Earlier today, Neal Bloom, my neighbor to the south, re-posted an earlier blog of his from November of 2006 in which he posed the question “is it fair to give new real estate agents only 60-90 days to produce?”
Most of the comments to his gold star, featured post (congratulations, Neal) are saying that this is not enough time. I maintain that it is - not only that, more than enough time. Before you change channels, hear me out.
First of all, we have to define “produce.” Does that mean make a sale? Get a listing? More than one? Get a commission check? More than one? Generate a certain amount of gross business for themself or for the agency? Or does it just mean to start the wheels in motion? To register some early successes?
My comment was that this is a good goal to shoot for – as a broker. This becomes the real focus. Not whether a new agent can "produce" or become productive quickly but if the broker can coax and inspire this type of performance.
As a broker, don’t you want your new agents to be successful? Then why would you not want them to hit the ground running and get started? Oh, they might make a couple of mistakes. True. Who hasn’t? We want to keep that to a mimimum so that's where the mentoring, coaching, training, and role-playing come in. This is one of the responsibilities of a broker that is often abdicated - that of being responsible for training, coaching, and mentoring.
If the new agent can’t make some traction in the first couple of months, there’s only 2 places to look – and the market isn’t one of them. Either the broker is not getting through to the agent or the agent isn’t trying.
Think about it. If someone starts out and can't stumble through a listing appointment or clumsily host an open house or manage to take a check from a willing buyer, how are they going to survive? They don't have to have a bankable income within the first couple of months, but they'd better be starting to fill up their pipeline.
Do I advocate a “make a sale in first 60-90 days or you’re fired” policy? No. However, look at it from the new agent’s side. If we do anything for 3 months and we’re not having fun at it because we’re not succeeding, we’d probably start rethinking the whole thing and maybe change careers.
So there are four things to do as a broker to help insure your new agent's success so that an initial 90 days can be a good test and a period initial success:
(1) Have realistic expectations about what a new agent can do in their first couple of months to actually have some early successes - and help them to achieve those successes.
(2) Be committed to mentoring, training, coaching, and shadowing your new agent to give them a realistic chance at success.
(3) Take this obligation seriously and devote the time necessary to accomplish this. Give it a fair trial. Either you’re going to have a budding superstar or someone who needs to find other employment. You’ll be able to tell in the early going.
(4) Hire a coach such as me to help you work with new agents (as well as veterans) to achieve this early success. There’s no reason at all, except for lack of effort or desire, that a new agent can’t get a listing appointment, a signed listing, a sale, or all of the above within the first few weeks.
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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.
