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Building a Powerful Commercial Real
Estate Team Sometimes
I get ideas for my articles from
real-life situations my coaching clients
are currently facing in their
businesses. As an example, two of my
commercial real estate coaching clients
are now faced with situations where
they're having difficulty finding the
right people to become key members of
their brokerage teams. One of these
clients will probably make over
$2,000,000.00 in commissions this year,
and the other one will probably make
around $750,000.00. But they're both
faced with having members of their teams
who aren't performing up to their
expectations, and they're trying to
figure out what they should do about it.
And I might also add in both of these
situations that it appears the best
choice will be to completely let go of
these sub-producing agents. One
of the problems inherent in situations
like these is the apparent lack of solid
new people to replace these
sub-performing agents with. When you're
the rainmaker, top-producer, and team
leader, trying to find new people for
your team and taking the time to train
them is often not one of the most
enjoyable experiences imaginable for
you. First of all, how do you know the
new person will be a really good
performer after you've finished training
them? They might be impressive during
your interviews, but disappointing after
they've been on your team for awhile.
And if they're new to our business they
may find that they really don't enjoy it
very much either after they've been in
it for awhile. In addition, you may find
someone new to the business who you
spend a lot of time training, only to
have them leave you and go on their own
sometime in the future...taking all that
time, energy, and knowledge you invested
along with them, too. So
what's the right answer to this dilemma
to both find the right people for your
team and ensure they'll stick around
with a much higher probability? Well,
how about recruiting team members from
other competitive brokerage companies in
your area? This is what good managers
should be doing on an ongoing basis, and
you can apply this exact same approach
for finding the perfect people to join
your own team also. Doesn't
it make sense when hiring new team
members to want to also maximize the
probability that they'll be people
who'll want to continue working in real
estate for years to come? Well if you
hire people who have already been
working for years in our industry, and
they plan to continue doing so, you'll
definitely maximize this probability. In
addition, these people will probably
require a lot less training from you,
too, as compared with an agent who is
new to the industry. And furthermore,
you'll be able to know the agent's
strengths and weaknesses better so you
can determine whether or not they'll be
a good fit for the position you have in
mind on your team. With
this in mind, here's how I recommend you
consider going about recruiting new
members for your team: 1)
Identify the kind of person you need to
recruit and write out the ideal skill
set and job description for the position
you need to fill on your team. 2)
Make a list of all the commercial agents
you know in your area who exemplify
these qualities and abilities, and who
you also think may be a good fit for
this position on your team. 3)
Begin inviting these individuals to
lunch one at a time and discuss the
possibility of having them join your
team. If
you're a top producer, or at least
someone who's producing more than they
are, they'll probably be very flattered
that you'd even consider them as a
potential member of your team. In
addition, if they've been in the
business several years or more, they'll
understand the realities of the business
as well as some of their own
limitations, too. And the idea of
working with a team that includes a top
producer, and getting involved in deals
they might normally never get involved
in otherwise, could be very appealing to
them. So
when it comes to recruiting your own
team members, your best candidates may
be the brokers you've already been doing
business with in your own territory.
You'll probably save a lot of time and
energy on training and bringing them up
to speed as compared with an agent who's
brand new in the business, and you'll
also stand a better chance of keeping
them on your team for the long run, too. Agents
who are new to the business can
sometimes think they're already real
estate geniuses, and that they'll really
explode their income when they go on
their own and no longer have to divide
their commissions with other team
members. But an agent who has already
worked in the business for years on
their own, knows the truth of what
that's like and the kind of income they
can make on their own when doing it.
They've been already living this in
their own real estate career for years
now. And in having this experience to
remember back to after they've already
joined your team, there's a great chance
they'll always recognize that they'd
much rather be a part of a top brokerage
team now, than return to what their
career was like before this...especially
if they're making more money now by
being on your team. And
always remember...you want to hire team
members who complement rather than
duplicate the skills you're already good
at yourself. When a top producer forms a
two-person team with another top
producer, they often find they now have
two people generating a ton of new
business with no one to help them
follow-up on it. And this can make
things even more difficult for them as
compared with when they were both
working on their own. So
make sure there are people on your team
who are good at activities like
marketing, administration, transaction
management, and follow-up. These are
often the activities that a top producer
needs to have taken care of the most,
and the people who fill these positions
on a team brilliantly are often worth
their weight in gold. And
in closing, a top producer often needs
to recognize that the person they truly
need to hire may not be someone who will
bring in a ton of new business for the
team. While this still may be possible,
it will normally only be a good idea
after all the other support team members
are in place. Otherwise it will be
difficult to follow-up on any additional
new business being generated by this
top-producing agent who has just joined
the team. With
this in mind, make sure you're not
evaluating potential new team members
from within the brokerage community
according to how much money they've been
earning on their own. You're not hiring
them to be a top producer, you're most
likely hiring them to provide great
support as a member of your team. So a
broker who is meticulous at following-up
on transactions once they've been
initiated, but who is someone who's just
OK at generating new business himself,
could be someone who would be a great
team player for you to constantly have
around you. 
Click
here for downloadable E-books and live audio interviews with
top-producing real estate agents. These interviews
are with industry experts
who show you exactly what they do to
continually make hundreds of thousands
to millions of dollars a year.
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