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What Attributes Should a New Agent Have to Succeed?

October 28th, 2020

You’ve seen agents come and go. What are the attributes and behaviors agents need to succeed?

What are behaviors that #successful agents exhibit? What are the #attributes of successful real estate agents?

Make your list here. Now, compare it to the behaviors I listed in my book I wrote to educate prospective real estate agents.

What They May Exhibit that will Assure Failure

It may be easier to make a list of the behaviors that assure someone won’t make money fast enough in our competitive, self-starting business:

Never had a job until mid-twenties.
Still lives at home.
Doesn’t have to make a living.
Has never taken initiative to try something new.
Hates having to reach out to talk to people.
Loves technology; fears people.
Has had 7 jobs in 7 years.
Doesn’t believe in having to learn from someone or be led.
Gives up easily.

What should I add to that list?

How to Use this Information in the # Real Estate Interview Process

If you have a team, you’ll find this very helpful. Or, if you’re working in a company that rewards you for referring good agents to the company, you’ll also want to use this information.

Are you familiar with behavior-based questions? They are questions that ask a person about his past behavior. Why? Because past behavior determines future behavior. (Not always, just 95% of the time. Do you like those odds?) I don’t mean that what someone does specifically determines she will do that again. This is what I mean:

As you listen to a person tell a story about his past, listen for themes that run through the story. For example: One of the behaviors good agents exhibit is tenacity. They just don’t give up. They accept rejection and keep going. If someone or something is difficult, they wade through it.

The question: Think of a time in your life when you thought of giving up–a time when you really wanted something, but getting it seemed difficult or out of reach. Describe what happened.

Don’t interrupt. Don’t ask another question. Just hum, agree, or probe. Find out all you can about that story. As you listen, ask yourself:

Does that person have enough ________________ to be a success in real estate?

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Your turn. Look at my list of behaviors. What should I add?

I’m updating my book for prospective agents. Please help me create a book that’s different, insightful, and helpful to both the prospective agent and the manager/interviewer. Thank you!

Categories building team, expectations, Interviewing, manager, new agent interview, New Real Estate Agents, pre-license, Real estate as a career, Real Estate Sales, real estate team, selectcion, selection
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Thinking about Management: How Should Managers Spend Their Time?

by Carla Cross

February 14th, 2019

How much time should you spend in these management activities I’ve listed in the handout below?

If you’re thinking about going into management, you’re probably going to ‘model’ what you’ve seen done in your real estate office by your present manager. That may be good–or bad, depending on how your manager manages his/her activities.

This month, I’m featuring blogs regarding going into management. Why? I’ve been interviewing for that next great leader. Unfortunately, I’ve found few candidates have prepared at all for management. (Read my earlier blogs for preparation needed).

In my Leadership Mastery Coaching program, I provide several analysis tools to help new managers get started right with the best practices. At the end of this blog, grab my Time Analysis for Managers. Use this to set up your schedule (if you’re going into management). If you’re already in management or managing managers, use this to help managers get their priorities right for success.

Where Managers Go Right–and Wrong

In my most popular book, Up and Running in 30 Days, the new agent’s start-up plan, I divide all the activities an agent could do into two categories: business producing or business supporting. Business producing are those activities where the agent is finding, working with, and closing clients. Business supporting are all the rest of the activities. Where do you think agents go wrong? They spend too much time in business-supporting activities.

Now, let’s compare that to the categories and activities managers do. They also divide themselves nicely into busininess-producing and business supporting. (Take a look at my handout at the end of this blog). Where do you think managers go right in prioritizing their activities? They spend the majority of their time in business producing activities: Finding and working with productive agents. (not just crisis management, though).

How do You Spend Your Time?

From working with hundreds of managers in my Leadership Mastery program, I see that successful managers spend the majority of their time in business producing activities. The failing managers spend most of their time in business supporting activities.

