You and your agent team wear many hats: you’re schedulers, problem-solvers, counselors, deal-makers, and sometimes, miracle workers. With your hectic schedule, it may surprise you to learn that in the U.S., the annual hours worked per employee has gone down in the last 4 years. Even though many Americans say they need more hours to accomplish their daily to-do list, in reality they have more free time. So, why does it seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day?
Although we can’t control time, we can avoid the things that derail our productivity to allow us to focus our energy on activities that help us reach our goals.
Here are 5 reminders of ‘what not to do’:
1. Don’t Blow off your Yearly Business Plan Update and Review.
Seems like a reasonable thing to do, after all you just did it last year right? It turns out that reexamining your yearly business plan is a priceless activity in that it allows you to feel like you are executing a plan and have a strategy for moving forward which is deliberate, not haphazard. In the fast-paced world of real estate, things change, markets are good and bad, agents come and go. Your business plan is an opportunity to retrench and reflect currently realities into a plan and a roadmap for the year and beyond. It keeps you and your team focused on realistic and specific goals for your brokerage and gives you the opportunity to adjust if you are not hitting your goals. After all, waiting until the end of the year to find out you didn’t recruit enough agents or secure enough listings will be too late.
2. Don’t Get Distracted by Disruptors
You and your team face the ongoing challenge of keeping up with fluctuations in the real estate market. Beware of disruptors that distract you from your current priority: your business and your customers. Disruptive players continue to introduce different models for operating a brokerage, technology companies are offering a plethora of fancy ways to generate leads. These are often shiny objects that aren’t going to add a whole lot to your business when the day is over.
As a broker/owner you don’t have time to chase every new technology or service that comes along promising to change your world. Stick to those with proven systems and proven processes and make sure you see real proof of their success before you leap.
3. Don’t Buy your CRM and other Technology Services with the Herd.
Choosing customer relationship management (CRM) tools and lead generation and other services based on popularity and price may be an easy way to make these decisions. It can also lead you to tools and services that are completely wrong for your brokerage. It’s tempting though, given the time this takes and the fact that many brokers are not technology experts. The bottom line is that you must be involved to some degree in all major technology decisions beyond just writing the check. Here are some ideas to help you manage and evaluate these tools.
- Make the tech savvy agent in your office responsible for organizing these product or service evaluations and training you at your pace. You may need to compensate them, but it is well worth it in the long run.Make sure your team is bought in to using a new tool or service. Too many brokers tell the story of expensive tools and services they bought that no one ever used. Buy-in to your goals from the beginning is key and if you don’t have it at the beginning, you are unlikely to have it later.Look for more than social proof. Asking friends and associates is fine to get you the names of services and products you may want to consider, but real proof of the utility of these tools must come from a solid analysis of the payback, track record, and ongoing costs of use. As the decision maker, you must strive to know these numbers.
Dealing with brokerage level adoption of real estate technologies and services does not have to be a soul-crushing experience, but it should have a process that gets buy-in, and a champion who does not necessarily have to be the broker.
4. Don’t Get Sucked Back into the Sales Game
This cautionary tale never gets old. Many brokers are afraid to stop selling, fearing their agents are not equipped to replace that production. It can also be tempting to step in and generate some additional revenue for yourself by listing and selling a few properties. The thing is, when you’re managing listings, you can’t manage your business at the same time. You’re diverted from the important longer-term growth drivers for your brokerage.
Resist the urge to take on these sales yourselves. Give them to that bright, energetic new recruit who’s struggling to get started. Make sure you have repeatable systems in place to help them succeed. You’ll make more progress against your goals by focusing on broader activities like lead generation, recruiting, training, coaching, and brokerage marketing.
5. Don’t Wing It
This is a particularly easy one not to do. If you have systems in place that are set and repeatable, you will be so much more efficient in what you do. Whether it’s recruiting, developing a business and marketing plan or selling systems for your agents, have a structure. Without it, you’ll feel like you are constantly treading water and that is not a productive way to operate any business.
This idea of repeatable systems may well be the strongest value and focus of a real estate franchise system like the one Weichert provides. While other big box franchises offer little more than their name, Weichert has taken its decades of growth and distilled it into processes, training and lead generation systems which have fueled the success of hundreds of offices. This includes a regular and repeatable recruiting process which allows you to attract both new and experienced agents. It also includes some of the strongest coaching programs in the real estate industry. Our programs give you a diverse baseline of materials and tactics both online and in person which can then be customized for your business and presented to new team members with much less effort than would be required to develop these from scratch. From our online university content available 24/7, to our much beloved “Fast Track” training program for new agents which gets them producing fast, our support is comprehensive. Not to mention a host of tools, technologies, and lead generation tools that can be game changers for brokerages.
Proven Real Estate Selling Systems
When you become a Weichert affiliate, your brokerage can stop the “Don’ts” and focus on the “Do’s”. You’ll gain immediate access to Weichert Support including our recipe for success, coaching, and technology. You’ll have the support to help navigate the current landscape and avoid costly mine fields.
If you’re ready to focus your energy on the customer activities that build your brokerage, let us show you how partnering with Weichert will help.
Call us today at 877-567-3350 or contact our team for more information.
Are we a good fit?
Let’s talk about it. We promise no pressure, just useful information.