Question #1: What is the best way to respond to a client who is asking an
agent to discount their commission? How do they articulate their value as a
full service agent? As a Windermere agent?
LJ Berarducci: NV-Summerlin
When preparing a market analysis and a listing presentation, I always encourage
agents to put together a classy, complete presentation all about the technology
and marketing available at Windermere. I encourage them to talk about the
property and the owners and not themselves. I also suggest that they drive by
the property prior to meeting the owners, take a picture of the property and
include that picture in their presentation. By driving by the property first and
taking a picture, the agent has already made a commitment to the owner and can
forestall the inevitable question….will you discount your commission? If the
presentation is exceptional, the owners’ understand that the marketing and
technology applied to their property will be exceptional as well.
I strongly urge agents to ask the owner when they ask about discount
commissions, “If your boss gave you a new assignment, asked you to take a pay
cut but asked you to provide the same exceptional service that you always
provide, would you take the assignment? Or I suggest that the agents ask the
owner which of the marketing/technology services would they like to eliminate
in lieu of a full commission? As Windermere agents, I encourage them to share
with the sellers that Windermere has been awarded top rating by the National
Association of Realtors since 1998 for their consumer friendly and effective
website. Then ask them the question, I would think that your home would get
better exposure to the buying public on our website than others which may only
be interested in trapping leads for the company. This is particularly important
since 7 out of 10 home buyers go to the internet first before selecting a realtor or a
range of homes to preview.
Finally, if the presentation is “wow” enough, the question of discounts usually
doesn’t come up. At least, it hasn’t for me personally in my real estate business
over the years.
Here is the answer to how do we develop our Windermere culture.
During the office meetings on Tuesday’s, we ask agents if they know any classy
agents with other companies who might be excellent additions to our
Windermere family. We also ask Title Reps, lenders and other ancillary service
providers to recommend any agents in other companies who might be a fine
addition to the Windermere family here in the Las Vegas Valley. It matters not if
they are interested in our Summerlin office or one of the other Windermere
offices, Green Valley or Anthem Hills. We only care that Windermere attracts
and fills its offices with agents who are all about the clients and all about the
service.
Allan Kuipers: WA-Seattle Oaktree
a) I do not discount my services. I have yet to receive a discount from any of
my professional service providers i.e. doctor, dentist, lawyer. I would not
ask them to discount their services because I believe they are worth what
they charge. You are paying for my skill and expertise in handling one of
the major financial investments in your life. To discount my services
would cheapen that relationship.
b) If you want to hire the best company, you will need to pay for their full
service. Windermere is not a discount broker and may not be the right
choice for you if saving money is the most important concern in hiring a
professional service provider.
c) I will gladly discount my commission if you turn over your next 3
paychecks to me. Obviously, you will not be doing that because the
money you earn is important to you and your family. The money I earn is
no less important to me and my family.
Jennifer Valerien: WA-Spokane North Wall
We teach the best way to respond to a client seeking to discount their
commission is to try to discourage the question up front by proving their worth
in any presentation and interaction with the client. By letting the client know not
only the service they provide, but also the benefit to the client it helps put
everything in perspective for a client. For example, they may hear from each
agent they interview that they put flyers in a box on the sign. But if you as an
agent can explain the reasoning and the benefit you have separated yourself
from the competition immediately. Using the example above..."Well Mr. and
Mrs. Client, I suggest we put flyers in the box on the sign, this way any potential
buyers will be able to take the information with them and remember the house.
Now our whole goal is to get them in your home, so on the flyers out front we
will only put exterior pictures and nuts and bolts information, i.e. price,
bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. Just enough for them to know if it meets their basic
needs, but not so much they don't feel a need to come inside." Yes, I know not
everyone feels the same about flyers and boxes, but if you do something you
need to be able to effectively articulate the benefit to the client.
