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Back to Basics: Advice for Struggling Agents

by Jason Porterfield

Back to Basics

For example, many agents get lost with time management, or lack thereof. One big difference between thriving agents and struggling agents is that thriving agents spend more time engaging in activities that will help their business: lead generation, selling homes and helping buyers find homes to buy. Agents often do other tasks that, while important, shouldn’t take precedence over something like lead generation.

A thriving agent is disciplined and strategic with time. A struggling agent, no matter what level, tends to be reactionary and allow distractions to take over from activities that should have more priority. Again, focus is key. And while struggling is more common for new agents, it is true that seasoned agents, sometimes even top-producing agents, have their share of challenges they need help overcoming.

Chuck Goro, the managing broker of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Lincoln Park Plaza office, has a process for helping agents refocus and get past their challenges.

 “We have to sit down and go over the steps one more time so they can understand where they’re trying to go to and how many deals they need to get a month and how to get them,” Goro says. “The one thing I try to explain to everybody is that waiting for a phone call or for somebody to passively help you with your business is not going to work. You have to set up steps to get you closer and closer to your goal, and be proactive.”

Lynn Kosner, the managing broker of Baird & Warner’s Highland Park office, helps her agents set realistic goals and helps them develop plans for meeting them. She also encourages agents to maintain relationships with the people in their database. Even the most experienced agents can have trouble keeping up with the business side of real estate and the more personal touches.

Kosner had an agent who wasn’t a new agent, but she had a major slide backwards one year, similar to McCafferty’s agent. She was over her budget and spending her money on things that weren’t really helping in her business, and her production decreased by about 50 percent. Kosner, like McCafferty, advised her to go back to basics and hit the refresh button. Her agent was doing too much and spending too much money with little results – Kosner had her stop spending so much money, and instead, had her figure out how she could better balance her time. Once the agent figured out how much time she needed to spend on prospecting and follow-up, then she organized herself with a CRM to help with those basic tasks, and she focused more on clients – and then her business took a turn for the better.

“It’s really the little things that make a difference,” Kosner says. “The next year she had the best year she ever had because, basically, she went back and did all those things that you’re supposed to do.”

New agents may be anxious about their lack of experience and need coaching to get past their lack of confidence. Kosner sits down with every new agent to see how they started in the business and how they can achieve their goals.

“I make sure that there are open houses for them to attend, set them up with a mentor, help them speak with people and offer advice and counsel,” she says. “A lot of times, new agents are just concerned because they know they’re not experienced and they’re afraid that translates to the consumer. The biggest thing is to help them overcome a lack of confidence in that regard, and help them see how their enthusiasm and newness to the business can be something that is a benefit to the consumer, as well.”

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