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In fact, failing managers become masters of the technical aspects of the business, and spend lots of time preparing and playing technology. (Sound familiar to those of you managing failing agents?) There’s nothing wrong with knowing the technical aspects of real estate and using technology. But, the failing manager focuses and ‘lives’ there.

What’s Your Conclusion?

Let me know how you used this analysis tool. General managers: What did you find when you had a manager use this tool? What changes will you help them make?

Grab my Time Analysis for Managers. Use this to set up your schedule (if you’re going into management). If you’re already in management or managing managers, use this to help managers get their priorities right for success.

Resources (Some are FREE) to Gain those Management Skills

This month, I’m offering some of my management resources free with purchase of other resources. Check it out here.

Categories building team, Coaching, Experienced agent, goals, Interviewing, lead generation, manager, New Real Estate Agents, onboarding, presentations, Real estate as a career, Real Estate Sales, Real estate systems, recruiting, retention, selection
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Taking That Next Step into Management? Get the Skills First

by Carla Cross

February 7th, 2019

Taking that next step into management? Get the skills first.

At the end of this blog, I’ve provided a rating assessment that I use in my Leadership Mastery coaching. You can rate yourself on your management skills, so you’ll know what you need to work on prior to going into management (or if you’re already in management).

Are you thinking of going into management? Few of us knew the skills–or the level of skill attainment–we needed to succeed in the job. I want to help all of you who want to go into management to succeed at a high level. Thus, these blogs.

For the past couple of months, I’ve been interviewing potential managers. I’ve found that almost none had done any ‘prep’ work to go into the position. Yet, successful managers have developed specific, somewhat unique skills to do their jobs. And, what I’ve found is that these skills must be at least partially developed before we launch ourselves into management–or else we get swamped by all these new challenges hitting us in the face!

In an earlier blog, I discussed the skills we need to have honed prior to going into management. In this blog, we’ll tackle getting those skills in certain areas.

At the end of this blog: grab my assessment tool I use in my Leadership Mastery coaching series to help new managers plan for this skill attainment.

The Biggest Skill Area Managers Need Today to Succeed

What do you think it is? It’s recruiting and selecting skill. Why? Because, there’s so much competition for good agents that a manager just can’t sit back and wait for agents to come to them. It isn’t the old days (although I never was able to do that in my ‘old days!’).

These skills are the same skills good agents use to expand their businesses. That’s why we need to hire managers who have been successful recruiters and selectors. Notice I said recruiters and selectors. I know companies brag about how mahy gross recruits they landed that month or year, but, long-term, it’s those who stay, prosper, and grow with the company that add to the profitability of all.

One of the standards you need to create when you’re hiring a manager is

How successful was that agent as a business getter? What’s the number of transactions you would accept?

How to Get Recruiting and Selecting Skills

Your company may have a course focusing on these skills. If so, take it prior to going into management. Overall, the best courses out there for management are the CRB courses, leading to the Certified Real Estate Broker designation. I highly recommend them. Here’s the link.

What’s Your Agent Track Record?

Great agents don’t make great managers. Do you believe that’s true or false? I believe it’s false. Here’s why.

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As I said, the greatest skill managers need are recruiting and selecting skills. If you don’t have a track record of at least 12-20 transactions a year as an agent, in my opinion, you have not developed the skills in recruiting and selecting you will need as a successful agent. It’s my experience that agents who didn’t actively lead generate will carry that habit into management. They will balk at lead generating for agents, and they will fight upper management to the death–and to everyone’s detriment.

Resource (Some are FREE) to Gain those Management Skills

This month, I’m offering some of my management resources free with purchase of other resources. Check it out here.

Grab the leadership skill assessment here.

Managers or general managers: If you’re hiring a new manager, help them evaluate their skill levels and then create a training and coaching program to assure they get those skills before they launch their management career.

Expanding Your Team? Avoid This Big Selection Mistake

by Carla Cross

November 1st, 2018

Expanding your team? Here’s how to avoid a big selection mistake.

