Success Breeds Success: How One Leader Builds Up His Agents

Dan Lee is a team leader and broker unlike others. "I don't consider myself a savvy businessman," he says. "I consider myself as someone who took the responsibility to provide for everybody else's livelihood."

Lee's focus on cultivating his agents' success has led to his own success in retaining and recruiting top salespeople. In this interview, Lee shares his approach to keeping agents happy, why he doesn't hire until he has leads for a new agent, and why he's never had to fire an agent.

Read on to learn more!

Q: Knowing there is a lot of attrition with newly licensed agents, some brokers spend great efforts to recruit in hopes of retaining enough agents to grow your business. But this is not your plan – can you explain?

A. For me, the focus is not gross volume. I don't have thousands or even hundreds of agents. I have 20 agents. I have never had to fire an agent. I really do think that that's the core of it. You can do the volume game; you can have a revolving door of agents. But I just don't see the point of training someone to be exceptional and just losing them. That's never been my business model.

Q. How do you choose these agents?

A. As a broker or a team leader, you are really responsible for someone's livelihood. We're a close-knit team. We expand when the right person comes along. I think my advice to most people who are trying to develop a brokerage would be to surround yourself with like-minded people that you see eye-to-eye with.

Q. This works both ways – how do you earn the loyalty of your agents?

A. We talk about loyalty a lot. Loyalty is not earned until you are giving them something. My agents are very loyal. As I said, I never lost an agent. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they are grateful. It is great seeing the success of other agents.

Q. You mentioned you provide something tangible as part of what inspires loyalty – what can you offer that is consistent and can be delivered reliably?

A. I don't hire until I have leads for them. I don't want to hire an agent based on false promises and then try to provide them something. I like to access the leads and then try to find an agent to fit that model.

The consistency and rate of performance from realtor.com leads is the only real way for me to standardize this. So I can say that from the day you join, I anticipate you to close at least 1.5 contracts per month—that is standard. We want a new hire to close within their first 45-60 day mark. For me to guarantee that to my new hires, I would not feel secure in saying this without the lead program we have with realtor.com. It would not be possible.

Q. It is commendable that you have not had to fire any of your agents. Is this the direction you see the industry going? Small, but extremely dedicated to agent success?

A. I don't consider myself a savvy businessman. I consider myself as someone who took the responsibility to provide for everybody else's livelihood. This industry is heading towards a juncture and the big volume guys will probably stay afloat. I think the mainstream brokerages are probably going to falter a bit. But I think the boutique brokers will have a strong position and independents will probably do well.

Q. How can a small, independent firm compete to recruit and retain against the bigger players?

A. Recruitment can be a whole logistical game. The big guys have a video training budget—and I can't do that. I have a two-week boot camp where agents are taught from day one how to be at least helpful to their customers in a tangible way. I look at this every day to make sure that we are providing value to our clients. In this technological world, that value can be very minimal sometimes and I want to make sure that I (and my team) am not that kind of agent who is not providing tangible value to consumers.

Q. Obviously, you have a closer relationship with your agents by having a more one-to-one relationship. How do you grow and scale the business?

A. One of my biggest challenges is being able to scale this. My model is very intensive per agent. It may not be the best model for making the most money, but at the same time it is the best business model for making sure someone else is successful in this business.