Now if you still get the question about discounting commission, often if you can
isolate the real issue you can get beyond this. For instance, if you discover,
through asking questions, that they are pleased with what you have presented
and are ready to sign if they can resolve the "commission issue." Ask them why
they feel the commission is too much for the services you have outlined. Most
often you will hear a reason totally separate from your services and the amount
of commission. Things like, "Well the place we are moving is so much more
expensive or we have some other debt that we would like to pay off, so we need
to net as much as possible." Then you can deal with just that issue. There are so
many ways to do so depending on the situation, but you can bring it back to the
level of service you provide, your analysis of the property and that you can get
them that price whereas someone else might not, etc.
Sometimes I take a different approach with the commission objection, depending
on the situation. They will say, "So and So said they would do this for x%." You
can respond, "Well I understand that there are some agents that do discount their
commissions, and they should. Mr. and Mrs. Client, I run my business as a full
service agent and that is all I do is serve my clients fully to the best of my
abilities. (You can use a fitting analogy based on what you know about the
client...here is one example) For instance, think about changing your oil. Now
you can go to a place like Jiffy Lube and have it done cheaper, you can even get
under the car, get all dirty and do it yourself, but my service is different. I will
come pick up your car, leave you with a loaner, take the car to my clean shop,
service it from bumper to bumper, clean and buff it inside and out, return it to
you and take back the loaner. There are no worries and I take care of everything
for you. You just need to decide how much time and effort you are willing to
spend in the sale of your home.
The third way works well too, just explain to them (usually your engineer, math
types) that discounting your commission by 1% is really a 30% pay cut for you
and you can't run a business on that. Explaining that you appreciate them
bringing up the question, but the fact that you are not willing to discount right
now means you are less likely to give up their money in negotiations.
You might recognize bits and pieces of the above as coming from Brian Buffini
and David Knox. Their ideas are great, and our agents have adapted them to
their styles and their clients with great success.
In our market, one of the best ways we can promote Windermere (after all the
superior tools, service, etc.) is our biggest competitor deals mostly in new
construction. With our market in residential resale, we just explain that we are
tops in that class!
Judy Nice & Fritz Nichols: WA- Bellevue Commons
Just say “no.” This works more often than not. But when needed you add “I
don’t discount my services so I can’t discount my commission.” When
competing with other agents you need to develop a story about how you as an
individual have done and why it matters. Example – when selling in a
community of like kind homes what have you done or what has Windermere
done. Do you have a market share? We have agents in our office that can show
a track record of out performing the competition in a neighborhood or area. The
value here can be more money or it can be timing or both. This comes back to
the client. Another way to “articulate” your value is to walk away form clients
that will suck you dry looking for the discount.
Kevin Rochlitz: CA-Indian Wells
I tell my agents there are several ways to show the client the value of a full
service agent. One way is to show them the list of things that we do during the
transaction. The other thing is to ask the client what their expectations are and
then exceed them!
Patrick Keigher: NV- Reno
I find one of the most effective ways to overcome the discount commission
challenge is to ask the client about their personal business practices. Most do not
give discounts on large ticket items of 60% or more like many real estate
discounters. When asked if I could buy the item somewhere at a large discount,
they usually agree, but not with there gurantee, quality, knowledge, etc. That is
why we charge for our guaranty, quality, knowledge, etc.
Mike Bianchi: AZ- Central Phoenix
1. Objection handling begins far before the agent receives the question.
Creating a systematic approach to highlight the value of services offered,
combined with proven trust building techniques will allow the agent to
confidently object to a break in commission. Windermere agents are at a
decisive advantage because of the tools provided to them. It simply helps
them build greater value, making it easier to object to a reduction in
commission.
Dave Sharman: WA-Sequim East
Commission cutting: I simply ask the prospective client if they would consider a
discount heart surgeon. Probably not they usually say. Then I ask why they
would consider a discount real estate company when we're talking about
possibly the most important investment they have. I then tell them that great
heart surgeons, great attorneys and great financial consultants don't discount I'm a great REALTOR, with a great company. I have the track record and the
references to back that statement up - and I don't discount either. But I fully
guarantee them I'll give them their money's worth and more. Now, shall we get
this paper work out of the way and get busy marketing their home.
Katie Kane: CA-Saratoga
This is taken from Jerry Pujals, but it is basically what I say to my agents.
