My Low-tech Secret Weapons for Retaining Top Producers
With Bruce Vinnick

Brucke Vinnick directly address camera:  In todayÕs market, top agents have access to all sorts of different business models and enticing offers such as sign-on bonuses and magical marketing. The marketing resources and technology  package you offer as a broker are essential, But itÕs the  personal touch that keeps top agents from leaving. 

IÕm Bruce Vinnick, broker-owner of Realty Executives Oceanside in Palm Coast. LetÕs take five minutes to talk about four strategies IÕve used to retain top producers.

No. 1: Coaching. Every October, we schedule a time to sit down with each agent to discuss goals for the next year and help them build a marketing plan. We counsel them on specific activities that will help them reach their goals. For example, if they want to sell $1 million worth of property, we calculate how many listing appointments they need to go on, the average price of the property they should be targeting and so on.
 
No. 2: Corporate culture. It starts from the top down. We have a fun, yet productive culture. I support this by attending all of the events that we have  scheduled throughout the year. Having social and charitable events every month encourages agents to socialize and get to know each other. We do a trivia event each year to raise money for the AlzheimerÕs research. That is the charity the brokerage chose to support, so agents have the option to donate from each closing.

Another way to ensure your culture stays intact is to hire people who fit personality-wise and business-wise. We donÕt hire everyone who comes in for an interview. I interview all new agents. I steer clear of negative people who want to tell me everything their last broker did wrong. I look for people who have a positive outlook. I ask a lot of questions, but mostly we talk about past experiences. I look for people who take responsibility for their actions and want to improve themselves.

Real estate professionals come into the office less and less, since they can do everything on the go. ItÕs easy to lose the culture you carefully cultivated. The only way to keep it is to spend time together. I set a precedent that we hold monthly office meetings. We share best practices, answer questions and offer our experiences. Or, IÕll have an attorney or title representative come in to do a Q&A session or provide information on new business practices.  So we get almost 100 percent participation at our meetings because rather than have each agent talk about new listings, we talk about business practices and offer insight and help.

No. 3: Celebrate successes. We do this weekly via email. Our sales team has a friendly competition every week: who can get the most pending listings? ItÕs a lot of fun and builds a lot of camaraderie.

Umber 4 is Resources. I believe brokers should do as much for the agent as possible, so the agents can focus on what they do best: personal time with buyers and sellers. So, consider offering a customer relationship management or CRM and marketing materials. We even help agents with professional videos. One program that I find well worth my investment is Listhub Pro. ItÕs a platform that organizes all of our online marketing and allows us to leverage the marketing data our brokerage captures. ItÕs been great for retaining agents because they love the reports they can generate. It offers a reporting dashboard with comprehensive data at the brokerage, office, and agent level, so it gives me an accurate view of our online marketing to help us make informed advertising decisions.

Sure, technology is one tool that can help you retain sales associates, but so can personal touch. Be the broker who enables agents to succeed. Everyone should be helping each other. Build a culture of collaboration, and youÕll find top producers staying loyal to your brokerage.