The behaviours that differentiate top-performing agents from those in the middle and bottom of the pack are consistency, persistence, attitude and thoroughness, new research shows.
An analysis of the listing success of more than 2,000 agents across Australia by referral partner OpenAgent has revealed the first quantifiable data to identify the behaviours – and the degrees to which they are done, and their role in winning listings.
It shows that the top 10 per cent of agents attempted to contact 100 per cent of their leads, while the bottom 10 per cent of agents sought to contact just 92.7 per cent.
The data also shows that top-performing agents would respond to leads within 97 minutes, compared to 191 minutes (more than three hours) for the bottom 10 per cent.
OpenAgent joint-CEO, Zoe Pointon, said the data confirms that the difference between top and lesser performance in real estate is just a small percentage of additional effort occurring at the beginning of the process and a commitment to seeing things through.
“This data confirms conclusively that the devil really is in the detail of agent behaviour,” Ms Pointon said.
“Small efforts at the beginning of the process – like getting in touch with everyone who is a potential lead, and making that connection quickly – really have a huge pay off.”
OpenAgent analysed the behaviours of 2,054 agents over a 12-month period by examining their success with leads sent through the lead referral partner. Agents were broken into 10 separate percentiles to segment the market from top to bottom, ranked according to the number of listings.
“What was most interesting in the analysis was that these agents did not necessarily receive the most leads from us at OpenAgent, but we could see from their behaviour to the leads that we gave them what made them successful because their conversion rates were so much higher,” Ms Pointon said.
The data shows that the top-performing 10 per cent of agents attempted to contact every single lead they received, and from this made contact with 75 per cent of them. This behaviour would then result in them doing more than three times as many appraisal appointments and converting six times as many into appraisals compared to the bottom performing agents.
Not only did the top performers secure more appraisals, but their professional behaviour helped them win more listings with the top group having a win rate from their appraisals that was 2.5 times better than the average.
“We can see in the data that the agent’s attitude towards receiving a lead from a referral partner definitely played a role in the performance of the lowest 10 per cent,” Ms Pointon said.
“But what’s interesting is that while their attitude to us may have been a factor in their diligence towards the leads we sent them, it also plays a part in their performance overall.”
The lowest-performing 400 agents (lowest 20 per cent) actually sold at least 30 per cent fewer properties a year than anyone else.
“This shows the destructive power of a scarcity mindset,” Ms Pointon said. “If your biggest worry is that you may have to pay for a lead you successfully convert, this behaviour invariably leads to selling fewer properties.”
