Building and maintaining good relationships that are ongoing and mutually beneficial is more important than ever when it comes to laying a solid foundation for long-term success in today's competitive environment. But how can brokers ensure they're retaining their top agents during these trying times?
For Nate Martinez, broker/co-owner of RE/MAX Professionals in Glendale, Ariz., and David Wiesemann, managing broker at RE/MAX Heritage in Blue Springs, Mo., it all boils down to keeping agents focused—and taking every opportunity to reach out and communicate while showing your appreciation every step of the way.
Martinez and Wiesemann discussed all this and more during RISMedia's recent webinar—"Outpacing the Competition: Retaining Top Producers in a Competitive Environment"—which was moderated by Cleve Gaddis, coach with Workman Success Systems, and sponsored by Cole Information.
"The key thing with all agents is that you need to keep them focused on where they want to go and help them work toward that," explained Wiesemann. "By doing so, you will keep them from looking around at all the other distractions or shiny objects that could ultimately pull them away."
While keeping agents focused is often a challenging proposition, for Martinez, it begins with being visible and reaching out consistently to communicate with every agent on his roster.
"We're doing so many things to stay in touch with our agents," said Martinez, who emphasized the importance of making sure people feel appreciated. "We're constantly letting them know that we care."
Communication aside, Gaddis shared with attendees four distinct categories of at-risk agents who may already have one foot out the door:
- Individuals doing more than 35 - 50 transactions on their own
- Someone who is negative about the office, the culture or leadership
- Someone who has no production at all
- Someone who has a large increase or decrease in production over the prior year
"Brokers need to be thinking about who fits this profile and looking for signs, because once they've decided they're gone, in most cases, it's too late to do anything about it," said Gaddis.
That being said, as a broker, if you want to keep people long term, you have to provide the services they're looking for—or a system from which they can get those services.
That's exactly why Martinez created a field services department, so that his agents have access to the services they need.
But it doesn't end there.
In fact, if you hire someone by promising them x, y and z, then x, y and z is what they're going to want.
"Whatever you use for your attraction method, that method has to stay in play the entire time, because that is why they came," said Wiesemann.
"I've learned that it's not how much you know, but rather, how much you care that's important," said Martinez. "Being separated from other humans is affecting everyone differently, so you have to find ways to pick up the phone and ask your agents how they're doing."
"Everybody is processing the pandemic a little bit differently, and being able to hone in on that empathy and check in with one another is so important," concluded Tyler Steenken, director of Strategic Partnerships for Cole Information.
View the webinar in full below:
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