Saturday, June 25, 2011

To charge or not to charge

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted. I've been quite busy evaluating my Real Estate company and making decisions to take the company to the next level. It does seem no matter how much I want to help my Agents become all they can be, I have trouble getting sustainable momentum from them. Over the past couple months I have been working on this and trying to figure it out.

Basically, through all my work, I have figured out that I can't really motivate the Agents. They must reach inside themselves and decide if they really have what it takes to be a top Agent. They are certainly great people and have all the tools at their disposal, but yet they just can't take that next step.

With this said, in our last office meeting, I was discussing what is holding them back to reaching their potential. One of the Agents made a pretty strong statement. He said, "until you are threatening our jobs, we probably won't work any harder". That hit me pretty hard because he is probably right!

This coming week I'm meeting with my core staff. These are a mixture of Agents that have been with me for at least 4 years. We are going to discuss where and how we are going to bring our brokerage to the next level. My mind is leaning toward a pay system for the Agents. Meaning, they will be charged a monthly fee for leads which will go away based on closings. The problem I'm finding with most teams operating a similar model to me is the lack of financial buy in by the Agents. With this system, the Agents do have a buy in but also have the ability to not pay anything based on closings. I'm hoping this will increase the Agents dedication to the leads and generating business on their own.

The question, to charge Agents or not to charge. If I had to do it again, I would certainly have charged a monthly fee, probably around $200 - $250 per month. If they have one closing it would go down to $100. If they had two closings it would go down to 0. If they had 3 closings they will receive a credit to use during a month they might be slow and so on. I believe that the buy in might be just what the doctor ordered to increase sales.

I'll keep you posted!