If you’re a team leader of an existing team, or you recently started a team and are trying to build and scale it, implement the following strategies to double your sales, regardless of where you are right now.
Remember: Having the strategy and vision will get you started, but it’s imperative that you have a drive, relentless tenacity and will to succeed, and know that while you’re going to make mistakes, it’ll be worth it in the end. Agents who have a written strategy and business plan succeed at a higher rate. Let’s make this year the year you double your sales. So many of my clients have used this strategy to go from $5 million to $25 million or $6 million to $60 million-plus, and even over $100 million, in closed business.
Follow and implement these strategies to double your team’s size, production and income, and increase your marketshare, as well.
- Write down your vision. Where do you want to go? Is there a goal or a level of achievement that you want to conquer? What is it and what does it look like? What is your end goal? Do you know what precisely you want to do? Work less? Travel more? Be the No. 1 team in your market? Double your units or volume, or even increase your GCI and profit? Do you want a better work/life balance? Do you want to change the lives of the agents and employees that work for you? You need to know exactly what it is you want to achieve, and what it will mean to you when you achieve it.
- Write down your actual, “must-have” income, and then the “crazy” amount of income you want you and your team members to earn. Go ahead. Write it down. Add more to the number right now. Don’t shortchange yourself!
- Make a list of what you have to do to achieve this vision and goal. Write down 4-5 bullet points of action items you must accomplish to attain the goal you’ve set. Then, determine whether you already have the people to make this happen, or, write down next to the action item “need team member here.”
- Determine how many new agents you need to list and sell homes full-time. Are there people on your team that can be “coached up” to do double their production, or do you need to recruit new agents into your organization? Do you need staff? Depending on your current setup, you may want to hire a social media marketing administrator for your team.
- What does your Work Center System look like? Do you have procedures and systems in place for every function of your team? Identify opportunities and weaknesses that need attention, and create the system for every role on the team, from listing docs to closing and social media marketing. Repeatable systems will help leverage your time and ability to move on to more dollar-producing activities.
- Communicate your vision to your team, and solicit their commitment to helping make it happen. Have weekly team meetings when you share new listings with each other and match buyers and sellers to homes. Give everyone on your team a chance to show and sell the house first.
- Set up a private, team-only Facebook group so you can motivate, inspire, track and hold agents accountable to their business plans. Congratulate and recognize their daily achievements that will later turn into significant results in listings, sales and income.
- Set monthly goals for each agent for listings and sales, and track the number of appointments your team goes on, as well as monthly listings and sales by agent and by the entire team. Share this. (You can use my exclusive GoldMinePipeline™ strategy to build each agent’s pipeline of buyer and seller leads.)
- Create a recruiting plan to hire agents in a specific neighborhood or city that you want to dominate. Train the agents immediately, and get them up and running quickly so they are busy and making money, and you have more signs out in your market.
- Coach real estate agents in how to sell, how to compete and how to win every listing, as well as convert leads into appointments, sales and income. Have call days for your agents to make calls during a designated time. There is success in numbers, and success breeds success!
- Reward performance. Set a team goal and offer a huge reward or prize when the target is hit—for example, a cruise, a trip to a tropical resort, or bonus money or an increased commission rate. Celebrate victories and recognize those who hit their goals. Give them the accolades for their commitment and perseverance.
If you adopt these leadership principles to communicate your goals to your team, as well as inspire, challenge and motivate them, you will see amazing results. Everyone will be feeding off each other and success will continue to happen. Your leadership will literally create the cadence of energy that moves people to perform at the highest level, and you’ll be meeting and exceeding your annual goals and growing a thriving team.
For a free copy of my exclusive “How to Build and Grow a Team,” click here.
Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 20 years of experience in real estate, Johnson offers coaching, consulting and keynotes, and is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour. For more information, please contact coaching@sherrijohnson.com or 844-989-2600 (toll-free) or visit www.sherrijohnson.com.
