How to Increase Production, Recruitment, and Retention

As a broker or manager, your primary role is to create an environment of success in your office(s). This creates highly trained, motivated and productive sales agents.

A huge part of your environment is the culture of your office. An honest review of your current culture may be just what you need as a leader to fix issues you know about and, even more importantly, fix the ones you don’t know about.

The culture of an office will directly contribute to the morale of the team. Culture correlates to the levels of production and can make or break the success of that office.

Here are some ways you can conduct a spot-check inventory of the culture of your office, and how to turn it around for increased morale and production:

Mission/Core Values

Does everyone in your office (both staff and agents) understand, believe and follow the mission and core values of the company? Do you communicate with them? They’re not something hung on a wall or mentioned once a year, but, instead, are at the center of everything you do and are the guiding force for decision-making. If you haven’t talked about them recently, I suggest you start this week and reestablish the beliefs of the company into the hearts of your team. It will pay off big time.

Positive or Negative Vibe?

Positive Culture

Is your office vibe positive or negative? Do agents praise or complain? Do they have mutual respect for each other, or are they more concerned with themselves? If you are experiencing one or two toxic personalities that are affecting your team’s morale, you need to address them in a timely manner. Not addressing the negativity can result in major retention issues, including the loss of good-producing agents, and an inability to recruit. Agents at other companies see those agents as toxic, and, unfortunately, no matter how much they like you, they won’t join your office because they think those negative agents are bringing the office down. To repair this, it’s essential to confront the situation, not let it worsen. Remind them that their behavior is not helpful to the team or to themselves and will not be tolerated. Ask how you can help them improve their attitude. When you address the negativity, your agents will respect you, and you will gain loyalty and preserve the culture of the office.

Your Leadership and Communication Style

Do you avoid conflict, or address things promptly? Do you engage with your agents, or sit in your office and wait for them to come to you? Are you actively coaching or watching with disappointment? Do you know what your agents are working on? Are you leading and driving the success of your team, or sitting back and watching what happens? Do you overcommunicate information to your team? If you don’t, you need to start immediately. 

If you already do, assess your methods. Are you emailing or texting too much? Perhaps your sales meetings aren’t cutting it and have become flat. An easy way to ramp up your communication and directly increase the morale of your office is to have social events, training sessions, power-packed sales meetings and inspiring, positive, results-oriented emails and texts to your team. Play music before and after your sales meetings, or have a fun contest to reward agents for all kinds of positive sales activities. Consistently make sure that when people leave you, they feel better than when they came to you. The culture of the office is a direct reflection of the leader. It’s 1,000 percent your job as the leader to set the tone and culture and overcommunicate, so agents feel valued, appreciated, recognized and cared for. Success breeds more success. By building people up and building confidence, you increase the effectiveness of your team and experience amazing results.

Bring Out the Best in Everyone

Our job as leaders and motivators is to bring out the very best in everyone. Doing this creates positive results. Develop your personal relationships by adding value to each of your agents. Call them and visit their office frequently and ask them how you can assist them with their business. Engaging managers have highly successful agents and cultures. By instilling confidence in them, you will be helping them create their own success.

It’s true: Production will follow morale. When you have a thriving, positive culture, production is the result. You can lead and guide your team to victory every day. Be engaging, communicate in multiple ways and get agents into the office, and you will positively influence your culture and create a thriving and successful, high-performing team. Happy leading!

For more information and resources on building your team and culture, call our office we're ready to help!