Common Mistakes When Building a Real Estate Team Broadcast

Not a week goes by that I haven’t talked with a potential new client who had a bad experience recruiting and hiring for their business. The experience for most was devastating enough that they just don’t want to go through it again. It’s tough when recruiting a new agent to the team fails.

The most common complaints:

• “The new hire took everything I could give and then left.”
• “The new hire needed me all the time. It was hurting my production.”
• “The new hire just didn’t understand the team concept and their role. They only wanted to build their brand.”

I can understand how disheartening these situations can be. There is little doubt though that any blame for these failures falls on the recruiter (in other words, YOU!) Last week we talked about the mistakes commonly made in recruiting and hiring. This week let’s pretend you hired the right person for the right reasons.

You should have a perfect hire, right? Nope! Here’s what commonly happens:

Sometimes the Team is not ready to incorporate a new hire

There are a couple of common reasons why trying to incorporate a new agent into the team fails.

1 – The team may be in its infancy, and hires are excited to be working with you, BUT… something’s not meshing correctly. In this case, the mistake I see is that the Team hasn’t built a strong foundation because there is a weak business plan. The mission, vision and core values are poorly thought out, or maybe they’re nonexistent.

IT IS SO IMPORTANT to have a strong business plan. Your people need to know who the team is, the overall vision is that they are working towards, and how they fit in to the plan. You, as the leader, need to be able to communicate all of this effectively and consistently remind everyone of the team purpose. It’s not an easy task, but the best leaders excel at this.

2 – The existing team may feel their business is threatened by bringing in a new person. Once again, this protectionist mentally is your fault. You have not done a great job of communicating the team values and vision. If your vision is to dominate the market, then you need to clearly identify what that actually means. How many listings does the team need, how many buyer-controlled sales should the team accomplish, what should our team’s market share be?

Once you have clarity and have communicated this effectively, the scenario now shifts with your team to “How do we make this happen?” In discussions, we talk about what if we add more talent to our team. How will that benefit the team? How can they help will set the stage for suggestions on who they like, respect and want to work with?

A failure in training and mentoring

Many team leaders are still rainmaking for their team and really need that revenue to keep the team going. If your team is well developed and has a built-in sales team mentoring program, that certainly helps. However, many newer developing teams don’t have the resources to support a proper training or mentoring program.

When this is the case, the mentoring and training fall completely on the team leader. That pulls them away from their sales, resulting in fewer leads, softer revenues, and ultimately dissatisfaction on the team. If you plan to hire a new-to-the-business sales associate, think long and hard about it and how you will handle their training and development.

Unrealistic expectations

The excitement of becoming part of a successful, positive team environment can cause unrealistic expectations. One of the biggest issues I see is that agents are hired under the premise that quality leads are plentiful and handed out equally.

Is this ever the case? The team must know that they must prospect and create opportunities for themselves on top of what the team provides for them. This requires both training and accountability. Ensure that new hires understand that they are accountable to themselves and to the team. No one is above the team, and when the team works together to achieve the team goals and vision, everyone wins.

If you spend time, money and effort hiring a new agent for the team, of course want to avoid having these fails! If you are struggling with building your team, or you just want some help with recruiting, reach out to me or one of my team members to talk. We are happy to discuss your current situation and provide a few tips along the way with no obligation.