Real Estate Team 2.0: A team of rainmakers with one coach

For the team I'm building, I'd like to move away from the Rainmaker model and propose that every team member is a Rainmaker and the leader is the Coach. I worked as a broker in a Rainmaker model designed on Craig Proctor's system and I had  lot of problems with it. Any team member with an ounce of healthy ego will eventually rebel against the Rainmaker set-up.

I want a team of stars and I want everyone promoted. If I am the leader it will be in the capacity of coach and inspirational guide. This will be a true team effort, not 6 people building up one person. When it rains it will be the result of the team working together in unison to make it happen. Will some outperform others? Inevitably, but not so on a constant basis. I envision everyone having their days and their runs, but it's not about who wins on the team, it's about the team winning. Will there be conflict if one continues to outshine the others? Yes, unless the one is rewarded for producing more.

Before I get into who decides who gets rewarded for superior performance, I want to continue the building process and all along make the connections that define the team. It will take an uncommon understanding for team members to gell and understand the team concept at the deep level necessary for it to work. But I will eventually show why the rewards will be sufficient to gain this deep level understanding and accept what others may see as "unfair".

Mental models will need to be challenged. The more ingrained the mental model the more difficult it is to uproot its causes and clearly see a new way of thinking. In real estate we expect those who produce to be rewarded for their effort, and many agents begin to see themselves as the sole causes of success. This is not always the case -- I've seen arrogant agents take their magic show to another company and flop. So the system one works in has SOMETHING to do with the success. This is not to deny that some people could sell real estate at any company -- they are naturals and they can make things happen. These are rare exceptions so we want use them as models -- this is has been a problem with many real estate agents, trying to be like the mega-agent they saw at the last conference.

There's a more realistic way for MOST agents to succeed and it has to do with systems, discipline, knowledge, technology, online participation and, in our case, teamwork.

Co-ordinated effort using the various strengths of team members will produce more powerful results than most individual efforts. I believe this because I have experienced it. My older brother used to score 40 points a game in basketball, but his team lost more games than they won. Most of the times that they lost the other team didn't have anyone as good as my brother, but their teamwork was superior to my brother's team and they won.

I've witnessed it in sports and I've witnessed it in business -- a superior CEO of company X with a poor management team  is no match for company C with a management team that has developed good rapport, good systems and working relationships.

Real estate companies have been held back by the star system where a few stars create most of the business. A business should work as a business competing against other businesses in a co-ordinated team effort. Real estate agents aren't taught to be team players. The star system is good for the stars, but it's not the best way to run a business. I truly believe a fully functioning team of six can outperform a company with 50 agents and 4 or 5 stars. A team of 6 stars can dominate the market if you judge by net profit. This I believe. In the long run, the star would be better off on a team -- both financially, professionally and personally. Having to deal with broken brokers in a broken system is rewarding only in a financial sense, although, like I said, I think a star on a team would make even more.

The rewards of being part of something different with vision and purpose are far greater than making more money. The efficiency, improved productivity and sense of camaraderie of the team effort will be sufficiently rewarding for any player.

Real Estate Team 2.0: Marketing, Information Management and Specialized Knowledge

The three components of the team's real estate practice are marketing, information management and specialized knowledge. If a home owner has buyers, the homeowner can sell their own home -- what they lack is marketing, information and specialized knowledge. This is where the real estate professional adds value.

A buyer can look around and find a home -- what they lack is information and specialized knowledge ( they beneift from marketing in the sense they can view homes that are marketed well with plenty of rich information, so marketing can be included with the buyer's needs).

Creating a system that strengthens these three components will be the primary task when building a team. Some say we are in the business of selling homes, but to me that is a byproduct not a key component. Homes are sold in the process of providing the three components. I would rather have one agent who is adept at the three components than three good salespeople who are only good at selling one buyer at a time when they happen to call on a sign or an ad.

The goal is to attract many buyers through marketing, provide good information to both buyers and sellers and use specialized knowledge to create successful transactions in a way that impresses clients to the point of becoming fans and lifelong clients. The team will be working with buyers on the buyside, sellers on the listing side. The team will be working with investments and property management, and the team will be providing consultation services. These are what I envision as the services provided to create streams of income.

Information management will include information related to neighborhoods, schools, services, vendors, zoning, taxes, trends, new construction sites, sales data, statistics, building codes, hotel rates, and anything else the team can think of to gather that will be useful and easily accessed. The necessary money will be spent on developing a sophisticated information management system that each team member is taught/trained to understand and use. The marketing person will be communicating weekly with team members on information needs and monitoring the flow of information, along with the leader, to ensure information management continues to be top priority. The team will have expert knowledge of the area they cover at their fingertips at all times. The system should present the information in a sleek package that's branded, visually attractive and easy to read and understand -- whereever analysis can be included, it should be.

Having more and better information is a competitive advantage. Although it will be good to ask clients what they want, what's more important is the team deciding what's useful and creating a thorough information management system -- sometimes the clients don't know what they want or need until it's provided.

