Purposeful management drives the best results for clients and agents
As the real estate business continues to traverse the pandemic landscape, agents and teams are constantly challenged by how to best propel new listings and sales while managing regulatory guidelines and the comfort levels of their clients and team members.
These extraordinary times call for an updated and thorough consideration of how to get that done. An exercise that I recommend for my coaching clients is to analyze their business activities using three simple criteria—What, How and Who—then assign and execute those activities in the most effective way currently possible.
What: What are the essential activities of your real estate business? Identifying these is the first step of this exercise. You should be able to write these down within a few minutes and without getting too bogged down in the details. Think of general categories (prospecting, listings, buyers, etc.), then think of the most important tasks within each category (prospect, follow-up, listing appointments, buyer showings, etc.). For highest impact, I suggest focusing initially on income-producing categories like prospecting and new listings, leaving administrative tasks for a later analysis using this same process.
How: Now, look at each one of the specific tasks that need to occur and list two or three different ways that each task can be accomplished. You will need to take into consideration current regulations in your market about permissible activities, and you will also need to pick options that allow for varying comfort levels among your clients and team members. I suggest identifying solutions at three different levels of interaction: no restrictions, socially distanced and fully virtual. In some markets, you may be limited to only one or two of these options for some tasks, but defining them all now will identify both what you can do now and also what you will do as allowable activities change for better or for worse.
Who: Finally, assign each task to the most effective team member possible. This requires two considerations: willingness and ability.
Willingness is based on personal comfort levels. I suggest that you poll each member of your team first to establish what they are or are not willing to do. For instance, if live home showings are allowable in your area but your top buyer agent is not comfortable with in-person client meetings, someone else will need to be the “Who” for any tasks in the “no restrictions” category. Knowing what each team member is willing to do will allow you to assign the tasks to the most effective persons available based on their general ability and their technical skills using various virtual tools.
This plan is simple and is necessary to your current and ongoing success. Use it to drive new income at all levels of business interaction and ensure that you and your team stay busy, effective and profitable.
For a free copy of my “GoldMine Pipeline© worksheet” to track prospective and current clients for consistent, predictable income, 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 and the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. She is also an RISMedia 2020 Real Estate Newsmaker as an industry Influencer. Sign up for a free 30-minute coaching strategy session or visit www.sherrijohnson.com for more information.
