Good planning can ensure agents' success
Dec. 3, 2007
 Looking to ensure a newcomer's success? Want to increase production among seasoned veterans? If so, brokers, branch managers and team leaders
― in fact, anyone who hungers for their people to get ahead ― must hold them accountable.
Accountability normally is viewed as "breathing down someone's neck," demanding results. But accountability starts with something as simple as helping recruits and veterans alike create a plan for their accomplishments. The right plan, and an simple understanding of how it operates, instills accountability and helps agents meet and exceed their goals!
Optimizing the planning process often involves five key elements:
1) Set realistic goals. Unrealistic goals quickly discourage any agent. Ensuring that established goals are realistic sets a smart tone for the first year of a recruit's production.Having realistic goals creates a pattern for long-term growth. Need a comparison tool? Use the numbers from earlier plans of successful agents who are now veterans of 3-5 years.
2) Define activities. No matter how long agents have been in real estate, defining what each must accomplish -- and how it will get done -- is a must if supervisors intend to successfully monitor their progress. Seasoned professionals know what activities they need to do to keep their pipeline full, but many just plain forget to do it! And new recruits often lack guidance. The list of defined activities for each agent should be very specific, should be accompanied by a completion date, and should be matched with an estimate of anticipated results or outcomes. Re-visiting lists weekly with agents keeps both recruits and old hands sharp.
3) Identify issues. By comparing and examining activities and appointments each agent undertakes, good managers help their people determine what works best for them and their skill sets. This is an overlooked function of longevity in real estate. Those who do well are the ones who usually accomplish finite activities, compared to those who attempt to do everything and succeed at little.
4) Add accountability. Periodically checking activities allows managers to supervise agents' progress and add incentives or more tasks, if either is needed or desirable. Remember, too, that the best incentive often isn't money. All those in the sales profession need praise when they do well and, on occasion, a good kick-in-the-backside when they don't. View your staff's activities through the lens of their personal plans, as well as your firm's overall plan.
5) Conduct meaningful reviews. Well-crafted and thoughtfully reviewed plans reveal items that work, as well as those that need attention.
Intensive reviews help managers and agents identify:
- Unusual overhead or marketing expense changes
- Changes in closed transactions
- Changes in earnings, and
- Discrepancies in sources of business
All agents, from newbies to long-timers, have the power to consistently succeed in the real estate business
IF they've planned for that success. The best managers help show them the way.
This article, which has been edited for use here, was initially published by RE Careers in its November 2007 newsletter.
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