Coach’s Corner: To Team or Not To Team?

By Mark Johnson
CEO, JP & Associates Realtors

So, you want to start a team?

Or you already have a team and are now questioning that choice? 

Maybe you already have a team performing at a high level, and you are looking for a boost?

You see, we’ve just about seen it all:

• Starting a team too early; 
• Starting a team for the wrong reasons; 
• Starting a team without a straightforward value offering; 
• Starting a team with no or poorly written team agreements;
• Letting your team and performance get stagnant. 

The most successful teams we know, the leader assumes the CEO role of the team, and they always lead with revenue! And they understand this: 

“A system will produce what a system will produce, nothing less nothing more.”

A few thoughts to consider as it relates to team leadership: 

Team Requirement No. 1:

Do you have a clear and compelling value proposition?

• Will you be a leads provider?
• Will you be a coach, trainer, and mentor?
• Without a clear value, turnover will be the challenge you face.

Team Requirement No. 2:

You’re on Target or Ahead of Your Production Goal

• Bringing additional team members aboard is not only a big responsibility… It’s taking on a serious expense.
• If your income cannot support additional team members, you’re only setting yourself up for failure.
• Get your own house in order, and then consider taking that next step.
• Lead with revenue first

Team Requirement No. 3:

You Have At Least 4 Successful Pillars of Lead Generation

• You have solid influence strategies (referrals) in place or control strategies (online leads) in place. 
• You’re tracking and measuring all your leading indicators, right? (If not, you’re not ready for a team.

• When you look at your various lead sources, are you producing multiple sales every month from AT LEAST four different pillars?
• The key here is to ensure your business is diversified sufficiently to support additional sales agents on your team.

Team Requirement No. 4:

You Have Lead Follow-Up Systems in Place That Create Raving Fans and Ensure a High Level of Service

• Are your systems in place to the point that you can say you’ve operationalized your business?
• If not, it’s not a total deal-breaker, but know that developing systems as you grow your team will steal precious time away from your more immediate dollar-productive work. Can you afford that?

Team Requirement No. 5:

You Have an Accountability Structure in Place That is Utilized Daily

• As a team leader, you need a built-in system to hold you accountable to your schedule, the systems you have in place, and the others on your team.
• This accountability structure begins with you and must extend to all who join your team.
• Suppose you’re not consistently sticking to a morning schedule and setting that example for others. In that case, it will be difficult for you to expect team members to perform with the necessary daily discipline to succeed.
• If not, you might want to work on your disciplines a bit before putting yourself out there as a role model. 

Team Requirement No. 6:

You are a mission grow your leadership skills and serve your team members  

• Face it, some of us just don’t want to “manage” others, and all that entails 
• If you are not into people with a decent EQ level, you might want to consider options like a sales or operations manager that can handle those things for you. 

Now that you’ve considered six factors for team success, I have a practical exercise to start the process. 

Why do you — and your team — do what you do?

This may sound like an odd question, yet one example could be: 

Are you in the real estate business (I sell real estate) or the problem-solving business? (We help consumers navigate the complex process of buying, selling, or investing in real estate with ease, transparency, and less stress.)

See the difference? 

How are you different or unique?

And does that matter to the typical consumer? 

Who is our ideal client? 

And how do you reach them in relevant, consistent ways? 

Hyper-local.

Are you constantly working to become the hyper-local expert? The portals and national chains can never be the hyper-local expert. 

Growth plans

What is your vision? If you are in one city, do you want to expand into other cities or even another state? 

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There you have it — the opportunity is yours. 

Want to learn more about this and JPAR? Reach out now: franchising opportunities: franchise.jpar.com or agent opportunities: jparready.com 

PS: Consider this …

With all the plans, strategies, goals, innovations, business practices, and culture that make up your team, you are getting exactly the results that your business systems and processes are currently capable of producing – nothing less, nothing more! 

To get better results, you must improve the design and execution of your business systems and processes — at the detail, checklist level. 

The law of cause and effect governs all business outcomes. To change an effect or result, you have to change the cause.

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Mark is the Chief Executive Officer of JPAR Real Estate, a rapidly growing full-service transaction-based real estate brokerage, the host of “Success Superstars,” a weekly show that highlights the blueprint of agent success, and the co-founder of CoRecruit. He has invested decades in understanding the inner workings of high-performing real estate companies, managers, teams, and their leaders in major markets across the world. Mark has served as a business coach in progressive leadership capacities for one of the largest US-based real estate firms, in sales and customer marketing leadership capacities for a major consumer goods company, and served in the US Army. Mark is a father of 3, a lifelong learner, Spartan, and adventure athlete. He earned his MBA from California State University and a Behavioral Change Certification from the National Association of Sports Medicine.