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Realtors tend to wash out. Up
to 70% the first year. 20% per year
after that. There are at least 3 premises that need to be explored in order to
under-stand why this happens. 1.
Many Realtors come into real estate in personal crisis. 2.
Too many real estate companies simply don't know how to make new Realtors
understand and DO the job. 3.
Realtors are not hired to build a business. Let’s take them in order: 1.
Many Realtors come into real estate in personal crisis. Who grows up dreaming of being a Realtor?
So how do they intentionally wind their way into real estate? All too often, they get there by default.
I surveyed about 3000 Realtors over 13 years in real estate. I asked them
about company training, previous professional experience, educational background
and how and WHY they got into real estate. A common profile emerged:
“I could make a lot of money without a de-degree!” “I just lost my job and didn't know what else I could do.” “I just came through an ugly divorce and needed a new career.” “I followed my spouse to this city and had to start all over again.” “I wanted a job
where I didn't have to sit in an office all day long.” 2.
Most real estate companies simply don't know how to make new Realtors
understand and DO the job. While shrinking profit margins require doing
more business to make the same money, some companies who previously had amazing
training departments have reduced staff or eliminated them entirely.
That's good news / bad news. The good news is that the industry track
record for training "for production" is less than stellar so perhaps
that part is not a major loss. The bad news is new Realtors are floundering
even more than before! And even
those companies that have “good” training, seldom build accountability into
the program. If you give people the
option to fail, they usually pick up the option! And my own personal favorite is number 3. 3. Realtors are not hired to build a business. They are hired to be salespeople and the
product they have to sell is real estate. Because
they are independent contractors, no one tells them how to build a business. Independent contractors are basically
entrepreneurs working within a company, not for a company.
A company is not permitted to dictate their behavior so long as they do
what they agreed to do. Realtors
are supposed to know what to do and how to do it. They don’t. IC’s CAN be told what to do. You can
monitor their activity, their behavior can be modified and if they don't live up
to expectations, they can be released to be successful some-where else. This is my own personal soap-box. Good salespeople are an equation. It’s a combination of:
I have seen poor salespeople who could sell
well for one certain manager and for no one else.
I’ve seen salespeople who sold huge volume at for a year or two under
personal financial pressure and never again sold at that level. Some sold well
for one company and sold nothing for another. Why? I’ve come to believe that it is an
equation and if the equation is not working for that person, at that time, with
that company and with that manager, something has to change! Maybe a transfer to another office within
your company or maybe you have to set them free to try again somewhere else.
If it is not working with you, now, and hasn’t for more than 3 months,
it’s not likely to change. Do
everyone a favor and set them free! The real estate industry has to find a way
to teach Real-Realtors to become savvy business people.
HOW? It starts with the hiring process. Why are new Realtors permitted to come on
board when they are not financially solid? Why are they not told that it may well be 6
months be-fore they have a dependable income stream? Why is no one testing them for:
BEFORE they are hired? Then they come on Board and the Failure
Trolley starts rolling! How come every new Realtor is not required to read the E-Myth Revisited by Gerber, before they can start work? (The best perspective on running a business I’ve ever read!) Why is no one monitoring how they set up
their business and maintain their territory? How will they collect a database and keep in
touch with that database? How will they find and develop a living,
breathing business?
Even the best classroom training in the
world does not prepare Realtors for reality:
The real estate system, (or lack thereof),
encourages - even condones turnover. And
what does that do to the company's reputation?
Nothing good! So the Rookies eventually flunk out and management says: NO
LOSS. But it is a loss! First, the time of the Rookie (who, contrary to common wisdom, IS a human being) has been
wasted. When
a Rookie is hired and it becomes apparent that it isn't going to work, that
Rookie has to be released. Immediately.
They must be released to be a success somewhere else.
Any-thing else is dishonest! Secondly, you risk losing your
"stars".
There is nothing more horrendous and embarrassing to a high producing
Realtor than sharing an office with an incompetent; whether it is a Realtor,
office clerical help, or a manager! And when a manager permits incompetence to exist in his or her office, that is not sending a positive message about the manger to the rest of the staff and sales force. If I were a "star", I would not stay in that atmosphere. Would you? Selling real estates is a business! Let me repeat that slowly: Selling real estates is a b u s i n e s s!
Not a sales job, not a clerical job, not an "Oh, I really like helping
people" job. It’s not about
“showing houses.” Selling real estates is a business! Radical
concept! If selling real estate is
indeed a business, how can the industry permit these practices to continue? Many managers are afraid that if their
salespeople learn too much about running a business, they will leave a
traditional company and go to a rent-a-desk office. They seldom leave because they are good
business people. They usually leave
because they cannot easily run an efficient and lucrative business within the
confines of a traditional company. All too often the really good ones leave BECAUSE they know how to run a business better than the office manager does. What needs to be done? Let’s return to those basic premises one by one. 1. Many Realtors come into real estate in personal crisis.
2. Most real estate companies simply don't know how to make new Realtors understand and DO the job. You think you can’t afford to have a professional trainer. You can’t afford NOT to.
As long as your managers are still maintaining personal production as
salespeople, you can’t expect them to take on a third full time job. That is neither realistic nor cost
efficient! It will cost more
annually in lost production from the manager, from de-pressed sales teams
(because it is a gut-level grief experience for the whole office every
time someone fails) than you will ever put out in cash for someone who really
knows how to kick-start a Rookie Realtor and create accountability for results. And the trainer has to have enough authority
and muscle to demand accountability. 3. Realtors are not hired to build a
business. New Realtors think they work for a company
when the truth is that they must build their own business within a company and
be responsible for the planning, the marketing, the follow-up-low-up, and the
results. We have to change the mind-set, of both
those who do the hiring and those we bring into our organizations. We have to
change the premises of all involved if we want to change the results. |
