How to create and nurture high performing agents

As Head of Sales for McGrath, Michael Murray is responsible for one of Sydney’s fastest-growing areas. Managing six offices, with 29 lead agents and 72 people in total, Michael works alongside the most successful agents in Australia, in some of the most competitive markets.

What he has learned from working alongside these high performing agents is that they need boundaries and not necessarily rules to protect the integrity of the team. Michael explains, “The hardest challenge is, they like winning. They’re addicted to winning. They will find a way, and sometimes that will not necessarily be in line with the whole team. We’ve got to find a win/win, you can’t always have the high performers get their way, because what that does is destroy the culture.”

Below are four of Michael’s tips on how to nurture your team and set guidelines.

Treat your agents as if they’re clients

Change your mindset when you are working with your team, perceive your agents as your clients and for them to reach optimum performance you must help them develop routines and actions that will help them reach that peak.

One way to do this is by creating a business development plan that focuses on providing six-star service and effective agent marketing. Another is to employ more junior staff who can help with simple tasks around the office, giving the agents more time to prospect.

Look at their strategy of acquiring business

Michael focuses on helping his team focus on strategies to deepen relationships with existing clients. “If you ask them what their number one lead source is, it’s always going to be past clients or referrals,” says Michael. Ensuring adequate attention is given to past clients, referrals and open for inspections is a priority due to the success rate seen from the past.

With a focus on these cohorts, he helps his staff build a process that will ensure these leads are followed up and prospects aren’t missed.

Make prospecting calls a priority

Help agents structure their day so that they make time for prospecting calls.

Michael says, “If I look at high-performance agents, and I look at habits, you see common threads. If an agent does two hours’ worth of calls, to that database, it changes their world.” He works with his team to help them find the motivation, as even for established agents these calls can be daunting and helping them find motivation can put them in a better headspace.

Foster accountability

Self-accountability is important and boosts performance. “It’s no different when it comes to diets or fitness or anything. Ultimately, they need to be self-accountable, or they won’t stick to it. So I do everything I can to help them be more self-accountable,” adds Michael.

Work in the right area

Working in the wrong area can destroy careers and prevent agents from achieving their full potential. 

For agents to reach this potential, Michael suggests that agents shouldn’t be scared of transplanting into a new area, however, if they were to make the move, they should do so carefully and ensure that their connections from the old area aren’t cut off completely.