Speaking to the client: "Have you ever heard the term "buying business"? Well,
that is when an agent lists high and works for a reduced fee. Would you agree
that if an agent can't hold strong on his or her fee, that agent may have a difficult
time negotiating on your behalf? That's why my fee is _ % (typically 3).
Question #2: What activities or practices take place in your office that helps
develop the culture of the office? Fun sales meetings? Special recognition of
support staff? Team building activities?
Allan Kuipers: WA-Seattle- Oaktree
a) We have a monthly breakfast meeting at I-HOP (across the parking lot
from our office). Typically, a speaker i.e. insurance, legal, investments, etc.
b) We have office lunches for agents and staff i.e. in the summer we do
barbeques outside, in inclement weather we do potlucks in the office.
(probably once every 2 months)
c) We have an auction as part of our Christmas party celebration (this will
be the 3rd year we have done this). All proceeds ($5K to 10K) go to
worthy charities as part of our giving back to our community. This year
our December auction proceeds go to the following: Pathways for Women
and Children, Seattle Milk Fund, YMCA homeless youth program, and
Katrina victims.
d) We collect $20 from every agent closing year round and pool those
monies for staff bonuses which we hand out to our administrative staff in
July and December. They usually average 2-4 weeks pay each time we
give them. Broker/manager is excluded.
e) I buy lattes for the staff once every week or two.
Thadine Bak: WA-Bellevue South
Office fun is my forte! I am a new manager (1 yr.) in an office in which I was an
agent for 13 years. I know how important it is to have a good business beat to
your office drum, but I also feel it is so important to have “tight” personal
relationships within the office with our fellow agents. Over the last 14 years, I
have seen our industry become more and more isolating for agents via
technology and agents working more out of their homes than in the office. I
follow a Brian Buffini philosophy “Relationships are the only thing that lasts in
life”. I am not building my office by filling seats, I am hiring the best—you the
Windermere Way, I am training them well and I am creating a “tight” group of
productive agents who feel the support from one another, who feel that this is a
great place to be. Ok so what do I do? Here are a couple of ideas.
Everyone knows the direction I am going. I keep it simple. I follow the
Windermere Way and they (my agents) all know what that is. And they know
“My Way” and who I want (i.e. recruiting)…”Agents who want to work hard,
sell a lot of real estate and have fun doing it.” The office knows we have 57 desks
and 12 or 21% will only be designated to “new to the business” agents. This way
the office culture is still dominated by veteran agents but we still have new
exciting blood entering the office. So when I hire someone new to Bellevue
South everyone knows about it. Every new agent gets an over the top office
drum roll introduction at the office meeting. We call it our secret hand shake.
Every agent gets “initiated in”. All new agents to the office are also introduced
via the all agent email “Briefly Noted”. All office team players (lender and title)
are emailed with a short bio and contact number of the new agent. The team
helps in the orientation of the new agent, introducing themselves and their
services. The team also helps with our quarterly office events that get us all
together, including their spouses and significant others and when appropriate
their kids too! Here is our latest and greatest which is scheduled for this
Wednesday.
Cinco du Octobre. See the attached invitation. The three amigos, the title rep-Commonwealth, the broker-- me and the lender—Windermere Mortgage
Services invite the entire office for an evening of fun. The event is announced 4
weeks ahead with a “save the date” card. The real fun begins with the invitation,
the shameless amigos aren’t afraid to paste their faces anywhere. Xpress Docs is
used which demonstrates the versatility of our tools and that management can
and does use them too. The invitation is presented 2 weeks before at the office
meeting with the conference room decorated in a Mexican theme. Margarita
glasses are filled on the conference table with M&M and Skittles. The day before
the event the agents receive an all agent voice message reminding them of the
event both in Spanish and English. Not only is that fun but it lets everyone know
that we have bi-lingual agents in the office. We have the event right in the office,
the lobby, the conference room, the kitchen and the hallways are transformed
with tons of decorations and in this case to “La Casa de la sizzling Latin fun.”
Last but not least, we play corn-ball party games that include everyone: musical
chairs, pin the tail on the broker, balloon dart throw, Mexican horseshoes and
everyone wins prizes, and we even sing Karaoke.
