A good way to win? Play as a team. The best way to keep winning? Build an awesome team. There’s strength in numbers, even for the best broker — but that doesn’t mean you can just throw together a few qualified realtors and expect sales to double.
According to a recent survey by Bain & Company, the majority of senior executives form teams based on whoever is available rather than scouting the best talent for the job. Sure, the first method is easier, but it’s also 25% less productive.
As a broker, you can’t rely on your best guy to carry the firm’s success.
Realtors can come and go as they please.
If your best guy/gal decides to jump ship, they could leave your whole brokerage, for lack of a better word, screwed. You need all your guys to be your best guy. Keep these important tips in mind when building your real estate team.
Potential is great, but performance is what moves the needle. When interviewing candidates, seek out those who are not only experts, but who are also energetic, driven, and enjoy working in teams.
In most organizations, one in seven employees is a star.
When seven in seven are stars, productivity increases exponentially.
Everyone from your admin assistant to your coordinators to your agents should be passionate about their work and focused on success. All too often, firms hire “good enough” people in the interest of time, assuming things will come out in the wash thanks to one or two awesome agents.
But here’s the thing: a balanced team isn’t an all-star team.
It might stay afloat, but it won’t pick up speed.
Chances are the agents on your team know how good they are, and that means they also know their talents would be valued elsewhere — possibly with a competing broker. It’s your job to give them incentive to stay onboard.
Acknowledge achievements by awarding leadership roles to standout individuals so they know they’re a crucial part of the firm. Meet regularly with each team member to go over any issues or highlights they’ve experienced and identify any themes that may be emerging within the team as a whole.
Make encouraging and motivating one another an integral part of your team’s interactions.
They should be competing against themselves, not each other.
Make team performance a major determinant for compensation and promotion rather than strictly rewarding individual performance. This way the whole team will strive to help each other be at the top of their game every day. This also helps keep egos in check, which is necessary in all-star teams: when everyone’s the best at what they do, they’re bound to get a little cocky sometimes.
There’s no perfect formula for managing a real estate team. As you hire and train employees, keep your standards high and your mission focused.
Do this, and you won’t have to search for the best; the best will come to you.
Helen Irias is a Staff Writer at The Real Daily with a degree in English Literature from University of California, Santa Barbara. She works in marketing in Silicon Valley and hopes to one day publish a comically self-deprecating memoir that people bring up at dinner parties to make themselves sound interesting.