Are you talking too much in the interview?

A lot of recruiters/interviewers think that, if they’re great talkers, they’re great recruiters (same as agents think talking equals selling…..)

You’re an agent who wants to expand to a team–or expand your team. You want to get winners in that recruiting seat. You pride yourself on being a great talker. (A manager once told me he just talks them to death–until they say they’ll join the company–what a great screening method-not!) But, too much talking is just old-style hard ‘selling’–and that’s certainly not the bulk of an effective selection process.

Ask, Don’t Tell

Instead of muscling a sale or a ‘yes’ from a recruit, ask questions. Lots of questions.

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Probe to find out more. Keep finding out more until you’re really sure you know what they mean. Let me give you an example:

The recruit says, “I want a deal.”

Do you jump to a conclusion because you know what a deal means? Don’t. You may be surprised. Instead, ask questions at what does a deal mean to that recruit? When you know exactly what the recruit means, you can proceed to find what he really wants–instead of what someone else told him he should ask for!

A Pre-Screening Process for a Candidate to Save you Time

Ask some questions before you spend time and money chasing candidates who don’t meet your standards. Click here to get my knockout factors on the phone for agents that I want to recruit. Make your own questionnaire based on who you are recruiting for a particular position.

Use In-Depth Questionnaires to Discover Real Needs

Besides using these preliminary questions, always use written in-depth questionnaires so you’ll know

The benefits to the features/needs stated
Hidden objections you may not discover until too late
Motivations to buy that not even the buyers realize they have

Ever heard the term “buyers are liars”? I think that’s not really the case. I think that we don’t ask the right questions to help buyers (our recruits) clarify what they really want. Most ?buyers of services don’t know what they really want. They think they want a better commission split. But, what they’re really looking for is the motivation provided by secrity. That means different things to different people. Find out what’s really motivating your candidate, not just what he says to your basic questions.

Ask the Right Questions in the Right Order and You Won’t Have to Close

Finding the motivators of your buyers (recruit/candidate) is key to helping them make the right buying decisions for themselves. All you have to do to close is to remind them that this product fulfills their needs. And, how do you get there? By creating and using the right questions in the right order.

Don’t forget to grab your pre-screening process–knockout factors to ask on the phone: click here.

Want to streamline your selection process and recruit more winners? Check out Your Blueprint to Selecting Winners. It’s completely digital, so you get all the information right now. Includes an 11-step proven process to interview successfully. Do you have a process or do you just ‘wing it’?

All you have to do to close is to remind them that this product fulfills their needs. And, how do you get there? By creating and using the right questions in the right order.

Don’t forget to grab your pre-screening process–knockout factors to ask on the phone: click here.

Want to streamline your selection process and recruit more winners? Check out Your Blueprint to Selecting Winners. It’s completely digital, so you get all the information right now. Includes an 11-step proven process to interview successfully. Do you have a process or do you just ‘wing it’?

Categories building team, Coaching, communication, expansion teams, Interviewing, New Real Estate Agents, Real estate systems, recruiting, selection
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Building Your Team: 5 More Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid

by Carla Cross

October 18th, 2018

Whether you’re hiring an assistant or building a team (or an expansion team), your challenge is the same as everyone in leadership: How to recruit the right people for your team.

In an earlier post, we explored 5 of the 10 biggest mistakes I’ve seen real estate recruiters make–and, admittedly, I’ve made. After all, I started like most of you–here’s your desk, here’s your phone……you know the drill…

So, here’s the rest of my list. What did I leave out? Why are we selecting so many who fail to make it in real estate?

6. Recruiting agents without the necessary skills or motivation to be
successful

There are the agents that fall over at the first objection (and there are many, even though they tell us they’re tenacious!) We keep beating our heads against stone walls recruiting agents who are deficient in the two skill sets we say are most important to real state success: technical (computer) skills and sales skills. We hire them, and then we pour thousands of dollars down a black hole trying to train them to do the things they won’t or can’t do.