Every successful party planner knows that it is up to the host to make sure the
guests feel at home and are included in all the activities. This is where Broker
and team player leadership really come in to play. Agents can tell whether you
have put your heart and soul into the event or not. They will know before the
party has even started whether it is worth their time and whether they will show
up. So go for it. Be outrageous. Create a great office buzz and you will have a
great turn out. My staff updates my spouse list and I spend time remembering
names. I want agents to know I care and that they and their families are
important to me. We have names tags regardless so no one feels uncomfortable.
Agents getting to know each other in a social situations helps build deeper
relationships with each other; agents meeting each other and their families and
their spouses makes the group extra tight. A manager who can’t sing, singing
Karaoke—priceless in the mind of their agents!
Other success events we have done: casino night, talent show brunch.
Joan Whittaker: WA-Kirkland NE
One trend in my office in this busy market has been a dramatic escalation in the
number of assistants in our space. We did not design the offices necessarily to
contain extra staff for people without private offices, but oh well. So there are
triple offices where assistants are tucked into with agents they do not work for.
There are assistants sitting in the kitchen and taking up space the agents want to
use, and lots of brown bag lunches in the fridge where the agents would put
their brokers open food. So I sensed an us vs them mentality beginning to
happen - along with a few heavy martyrish sighs. The good news is that the
assistant are for the most part working for the agents who are held in very high
esteem be their peers. So what we did was to begin a series of meetings with the
assistants that are primarily for training purposes, but have resulted in better
rapport in the office. The training is a godsend as there is no "assistant school"
and I found the agents previously were all inventing their own wheels to create
systems and train agents- some better than others. The meetings end up saving
them hours of time and giving them better mousetraps with each other
constantly. As well, the assistants have a higher efficiency which is cost effective
for their bosses. The teachers of these classes are the agents in my office - not
always those with assistants. There is more a sense of camaraderie and an
acknowledgement of the human nature of us all, and I find assistants making
friends and room for the agents at the kitchen table.
Jennifer Valerien: WA- Spokane North Wall
Cheers for Peers: These are nice, color cards that agents give out to each other
and staff. There are 4 categories: Awesome Attitude, Congratulations,
Teamwork, and Great Service. These are passed out at the meetings each week
and are so much fun. If I get a great survey back from a client, I will give an
agent one at the meeting for that. Also, new agents get Congratulation CfPs
when they get their first listing or sale or commission check. I know it works,
because you see the CfPs hanging in the agent's and staff offices.
Becker Bucks: Named after the owners John and Marianne Becker. We are in
the middle of a contest where agents get bucks for different activities. So many
are given out for things like listings, price reductions, a listing goes pending in
under 30 days, office or association committee participation, event participation
(Symposium, Community Service Day, etc), a sphere of influence mailing etc.
Rather than having the agent who gets the most bucks get a prize, we are having
an auction at the end of the contest, so you can bid on what you want. One of
our larger prizes is a gourmet dinner prepared and served by the owners and
manager. The prizes don't have to cost anything either. One that the agents are
quite excited about is a reserved parking space for a month. Bucks are given out
every other week at the meeting. You must attend to get your bucks or have an
prior excuse. Our attendance since the beginning of the competition is
averaging 95%. A few suggestions.1. Go all the way. Our bucks look like
regular bills but are Windermere blue instead of green. They say United Agents
of Windermere across the top and our owner's picture is on the different
denominations. The $50 buck has a picture of John Becker from the 70s! 2.
Don't let them know all the prizes right away. To keep the momentum going,
announce a few at a time.
Frank Wilson: WA-Silverdale
The Silverdale office fosters a culture of inclusion, participation and support. It
takes a lot of little practices, done consistently over a long period of time to send
the message. Here are some of the things we do:
Support Staff:
Weekly Launch Team Meetings
Celebrate Birthdays
Ask their advice
Keep them informed
Give them business cards
Annual bonus based on Profit, and agents who hit incentive
Cross training between positions
Agents:
Agent advisory Council
End of month note, good month, tough month
Hand written notes on pay checks
B-day cards to spouses/sig-other
Weekly business meeting
Monthly social either at office or off site
Wine tasting
Pot Luck
Meet at local watering hole, I buy first round of appetizers
Give agents the opportunity to become involved, they will
Christmas Party planning
CSD planning and organizing
New agent staff advisors
Average 2 RU per agent lunches
Annual Holiday gift exchange...aka Steal a gift
Sign up board outside my office in case I'm on phone or busy. I'll look for them.
