Earlier this year, we talked about how brokers can save time by using task checklists to standardize their agents' workflow. Today, we're going to revisit the "time saving" theme by exploring how having a daily snapshot of agent performance can help brokers accomplish the same thing.

Like task management, performance monitoring can be accomplished via technology tools. We've seen this capability baked into Virtual Office Websites, transaction management tools, and some advanced real estate CRMs, like Inside Real Estate. The best tools will let you see, in real-time, practically everything your agents are doing in their prospecting efforts, including their current sales pipeline from lead-to-close.

Success Means Looking Forward

Research on lead responsiveness reveals that 48% of leads are never responded to. Of those that are, it takes agents an average of 15.5 hours to respond. According to a study by MIT, speed is key in capturing leads. By waiting just 30 minutes to respond, compared to five minutes, your likelihood of contacting that lead drops 100 times.

Strategically, your goal as a broker is to modify your agent's sluggish response time. How? The first step is having a snapshot of what's happening in your company. Most brokerages have cemented their feet into looking at production reports, which is looking in a rear view mirror. Brokers who try to impact success have to look forward. In looking forward, you have to look at activities of an agent.

It's not enough to coach on what's top of mind, i.e., asking, What are you doing today? Instead, coach on the sales funnel by asking, What are you doing tomorrow? Successful people have a plan and know what they need to work on and how that impacts their success and the success of their company.

While we already know that half of agents fail at managing their leads, we also have to look at what the "good" agents are doing. If your performance reports reveal that some agents are converting more online leads, you can celebrate that success with the agent and find out what they are doing that creates such positive results. In this case, the agent will train you on best practices so that you can then train the poor performing agents.

With performance monitoring tools, you have visibility into your agents' sales pipeline. Knowing how many consumers an agent has in various stages of the sales funnel will help you manage the agent more effectively. You need to be able to identify an agent that's stumbling and grab them before they fall.

An example of a dashboard for monitoring agent performance, courtesy of Inside Real Estate. Click to view full size.