5 powerful ways to coach your real estate team

As a real estate team leader, you know what it feels like when the ground shifts beneath your feet. With market conditions changing just as rapidly as ever, keeping agents motivated can be challenging on the best of days.

But you don’t have to do it alone. We’re sharing five expert strategies to help you keep agents on track to meeting their goals, no matter what.

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5 proven tips to improve agent performance

Running a team of real estate agents can sometimes feel like “herding cats.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Sure, agents are independent contractors. But they’ve chosen to work with you for a reason — they believe in your ability to help them succeed. As a team leader, it’s time to step up and deliver on that promise. 

Here are five ways to keep them focused on their (and your) success.

1. Put accountability at the forefront

As a team leader, you only have one set of eyes and ears. It can be difficult to always know what each agent is doing.

That’s where the right goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and team meetings come in. 

A strong real estate agent onboarding process will double as an accountability system, setting the bar for performance from the very beginning of an agent’s journey on your team.

When agents know exactly how they’re being measured, it’s much easier for them to stay on track. And for you to keep them focused.

To keep it simple, experts like Jeff Brown, Director of People and Operations at Canada’s top-performing Heaps Estrin Team, focus on leading metrics, like number of conversations and average speed to action, along with plenty of rewards and recognition for agents who are clearly putting in the work.

Here’s Jeff on the importance of having a weekly sales meeting.

Action tips for better agent accountability:

• Set a regular meeting cadence (a.k.a., “coaching conversation”) and stick to it
• Track agent and team metrics on a regular basis (daily, monthly, or quarterly)
• Revisit and revise goals and KPIs as needed

2. Actively motivate your agents

Motivating your agents is more than just giving them free pizza on Friday and a pat on the back when they sign a listing agreement. It's important to have a strategy for agents to feel true motivation to continue working toward their goals.

This can take many forms, from team-building exercises (skip the trust falls, please!) to friendly competitions. Keep in mind that everyone is motivated differently — some like money and gifts, others like recognition and accolades. And for many, nothing gets the engines firing like some friendly competition.

Think Dave & Busters for agent performance. You win games, you get tickets, and those tickets get traded in for prizes. To keep it fun for agents, simply assign a point value to key actions like appointments booked, closed transactions, etc., with prizes for each ‘level’, such as swag, gift cards, or even a free vacation.

Keep in mind that rewards can also take the form of new business. Keri Shull, Founder and Team Leader of The Keri Shull Team in the DMV market, uses a horse race-style competition with her agents, with a booked appointment from one of their ISAs as the prize.

Listen in on how Kerri makes sure every agent on her team has a horse in the race.

Remember, the goal is to always be motivating your team. If agents think the only time they hear from you about their success is at the annual awards ceremony, they can easily lose steam throughout the year.

Actionable tips for agent motivation:

• Set up a leaderboard system and share it with agents
• Create a reward system based on predefined goals and KPIs
• Celebrate agent success!

3. Troubleshoot issues together

It’s no secret the real estate landscape is changing. Are you prepared to handle the conversations that come with these changes? Are your agents? 

Team meetings are a great venue to discuss market and industry changes, share best practices, and troubleshoot challenges. As a leader, it’s your job to consistently review and update the scripts and conversation starters your agents are using.

Outside of team meetings, the best way to know if your agents are handling challenging conversations well is to record or live listen to their calls. If you’ve never tried this before, it can feel a bit Big Brother-ish at the beginning. But with a strong onboarding plan, agents will come to expect and respect this part of the process.

"I think a lot of people don't have time in our business to guide someone through the actual conversations that they're going to need to have, and so they lack confidence, and I love role-playing." — Keri Shull, The Keri Shull Team

Kerri’s big on role-playing for her own learning, here’s why:

As your team grows, ensuring consistency in client conversations is a key part of your business. 

Spot-checking agent calls gives you real-time data and helps you provide relevant feedback and role-playing that will actually help agents close more deals.

Actionable tips for call-based coaching:

• Set up call recording in your CRM so that you can use them in your team trainings
• Use call transcripts (🔥 TIP: Every call you make or receive through Follow Up Boss is automatically recorded and transformed with AI-powered call summaries & transcripts) to review agent calls and coach your team
• Schedule time on your calendar to listen in and identify any new challenges agents are facing
• Lead training sessions in both individual and group settings to improve their client conversations

4. Celebrate your wins

Crazy hours, challenging clients, uncertain interest rates. The challenges will always be there, so don’t lose sight of your wins! Pop the champagne if you want, but there are many other ways to celebrate success with your team and agents.

"Each week, I put up a post through our workplace channel and ask the agents to send me examples of other agents that they've seen exemplify our core values, and then I'll do a shout-out during our huddle every week to the agents that have demonstrated our core values." — John McCarthy, Spyglass Realty

Whether it’s individual shout-outs or a big end-of-quarter sales celebration, mixing some fun into the daily grind of lead follow-up can boost productivity and agent satisfaction.

Actionable tips for celebrating your wins:

• Keep a closet of team swag that you can give to celebrate successes
• Schedule regular celebrations for the team to acknowledge successes
• Implement a peer recognition program for team members to support each other
• If you’re into gift-giving, check out this list of some great agent gift ideas 

5. Stay consistent

Whether training for a marathon or building your business, consistency is everything. When onboarding your new agents, you likely discussed meeting cadence, including 1:1s, team meetings, and annual reviews. Regular feedback is a proven recipe for agent success so be sure to stay consistent with these meetings.

Team meetings can take many forms, from casual check-ins and formal reviews to motivational moments. With regular opportunities for training and development, you can consistently build a high-performance team culture.

"We have 200 agents we want to get together. We want to have a strong culture so we do things at least once a quarter all together as a whole team. Individual teams also meet on a weekly basis, so they also have their cultures within their branches." — Michelle Bleach, The Laughton Team

Real estate leaders like Michelle Bleach, Regional Team Lead for The Laughton Team in Phoenix, Arizona are big on culture.

Here’s why Michelle believes a consistent quarterly team meeting is a must:

In addition to your agent accountability meetings, ongoing training should be part of the plan.

Training should be frontloaded for new and inexperienced agents, but even for experienced agents, it should remain a core part of the team ethos. As team leader, it’s your responsibility to ensure that training is regular, timely and effective.

Actionable tips for staying consistent:

• Add all meetings to your calendar and make them non-negotiable
• Take time once a quarter to revisit training plans and update as needed
• Think outside the box when it comes to the types of meetings you have with agents

Give agents the support they need with Follow Up Boss

No one ever said growing a successful team was easy. But with the right tools and systems, it doesn’t have to be an uphill battle.

Follow Up Boss is the open CRM that includes everything you need for a high-performance team. From client tracking and digital leaderboards to agent communication and call recording, you set up your systems your way.

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