Why not hire agents who already have technical and sales skills? In my program, The Complete Recruiter, I ask managers to make a list of the skills and qualities they feel are critical in the agents they hire. Please do that. Then, create questions that bring out whether an agent has the skills and qualities you need.

7. Talking too much in the interview process

Well, it’s not really an interview process to most managers. It’s actually a talk marathon, where the manager talks to the would-be agent until the agent gets tired and agrees (or not) to join the company. That’s what dozens of agents have described as their “recruiting interview”.

Here’s the right balance for the first interview: The candidate talks 80% of the time; the interviewer talks 20% of the time.

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What are you doing while the interviewee is talking? Asking questions and listening. What are you listening for? Whether or not that interviewee has the necessary amounts of the skills and qualities you want. How do you assure you’ve got the complete story? Probe around that one idea until you’re completely assured that the interviewee has sufficient strength of that trait or skill. The Complete Recruiter has lots of tips on mastering sales skills for recruiting. This is just one of them.

8. Selling all the features and benefits of the company in the same way to each recruit

That’s simply because the manager didn’t ask good questions at the beginning of the process. If he had, he would’ve discovered what needs the agent wanted met. Then, he would’ve designed his presentation to meet those needs.

9. No recruiting plan

A few years ago I was the head writer for the CRB (Certified Real Estate Broker) People Management course. This course includes recruiting, selecting, training, and motivating agents for high productivity. I was excited to teach the course the first time, and was thrilled that there were about sixty managers in the course. I found that most of them had been in the business over ten years.

I wanted to create something where they could share recruiting experiences and a wins, so I decided to do a little contest for best recruiting campaign. I introduced the contest the first morning, and waited for the entries. There were none. At the beginning of the second day I asked the students if it was a dumb contest, or what seemed to be the barriers. They told me that none of them had a recruiting plan, much less a campaign! How could you implement your recruiting moves without a plan of action? We pound into our agents heads the idea of business plans. Yet, we dona’t have plans for the most important of all our activities–recruiting. If you’re among the 95% of managers who don’t have a plan, I’ve provided a simple, straightforward method of planning in The Complete Recruiter.

10. No system for agent follow-up

You’ve interviewed the agent. The agent doesn’t join that day. Now, what happens? In most companies–nothing! You need a contact management system. You need a contact plan. You need materials, and you need strategy. Finally, you need someone to run that plan. Hire a competent assistant and let that assistant engage your plan. This agent follow-up is really a part of your overall recruiting plan. You expect your agents to do it, and you need to do this, too, with your potential recruits. Remember, follow up until they buy or die!

It doesn’t take a masterful recruiter to win all the awards. All it really takes is determination and persistence. And, when you look at the few managers who actively recruit, you know that merely taking a stab at in a consistent manner will win you many recruits. Start now!

How is your Recruiting Plan Working?

Well, shall we be honest? You probably don’t have a plan. At least, that’s my experience in training and coaching thousands of owners and managers. If you don’t have a plan, how do you know what to do each day to find, select, and recruit those you really want? How do you measure how you’re doing? The Complete Recruiter has it all: the plan, the dialogues, the systems. Get it this month at a blazingly good price, too! Find out more here.

8. Selling all the features and benefits of the company in the same way to each recruit

9. No recruiting plan

10. No system for agent follow-up

How is your Recruiting Plan Working?

Leaders with Teams: Avoid These 5 Recruiting Mistakes

by Carla Cross

October 13th, 2018

Leaders with teams: Here’s how to avoid these 5 recruiting mistakes.

If you’re trying to create or expand your team, you’re now in leadership! So, you have to grab the skills leaders use to create great teams.

Isn’t it amazing the number of things a new team leader is supposed to be able to do from day one, even though he or she isn’t trained to do those tasks? Take recruiting, for example. As As a new manager, I was expected to lead generate, get appointments, ask great questions, and select agents who would be successful. But, did I have the skills to perform those tasks with competence? You can bet not!

