Reviving non-producing agents before they quit
In previous articles, we spoke about agent development strategies for Mid-Tier Agents and New Agents.
Today is a big one.
The weird and wonderful world of Non-Producers.
Jimmy Mackin’s Competition Index shows how competitive the market is for agents by comparing the annual home sales vs. the annual memberships in the National Association of Realtors.
In simple terms: how fierce is the competition among agents for every client.
When so many Realtors are competing for limited business it’s the top teams and agents that come out on top, leaving little to no business to the rest.
This is why is it important to have a scalable and repeatable strategy in place for non-producing agents:
First of all, hard to ignore such a large agent segment. 71% of agents did not close a single deal last year.
You already spend time, money, and resources attracting, recruiting, and onboarding them. That’s it - the investment was already made on your part. Now the question is what is going to be the Return On Investment? If they quit with 0 transactions that’s a straight-up loss.
Finally, having a low agent success rate represents reputational risks for brokerages, which can make it harder to attract and recruit in the future. When choosing a brokerage most agents look at forums and online resources where existing agents talk about their experiences.
4 Types of Non-Producing Agents
Before we look into various strategies for reviving agents segment them
“Occasional agents”
I’d like to call them “opportunistic agents” aka “very part-time”. They don’t depend on income from their real estate career. So they simply go into hibernate mode when the market gets tough. They will silently wait for the next “2021” market to arrive before making an appearance.
“Career Agents”
This segment needs the most attention. They are serious about their career but they lack skills, systems, and actionable strategies to consistently generate business. They have potential. If you don’t address their needs they are likely to switch to teams where they will get more guidance and support.
“New Agents”
They never experienced a “good” market. Despite not having any closings, they still have enthusiasm and motivation. Don’t lose the momentum, act fast to enable them with the tools and training they need. If they make it through now, they have the potential to grow into top producers.
“No Longer Agents”
They’re no longer in real estate. They just haven’t told you yet. The strategy here is to have systems & processes in place to identify agents that left as fast as possible to collect feedback (you need to know why) and cut unnecessary expenses on training & tech.
Step 1: Diagnosis
Start a conversation. There’s no point in throwing any training at agents without knowing what they want.
Step one is to figure out what type of non-producer are we dealing with (see above).
This can be a simple questionnaire (for large brokerages) or calendar link (for smaller teams) where agents can schedule a 30-minute one-to-one call with a broker/team leader/coach or whoever can spend some time with agents to better understand their challenges.
Whether it is a questionnaire or a one-to-one, use this opportunity to find out how can you support them right now.
Step 2: Resetting Mindset
Once you identify agents who need guidance, the second step is Goal Setting.
An opportunity to remind agents about all the reasons why they joined real estate in the first place.
Remember, agents have also invested their time and money into getting licensed as well as all the setup costs.
It is as much about ROI for them as it is for you. Use this motivation to re-engage them.
At Agently we offer ready-made modules that help agents understand their “Why?”.
Step 3: Accountability Groups
One of the most powerful things you can do is to put all agents who share the same struggles and challenges into one group.
Inside Agently we use Team Chats for different groups where agents share their daily accountability reports.
Being part of the group with other agents on the mission to revive their business creates an amazing synergetic effect adding an additional layer of accountability.
Some teams create rules where agents must post their accountability reports in groups daily for all other agents to see.
Step 4. Set a deadline (risky)
Set clear expectations: "You have 6 weeks to get results. If not, we’ll discuss whether this career is really for you."
They’ve got a deal (or solid pipeline) → Great! Help them scale.
They’re working hard but no deals yet → Give them 30 more days with stricter tracking.
They made excuses, didn’t follow through → Let’s be honest, it’s time for them to exit the business.
Step 5. Enable them with training & resources
This is exactly what I covered in the New Agent Academy strategy.
There are 3 core sets of skills:
Lead generation
Lead follow up
Lead conversion
You can safely re-use the same modules that we discussed for the New Agent Academy.
Let’s review our final agent development strategy for reviving non-producing agents.
We diagnose the agents to understand who needs help and who don’t.
We then set goals and clear expectations of what it takes to hit them.
We then connect agents with shared goals and challenges and place them in accountability groups.
We then set a realistic and achievable deadline for them to deliver upon.
Finally, we enable them with training & guidance to increase the success rate of your program.
If you are interested in implementing agent development strategies for your brokerage, schedule a demo at agently.com