THE TREND TOWARD having a high-performance team around a lead agent is only at the infancy stage of opportunities this type of arrangement can deliver. If you’ve been putting off reinforcing your business because of cost or some other reason, coach Nick Boyd says it’s time to look at things in a different way.
A CROSS THE INDUSTRY the majority of agents are still operating on the solo lead agent model, which means they need to be the ‘jack of all trades’. There are some significant shifts that great agents take when growing a team, and several pitfalls that prevent them from growing a team and ultimately growing their business.
The following tips will help you to overcome, develop and grow into the great agent you are capable of being.
FEAR
The number one reason I hear which stops agents from taking that leap of faith and adding a support person is money. ‘It costs too much; I don’t have the money right now.’ But what is occurring here is the agent giving into their fear as a reason not to take that step forward.
If you treat a support person as a cost, it will always be a cost and the right time for expanding will never come.
The big shift that needs to occur first is in your mind. The support person is an investment in you, in them and in your business. So instead of telling yourself ‘I can’t afford it right now’, ask ‘How can I make this work for me?’. This question will force you to look for answers and solutions to find a way to hire, as opposed to giving yourself the reasons and excuses to stay as you are.
AUTONOMY
The second biggest mistake I see real estate agents make when they put a team member on is to not empower them right away. Training and skill are vital to any business operation; however, autonomy of task and skill is far more powerful. Empowering your support person to think freely within the task or skill and take full ownership of the activity is vital to the team’s success.
The reason this does not occur is when the lead agent struggles to let go. I get it: after so much struggle, heartache and dedication to growing your business, it is scary to think you are now relying on another person to look after your baby.
However, if you are at the initial stage of contemplating putting on your first support person you should enter the decision with one sole focus. Ask yourself: ‘What can this person do to give me more time for more dollar-productive activities?’ By answering this question, you have created the job description of tasks you can now train and ultimately empower your support role to do moving forward, which will allow you the time to prospect, pitch, list and sell more.
DIRECTION
This leads to the final mistake I often see, which is letting go of the right things, not just the things you don’t like. As mentioned before, the initial support person is designed to buy you time to do more of what you are great at. However, many times I see agents fall into the trap of hiring a support role and then offloading all the prospecting activities because they are tired of prospecting themselves.
The one thing that will never leave your side is your ability to prospect. It is and will always be the heart of your business. The way to avoid this trap is to draw up two columns and divide your current activities into ‘what makes you money’ and ‘what saves you money’. For example, prospecting your pipeline makes you money; designing letterbox drops saves you money. What makes you money is what you can now do more of, which means letting go of what saves you money by empowering the team around you.
Have the intention to grow the people around you to be better than you are and watch your business flourish!