Even though I was a top-producing agent, I didn’tt take the time to think through, and didn’t know how to, apply the sales skills I had used to attain high sales volume to the recruiting tasks at hand. So, I, like thousands of other new managers, just did it allby ear! Along the way, I had some wins and lots of losses. Through my observations of myself and others, Ia’ve created a list of ten top mistakes, so that you can avoid the pitfalls I and others without training have fallen into.

In this blog, we’ll look at the first five. Also, I’ll add some advice I learned from all those mistakes!

1. Charge ahead to hire

It should occur to us that we need to sit in a quiet place and think about the kind of people we want to hire before we dive in. But, we are so thrilled that someone is in front of us that it doesn’t occur to us that they bring with them their values and ethics. So, if we haven’t thought out our values, our beliefs, and our perspectives first, we run the risk of hiring people who will then dictate what the company values become. Before you start interviewing, decide what you will and what you won’t stand for. Write out your values and your beliefs. Then, when you interview, check to be sure that agent carries those same values and beliefs into your office. Someone’s got to be the leader, and it better be you!

2. Recruiting to old-style management strategies

I know, I know. Just go make those calls and you will get some recruits. Yes, that’s true. But, wouldn’t it be better if you built a company or team that stood apart from the others because of its attractors? The greatest attractors today to a company are twofold:

Values: Does the company/your team have values and beliefs that the agent can live by and agree with?

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Focused on success of its agents: Does the company focus its energy on the success of the agents or on itself?

If you are still trying to recruit to an old-style dictatorship, or, if you’ve given up leadership. Find out what participative management is all about. Find out how to build a team. Figure out how to help each agent reach his/her goals. Now, you’re on the right track. Re-tool your business structure so you’re attractive to the entrepreneur of today and tomorrow.

3. Trying to recruit on the team/company features

“Our company is the largest around.” Well, guess what? If you’re a branch manager, and all your branch managers say the same thing, you’re not going to differentiate yourself that way! You must make yourself a magnet. What about your background provides a benefit to a new agent? To an experienced agent? For example, I was a musical performer and teacher. That taught me performance skills, and how to teach others performance skills. You can see the benefits to agents. I’m able to help an agent reach his goals through greater skills.

4. Not differentiating the feature from all the other companies that have the same thing

“We have a great training program.” So says every company out there. What’s so great about your program? You’d better be able to tell ’em and show ’em. For example: “Our training program has a 90% rate in our agents making a sale in the first thirty days they’re with us.” No one else in the area has success figures like that. Here’s the brochure about our program. It spells out the comprehensive five-step program for new agents. Do you want a program that assures you make money fast?

5. Trying to attract agents through price wars

We in the real estate industry just love to hire agents through the bidding wars. We either provide a lower desk fee, better commission splits, or more trinkets and trash. Guess what? That’s the chicken’s way out. In reality, price is never the best recruiter. But, if you don’t have a great company organization, if you don’t help agents meet their goals, you’re going to have to compete on price. It’s all you’ve got. Now, work hard to provide real value. After all, consumers pay 10% more for products and services they believe are of quality.

Recommendation: Read Drive–The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink. The motivators have changed, but no one has told real estate professionals!

So far, what have I left out? How do you assure you find and hire the right team members?

Get The Insights You Need to Hire with Confidence

You work so hard to gain those interviews. But, do you have planned interview process that assures you pick winners? (And assures the candidates are impressed with you….) Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners, with new information about what desired agents of today are looking for, is a guide to create your unique attractors, how to put together a powerful presentation, and a completely new video showing exactly how to craft the best ‘crystal ball’ type of questions. Learn more here.

