Break Through The "Scale" Ceiling By Strengthening Your Team

Transcript:

Pehr asked a question about getting out of Scale. He’s been in Scale too long, he sells a lot of homes but he’s not growing. A lot of you are in Ramp or Scale. That’s where we attract most of our clients, people on the fringe leaving Ramp. The wheels are rattling and the foundation is real shaky, and folks that are selling 75 to 150 homes are having challenges getting out of production and moving to the next level. Let me, real quick, walk through the Ramp phase and how that felt for me, and then I’ll go through Scale phase and what was required. 

Ultimately, you want to be looking ahead. So if you’re in Scale, you want to be asking, “What do I need to do to become a better leader?” That’s how you get out of Scale. But in the Ramp phase, you’re doing 2 to 6 homes a month, feeling hopeful, time isn’t your own, you can’t unplug. You’re doing it all yourself. You’ve got to be able to delegate, elevate.

Ramping Up

That’s key in the Ramp phase. So there’s still things that are going on that are all on your daily work list that are way lower than $25 an hour. You’ve got to decide what activities you’re going to focus on. Really good admin hire, relief from buyers. All the things that you can hire out at less than $50 an hour, including anything with buyers and anything admin related, you’ve got to get off your plate. Most agents will never move past the Ramp phase. All real estate agents that are really good are doing 2 to 3 homes per month, and that’s where they just live. That’s not this group. 

Scaling Your Business

This is overwhelming. Scale is the most challenging phase. You’re in the business all the time, home life is suffering, you need buyer agent talent but you probably don’t have the systems in place to be able to do it. You’re still a major producer, which is exactly what Pehr is. Building systems is the key. Admin staff, the right admin staff getting in place. You’re probably hiring a second admin if you’re on the top end of Scale. Vision, core values, and hiring and firing against them, I would say, is the key there.

Delegate and elevate. Delegate and elevate. If you read the book Traction, which is another good book, Gino Wickman has delegate and elevate in there. That’s the key, is just shedding the things, including on the listing side. If you’re able to set listing appointments, you’ve got to firm up your buyer’s side and make sure that’s producing consistently. Make sure your listing system is truly a system, and it’s not you going in and dazzling everyone. There’s a process that happens without you where anyone could go in and take those listing appointments. 

That’s a key thing. Strengthen your buy side with accountability, tracking. Make sure you have the right agents on that side that are doing the activities that lead to production. Second is make sure the listing system is truly a system and it’s not a personality. It can’t revolve around your personality alone; it has to be a system, a listing-getting system. So tactically, those are the two things you need to have happen. 

Then you can train as you’re beefing up the talent on your buy side. One of those agents is going to step up and identify themselves as a quality listing agent. Just make sure they have the drive or ability to be decisive and lead their clients to the right choices on price, and to be able to close.

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That’s the biggest thing I’ve seen people make the mistake, is getting the wrong person to replace them on the listing side. But for you it could be a two-step. It could be you getting out of the listings appointments and just setting the appointments, because you crush that. Then get someone to get those appointments. Or replacing yourself on the inside sales, hire someone to do what you already do really great while you continue to go on the listing appointments and then ultimately replace yourself there. All right?  

And then learn everything you possibly can about leadership. I would say that I didn’t start until I was well into the Exit phase to learn about leadership. So learn how to be a better leader. There’s a big difference between leading and managing. Obviously, the intensive will help you there.