Top Reasons Why Brokerages Fail

1. Top Reasons Why Brokerages Fail weichertfranchise.com weichertfranchise.com 1-877-533-9007

2. At Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, we talk to brokers across the country every day. Most of them are experienced, hardworking and set goals for themselves, but they’ve either plateaued or just aren’t getting where they want to go fast enough. Why aren’t they thriving? We’ve found a few common threads. This is where we, as a franchisor, have been able to get them over whatever hump may be in their way: We compiled a list of the top 6 reasons brokers tell us they are struggling, and often we immediately know why. •No effective recruiting & retention system No effective recruiting & retention system. . Prospecting and retaining agent talent is the lifeblood of a successful brokerage. You need to constantly be recruiting and keep a full pipeline or your business will never thrive. Agents are going to come and go and if you wait until they leave, it’s too late. Most brokers we talk to don’t have time, don’t have a system or the materials or are not confident how to get agents up and running once they do manage to get them. When you are a Weichert affiliate, we solve all of this for you. We have a proven plan, your business coach works with you on benchmark goals and we teach you a system. Plus, we have great looking marketing materials and training to both attract and get new agents up and running once you get them. Once you have them, it’s incredibly important to provide value to keep them from walking next door. Creating a supportive culture, offering them an expansive suite of tools and marketing materials to help them market themselves and their business and providing opportunities to constantly learn and improve their skills are all ways to do this. •A lack of A lack of tools and training to sustain your team. tools and training to sustain your team. While some brokers do a fantastic job training their agents, others fall short here, leaving the burden of continued education mostly on the shoulders of the agent. This can be especially frustrating for agents new to the industry, who may wait around for instruction and leads as they did in previous jobs, reaching a level of frustration which drives them to look elsewhere for employment. While educational opportunities should be sought-out by the agents themselves, opportunities can and should also come from you. This gives your brokerage obvious value, helping you retain less experienced associates, while keeping seasoned vets up to speed. This training and education is essential to making your agents stand out in a sea of similar industry offerings, allowing them to shine in the real estate marketplace. Such educational materials are not just money in the bank – they will pay interest with dividends. •You You remain remain the main source of production for the company the main source of production for the company. . Chances are if you’ve become a broker you are highly experienced in real estate, and were a darn good sales associate. It can be hard to stop doing that, even though it is actually a distraction that takes you away from the other activities you need to focus on to build and manage your business. Like for instance, the other five things on this list! Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. | 1-877-533-9007 | 225 Littleton Road Morris Plains, NJ 07950

3. In our experience, the challenge is either you don’t have enough agents or the agents you have are not productive for you to stop selling—you need your production to keep the business afloat. At Weichert, this is where our business coaches are worth their weight in gold. We teach you how to recruit and develop productive agents, how to raise up or trim the ones that are under-producing and give you systems to organize and run your business more efficiently. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it has to happen in order for you to focus your attention on business-building, rather than selling. Once that happens, you’ll start to see your business grow, rather than you continuing to run in place. Figuring all that out yourself is hard, which is why partners like Weichert exist to bring you proven systems that take the guesswork out of managing your brokerage. •You don’t have the resources to keep up You don’t have the resources to keep up. . Another conundrum in broker management is that they simply don’t have the time or money to keep up with changing technology and marketing to compete. And in this business, being able to offer the right technology and marketing tools to your agents goes a long way in making them competitive with other agents in the area, as well as retaining them in your brokerage. There is no easy way around it. Marketing and technology continues to change at the speed of light. And if you’re doing it on your own, it will only get harder to keep up. That’s where having a team of experts behind you whose job it is to keep up frees up your time to focus on other things to grow your business. And this doesn’t even touch on the financial investment. When you are an independent, it can be a huge investment to pay for all the resources your brokerage and agents need to compete. So why go it alone when there are partners out there who can provide everything you and your agents need? •You You don’t have a good s don’t have a good system in place for setting and tracking ystem in place for setting and tracking goals Many brokers we speak to have no KPIs (key performance indicators) in place or even a basic business plan. These tools are extremely important in running a business to be able to set goals for growth, measure how you are doing along the way to adjust your activities and know when you achieve them. Without it, your business may be floundering without any forward motion. But what should those goals be? What are the industry standards? What are the standards for a business your size? What are your brokerage costs and how will you cover them and have a positive company dollar? This is, again, where an experienced industry business coach can be of help. At Weichert, we stress the importance of writing an annual business plan and our years of experience help you establish the right goals for your business and then define the activities that need to happen for you to meet those goals. goals. . •N Not Enough Brand P ot Enough Brand Power. A recognized brand can be a powerful magnet for drawing buyers and sellers into your agency, as well as recruits. If you are an independent broker, you understand this ower. Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. | 1-877-533-9007 | 225 Littleton Road Morris Plains, NJ 07950

4. having spent years building a local reputation in order to compete with more recognizable brands in your local market. But for sellers who don’t know you or don’t get explicitly referred to you, not having the backing of a national brand can make you work harder for listings and general awareness than you have to. Large brands like Weichert are not only well recognized nationally, but bring exposure through their larger-scale investments in marketing and multiple lead channels that few independent brokerages could develop or sustain on their own. A recognized brand can help you stand out for sure, but the real power of brand are the assets, marketing and support they bring to you in your local market. Your identity doesn’t go away, it gets amplified ten-fold. That’s why the Weichert system offers so much more than just a name. Summary Do any of these sound familiar? The team at Weichert created this whitepaper to let brokers like you know that you aren’t alone and these are common challenges faced by independent brokers across the country. Doing it all on your own is hard, but there are solutions out there and it doesn’t mean giving up who you are. Options such as the Weichert System exist to foster your independent spirit and talent, while giving you the tools to succeed. If your business has plateaued or you want to get it on a faster track to growth, consider talking to the Weichert franchise team today to see what we can do for your business. Good luck out there! Contact Weichert Franchising The Weichert system may be just what your agency needs to get to the next level of results. Visit weichertfranchise.com or call 1-877-533-9007 to find out today! Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. | 1-877-533-9007 | 225 Littleton Road Morris Plains, NJ 07950