Agents are looking to capitalize on the hot market, however, the trends from 2020 and 2021 are starting to slow down. Adam Hergenrother offers a back-to-basics solution for keeping everyone on track and moving forward.
Over the past two years, we’ve seen a very hot real estate market — multiple-offer situations, homes selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price, inventory shortages, buyers purchasing homes sight unseen and more. Basically, as long as real estate agents could find a home to sell, it sold — and quickly.
This year, already, the market is starting to shift and feel different. More agents are entering the real estate industry than ever before. The National Association of Realtors hit its highest member count ever in 2021 at nearly 1.6 million.
Realtors are looking to capitalize on the hot market, however, the trends from 2020 and 2021 are starting to slow down. Mortgage rates are slowly rising, buyers are getting weary of waiting and paying well over asking price, and inventory is perhaps lower than ever. More agents mean more competition, but not everyone is equipped to handle the market we’re in. That’s where you come in.
Here’s what you can do this week to help your team put more homes under contract.
Make income goals top of mind
Most people get into the real estate game for the income potential and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s not just about the money, it’s about what the money can do for their lives and the lives of those closest to them.
Make sure you revisit your team members’ income goals for the year. More importantly, get them to dig deep and get clear on why that is their goal. The “why” is what is going to drive them when the market shifts, when they’re negotiating multiple offers and when their buyer just lost out on another home.
Make sure each of your team members is clear about the amount of money they want to make this year and then help them work backwards to break down what that means on a monthly and weekly basis.
- How many transactions at what average sales price and average commission will they need each month to hit their goal?
- What is their conversion rate?
- How many dials will they have to make?
- How many conversations will they have to have?
- How many contracts written?
Get extremely granular on the activities, track them daily and weekly and make micro-adjustments so that each team member is on track to hit their annual income goals. Don’t forget – help them keep their “why” top of mind. It could be the difference between making ten more calls or calling it quits for the day.
Rally around ‘no agent left behind’
As a leader, casting the vision is key. This week, I want you to keep it simple. The vision is that everyone on your team is going to get a pending on the board. Rally the team around this vision. Leave no agent behind.
Continue to repeat this message and then repeat it again. Then back it up with specific activities that will support the vision. The clarity of vision drives clarity of action. When your team is all in it together it’s a beautiful thing to watch.
Create a rhythm for lead generation
Yes, we know that the gold standard is three hours of lead generation a day. I also know that we can get away from this very quickly.
At the very least, set a time for your team to all be calling for a minimum of 90 minutes together. If you’re in the office, great. If not, have everyone jump on a Zoom call 10 minutes before the lead generation session and then again right when it’s done to report their dials, contacts and appointments set.
Do this every day this week. If your team is doing the activities consistently, they are going to see results and will want to continue this practice every day. Ninety minutes of focused lead generation is better than three hours of distracted and haphazard lead generation any day.
Schedule a team call night
I like to encourage at least one call night every week no matter what is happening in the market. But if you haven’t done one in a while, this week is your week. Make it fun. Get the team all together in office (or via Zoom). Order some pizza. Set up some friendly competition and get to work. Again, the goal here is focused activity from your team to help guide them to increased production.
Get extremely purposeful with your time (and your team’s time)
Look, it’s not really about the time per se. It’s actually about the results. Whether it takes you or your team 10 hours to secure a contract or 2 hours, what’s important is how you’re investing your time to hit your goals.
- Are you and your team members being smart and purposeful with your time?
- Are they doing whatever it takes to hit their income goals?
- Are you, as the leader of your organization, spending time to help them get there?
Now is a great time to take a look at your calendar and eliminate any meetings, webinars or even lead generations activities that aren’t giving you a direct return on your investment of time.
As the market shifts, it may require a different level of activity in order to achieve the results you’re used to. That’s okay. You and your team just need to be clear on what those activities are so that no one is wasting their time or energy.
There are still plenty of transactions happening. It’s our job as leaders and operators of our teams and businesses to ensure our team members are spending their time in the right places. We must guide our team to increased production right now. After all, there’s no time like the present.
Adam Hergenrother is the founder and CEO of Livian, the author of The Founder & The Force Multiplier, and the host of the podcast, Business Meets Spirituality. Learn more about Adam’s companies and culture here.
