Real estate teams and brokerages alike have similar challenges when it comes to retaining talented agents and staff. We learned a long time ago that people don’t quit brands or companies, but rather, they quit leaders. Therefore, it’s the role of the leader—either team leader or broker/owner—to create an environment that encourages growth, and allows people to choose to stay.
The following steps will put you on the path toward improving your retention rates:
- Create a culture of productivity. Recruiting agents is easy, but in order to keep them, you must help them be productive. You can have the best office in the world, but if your agents aren’t making any money, they’re eventually going to leave for a better promise and opportunity.
Each day, we encourage our teams to hold a 15-minute huddle, go over their Daily Success Habits Tracker (DSH), review leads and prospecting activities and spend a minimum of 30 minutes role-playing specific scripts before finally prospecting for an hour. When you do this as a team, it sets the standard for productivity and creates a fun culture that’s difficult to leave.
- Hire with clear expectations. When hiring, you must do a good job of selling what you offer and what you’re going to do for your agents, as well as what’s expected of them. If you don’t set clear expectations from the beginning, you’ll most likely be met with resistance and dismissal when it comes time to incorporate accountability. Setting the stage during the interview process changes expectations, and sets the right tone.
- Hire to your core values, and live them. Core values are often talked about, and sometimes even put on a plaque. As the soul of your business, they should be recited often. Many of our teams take one core value and recite it as a team monthly, and then go out of their way to catch one another living that value. Prizes are awarded and team members are recognized for living these core values. This integration of values into the culture builds loyalty and creates a bond beyond the brand and its tools, bringing like-minded people together to make a difference.
- Lead by example. The best leaders serve rather than dictate. If we tell people what to do, but live our own lives differently, a culture of mistrust is cultivated—and high turnover is expected. For example, if you’re asking your agents to prospect one hour a day and track the dials, contacts and appointments, then you should be doing the same thing. Track what you do and show your agents that you’re willing to do the same things you’re asking them to do.
- Allow them to grow. We often hold people back by telling them they’re not ready to build a team or work with sellers or take on more responsibilities, but it’s our job as leaders to develop our people to grow, and create an environment where they can push their potential and earn more. Sometimes the right thing to do is allow a top performer to build a team within your team, or within the brokerage itself. By stifling their growth, or telling them they’re not ready, you’re opening the door to confusion and movement. Oftentimes, that movement is to another brokerage or team.
- Encourage them to recruit like-minded people. When you find agents to engage, participate and grow, teach them to find other like-minded agents to grow your brokerage and team. They’ll eliminate the bad apples and strive to find people who engage in your culture of productivity.
For a free copy of my daily huddle agenda, and the DSH tracker, email me at Verl@WorkmanSuccess.com.
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.
