Residential Real EstateDiscover-Digest-Deliver: How To Coach The Top Producer
In working with branch managers over the years I have discovered one commonality: a feeling of discomfort or weakness in coaching agents. New agents are typically easy to coach. Teach them the contracts, schedule them an open house, and have them work their sphere of influence amongst other rather simple activities to get them up and running. But bring on the top-producer and you could experience a shut-down.
What"s this about? A concern of, "I"ve never closed $10 million in sales volume, so how can I coach a $10 million dollar producer?"
This means it"s time for the 3 D"s of coaching agents: Discover, Digest, and Deliver. Ask a lot of questions, listen to the feedback, and collaborate in a design of go-forward for the agent.
Discovery: Your knowledge is not displayed by what you tell people as much as it is by what you ask people. When you start asking an agent about their sign call conversions, listing presentation conversions, marketing strategies, farming strategies etc., you may find an agent that has been very productive, but never approached their business as a business and experiences a lack of awareness around some of these critical factors.
You can"t manage what you don"t measure. How good of a job do you think your top-producers are doing in measuring their business or more importantly, activities and money"s that generate business? The discovery process is most critical as you will learn more about the agent, discover where they are having challenges, and create awareness for the top-producer.
Digest: Now you have the information/data. If you are new at coaching top-producers, you will want to step away and digest the information that has been provided to you and recognize the areas of that agent"s business that need focus and support. Eventually you will be able to get the answers from the agent, review them on the spot, and then move forward with immediate action steps.
Deliver: There is no magic pill, so don"t put the expectation on yourself to pull a rabbit out of a hat for the agent you are coaching. I find it rather interesting -- our business that is so simple is made to be so complex. Get the agent focused on a program that is specific, measurable, and actionable. How can you measure results when the marketing initiative is all over the board?
It"s the little things. You would be amazed at the amount of top-producers that don"t simply send out a "just listed" or "just sold" postcard for all of their listings and sales. How many are actually leveraging themselves by their database on a consistent basis? Many times I find in the delivery to the agent -- they know what they need to do, they just aren"t doing it on a consistent basis or they are doing it without a plan.
The greatest support you can provide a top-producer that you are coaching is awareness, reflection, systems around their activities, and accountability. Can you transfer your leadership and management skill-sets that you use on day-to-day basis? If you"re not coaching your top-producer, someone else is.