Experienced Agent Struggles

Struggles aren’t exclusive to new agents. Established Realtors also occasionally encounter obstacles. They may hit patches where their production is inconsistent from month to month, or their leads suddenly dry up. Some plateau at a certain level and can’t quite hit the top producer status they’ve been working toward, or they have trouble moving into a higher earning range. The problems they face may bear little outward resemblance to those of newer agents, but in many cases they can be resolved by following the same steps.

“Oftentimes they’re so busy that they don’t realize that they’ve dropped all of the basic stuff that they used to do,” McCafferty says “It’s just reminders, training and strategies about following through. Some of the more experienced agents didn’t keep up with their databases, don’t subscribe necessarily to CRMs and some of the new electronic tools. We help them get involved with that.”

McCafferty meets with her seasoned pros to plan strategies for getting back on track, and reminds them of the steps they took to become successful in the first place. She encourages them to add new contacts and keep in touch with past clients. Newer agents also help more established Realtors get back on track. McCafferty involves her experienced agents in the process of helping newer agents break into the business.

New and experienced agents are encouraged to list their goals and develop strategies for attaining them, a process that Van Eck says helps them see areas in which they can improve. He emphasizes  the importance of keeping in touch with past clients and adding new contacts.

“Anytime there’s a problem and someone’s business is plateauing or failing or not taking off, the question becomes, ‘How are you flowing with your people?’” Van Eck says. “Are you making them feel good or solving their problem? Are people attracted to you? The bottom line is, if you give people something, they want to give something back.”

Thomson recently counseled an agent who had been having an off year. The agent had not kept up with people in the database and lost touch with previous clients. Thomson and the agent looked at what had been going wrong and found that going back to basics would solve many of those problems.

“We wound up talking about their systems and helped create systems for while they are working on a transaction,” she says. “They’re very fortunate, because they have people on the list. They have people who are very loyal to them, but they haven’t actually been working the database.”

Goro reiterated the need for agents to keep adding contacts to the database and working to maintain their databases. Increasing business often comes down to keeping in touch with people in order to avoid inconsistency or plateauing at a certain level. People like a personal touch from their agents, whether it’s a handwritten card or going out for coffee.

“Our business is all about people,” he says. “The more people you pack in, the more people you talk to, the more friendships you develop and the more opportunities you have of developing your business.” CA