Five key tips for commercial real estate directors for building broker teams

For commercial real estate team, office or regional leaders, the formula for success can be summed up in a simple, two-step formula.  It’s been the same combination for many years regardless of how many cycles, technological advancements or generations the market experiences.  That formula is:

1. Recruit the best talent in the market
2. Once you have that talent, orchestrate them to work better than any other team.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it.  Unfortunately, that formula is similar to saying that all one needs to practice medicine is to only get a license from the state.  While being true, the path for achieving those milestones are tough, dynamic, costly and filled with trap doors.

While the road to that superior broker team can be challenging, it is doable.   There are many ways to successfully get there.  Here are just a few tips you might find helpful…

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1. Create a balanced approach to recruiting in terms of experience.  Too often directors overly target senior brokers to recruit going for top free agents.  Others over emphasize the organic approach and focus too much on candidates new to brokerage. Build a balance of both.

• Focus on business skills in recruits as well as in the existing broker team. Brokerage will always need selling skills.  However, the clients need brokers that are adept at understanding business concepts in order to fully grasp the businesses of clients beyond properties.

• Without sounding insulting to any director, sharpen your skills at filtering out brokerage slogans from actual ability.  It’s one thing for a broker to sound good versus one that is good. Keep your antenna up for over-used descriptions that are intended to create an image of success.

• Probably the most important management step for team directors, be crystal clear on what team and individual goals are.  Research has shown that goals tend to be limited to an aggregate production total figure with little details attached to the sales targets.  Force specificity.

• Finally, force individual plans.  For recruits, have clear plans that the candidates funnel forward. For existing brokers on the team, mandate and integrate annual plans that explain more than production numbers and detail targets, objectives and monthly actions.  It’s actually pretty easy to do and if anyone is really serious about success, they would value the process.

These five points are only a few but they will hopefully stimulate some ideas of your own.  Whatever the efforts are to build that winning team, it’s worth it for you and your clients. 

A final crucial point…The most important market fact any director can internalize comes directly from the client market.  Client feedback reveals that they see a huge quality gap dividing the brokerage population. 

On one side of the gap are brokers they want to avoid. On the other side of that gap are brokers that they will seek to rely upon for their real estate needs. As a director, always be aware of that client-defined gap.  Which side are your broker team members sitting? Think about it.