By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
The Realtors quietly took up seats near the back of the room. The topic for the day was using expired listings as leads.
Only one agent had tried it before. Her experience?
“Ehh,” she said, without a lot of enthusiasum.
It was Darcy Miller’s job to get her — and the rest of the group — excited.
Miller is Re/Max WaterMarke’s new coach and trainer. His job is to help agents — and by extension, the brokerage — make more money.
Expired listings aren’t for everyone. But, the session would become raw material for private meetings later, where Miller would help agents to develop their own personal strategies.
“People in general don’t like to get outside their comfort zone,” said Miller. “But once they start doing it, it becomes second nature and part of their process, and they do just fine.”
Most traditional brokerages offer new agents two or three days of training — after that they’re on their own.
Even when agencies have more extensive training programs, one-on-one coaching is still rare.
Top agents have been known to hire national celebrity coaches, who counsel by phone once a week and can charge $400 to $1,000 a month.
Re/Max WaterMarke brought Miller on in December to create a development program that includes coaching free of charge.
It complements the brokerage’s plan for expansion — it’s already doubled this year from 16 to 32 agents.
Broker John Glover said the one-on-one coaching gives his company a strong value-add.
“Each agent tends to choose a unique niche in which to build their business,” he said. “This provides a custom fit for each person.”
Miller formerly worked as a corporate trainer and later, as a trainer at his own real estate company. His approach is less motivational speaker and more hands-on business advice.
He talks to agents about their goals and they create a business plan. Then, they create a plan to fund the business plan. He checks in to make sure everything stays on track.
“The most common problem is, people lack the organizational skills to run a business,” he said.
Bruce Swindell, a former corporate executive who came out of retirement eight months ago to practice real estate, said coaching has accelerated his success.
“When you get that real estate license from the state that says you’re ready to practice, you’ve really just scratched the surface,” he said. “There’s still a lot to know and you still have a lot of questions.”
For Swindell, some of those questions were about how to pick up listings. He’s asked Miller to help him design a digital marketing strategy.
It’s still early to see what kind of results the Re/Max WaterMarke program will deliver. But, one industry competitor said she applauds the approach.
Keller Williams gives its new agents intensive group training for six weeks and one-on-one coaching for a year. It’s a program that has been successful, said Angi Bell, a productivity coach for Keller Williams Realty Atlantic Partners Southside.
A Realtor since 2006 and coach for three years, Bell, like Miller, is a dedicated trainer.
“We see a great increase, not just in agent productivity, but in dollars coming into the office,” she said.
Roughly 90 percent of the office’s new agents are in production within two or three months, she said, whereas a more traditional approach might take six to eight months.
At Re/Max WaterMarke, participation in the new training is voluntary. But even a few experienced agents are trying it.
Sally Harasz, an agent for 19 years, said she’s doing so to keep her skills sharp.
“Times change, trends change, and of course, you have to keep up with all of the new technology,” she said.
Harasz has only met with Miller individually a few times, but said coaching is a plus.
“You can go into any part of it and develop one niche. Or you can set up a system to do all of it well,” she said.