Categories building team, expansion teams, expectations, Experienced agent, manager, mega-agent, New Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Success, Real estate systems, real estate team, selectcion, vision
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Expanding your Business? 4 Principles to Gain a Great Team

by Carla Cross

October 6th, 2018

This month: I’m helping great agents expand their businesses by building a team. Each week, I’ll be giving you one principle about team building that assures you build a great team.

The situation: You’re a seasoned agent. You want to double the number of transactions you complete in the next year. What’s your goal—50? 75? 100+ transactions? You’ve thought about hiring an assistant. Or, perhaps you already have an assistant and are considering expanding your team.

Top producers rarely work alone. In fact, they have found there is a limit they can do without an assistant and team members. So, top producers have created support from an assistant and teams of agents to help the whole team achieve higher productivity. To develop a team, though, requires leadership and training skills. In this blog series we’ll explore how to develop those skills to build great teams.

The Four Truisms to Developing Team Leadership

Great agents are great salespeople. However, leadership skills are not necessarily natural to the top salesperson.In the next four blogs, I’ll give you four principles you must recognize and follow to develop your leadership skills for a win-win relationship between you and your team members. Today, let’s focus on principle #1.

Principle #1: People don’t know what’s expected of them.

Just because people accept a position doesn’t mean they know what the job is, or how to proceed with the job as you want them to proceed.

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They need to have clear direction, a job description and a firm understanding of the responsibilities.

1. Do you have a job description for each of your team positions? If not, get one before you go any further!

2. Do you hire to that job description (or do you hire someone because you like that person)? You need to know how to ask the right kind of questions to see if your candidate has the skills and qualities you want for the job. And, you can’t ask, “Are you honest?” Ha!

(For information on the right questions to ask, and how to ask them, see Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners.)

3. Do you get agreement on mutual expectations? Do you have them in writing? You need to get agreement prior to hiring, and develop a dialogue that clearly lays out the expectations and you get active (vocal and in writing) agreement.

4. Do you have solid time lines for job performance review—in writing? Do you know when your job reviews happen? Do you know what’s in them? Be sure you have them in writing!

Get those 4 things in place before you even think about hiring someone!

Are you prepared to hired to that position? What happens when you don’t cover these 4 bases?

Do You ‘Wing’ Your Interview Process?

If you do, you’re leaving the most important decision on growing your business to chance! in Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners, you’ll get a 11-point process to follow for a successful interview. You’ll learn how to construct the kind of questions that will tell you whether that person is a ‘fit’ for that job. And, this resource is all digital, so you get instant access. Learn more here.

This resource works for either agents building teams or managers building their offices. For $79.95, you’ll quit ‘winging it’ and will choose winners, while saving time and dollars!

Categories accountability, building team, company evolutionm, Experienced agent, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Success, Real estate systems, real estate team, recruiting, selecting team member, team
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If You Want or Have a Team: 4 Hiring Tips

by Carla Cross

September 27th, 2018

Here’s how to avoid hiring the agent or staff from hell!

Let’s be honest. Have you ever hired someone and found out it was the ‘hire from hell’? If you haven’t, you just haven’t hired enough agents or staff! Many leaders of teams tell me that the hardest thing they have to do is to hire staff. I think that’s because most of us never had any training in how to hire staff (or hire agents, for that matter).

During a 3-day management symposium I taught in South Carolina, and one of the attendees emailed me: “Can you give me some tips to assure I don’t make a hiring mistake with staff? If any of us hasn’t made mistakes hiring staff, please comment! I know I’ve made many–and that’s why I’ve developed the tips here. This tips work for hiring agents or staff.

And, they work for agents hiring team members. (Managers: forward this to your agents who want or have teams).

So, here are four surefire tips for you.

1. Create the right kind of questions from your job description

Using that job description you created (you did create one, didn’t you?) for your agent or staff position, create past-based questions that tell you if the candidate has the skills and qualities you need. For example. You’re looking for someone who cares about the company. Here’s the question: “In your past jobs, give me 3 examples of how you watched out for the company’s best interests.” Listen and probe. Here’s an example for hiring agents. Let’s say you want an agent who is a ‘self-starter. The question: “Was there a time in your past when you wanted something badly, and you went out and got some kind of job to earn it?” Listen and probe.

