4-6 people that want to do something in the next 30-60 days, and discount anyone who says they’re thinking about moving in the next six months. They don’t have enough leads in their pipeline, so they’ll never break through to a new level of production.
The Fix: Drive activities that will increase their prospecting activities. Hold a FSBO or expired class or session to make calls to get appointments for FSBOs and expireds. Hold a “Call Day/Night” event and have all the agents come in and make calls together. Doing this in groups always creates success and teamwork. Review their pipelines and explain how they need to have 30-45 people in their pipeline to have more opportunities every month.
Keeping your agents focused on appointments, converting leads and having a full pipeline of buyer and leads is so important. Holding them accountable will also create results for them. Holding call events and training and coaching sessions will also help drive their efforts and result in more sales and income. For a free copy of my exclusive webinar, “Make $50K at Your Next Open House,” click here.
Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 20 years of experience in real estate, Johnson offers coaching, consulting and keynotes, and is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour. For more information, please contact coaching@sherrijohnson.com or 844-989-2600 (toll-free) or visit www.sherrijohnson.com.
