Creating Systems

Some challenges in the business may need in-depth coaching. Many of the challenges brought by new agents at @properties can be handled by the firm’s coaching staff and classes. The company expects agents to attend a Real Estate 101 class, says Rebecca Thomson, vice president of agent development with @properties, but some need extra help.

“With some agents, it is important to do a one-on-one coaching session and focus on how they prospect and connect with their sphere,” Thomson says. “We’ll practice, sometimes pairing them up with an accountability partner where they can get a feel for what they need to do.”

Thomson helps agents develop time-blocking practices and build systems. She said the company provides accountability and scheduled time to follow up with agents. That gives managers a structure within which to follow up with agents to review plans and benchmarks. Organizing systems and processes in which an agent can follow every day will help any agent overcome a prospecting/lead generation roadblock.

“Sometimes, just having that other person holding them accountable helps them get there,” she says. “A lot of agents wind up focusing elsewhere, and they don’t take the time to focus on growing their business. Sometimes it’s simple things, such as organizing their database, reaching out to past clients, even just having a marketing plan for their sphere.”

Kosner has her new agents check their databases to make sure they are up to date and complete, with all of the contacts in their sphere of influence entered and uploaded into the company’s CRM suite.

“I always go through that with them,” she says of agent Web pages. “Making sure that their database is put together is the very first thing we would advise any new agent to do.” And, this is a common misstep that can lead to an agent struggling with lead generation and prospecting; agents need to be trained on the importance of building and maintaining a database early on.

Work Your Database

One of the most common problems agents face, Goro says, often comes down to neglecting their database and letting their contacts dry up.

“The most common thing, really, is people do not work their database,” Goro says. “They come to work without a plan. They come to the office and they don’t think about calling their database or a past customer; they don’t think about setting up a program to give gifts to them, or to go talk to them about the business. They don’t have coffee with them. They’re just hoping that the phone’s going to ring. And I don’t care how long you stare at it, the phone’s not going to ring.”

Goro uses as system that he calls “Who Do You Know” to kickstart agents who have stalled. He advises agents to tell everybody that they do business with that they’re in real estate.

 “Maybe it’s dry cleaners, maybe it’s a beauty salon,” Goro says. “It could be a variety of different places that you absolutely go to where the people know you, but you have still not told them that you’re in the real estate business. You use your ‘who do you know’ list to build a business.”

That list, he adds, should help in building a marketing plan. But your marketing plan should not only cater to your database and help promote you within your sphere of influence, it should also market yourself within the niche and/or location you work in, and establish yourself as an expert. Goro recently talked to a new agent who was working in an unfamiliar area and was experiencing problems. The agent had just moved to the area himself, but was attempting to keep his business going; he was just changing the area in which he worked. However, he was getting stuck catering to clients in his old area, and when he did get referrals and leads in his new area, he couldn’t answer certain questions and didn’t have enough or the right information to satisfy potential clients, and he lost the lead.

Goro advised the agent to get to know everything about the neighborhood so that the clients receive the service they expect and won’t be tempted to switch agents.

“You must know the area, because if you really have not taken the time to learn the school districts, neighborhood restaurants, coffee shops, etc., you have not taken the time to learn everything about the neighborhood that you possibly can to become an expert in an area where they expect you to be an expert,”  he says.