Annual state of the office meeting during which we share the numbers
Annual office survey, results are discussed at weekly meetings
Weekly Shop Class (learning the tools)
New Agent Fast Track Class that all can come to
Monthly agent one on one coaching
Competing Agent Check list, ask agents who THEY want me to interview
Judy Nice & Fritz Nichols: WA-Bellevue Commons
2. Fun office meetings – bowling, out of the office type stuff, pot luck parties,
all of the agents participating in training and trying new things(
technology to training to different types of holiday parties)
Our “Best Idea” – Coaching. We have several agents taking the “Ninja
Selling” and are facilitating Buffini’s “100 Days to Greatness.”
Nate Scott: WA-Anacortes
Lately at office meetings we’ve had a hat with every agent name in it, and we
would draw a name each week to see who would run the weekly sales meeting
the next week. That person was in charge of the agenda, with the exception of a
few things we do every week and a few minutes for me to deliver any info I had
to get to the agents. Other than that it was up to the agent to come up with a
guest speaker, or a topic to talk about, or whatever. We had great fun with it and
learned something new each week, and learned a bit about each other. We also
had an immunity necklace, like on survivor, if you answered a trivia question
right at the beginning of the meeting you got the necklace and your name
couldn’t be drawn for next weeks meeting.
Kevin Rochlitz: CA-Indian Wells
We have several programs in place. Other than fun and informative weekly
meetings, I also have guest speakers and classes. We have a “Mentor Program”
where seasoned agents work with non seasoned agents for three transactions at a
30% referral fee for each. The seasoned agents love the help and the rewarding
experience and it also keeps them abreast of the latest techniques. The new
agents get an insider view of the real estate world and a one on one personal
training and introduction. It helps to form a bond in the office and furthers
creative working environments.
Dan Peterson: WA-Marysville
We try to get as many people involved with extra curricular activities as
possible. We have one couple involved with in office training; One agent
involved with all community affairs & office parties and get togethers; We get
different people on the Windermere Foundation & Community Service Day
committees; We have an in office auction to raise money for the food bank and
have different people organize that. We have a bowling tournament to raise
money for Housing Hope, with different people on that committee. We have a
lot of fun with staff birthdays. We have also started a fund that costs each agent
$5 per month. This fund pays for flowers, etc. that we send to agents, staff, or
others in the local real estate field in good times or bad.
Patrick Keigher: NV-Reno
To develop and maintain our office culture and team building we have a Happy
Hour every Thursday. Agents are welcome to bring clients, friends or other
agents (recruiting opportunity). The second Thursday of each month is a Theme
Mixer where we send out invitations and usually have 50 to 70 attendees. For
example in October we are having a Octoberfest with home made German food,
live music and decorations. Most times we have a sponsor for these events. By
the way, we have designed our kitchen so at it resembles a café just for these
activities.
Mike Bianchi: AZ-Central Phoenix
2. Any activity that requires an office to work together is effective at
building team unity. In our office, we have put on charity golf
tournaments, anniversary parties, monthly lunch pot luck’s, etc. But, the
most important character of culture is equality. All staff must understand
that everyone is to be treated equally. Everybody gets the same
opportunity, same threshold, same service. We compete, but also
compliment each other. This creates a culture of sharing, resulting in a rise
in production from top to bottom.
Dave Sharman: WA-Sequim East
There are several elements essential to office morale & team building. Here are a
couple. First: Unless I'm in a scheduled meeting, if an agent has a concern or a
question - I STOP whatever I'm doing and listen - I make them feel like their
concern is the most important issue I'll address all day - I either give them an
answer, direction or a path to resolve their issue and then let them go out and
handle it with the confidence that I'm there for support if needed. Second: I play
no favorites, pull no punches (figuratively speaking) . I pay attention to their
successes - every sale & every listing gets my congratulations and recognition.
