Driving Success: The Incredible Power of Agent Goal &

Activity Tracking for Increasing a Broker’s Bottom Line By Jason Blackburn, CEO

Executive Summary

Traditional real estate brokers are facing challenges unlike any we have

seen in the history of the real estate industry. In wake of the economic

downtown experienced in the last six years, we have seen a contraction

in both the number of real estate offices and real estate agents, as well

as a declining average sales volume:

1. According to REALTOR® Magazine, the top 10 franchises in 2009

had closed 1,309 offices by the middle of 2011 (Comparison of

Real Estate Franchises, 2011),

2. The number of active REALTORS® has dropped below one million

members for the first time in 8 years with a net loss of over

400,000 REALTORS® since 2006.

3. The average sales volume of real estate agents has declined from

$1.2 million in 2008 to $1.1 million in 2010,

4. The number of agents that sell less than $1 million annually has

increased 11% since 2008, from 44% to 55% of all REALTORS®.

As you can see, it has become a “Survival of the Smartest” economy,

where best efforts, explanations and good intentions are no longer

acceptable. Without question, brokerages that fail to produce beyond

expectations face certain extinction.

A Look at Current Options to Increase a Broker’s Bottom

Line

To increase your bottom line you have 3 options:

1. Reduce Expenses

2. Increase Number of Agents to Increase Fees Collected

3. Increase Agent Sales Volume

Reducing Expenses: This is the most tempting option because it is also

the easiest. A broker can reduce office size to decrease rent, eliminate

office systems, such as phone systems, to reduce expenses, or become a

virtual brokerage and do both.

However, these options all require a tradeoff: by downsizing and

eliminating systems for agents to use, your brokerage will become less

attractive to a large percentage of agents and risk losing those agents to

brokers that are able to provide the space and systems that agents

expect.

“To increase your

brokerage’s bottom

line – your brokerage

must increase the

production of those

AGENTS producing less

than $2 million in sales

volume to MAXIMIZE

their commission

contribution NOW.” –

Jason Blackburn, Founder,

AgentSuccessTracker.com

While a smart decision to look at ways to reduce costs and overhead,

this is a defensive move. Each reduction of expenses, if at the expense

of needed tools or systems, might cost more in business than the

savings, sometimes creating a downward trend of no return.

Increase Number of Agents: Increasing the number of agents on your

roster is a valid way to increase your bottom line. After all, if you have

more agents, you can collect more fees and earn more commission

contributions from more agent sales.

However, with more agents leaving the industry than joining, the

opportunity to recruit newly licensed agents is dramatically more

difficult and competitive. It simply is not smart business to depend on

the idea of new agents to improve your bottom line.

The second option is to recruit top-producing agents that are currently

with other brokerages. It makes sense that if you can bring on agents

that have established business, then they can have an immediate

impact on your bottom line. The danger with recruiting top agents is

that they have more leverage than the broker. Simply put, you need

them more than they need you, so they are going to only accept a fee

and commission schedule that benefits them more than you, and we

have seen many brokers that have recruited top-agents that have

actually lost money on these agents upon close examination.

Increase Agent Sales Volume: The most attractive way to increase your

bottom line is to increase the sales volume of those agents already on

your roster. Indeed, if you can get more from the agents on your roster

today, there is no need to reduce expenses for the sake of simply

reducing expenses, you become less dependent on new agent

recruitment, and you increase your leverage with top agents that you

wish to recruit.

To increase agents’ sales volume, most brokers today have turned to

increasing agent training and individual coaching.

But has training improved agent production and your bottom line?

The evidence says no. In this economic downturn, more agents have

sought professional training. In 2011, the percentage of agents that hold

at least one certification increased by 11% over 2010, and 16% over

2009; however, during that same time period median income for agents

declined 4.5% in 2010 after a 3% decline in 2009. So while designations

and certifications probably make agents better at their job and

providing value to their clients, current industry training has failed to

have a major effect on their sales volume and thus a broker’s bottom

“Not too long ago, if

you did 75% of the

things you did right, it

was okay. Now if you

don’t do 98% of those

things right, some

competitor will eat you

for lunch.” – John

Spoelhof, Former CEO of

IBM

line.

Why Training Fails To Increase Agent Sales Volume

Your team’s motivation: A common mistake we have observed is that

brokers assume their agents want to improve. That is not necessarily

true. Many agents are quite comfortable with the status quo. As a

result, training that focuses on helping agents to sell better, to sell

more effectively or to sell higher volumes, will produce substandard

results. This is a function of several factors.

First is your recruitment. If you recruit agents whom you like but who

do not have the proper belief system and/or DNA to seek constant

improvement, then they may view training as nothing more than an

irritating interruption, or simply as a way to spend their time instead of

actively working towards building a real business. To protect yourself

against this, make sure that your recruitment system brings highly

motivated people who have demonstrated throughout their life the

behaviors you desire.

Another common contributor to unsatisfactory results is brokers’

assumptions that their commission plan motivates agents to sell more.

You cannot make other adults want to earn more money than they

want to earn. Again, if your agents are satisfied with their current

income and production level, they will view training as an irritating

interruption or a welcome relief to not work their business.

Failure to change beliefs: Virtually all sales training offered today

focuses on changing the salesperson’s behaviors. This training

encourages them to make more calls, to make better calls, to listen

better, to close better, etc. Unfortunately, you cannot change an

adult’s behavior until he/she changes their belief set. People have a

difficult time seeing themselves as they actually are— and their

performance as it really is. In the blur of the day, people fail to see

the hidden forces holding them back from producing the results

expected.

