Effectively Assembling Your Agents

Jeff Sibbach The Sibbach Team, eXp Realty	Phil Sexton The Sibbach Team, eXp Realty

Managing a team within a brokerage means taking on a significant amount of responsibility. It’s not enough to put a post on Indeed, hire the first applicants you find, and expect them to succeed. You’ll be setting yourself and your team up for failure if this is your course of action. Keep in mind that you, as the team leader, have the responsibility to drive results for everybody on the team. This will require participation and teamwork by all.

Below are tips to help guide you in establishing and running a team.

When it comes to finding a brokerage to join, make sure you take time to define your goals and values that will fulfill your desired results. This is an important first step because the team you build should reflect similar values. If the brokerage does not provide the proven path to success that you desire, this will cause major issues down the road. A good general rule while looking for a brokerage is to look for a group with a market presence and recent growth in agent count because this signifies an innovative organization needed in today’s world. Support of a team structure, broker support, and technology are also key identifiers for a good brokerage.

When it comes to assembling your team, look for agents who are motivated, trainable, and willing to take advantage of the opportunities you put in front of them. You want prospects who are hungry for the business and willing to operate on their own, but who are also ready to take direction and work well in a team environment. Team culture is often an overlooked and under-nourished part of running a team. Culture exists whether it’s intentional or unintentional, so make sure you take time to cultivate the atmosphere you desire. A few ways to do this include offering true leadership by way of teaching your team members how to improve their numbers to close more deals, putting a cap on the fees they pay, and inviting them to attend industry events. If you choose not to nurture the environment, you could end up with a toxic team, or more importantly lose, due to turn over, the valuable team members you’ve nurtured over time.

After you develop a strong team culture, how will you keep them motivated? Current tricks of the trade involve visualization, regularly giving awards or public recognition, and one of the most popular motivators: offering incentive trips to exotic places. Other forms of motivation can come from training and mentorship. Many agents are motivated simply by the desire to learn and grow, so offering them training opportunities on a regular basis can go a long way. Also consider developing a mentor tree. All mentorship should come defined by one principle of success, then other mentors within the team will emerge emanating from these core principles. Being a mentor for everyone on your team has its limitations, this is why having a mentor tree allows others to carry the load within the team.

Your team will look to you for support to do their jobs well. Technology is a cost-effective way to give your team the tools they need to succeed. CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) is a highly effective way to help your agents build their database and electronically communicate with their leads and yours as they offer a variety of email, text, and workflow automation tools. And better yet, their client data is ubiquitous on their mobile app or device. Additionally, consider providing video training, lead routing, suggestions for different blogs or web presence, industry-related media to follow, and regular in-person training, like how to use Facebook to leverage your business without spending money!

When it comes to getting paid, your team members will naturally want what they feel is fair. A great way to do this is by using the value-based model. This structure considers who created the lead, how much work the agent performs vs. team staff, and who gets credit for creating the strategy to develop the lead.

Building a good, strong team starts with you. You’re not just a team recruiter, you are a leader, and your team members will think of you as such. If you desire to be a leader, you need to work consistently, identify opportunities for innovation, and have a strong vision to drive the outcome you desire while always putting your team members in the path of opportunity.