Above, from left, Jillian Young, Donny Samson, Drayton Saunders, Kate Rossi and Cindy Ariosa
As the industry reconciles with new realities in the post-National Association of REALTORS® (NAR)-settlement era, agent attrition has been acknowledged as one of the expected consequences. Some top real estate minds recently gathered to discuss solutions—not only for how to prevent an exodus, but how to recruit and build a thriving agent workforce, regardless of how the changes may affect their business.
“Forget the noise—now more than ever we should be dominating in listings,” said Kate Rossi, president of Agent Engagement and Sales Leadership Development for Anywhere Real Estate. “Who in their right mind should work without a contract?”
That was the prelude delivered to a rapt audience at RISMedia’s recent CEO & Leadership Exchange last month in Washington, D.C., during the panel, “How to Stem Agent Loss and Build a Sustainable Firm,” led by Cindy Ariosa, vice president of Strategic Development for Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, with panelists Rossi accompanied by Drayton Saunders, president of Michael Saunders & Company; Donny Samson, CEO of Samson Properties; and Jillian Young, president of Premiere Plus Realty.
How can companies achieve this goal? The panel said by bolstering four key areas of their brokerage: Trust, training, tools and culture.
Building trust through engagement
Ariosa opened the discussion with points about trust and the obligations of brokers to agents in the current business environment.
“We’ve had to build trust, relationships and training,” Ariosa said. “We’re dealing with all these new things that are coming around the environment right now, and we’ve all had to step up our game—and we spend how much time recruiting, and what’s more important, retention and what we’re going to do to keep (agents) and make them more successful. Change is opportunity, right? And all of us take that opportunity when we have changed to better ourselves, better our companies.”
With that, she posed the question to Rossi, “What have you done in the last 30 days with your company?”
Rossi said it’s been a time to level-set.
“There’s a lot of noise in our industry, and we’ve got to take hold of it,” Rossi said. “We’ve got to say, let’s move on. It’s just noise. If we stop for a minute and say to our agents—and I’ve been spreading this across the United States with all the brands—no one works for free. Who in their right mind should work without a contract? And sometimes when you bring it to the level of the agent and say, understand that you should have a contract before you take somebody out. You should be working with somebody that’s going to pay you. So we’ve been in the field a lot and working one-on-one with the agents and saying, forget the noise. Now more than ever we should be dominating in listings. I think at the end of the day, we need to be a team and understand the value of what an agent brings to the United States of America. They move America.”
Next, Arisosa posed a question to Saunders about the importance of trust between a company and its agents, and how that promotes retention.
“One of the most important aspects of what we do is trust,” Ariosa said. “I don’t think anybody’s going to work with anybody if they don’t trust you. You have to trust, and you have to care, and you have to respect the leadership. We’re all servant leaders here. We wouldn’t be here on this stage if we weren’t servant leaders and a big part of our community. What sets your firm apart in the community to make agents want to come to Michael Saunders & Company?”
Saunders commented: “I think about leadership and being a regional company and the influence you have, and the responsibility. I think we’ve all been through an interesting year, and I’m reminded (that) being a brokerage leader is sort of like being in national defense. No one really appreciates it until there’s a war. And I think that this last year has been a very combative environment to be a REALTOR® and to be in a community and be confident about the value you bring. And so I think as a local company, there’s two things we do. One is for 48 years we’ve built a reputation for what we stand for. And we’ve always said that we want the brand to pre-sell our team when they walk in. That person that may never have worked with that particular agent hopefully knows something about the company and what we stand for.
“But I think this year in particular, we were all kind of on our back foot. And so I think that reminding our team that when they walk into that living room and they’re working with a seller or a buyer, (they) may or may not have read the headlines. And so it was really leaning into the fact that they needed to trust the value they’re bringing to the table, and that those needs of a buyer and seller were not different pre- or post-headline and not to lose sight of their own value, how good they are in this business and how important they are.”
How tools and training have changed post-settlement
Ariosa then turned to the topic of training, both in-house and remote, and asked Samson to showcase some of the systems he has in place at his Maryland-based firm.
“We really try to meet people where they’re at with their training,” Samson said. “We have 37 offices, and we’re spread out all over the area. But I think that they want to see the different angles. I mean, they still want to sit at home and watch in studio and watch all your Zooms and they want to participate, but we’ve got a university where people watch (training), but then we do something really cool, which is to get people out, we call it H2U—‘Headquarters to you,’ and everybody gets excited to go somewhere every week.”
