Many brokers today have the same frustrations as team leads, sales managers, and even productivity coaches: new agents join and then don’t generate enough of their own leads. And it’s not surprising, considering newly licensed agents come into the market with very little training. This puts the real onus on the brokers. They have to decide how to approach and solve the issue at hand.
Do they throw their agents into the deep end and hope they swim? Do they simply have them follow around a senior agent? Or do they take a systematic and tested approach, with education and training material that fits their learning style?
Jody Jolly is decidedly in the latter camp. “I’m a firm believer in building a solid foundation from the beginning,” said the Productivity Coach and Realtor at Keller Williams Realty Tulare & Kings Counties. “It really helps them get their business off to a great start and gets them in production and in lead generation day one!”
In particular, Jody uses the SOI program from Brian Icenhower and Icenhower Coaching & Consulting (ICC) to train her new agents. The program includes strategies, scripts, and other materials that have all proven effective in the real world, helping agents grow their book of business from the people they already know. With the program, Jody was able to empower her team of new real estate agents to close 22 transactions in their first quarter.
Growth was also top of mind for Noah Bailey, a broker who runs The Noah Bailey Group in St. Augustine, Florida.
“Before working with Brian and ICC, we had a decent market share but we were shooting from the hip. Since we started with ICC, we’ve rapidly grown our team and put systems in place we didn’t have before,” he said.
With help from ICC, the systems Noah leveraged to onboard new agents and administrative staff have helped the group’s growth in headcount and production.
Across the country, brokerages and teams empower and educate new agents with an established system for onboarding. These systems aren’t created on the fly. Instead, they formalize the delivery of material that new agents and staff need to know about the industry, the brokerage, and even their own community.
For example, ICC has put together an onboarding calendar that outlines everything a new agent needs. The calendar breaks down the areas that agents will focus on and even links off to the assets in the ICC learning library for ease of use. You can download a copy of the calendar here.
The calendar serves multiple purposes, in addition to streamlining what can be a challenging process:
- Brokers can use the calendar in their recruiting activities to let prospective agents know what they can expect.
- A calendar helps establish great agent habits and work ethic from the very beginning.
- Brokers can build out a required system of time blocking for lead generation activities.
- A calendar forces agents to take time to learn the brokerage’s systems and best practices.
So the calendar helps outline what the new agents and staff will learn. But each person has a distinct and preferred learning style — how they best consume the material. Some prefer to read text and yet others like to watch video. Still, others find it more effective to listen while in the car or on a walk.
That’s why ICC creates every single asset in its library in all three formats: text, video, and podcast.
“We’re really trying to deliver this important information in a way that suits everyone’s different learning styles,” said Brian Icenhower. “And I think that it’s never been more important in the world than it is right now.”
Of course, ICC offers more than a robust library of effective training materials. Brokers can also partner with experienced coaches who can help design a custom onboarding system, and help offer accountability and measurable improvement.
“Our primary goal is to help real estate leaders empower their agents to succeed,” Brian said. “Since there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, we pride ourselves on the flexibility of partnership options with ICC.”
With 33% of agents quitting inside of their first year, and almost 80% of agents quitting in less than five years, it’s clear new agents don’t get what they need to succeed. Using a robust and comprehensive onboarding program for new agents, brokers can set their new agents up for success from the very first day.