Has growth stood still in your organization? Are you recruiting about as many as are leaving? Do you have more experienced agents leaving your company than experienced agents recruited? Is the majority of your recruiting based on brand new agents that you "sell" your service and product to? Once they get into the company and experience your products/services, do they leave?

Once agents are recruited into your company, what is their true experience besides the ability to use your wonderful tools and attend your comprehensive training?

I frequently hear brokers talk of their agents as customers. Are they really our customers? Let's explore the messaging. If agents are customers then they must be buying and we are selling. This context becomes very dangerous. This creates a relationship built on delivering product to our agents whether it is service or tools. This concept has eroded many margins for brokers. Profitability shrinks. Growth stops.

Providing agents tools to compete or training to make them more skillful is only half the process. Human beings want to be inspired. Product is a necessary must, but not as inspiring as the accountable relationship that must be established between leader and agent. What work are you doing in your organization to build your leaders?

Agents are inspired by vision and purpose. What does your organization stand for besides commission, training, tools and nice offices? Does your leadership lead from their personality or their character? Are there accountable relationships with your agents? (noticing without judgement) Are agents recognized for just their production? Are you recognizing them for who they are as a person and where they are in their life? What is your process in enrolling them into your vision?

"Core Values" is another phrase I hear a lot. It's a wonderful concept if the leadership acts from principle. If "core principles" are not understood and practiced then "core values" are just another sales job…a product for agents to purchase, use and dispose of.

If you are just selling and your agents are buying, another company is going to have better stuff. If they come for the money, they will leave for the money. If they come for the stuff, they will leave for the stuff.

As the leader, what inspires you besides the money and the stuff? Create that vision in your company. What really inspires most people is that you notice them…that you care about them. And most of all, recognize them…not for their production, but for being themselves.

Published: September 8, 2004

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Rich Casto is the founder of The Real Estate Coaches, a recruiting and management solutions company that supports brokers, owners and managers in the management and recruiting solutions arena. He can be reached at 702 240-0908 or coach@therealestatecoaches.com. Visit his website at TheRealEstateCoaches.com.