Marketing should be guided by a system that tracks results. The marketing person should be constantly tracking where clients come from and analyzing each marketing strategy for cost-effectiveness. Internal information management is as important as the information gathered for client usage. Lead conversion from different marketing strategies should be analyzed on a regular basis so that the team is updated on what's working or what's not working -- to detemine if it's the marketing strategy or the conversion efforts that need to be improved. Reports should be given to team members on a monthly basis. Monitoring marketing efforts is vital to being flexible and possessing good information to make quick changes.

Again, the company that learns the fastest has the advantage. Marketing should be a mixture of traditional and 2.0, with constant elimination and additions and experimentation based on the monitoring reports and feedback from team members. Every response from the internet should be recorded and analyzed to determine if social media marketing is leading to recognition and transactions. Every call from a sign, every inquiry from a magazine, every email from a blog follower, every referral from a past client - EVERYTHING should be recorded, monitored, analyzed and reported.

To me marketing is an ongoing function performed by everyone on the team. Making local contacts on a regular basis and building the sphere of influence is a time honored practice. Social media marketing online will be just as important and should be geared toward including the participation of consumers into the converstaion. Each team member will be charged with expanding their online presence and developing creative plans to use the online tools to brand themselves and the team and advertise the services. Six or seven people virally penetrating the cyber-world will have a powerful effect. If more teams are created it will only strengthen the branding process.

To me good branding has a personal touch, it's being known personally rather than by company. I'm sure that Re/Max gets milage from national exposure, but there isn't that much distinction from, say, from Coldwell Banker or Century 21. And if a seller or buyer has any sophistication at all they realize that company name doesn't ensure quality at the agent level. So branding the team should go through individuals who are then associated with a team, but the branding will have more impact at the personal level first. I liked Wendy's because of Dave Thomas -- it's silly, but I trusted Dave - there was a personal connection -- before, when I heard "Chrysler", I thought of Iacocca. I think many companies are missing the boat by not having a personal spearhead, or several who represent the image of the company -- with this team in real estate, I would want everyone to have a face, personality and presence. This pertains in a big way to turnover, though, and that can be a problem -- it's why choosing the team carefully is so important -- little or no turnover can be a powerful statement of stability.

More later. ( I didn't even get into specialized knowledge, but I don't want to make these too long)

Real Estate Team 2.0: Shared Vision

In order to avoid power and control issues a team needs a shared vision that is shared by everyone. I have become sick of talk about vision that simply means building up a company that uses it's employees or contract workers as a means of control and self-serving power. There is nothing wrong with doing what's best for yourself, but many broker/owners don't really understand what is best for them. As I have written about a hundred times, the model where anyone who can breathe is hired on and turned loose willy-nilly is not good for the company or the broker's "self". The idea of throwing enough crap on the wall that some of it will stick is a very old, dying idea. But that is their decision, and so be it.

I have resisted growing big because I wasn't ready to grow big, and I didn't want fifty agents just to say I have fifty agents. Yes, they could have sold a listing or two and it would all add up, but I want something  special if I'm going to build a company. Until now, being a one-man show has had its rewards (I have three agents under me now, but only one is full time, the other two have arrangements with me to use their licenses for limited purposes).   

The idea of building a team has been irritating me for quite some time. I don't NEED to build a team, I can do enough business by myself to do well financially, so the financial reasons for building a team are not the primary motivation. I understand some people's single-minded pursuit of more money and I have no take on that -- each to their own, but I can truthfully say I would never build a team for the single purpose of making more money -- I just don't think that way and I've never been interested in making tons of money. I'm not against it or for it, just neutral. What turns me on is building something of quality that's successful -- as someone once said (I think it was Ken Blanchard, and I am paraphrasing), profit is the applause for creating an excellent company.

My interests go far beyond making money, and anyone who doubts that is justified in their doubts because of the way most people think about these things, but they don't understand. Part of the problem I see is the single-minded pursuit of profit is misleading and causes decision-makers in companies to lose sight of purpose and vision. Profit will come if the business is healthy and is valauble to consumers, but to create an excellent company/team, the purpose must be to provide excellent service that can be measured -- part of the purpose may be to dominate the market in a given area and this certainly means making money, but what do you do with the money? Does the owner squeeze as much as he/she can from the business so that they can be wealthy and powerful? Does the owner cut corners on service to increase the profit? Well, I did have a take on it afterall.

The problem is what do you plan on doing with the money that's generated. Will you create a company where everyone can share the "applause"? That's where I'm coming from. I want money to be the fuel that enriches the business and the players on the team to keep it improving, becoming better and better. I don't see the creation of a team as a money funnel for the owner. The purpose of the team will be to provide extraordinary real estate services using the latest technology within a team concept that is profitable and creates lifelong clients. The purpose can be expanded to include more measurable goals, but this is the foundation. Being profitable is necessary to keep it going and improving. Providing extraordinary services which create lifelong clients is the clear purpose that should be branded into each team player's mind.

