5 Best Ways To Retain Top Talent at Your Brokerage

A main concern for brokerages is how they retain top talent. Through market challenges and trying to keep up with the changes in the industry, we definitely understand how this is a concern. Having top talent at your brokerage means that there's an even bigger opportunity to grow and succeed.

After understanding this challenge, we've researched the 5 best ways to retain this top talent at your brokerage.

Here are the 5 Best Ways to Retain Top Talent at Your Brokerage...

1. Training

Our company is hiring, and that means we also need to figure out the best onboarding plan for our new hires. I did some research into what new hires want most in the beginning. They want to spend the most time with their managers and training.

This doesn't exactly paint the same picture for brokerages, but it aligns with the basics of onboarding and training. Realtors operate very independently, but often times they will look back to the brokerage for best practices and training on the proper processes. It's a two way street and providing training can ultimately provide growth for both.

Training shouldn't just stop at business procedures, it should include the best tools Realtors can use, how they can obtain the most qualified leads, and how they can better their overall practice through various initiatives. For example, you can hold a training session on how your Realtors can use social media to optimize their own personal brand and how they can showcase the sellers they are working with.

2. Technology

Looking at some relevant stats for Realtors in 2015, more and more are on social media, have a website, and a blog. And their leads are migrating online as well too. 43% of people begin their search online for the next house they are going to buy before talking to an agent. All of these numbers are only going to grow.

And with this growth, almost everything will move to the digital space. Is your brokerage providing the right technology for your agents? Is your brokerage ready for this change?

A major challenge for brokerages in 2015 is getting all of the systems to work together...we get it. We even have the same struggle here at Contactually. To alleviate this, check out a couple of tools like IFTTT or Zapier. They are some of our favorites here at Contactually. Sometimes two of our platforms may not talk to each other just yet, but using Zapier and/or IFTTT can set up a bridge between the two.

3. Lead Generation and Nurturing

I understand that generating leads is a hard job — I'm in marketing! So, I can fully sympathize the challenge a Realtor has in generating qualified leads that will close.

The biggest challenges for a Realtor is generating those qualified leads, then nurturing them, and then selling their services to them. However, if a brokerage can alleviate some of that challenge by obtaining potential leads for a Realtor and developing a simple, consistent cadence to nurture the leads, Realtors can shift their time closing the leads. Did that nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases?

One method to collect leads is to set up some Facebook ads with targeting that fit with the current sellers in your region. As a brokerage, you could produce content for sellers to download about selling their house, things they need to know before they sell, etc. This content can be advertised on Facebook with a call-to-action to download. The targeting and content download can create a potential qualified lead list for agents.

Another method to tackle these challenges of lead generation and nurturing is to recognize a top performer and ask how they do it. See if they can provide some methods that can be translated across your entire brokerage. Using their top methods could help boost productivity and retain your top talent.

4. Continuing Education

Continuing education goes hand and hand with training, but sometimes there is just the training part. Many industries now are constantly changing and evolving as we all shift to more digital practices.

Your brokerage could hold educational sessions on topics like marketing, sales, and any changes happening in the real estate industry. You could ask leading professionals in those fields to come and speak about their best practices.

In order to get better at your profession you must constantly be learning. And usually the top talent will want to learn about new ways to drive even better successes. If you provide the opportunity for further education, your top talent will recognize this effort and it will be another reason for them to stay.

5. Transparency

Transparency is something that many companies are striving for, but there are a few definitions and levels of transparency. It probably isn't productive to share complete financials or what each Realtor makes exactly, but having a level of transparency can create some positive feelings across your brokerage.

Trust is the biggest feeling that transparency can create, and if your agents trust you, they are much more likely to stay at your brokerage.

Talk about how long you've been around, the story of how you got started, or how much you've grown in the last year. With these examples, you can create a more transparent atmosphere that your talent will appreciate.

Growing Your Brokerage

Think about if you add all of those components into your brokerage? You top talent will more than likely want to stay, and you'll start to attract even more talent into your brokerage.

To view the original article, visit the Contactually blog.