The typical real estate agent onboarding process sucks time, resources and energy from your agents, managers and staff and it may not be producing any results!
Tom Ferry says, "87 % of All Agents Fail in Real Estate." Other r
eal estate experts say over 90% will fail, often within the first 6 months.
Real Estate is often described as a "people business," but why do so many brokerages hand new agents a three-ring binder or some scattered online training videos and expect them to succeed?
"Real Estate Onboarding is not a 1-2 week process; the goal of onboarding is not to simply check off a list of to-dos and get the agents through the process." -- Greg Ausley, CEO and Founder of Coach Simple Real Estate. "Onboarding after traditional onboarding is complete is critical to agent success."
So, how do you know if your onboarding "sucks"?
Well, the numbers don't lie and you can analyze how your agents are doing by measuring how many of your agents...
- Sell more than the national average of 3-5 properties per year
- Earn more than $30,000 in commissions
- Quit the business or leave your firm during their first year
- Receive poor reviews and low ratings on yelp and real estate sites
Additionally, try asking these questions to your staff, managers and even the agents who went through the onboarding process:
- Does it feel like a fire drill every time a new agent starts?
- Are all of your processes and best practices in the heads of just a few staff members?
- Do you have a clue whether your new agent actually completed the trainings and exercises? Or did they just check off the items and move on?
- Was there any coaching-based knowledge checkpoints along the way to ensure agents retained key content?
- Is the onboarding process consistent every time, or completely different office-by-office and manager-by-manager?
- Did your new agents learn about and develop an appreciation for your company's unique brand and culture?
- Do your new agents believe they joined a well organized and technologically advanced company?
- Do your agents feel prepared to be successful?
Does this sound like your organization? There's still hope.
Even if your current onboarding process is a disjointed or ineffective, it's possible to convert it into a true agent success system.
First, expand the concept of onboarding beyond just "paperwork and technology" to the more inclusive goal of setting up your new agents to reach their highest level of success as quickly and comprehensively as possible! In this new light, onboarding doesn't have to reside in a binder or depend on just a few people -- it can live online and be standardized for everyone.
This is what we call "onboarding after traditional onboarding is complete."
The Anatomy of an Effective Onboarding Program
Bringing onboarding back into the realm of learning instead of just "doing" ensures that your new agent:
- Learns about the Real Estate industry
- Understands the nuances of their local market
- Selects appropriate product lines aligned with current market conditions
- Absorbs the unique branding of the company
- Models their own habits using proven success strategies
- Follows a well conceived and appropriate business plan
- Stays accountable to their goals throughout the year
- Maximizes their direct and online networks
- Participates in on-going coaching and mentoring
- Reaches their highest level and outpaces their industry peers
Doesn't this sound like a more appropriate approach for nurturing your 21st century agents?
Stop leaving deals on the table, losing agents due to lackluster performance, and allowing your onboarding process to create ongoing headaches for your staff, managers and agents.
It's time to step up to a more modern way to onboard and engage your real estate agents. Try Coach Simple Real Estate and take your onboarding process to the next level!