This is a webinar that we did with Jared Zimmer, a Re/max team leader and five year Mike Ferry Organization coach. He has an impressive accountability mindset that has allowed him to close 80+ personal deals each year despite massive commitments outside of real estate. In fact, his mindset and coaching were instrumental in creating the first versions of the Sisu platform. The webinar and article talk about his impressive results and accountability mindset.
Real estate agents are some of the busiest people on the planet.
The most impressive agents understand exactly how valuable their time is, and with that, they understand that there are two parts of their work that are crucial to their success: accountability and efficiency.
We interviewed an agent (and early Sisu user) who is as pressed on time as anyone we've met. He is currently training for an Iron Man triathlon, which is a 20-25 hour commitment each week.
For the previous five years, he has also made a similar commitment (20+ hours) as a coach and trainer within the Mike Ferry Organization.
Regardless of all of these commitments, Jared's real estate production has not faltered. He's done somewhere between 100 and 130 sides every single year for the past eight years, with 80+ of those being listings that he personally acquires and closes. He operates a small team with a buyers agent and transaction coordinator/admin.
Accountability Is The Key
Jared mentions in the webinar the role that accountability has played in growing his real estate business. When your time commitments start to pile up, your internal accountability systems will either shine or crumble.
Usually, there are three reasons why accountability systems crumble:
- It's far too common that real estate agents don't treat their activities like a true business. Reps in any other discipline of sales (think auto sales or enterprise sales) don't have a choice to track their numbers. They have a quota and if they don't hit it, they're in trouble. Real estate, of course, is a little different. There's usually not a lot of pressure from above. Agents aren't required to track numbers because they haven't seen the value in it.
- Number tracking can be a consistent reminder of what you're not doing. If the numbers don't tell a pretty story, it's easier to stop tracking them than it is to fix them—and this is what separates top producers from average performers.
- Systems for tracking numbers are often burdensome and time consuming.
Make Real Estate Accountability Work For You
The story told above is pretty common, but doesn't need to be.
As Jared quotes, you can sacrifice for what you want or the thing you want will become the sacrifice.
The first step to getting what you want out of your career in real estate is to set goals. So, figure out exactly what level of production you want to be achieving.
Then, treat your business like a real business. Track the things that will help you get there—right down to how many people you should be talking to each day.
As Jared says, go out there and get your butt kicked! You might be terrible on the phone at the start. That's ok. At least you'll know it. Then, you'll start setting appointments. You might lose every single one. That's fine. It's part of growth, and the important thing is that you know where to focus your efforts for improvement.
A Scalable Accountability Approach For Your Team
As a team leader, you likely understand perfectly the importance of accountability. That's why you've become a leader in your market.
But how do you scale that approach to the agents on your team/brokerage?
That takes a little more creativity. You'll need:
- A simple and intuitive way to track numbers and progress towards goals.
- Some kind of display that makes the numbers look good, so that you and your agents can break down the business at a glance. This also gives the numbers context and meaning.
- If you really want this to be a smashing success, find a way to gamify the numbers and incentivize agents on performance.
If you'd like to learn more about how Jared holds himself accountable and how countless other team leaders inspire their agents, schedule a quick meeting with us here.
