For decades now, teams have been on the rise in real estate—an industry that’s been slow to catch on to the fact that clients can be better served with a team approach. Further, agents are living more balanced lives both as team leaders and team members.
While most businesses are set up and run as teams, for some reason, real estate agents have become so caught up in their personal importance in the transaction that they forget to see the most important part of real estate. This is the ability to create amazing client experiences, while making sure their clients are the most educated and prepared person in the transaction so that when they’re ready to transact, their family wins. For decades, agents have insisted that they’re the most important person in the transaction, and if it weren’t for them, the deal would never get done. Comments such as “Nobody can do it as well as I can” and “My clients really love me; they would never work with a buyer’s agent” are simply based on ego, and the inability to remove oneself from the transaction.
While this piece may seem biased toward teams, it’s actually biased toward the consumer. I believe that the game is the best teacher of real estate, and the more you show homes, write and negotiate contracts, list and market, the better you get at each task. It’s the opinion of many leaders in our industry that real estate teams are the future because they create an environment where the client gets to work with an expert in every aspect of the transaction.
Here are the basic positions of expertise you should create if you decide to build a team:
- Team Leader
- Client Care Coordinator
- Transaction Coordinator
- Showing Assistants
- Buyer’s Agents
- Listing Partners
- Inside Sales Associate (ISA)
Each position on the team has a full job description with clearly defined roles and clearly defined goals. Oftentimes, the team leader fills most of the roles until their business grows to the point where it makes sense to replace themselves in that role. The key to success in building a team is to create or follow a system with clear documentation on what’s being done, so that the team leader can train their replacement in each position until their team is fully staffed. The result will be a well-oiled machine where team members are a true extension of the team leader, providing clients with an amazing experience at every phase of the transaction.
Once the team is formed, it’s the role of the team leader to create an environment where each person can have success in their position and intentionally create a culture of productivity. With the hundreds of teams we’ve coached over the years, we’ve come to learn the importance of creating great systems, following those systems, hiring to the right core values, and being quick to release team members who create risk and conflict and don’t live the value you’ve created for the team.
Verl Workman is the founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems (385-282-7112), an international speaking, consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and building successful power agents and teams. Contact him at Verl@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com. For more information, please visit www.workmansuccesssystems.com.
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