This July, Inman’s editorial theme is Teams — what it takes to build and join one, how to optimize your team for summer 2020, and even when to consider leaving one. And if you’re not already a subscriber to our Teams Beat email newsletter, sent every Thursday, sign up now.
Leaders in the real estate industry are all about accountability and productivity. It might take some work to implement an accountability plan, but as a team leader or broker-owner, it’s the only way you’re going to be able to remove yourself from micromanaging your business and actually focus on growing it instead.
Accountability includes a willingness to view your capabilities, celebrate your strengths and leverage the genius of others to improve your own skill set in your role.
With a team, you’re doing a fraction of a full sales role per salesperson. Even sales members do a highly modified version of the typical sales role. This means that you need to ensure you have results. You’re taking on lower-cost activities or tasks that require more energy and time for salespeople to complete and move those to others.
The ideal accountability system
An ideal accountability system is always going to seamlessly flow from the big picture to the minute details. Most accountability systems go off track because we fall into the habit of not tracking or keeping numbers, or we misunderstand that the metrics are there to serve us.
It’s easy for us to be intimidated by metrics. It can feel as though an outside team is tracking us or someone is keeping a finger on our KPI’s (key performance indicators). Metrics can be intimidating because they’re clear-cut, and they don’t allow room for excuses.
A great system is going to make sure that we’ve broken down exactly what we need to do — daily, monthly and quarterly — to be on track to hit your goals. It will always go back to what’s important to you and your values.
Sometimes, we tend to track only one piece of the pie. However, it needs to be an integrated accountability system, to make sure you have the strongest approach from A to Z in your business. You will have an honest mirror of what’s working, and you will be able to assess changes to improve from your tracking results.
This will give you the foundation of building predictable results. It’ll give you confidence in your business, so that you can take educated risks to pivot your business, like the top 1 percent producers are doing in our industry.
Setting goals
What gets measured, gets managed — which is why it’s important to create a culture of goal-setting in your real estate team. If you don’t have specific goals that you’re tracking, what are you holding your team accountable for?
Every successful real estate team sets goals. Goals help create absolute clarity around what’s necessary to be done every day and week.
We all have a set point for how we see ourselves and how we see the world. Change requires a belief that you are capable of changing and that those changes will help you build a brighter future for yourself.
Another way to look at this is through the lens of growth-or-fixed mindset.
Top performing teams set goals at all levels: for basic service level agreements, for individual expectations and results, and for team results as a whole.
Tracking your progress
Tracking ensures you can make changes faster, predict future production sooner and keep your finger on the pulse of your business. You need to know how you’re performing at every step — from opportunity to client, client to deal, and past client to valued member of your community.
Members of your community are happy to help and recommend you and your team. They trust you and trust that you’ll take care of their family and friends.
Solo agents risk their time and money when they operate below the capability available for a salesperson in the industry. They often aren’t conscious of what operating below capability is costing them. What do they have to compare to?
The biggest way to impact your business is to start using customer relationship management (CRM) software as a database. The last thing you want to do is hunt through a messy spreadsheet to track your client information.
With a CRM, you can manage all of your relationships and interactions with current and potential customers. The goal is simple: improve business relationships. A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes and improve profitability.
This will provide you with enough true information to hold agents accountable as well as compare how your team members work.
Kathleen Black is the CEO of Kathleen Black Coaching and Consulting in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Connect with her on Instagram at @kathleenblackcoaching or through her website ItTakesa.Team.