For more information on behavioral predictors, see The Complete Recruiter and my eBook on interviewing, Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners.

2. Follow a planned, proven interview process to assure you get all the information you need

Most of us don’t interview; we, just sell. We don’t find out the ‘secrets’ about the candidate, but, the candidate sure finds out about us! If you need a proven process, see Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners. I created 8 steps to use each time for a smooth, professional interview.

3. Use a Behavioral Profile

I’d also suggest you use a behavioral profile, for those who pass your first interview. Use it to gather information prior to your second interview. In our coaching company, we use Michael Abelson’s: www.abelson.net. It’s well worth it because you find out things that are very hard to discover in the ‘live’ interview. Then, you go back and ask more past-based questions about those areas. That’s called ‘validating’.

P. S.

To be legal: Be sure to follow the same interview process for each ‘candidate’.

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4. Check references “3 deep”

Be sure to check references–not just the ones the candidate gives you, but go ‘3 deep’. That means to ask the people the candidate gives you, ‘Who else could I contact about this candidate’? Go 2 people deep from each of the names the candidate gives you. That way, you’re sure to get a better, less biased picture of the candidate. You’ll find you learn a lot from people who weren’t ‘direct references’!

Now, you have those four surefire tips to avoid staff hiring mistakes. Let me know how they work for you!

Categories building team, Experienced agent, Interviewing, manager, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Success, Real estate systems, real estate team, retention, sales organization, Sales Strategies, selecting team member, team
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Want Extra Support? What About Getting a Mentor? Joining a Team?

by Carla Cross

May 21st, 2018

Want extra support? What about getting a mentor? These are questions newer agents, especially, ask themselves.

These and dozens of other considerations are in my ebook, What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School.

So, what about getting a mentor? Here are the pros and cons.

Getting a Mentor

What is a ‘mentor’? There’s not a clearly defined job function. Mentors are usually seasoned agents who offer to help new agents. They may

Offer advice
Allow you to shadow them
Ask you to do parts of their business

New agents love the thought of a mentor, because they have so many questions. And, they think the mentor will be their ‘answer man’. But, I’ve observed that having an ‘answer man’ surely doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, it may impede an agent getting into action. How? An agent may think he needs more and more information before he will act. Then, he just keeps coming to the mentor for every question under the sun. And, the more the new agent knows, the more frightened he becomes. Plus, the advice received from the mentor may not be in the new agent’s best interest.

Get The Services in Writing

If you are considering a mentor, get in writing exactly what the mentor will do for you. (and what they won’t or can’t do for you!)

Here’s the question to ask yourself: Why is the mentor willing to help you? What does the mentor expect from you?

Joining a Team

Another consideration new agents have is to join a team. As you interview, you may be invited to join an office team. That means you’ll be essentially working for a ‘rainmaker’, a lead agent who generates ‘leads’ for those on his team. Of course, those leads cost money, and the rainmaker takes about half the income from the team member for the lead generation and other services.

Team Leaders Generate Leads for Team Members–but There’s a ‘Catch’….

Teaming helps agents obtain leads as they start up business. While agents earn the most in commission dollars when they generate their leads themselves, a new agent may need to pay for someone else’s lead generation to begin to develop business. There is a downside to this approach, however. Agents can become complacent and sit and wait for leads. They won’t generate—until they get tired of paying for someone else’s leads.

Positives: You may be able to jump-start your career with leads given to you.

Watch out for: Be careful to choose a rainmaker who really has enough good leads to distribute to you. Sit in on her team meeting to see how she manages the team. Find out if and how the rainmaker will train you. Find out how much turnover there has been on the team. Find out whether you can sell and list houses outside the team—and how much the rainmaker would charge you if you did. Read the contract the rainmaker asks you to sign and be sure you understand the consequences of your involvement. Evaluate how good a leader that rainmaker is. Some rainmakers are great salespeople, but lousy leaders, and so their team never ‘gells’.