The sales cycle: Assuming you have impacted the salesperson’s beliefs,

very few sales cycles are short enough to allow a company to see any

change in that salesperson ’s behaviors within a reasonable timeframe.

If the real estate sales cycle was just a few days long, you would see

some change in your team’s behavior during sales cycles immediately

following the training. However, since the real estate sales cycle is

longer, then the effect of the training will fade before you can realize a

change in your team’s behavior.

Some training done today requires agents to perform lead generation

during the training and can result in a measurable increase in such

actions as appointments, listings taken, etc. While the intent is to

change behaviors, the results for the majority of agents are temporary,

as they forget to take these actions on a consistent basis after the

training ends.

People have a difficult time remembering to take the right actions

at the right time. In the heat of battle, agents fail to make the right

Choices— and take the right Actions— that will produce the results

expected.

Understanding the Problem to Discover the Solution

Brokerages can only be their most successful if their agents produce

above average sales volume. It’s not the office location. It’s not brand.

It’s not training. It’s not technology. It’s not cool gadgets.

To improve your bottom-line, your agents must immediately increase

their lead generation activity. There is no other “Other” way. Before

you can implement a smarter strategy— you have to increase their lead

generation activity. Before you can implement smarter tactics—you

have to increase their lead generation activity. Before you can grow

sales and your bottom line—you have to increase their lead generation

activity.

Our Solution

Agent Success Tracker is a simple, powerful online activity tracker that

provides your real estate agents with clear numbers for clear direction.

Our dashboard puts all their vital numbers and activities in a central

location where they can quickly evaluate where they stand in relation

to their monthly goals and see what they need to do each day to meet

them. It’s fast, easy, and inspiring.

Agent Success Tracker helps your agents too:

1. Focus on the income goal they wish to achieve

2. Define the actions necessary to achieve their income goals.

3. Stay Accountable to themselves for taking the necessary actions

to earn their income goal

4. Identify what they are doing right, what they need to do better,

and what they need to do better.

Agent Success Tracker is technology to help your agents SEE precisely

what’s holding them back from the results they want—at any point in

Time.

Agent Success Tracker is technology to help your agents REMEMBER to

make Smarter Choices and take Smarter Actions—every single day.

How Agent Success Tracker Works

Agents take four simple steps and spend five minutes a day to stay on

focused on lead generation activities and increasing their Sales.

1. Step 1: Enter Income Goal – Agents simply enter in a few details,

such as their net income goal, commission split, average sales

price, and few other details, and Agent Success Tracker

automatically calculates how many homes they need to close,

appointments to set, and contacts needed to achieve their

income goal.

2. Step 2: Choose Lead Generation Activities – Agents are given

over 25 twenty lead generation activities to choose from to track

and set daily activity goals based on the results of Step 1. They

can track one or all, it is up to them.

3. Step 3: Record Daily Activities & Successes – Agents record lead

generation activities as they do them, or at the end of each day,

as well as any appointments, agreements, contracts, or closings

they had for that day, and Agent Success Tracker updates their

progress automatically.

4. Step 4: Making the Numbers Work – Agents and their managers

can use these hard numbers to guide their activities. They will

always know if they are on the right path to reach their goals,

and see what area of their performance is holding them back so

they can fix it.

Agent Success Tracker’s focus on simplicity, clarity, and ease of use

make it truly unique and make it easier for you to implement in your

brokerage.

How Agent Success Tracker Can Improve Your Bottom Line

The average broker has 35 agents on their roster. If the production of

the broker follows agent sales volume trends, then the roster

production breaks down as follows:

Sales above $2 million – 8 agents

Sales between $500K and $2million – 12 agents

o Sales between $1.5 and $2million – 3 agents

o Sales between $1 and $1.5million – 3 agents

o Sales between $500K and $1million – 6 agents

Sales under $500K – 15 agents

It is not realistic to expect every agent to adopt Agent Success Tracker

right away. 100% adoption rarely happens with any technology except

MLS, but you should aim for a 25% adoption rate among all your agents

in your first year, targeting that 60% that sells less than $1million.

If you do, than in your first year, if you have 8 agents use Agent Success

Tracker that due to increased activity increase their sales by 50%, than

you have an increase of $4 million in sales production, which at an

average agent contribution of 30%, would mean an additional $36,000

to your bottom line and a whopping 2,900% return on your

investment.

What other investment could you make today that could give you

that type of return for so little money?

What could you do with that additional income to further invest in

your business?

The Choice Is Yours

If you are serious about helping your agents achieve the success they

desire and thereby increasing your bottom line, then Agent Success

Tracker is the only tool that can help you do that without a major

investment in time or money.

After all, you cannot improve what you cannot measure, and neither

can your agents. Call us today and let’s get you office set up today,

because Success Doesn’t Just Happen.

About Jason Blackburn, CEO Jason Blackburn is a respected and accomplished real estate trainer and

speaker who sold his first house at the age of nineteen. After going from selling

homes in college to becoming the Vice-President for a national real estate

company before the age of thirty, Jason founded Laser Focus Training, a real

estate training and education company based in Texas. As licensed real estate

instructor in Texas, Jason has trained thousands of real estate professionals on

sales and success for independent franchises from Keller Williams Realty,

Prudential, Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX, and many others. He has also provided

training for companies such as KB Home, DR Horton, and Wells Fargo. Jason has

an extensive business and consulting background in sales management, sales

training, entrepreneurship, success coaching and motivational speaking.

E-mail: jason@agentsuccesstracker.com

Twitter: @laserfocuscoach

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonblackburn