Many top agents have the goal of expanding their sales team. Many even make that their primary goal shortly after starting their real estate practice. The lure of having other people to generate income is a powerful drug.
The desire to expand one’s sales team has really gained momentum in recent years due to its high profile due to the increased recognition of teams with great sales staff at sales rallies and year-end awards ceremonies. . Most human beings want to be recognized. For many years, national real estate brands failed to separate team production from individual sales agents. The slow response tends to draw those who want the spotlight of recognition to team up. Otherwise, they could not earn a reward. Most national and regional brands are now creating separate dual recognition tracks for individual agents and their teams.
I believe that expanding your sales team is an effective strategy to:
- Increase gross income
- Increase units
- Increase referrals
- Expand your sphere database and past clients.
- Increase your prospecting and lead generation
- Improve your personal sales skills (most agents will be forced to improve here to teach effectively)
- Lower your cost per transaction
- Raise your quality of life
- Increase your free time
- Generate more regular income and cash flow
All of this is the result of an efficient and successful expansion of your sales team.
Evaluating your options
There are really four options you have to increase your sales team. You can select just one of these options, or work to expand all four at once. I wouldn’t recommend doing them all at once. The likely scenario would be that you did them all wrong. The result would be a great waste of time and personal production. Your commission cash flow would also be significantly affected. The options for expanding your sales team are as follows:
- Buyer’s Agent
- Showing agent
- Listing agent
- Telemarketer or prospecting agent
Each of these four has its own unique challenges throughout the expansion. Some also carry a higher risk in the beginning. Some require greater amounts of training, monitoring, and training than others. For example, it is easier to train a buyer’s agent than a listing agent. The listing agent is a more skilled position where mistakes cost more money and more time to correct for the lead agent. The loss of a listing that the listing agent should have obtained, or insured at the correct price, is a heavier burden than the loss of a buyer to represent.