The ‘Catch’

Most team leaders ultimately expect their team members to generate their own leads, in addition to team leads. If you can’t meet the rainmaker’s expectations, you are terminated. Be willing and ready to take the responsibilities of team member seriously.

Be informed: Be sure to get the services and responsibilities, plus the commission structure of the team–in writing!

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Your Experience with Mentors or Teams

What experience have you had? Let me know, so we’ll add your comments to my advice!

Categories building team, expectations, manager, mentor, New Real Estate Agents, Real estate as a career, real estate team, selecting team member, Training, What They Don't Teach You in PreLicense School
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The Fantastic Power of Appreciation

by Carla Cross

May 18th, 2018

Are you harnassing the fantastic power of appreciation?

Have you appreciated your team today? This post is for you agents who work with other agents–your assistants, buyers’ agents, or agents from other companies (that’s everybody, right?)

Many times, we’re so caught up in our challenges and putting out fires we forget to give a little time to appreciating the positive actions others take. Recently, I got a very touching card in the mail from my friends at the Northwest Chapter of the National Speakers’ Association. I’ve been a member of National Speakers’ Association for over 2 decades, and have been very active in our chapter, although I’m not now. Even though I know only a few board members, they all took the time to write me a note for a challenge my family is experiencing. It not only made my day, it made me feel as though I had made a positive impression on their lives at some point!

So, if you want to lift yourself up, take the time to lift someone else up! It not only will make that person feel wonderful, it will make you feel wonderful.

Motivation and Appreciation

If you’ve ever worked in any management capacity (or have kids, or worked in a volunteer organization, etc.), we know the need to motivate. Yet, most of us aren’t students of motivation. No need to memorize psychologists’ names or read thousands of pages on motivational theory. To motivate best, you just need to apply this key principle:

The best positive motivator is appreciation

What do you appreciate? I don’t mean necessarily trophies in front of thousands! (Some people hate that one!) I mean those little things. Why appreciate to motivate?

Behavior that’s rewarded is repeated.

How often do you appreciate? Much more than you think! (When is the last time you heard someone grumble because they were appreciated? Not!)

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One minute action for the day: Make a list of the different ways you motivate by appreciating. Now, tally the number of times you have motivated someone using one of your appreciation motivators this week. How high can you go? The more you appreciate, the better behavior you get.

For a list of 25 ways to appreciate, plus basic principles of motivation, click here.

Upping your appreciation motivation gets you something we as real estate professionals yearn for: Appreciation for our hard work…..

Let Me Help Motivate your Agents to Greatness!

Let me help you and those you work with get fired up, get the information and skills you need, and get on a success plan. Up and Running in Real Estate has lots of positive motivation and encouragement built right in. It also has a coaching component, to make it easy for you to track your agents’ progress. Take a look. I’ll help you guide your agents, train your agents, and motivate your agents.

Categories attitude, building team, communication, Experienced agent, goals, inspiration, New Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Sales, Real estate systems, real estate team
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Resources (Some are FREE) to Gain those Management Skills

Resource (Some are FREE) to Gain those Management Skills

Grab the leadership skill assessment here.

6. Recruiting agents without the necessary skills or motivation to be successful

7. Talking too much in the interview process

8. Selling all the features and benefits of the company in the same way to each recruit

9. No recruiting plan

10. No system for agent follow-up

How is your Recruiting Plan Working?

8. Selling all the features and benefits of the company in the same way to each recruit

9. No recruiting plan

10. No system for agent follow-up

How is your Recruiting Plan Working?

1. Charge ahead to hire

2. Recruiting to old-style management strategies

3. Trying to recruit on the team/company features

4. Not differentiating the feature from all the other companies that have the same thing

5. Trying to attract agents through price wars

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