Third: We plan occasional office sponsored activities like lunches/dinners, we
remember birthdays, we invite spouses or significant others to our events.
Katie Kane: CA-Saratoga
We typically have frequent afternoon/evening office parties. This last one had a
Luau theme and we had one of our Korean agent teams organize a Korean style
BBQ main course from one of their favorite restaurants. We have had standard
hamburger style BBQ's and Chinese etc. It really works, with each party, I get
more attendance and more family involvement. It bonds us more each time.
Sue Beakey: CA-La Quinta
fun at sales meetings and also the culture of our office. We believe in team work,
our office has a wonderful synergy, our agents get involved with the
community. For community service day we developed a weekly raffle at the
start of our weekly sales meeting and sell tickets for great stuff. ads, luch or
dinner gift certificates, tickets to a local event or ??? the gifts just keep appearing,
everyone participates. We have raised almost $1200. and we are refurbishing the
Indio Resque Mission, building new childrens play areas and a new kitchen.
The agents are already planning monthly drives for soap, clothing etc when our
community service day is over. We do 4 events with the city including a
breakfast with santa and pancake breakfast which is amazing and they love it.
think this falls under team building activities too. Everyone looks forward to
meetings and what we are going to do next.
for support of staff and agents
we do a magic moments award ( I will bring one with me) for special things that
the agents do. adopting a homeless family and finding them new
housing, saving a dog hit in front of our office (Buddy) doing easter baskets for
the kids in the hospital, and much more.
Question #3: What process (including documentation) do you take for dehiring an agent? What criteria do you look at to make a final decision?
Frank Wilson: WA-Silverdale
If an agent has good production and is good for the office they stay.
If an agent has low production and is good for the office we go into coaching
with a timeline
If an agent has low production and is bad for the office they go.
If an agent has good production and is bad for the office they go.
Wish it were always that black and white.
If an agent has historically done a good job but stubbs her toe I just make a note
in the agent file. I find that patterns quickly present themselves.
No matter what agents you have, not matter how good they are, they will from
time to time screw up, what sets one agent apart from the others is how they deal
with the situation. How they deal with the situation is often more telling then
what actually occurred.
Good Stay.......Bad Go!
Patrick Keigher: NV-Reno
De-hiring to me is done during the hiring process. After the agent states his/her
needs I explain to them our "expectations" of them. If I need to de-hire, most of
the time it is due to the lack of commitment to one of these expectations. I always
say "I think you will be happier at a larger (smaller, other location, or
?)company."
Gail Ohm: OR-Salishan
I personally have not had the experience of de-hiring an agent. However, this
company has, and this is how it was and would be handled.
When an agent commits (or is practicing) a substantial violation of company
policy, then the principal broker approaches her/him with the problem with a
letter stating that he/she can no longer be that agent's principal broker unless the
situation is remedied within one week. Then, they get together and a list of
specific remedies is developed with a specific timetable for each item. Progress is
monitored during that week. At the end of the week, the principal broker
analyzes the progress and the current situation to and decides if he/she can
continue to be the principal broker for that agent. If not, agent is informed and
their license returned to the Real Estate Agency. Throughout the process, the
principal broker maintains detailed documentation.
Kevin Rochlitz: CA-Indian Wells
It’s tied to the six month review, so the process is done over a six month period.
The agent is given an opportunity per month to rectify what ever situation needs
attention. The criteria to make the final decision are based on the monthly reports
from the tasks laid out each month.
Dave Sharman: WA-Sequim East
Letting an agent go is an extremely rare occurence in our office. We enjoy an
extraordinarily high rate of agent success. If an agent was deliberately unethical,
dishonest, disloyal or disruptive they'd be asked to leave. They might also be
asked to leave if they demonstrated a reluctance to invest the time and energy
necessary to succeed. Haven't had to let anyone go in several years - some have
retired or moved to another geographic area, but no terminations - Isn't that
great?