Vision begins to form around the purpose. Visualizing the manifestation of a such a team is vital. I see in my mind's eye a form of each team player and how they perform. If I build the team and I am the leader of the team, I'll need to communicate this vision. I'm now committed to the vision, so now I can go forward. Until there is commitment, purpose and a clear vision, it's just a half-baked dream. There can be no cynical application, it must be built on truth and trust with noble aspirations. This is where people blush or begin to scoff. The leader must not give in to this out of embarrassment. So many times I have seen managers of a company be given orders to inspire the "workers" and when they called them all to a meeting, they would start off "I know you all don't want to be here, but I have been instructed to restate the company's vision, so bear with me...." The manager was embarrassed to have to talk about such noble topics because he thought he would be laughed at so he "buddied up" and went to the lower level -- useless.

In order to communicate the vision a leader must truly believe it can be accomplished and start living the accomplishment. Now, on to more nuts and bolts. I know the type of people I want, I know the form I want it to take, I know, partially, the systems I want to create,  now I only have to put it together in a way that promotes the vision, one that can be shared by everyone on the team. In other words, now I will communicate the vision.

Tomorrow is purpose and vision day

A common trait among people who understand excellence is the ability to visualize, to see in the mind's eye the reality of excellence. If I could download my vision  in a picture form it would be great art. Alas, I'm stuck with words.

As I write about teams I write mostly from the vision and partly from experience. I have been a part of great teams before and the experiences were life changing.

I have fallen short since going into business for myself, stuck between being (practically) a one man show, and building the team I envision. I have leaned toward the one-man show because of heart-health (stress) reasons, but I am throwing that excuse to the wind and forging forward -- I'd rather go out in a great big THUMPITY-THUMP than to not build what I envision -- it's at the point now of irritating me to not build it. Who knows, it may give my heart strength and longer action.

I will use this exercise as a blueprint. I appreciate all the input so far. 

Real Estate Team 2.0: Technology and Humans

Every team member will be wired -- smart phone, laptop, mobile printer, video camera, digital camera. Every team will have their own website and each team member will be responsible for optimizing their sites. Each team member will have a blog that they post to on a regular basis. Each of the sites will have plenty of links between them to lead clients to the whole team and everything the company has to offer. There will be one company site managed by the leader.

The marketing person will be in charge of staying on top of new technologies and training the team members to use the new technologies. Team members will understand the difference between using technology and having technology use them, which brings us back to the philosophy of the team and the role of the leader.

Understanding technology in a broader sense entails the technology of sytems and a 2.0 team should have a thorough understanding of the system in which it works. In order for there to be little wasted energy each team member will have to undergo thorough training learning each part of the system and how each action in one part of the system affects the other parts. Information management is built on the proper use of databases and input -- garbage in, garbage out. 

The old reliance on one "computer" person will not get it, everyone must know. This is where it takes talented individuals who buy into the company's vision. Most agents have no interest in learning all the different aspects of information management systems, but for the team to work together and unleash its power, it will be necessary for everyone to learn. It's not good enough to know if you hit a button something happens, the team members will need to understand WHY the systems are developed and how they affect the company's performance. There will be no excuse for an agent to tell a client that so-and-so is sick and they'll have to wait to get the information.

Each agent ought to be wired and knowledgeable enough to retrieve information from anywhere at anytime and know how to handle most problems when they arise. Whatever system is developed, you don't want one or two people in the system creating problems out of ignorance. Clients are impressed when you can produce the information they need when they need it.

How do you train and motivate a team to function at this level? First you select the team carefully. The hiring process should be painstakingly thorough. The technology used for personality testing can be useful during the interviewing and selection process. The leader should decide beforehand what type of team members are suited for such a company. Not everyone must be the same personality type, but they must have the intelligence and capacity to perform and and be a valuable addition. Some people are self-motivated to the point that you just tell them what the goal is and sit back and watch them accoplish it, others need more hands-on management to unleash their power. I have managed people who were excellent employees, but they needed a lot of guidance -- they are eager to learn and learn quickly and efficiently with one-on-one coaching. I have managed others who were more visual and social and learned very well in role-playing or going to workshops. Everyone has their learning style and the leader must know which style is which and facilitate the learning individually -- or have a well-rounded approach to teaching so that every personality type is given what they need.

The important part is that on-going education is encouraged, expected and provided, whether in-house or from outside sources. Bringing in professionals to promote learning in different areas is a good idea. Attorneys, tech people, lenders, etc., can all be called on to help in the learning process -- much of this is offered through associations, but as a leader, I would want to provide my on subjects so that pertinent information is given and not just half-assed seminars to get continuing-ed credits.

The team members will have to be committed to learning for this to work, so, again, selecting the right players is vital. Most people aren't resistant to learning if it's interesting and presented correctly, if they are inspired to learn and can visualize the benefits -- this is where the leader earns his/her keep.