Becoming an All-Star Real Estate Agent Starts With Your Team

Achieving your maximum potential without the help of others is like facing a supervillain without Tony Stark’s armor. Even if he does find a way out, the effort and luck required will make him untenable. His real superpower is his mind, which allows him to take advantage of his suit.

Tony’s suit, like the members of your team, is an extension of his creative ideas and talent for design. He needs it to achieve his goals. Your team should become an extension of you. They incorporate your experiences and knowledge and reveal them as a positive influence on your business. They reduce your own weak areas and double your strengths. The right team grows your business. In contrast, the wrong team—or more specifically, the wrong team member—does the opposite. A careless assistant can erode the customer goodwill you have built up in your previous interactions. Team members who pick up on the negativity, resentment or corner-bugging of others can easily create a work culture in which everyone does the same. If this happens, they wreak havoc on your business.

Like most things in life, something that can help you can also hurt you. This is why it is so important for you to get the leverage factor right. The best team is an extension of you, and you should build with that in mind. Every agent has different skillsets and therefore they will need different skillsets in the people they hire. Your hiring sequence and the way your team is structured should follow exactly the model I provided.

However, don’t hire members who are carbon-copy molds of another agent’s team. Consider a sports franchise, which is the best model for how to build a team. No two sports teams are alike, yet every team wants the same talented players. If it was as simple as hiring talent to dominate the opposition, the team with the most talent (and highest salary) would always win. Yet, it is not so. Time and time again, it’s the team with the best chemistry that keeps winning.

For example, the New England Patriots dominated the National Football League for twenty years. They did this with roster changes every year.

While nearly every player on the team cycled in and out, two stalwarts remained throughout the dynasty: their quarterback, Tom Brady, and their head coach, Bill Belichick. Brady and Belichick created an environment of success unlike any other sports franchise. The system scored no matter what other players were on the team. Do you think the Patriots actively hired mediocre talent? Absolutely not. They looked for the best they could find – as did every other team in the NFL. What made the Patriots different? their culture.

Belichick and Brady have incredibly talented football brains.

They wanted players who could enhance Brady’s strengths (eg, he was a pocket passer) and cover his weaknesses (eg, he could not move well in the pocket). He was an easy target to sack if he held the ball too long, so the Patriots stacked wide receivers around Brady to help him get rid of the ball quickly. Brady practiced with these wide receivers in the off-season to make sure they were where he wanted them and when he wanted them there. This meant that the Patriots needed players who played well together, not just talented individuals. The Patriots actively hired the players Brady needed around him, not the fastest or strongest guys available from the draft or those with free agent status.

We all know the combination of chemistry, communication, and time spent on the same page beats raw talent any day. Real estate agents can learn a lot from this football dynasty. Your team should work in the same way. As a Rockstar agent, you must stay focused, committed to excellence, and want the best players around you. Are you charismatic and influential but incredibly disorganized? do you see the lead

slipping away? This problem costs agents a lot of money. Don’t make the mistake of hiring someone like you. Hire people who can highlight your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Are you bold and direct but bad with numbers and contractual niceties? Then hire someone who excels in those areas. You need people who meet your abilities and can help you grow your business.

rockstar don’t do it alone

Let me start by saying that you cannot be a Rockstar agent alone. It’s not sustainable, it’s not pleasant, and it certainly isn’t efficient.

In my experience, top-producing agents complete over fifty closed deals a year. Most of the work done by an agent does not generate income. If you’re closing fifty deals a year, you’re probably dealing with 150 solid leads, and that’s a lot of work for no profit.

As with everything else, there is a point of diminishing returns in real estate where the work you are doing doesn’t result in the same amount of success. When you’re spread so thin that you focus on keeping customers under contract or moving forward with leads, you’re working hard but not winning.

In every real estate transaction, there are over a hundred little steps to take to close. If you do everything except one step right, you make zero money. When an agent has too many clients and not enough help, they talk about diminishing returns. Adding more leads at this point only contributes to fewer sales. The key to avoiding this problem is not to work less but to work smarter.

Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto is credited with creating the 80/20 Principle. Pareto observed that 20 percent of the effort is often responsible for 80 percent of the results. While this is clearly not a hard and fast rule, it helps us understand the importance of sticking to what is most meaningful, most beneficial, and what we are best at. Working in only our 20 percent is a battle that never ends, but it’s a battle worth fighting.

Rockstar agents understand that their business depends on their ability to generate leads and close escrow. A Rockstar agent’s ability to set up appointments with leads and keep those new customers in contract are two of the most important activities for a thriving business. This means that these two activities are the 20 percent that Rockstar agents should focus on. If you can’t do these two things well, then nobody on your team will have much to do. You’ll still have payroll costs, and you won’t be generating revenue. If you can do these things well, your team will have a lot to do to help you grow your agency.

These two skills are hard to master, but once you do them well, it doesn’t take long to continue doing them well. The table below will help you understand the functions you should do and the functions you should avail. Use this simple list for each decision on tasks.

It’s impossible to list every job a Rockstar agent can do, but it’s helpful to understand the types of jobs you should be doing and the benefits you can expect. It can be confusing at first, but the more you do it the easier it becomes. You’ll develop an instinct for this division of labor. The empire builder doesn’t ask, “How do I build this?” They ask, “Who can help me build this?