Bev Bothel: WA-Bellevue West
Couldn't resist your question on dehiring...I believe we have had great success in
that process because it begins on the day an agent is hired. I set out specific
expectations with agents, including the income, number of deals, ethics,
integrity, etc. Then the process of working in my office continues with success or
failure, depending on the agent. If an agent is not making the grade, they are
coached three months prior to the date of their departure. We always set goals
that are achievable and reasonable to both of us for that period of time. I coach to
a revised business plan of the agent for the next three months. We meet regularly
and go over the activities of the plan. By the 3rd month, if the agent is unable to
achieve the set goals, they are ready to move on to some other employment.
Dehiring is never a surprise and is understood and executed by the agents
themselves. Most often, there are hugs and hand shakes when the process is
complete and friendships remain in tack...Hope this is helpful.
Katie Kane: CA-Saratoga
When de-hiring an agent, it usually comes down to poor work style, or attitude,
especially poor attitude after coaching. I would just bring them into my office
and explain to them that they would be happier in another environment.
Nothing personal, but give them a graceful way to leave.
Question #4: What is the best piece of advice you can give to a new manager?
Time management? Something budget savvy? Personal vs. work life balance?
Dan Peterson: WA-Marysville
Get to know all your agents on a personal level as much as possible. That
doesn’t mean you have to be best friends or socialize outside of office time with
them, but if you truly care about their personal lives, then they will stick with
you. And make sure that everyone knows that they can call you anytime. It
doesn’t mean that they will, but just knowing that they have that option is very
reassuring to agents.
Patrick Keigher: NV-Reno
For a new manager I would stress "Availability" & "Walk-Around
Management". A manager must walk around the office many times during the
day to talk to the agents and look for challenges to help with and give
support where needed. In addition, I find many managers have there offices
buried in the back somewhere, have their door closed, use headset phone
systems or have a giant desk between them an agent. In my opinion all of these
are not good management techniques.
Gail Ohm: OR-Salishan
Being a new manager in December 2004, my advice is to work withint the
existing structure for a while without making drastic changes. "If it isn't broke,
don't fix it." Obviously, one must prioritize responsibilities along with probably
learning new approaches and procedures. Everyone should remember that it has
been proven that it takes 6 full weeks to get accustomed to a new job, move, etc.
Mike Bianchi: AZ-Central Phoenix
For a new manager, the most important thing is to know the market and have
confidence. Knowing the market means an extensive being well versed in local
customary real estate practices, market statistics, and a complete understanding
of the competition. With knowledge of the market comes a perception of
experience. Whether it be recruiting, or bonding with an experienced agent,
knowledge of the market is an easy way to get a head start on gaining respect.
Kevin Rochlitz: CA-Indian Wells
Being a fairly new manager myself I have learned that it’s important to learn to
delegate to the professional that can get the job done. That will leave you time to
spend with your agents motivating and guiding them.
Dave Sharman: WA-Sequim East
Wow, I'll bet a billion words have been written on this topic. So here's a few
more. As far as your agents go - Be fair, be firm, be clear, be honest, be
diplomatic, lead by example not by hot air. As far as your company goes - all the
aforementioned plus - understand that you represent your agents and your
company 24/7. You are the embodiment of the public's perception of your
brand. At all times let your words and actions reflect the pride and confidence
you have in your organization and agents. Everything will not always be as
planned or expected. In fact every hour of every day will be full of distractions,
interruptions and no doubt some stress. Expect it, embrace it and deal with it. As
far as the personal life goes - Marital or familial strife has ended more real estate
careers than any other single cause I'll bet. You plan your vacation - you plan
your retirement - you plan your marketing strategy - you plan your education you plan your day - Well if your'e as smart as you think you are, you better plan
time for yourself and your family members exclusively. Not shared time with
your cell phone, your home office, your e-mail or your marketing projects Planning "total focus time" for yourself and your loved ones is as critical to your
health, wealth and real estate success as any other factor you'd want to consider.
Katie Kane: CA-Saratoga
Have fun at office meetings. Encourage agents to participate in outside office
get togethers. Give agents responsibilities. Throw parties often.