H2U, explained Samson, includes upwards of a hundred classes during a month that the company hosts, including Zooms and in-person smaller classes. The H2U is a day-long event that includes meals and training and most recently, “commission conversations,” that reinforce the tools the firm offers for those agents working in buyer agency.
“We try to meet (agents) where they’re at, and then we’re going to help them become better professionals along the way,” Samson said. “I think what’s been really great is we started to track numbers these last couple months and obviously all of our rooms are more full, but I think people leaned in, and the opportunity to teach them more about what’s going on with this lawsuit has been an opportunity to educate them about so many other things that they’ve forgotten over the last few years.”
For Young of Premiere Plus Realty in Florida, agent loyalty is created from the start through their onboarding experience.
“I am very passionate about making sure that our product matches up with what we tell our agents they’re going to get when they are sold,” Young said. “We have to make that onboarding experience exceptional. We have to surprise and delight them along the way with personal phone calls, checking in with them, ensuring that we create a smooth roadway. And so we have a learning management system that helps us facilitate that. And we also have a series of communication points that all of our staff make for every agent so that they know who to talk to and when.”
She also said direct access between agent and broker is key. “We doubled down on the things that agents want. They want access to their broker quickly. They want great training and they just want their basic tools. They just want to know, how do you get me from point A to point B in my business? We didn’t want to compromise our access to broker support, good tools, good training and good services. And they always get an answer from their broker within 10 minutes.”
Rossi added that mentorship is an essential part of training, but it has to be a two-way street.
“I believe a healthy company is 50% new (agents) and 50% experienced, because everybody was new in this room at one point in time, and you never know who this next superstar is,” Rossi said. “But I think it’s too darn easy to get into our industry. No one gets into our industry to fail. We as leaders let them fail. The mentorship that you provide is huge. You’ve got to work intensely with new people for three months. I believe the manager should be totally engaged, even go on their first listing with them to make sure they know how to do a presentation. We can’t just leave it up to the trainers. But if you work with somebody for three months and you really intensely work with them and they can’t do it, we need to cut them loose. It’s our obligation to hold them accountable.”
Saunders also added some insight into his company’s agent onboarding process.
“We have Success Academy, but one of my favorite comments to people who are new to the company is look to your left and right,” he said. “Your chief marketing officer is the person next to you that as a brand and as a company, you represent each other in this market. And so hold yourself to that standard that you want to be known for because the person next to you is doing the same thing. And for us, that really is our secret sauce, that we want alignment of that expectation that you are striving to do the best in this business. That doesn’t mean you’re always the top producer—you might have that aspiration, but there are a lot of ways that you define yourself as a standout agent who strives for excellence, even if it’s not wrapped in a huge volume number.
“So really putting that expectation in on day one allows us to lead and coach to that throughout their time with us as a company,” Saunders added.
Above all, execs say culture is most important
Ariosa then pivoted to the topic of company culture, calling it “the most important reason somebody chooses a brokerage to work with.”
“Culture is probably, I think, one of the most important attributes that everybody’s looking for,” she said.
“You want to be part of a team, you want to belong, you want to have a company that cares, that respects you and trusts you,” she continued, asking her panel to weigh in.
“I’ve heard that over and over at this conference, that culture is the most important thing,” Rossi said. “Agents don’t have to stay with us, they have to want to stay with us. With culture, in my opinion, they have to know that they’re part of something. Even your strongest individuals that don’t want to be bothered, supposedly, they also want to know they have that support and that they could reach out to you morning, noon and night. And the culture in my world has always been, (agents) are my clients. If they need me, I’m there. And I think when agents feel that, they’ll stay with you.”
Saunders agreed that connection, face-time and leading by example are key to creating the right business setting.
“There isn’t a leader in this room that doesn’t believe in their culture,” Saunders said. “And for us, what’s great about being in our region is we get to sort of lead the standard we want to set. And so Michael (Saunders, company founder) and I being out in the community, setting the stage for what it is to lead in the community—and whether that’s outside of real estate or inside of real estate, that’s a privilege and an honor—but it’s also part of what you’re asking somebody else to do. They want to see their leaders doing.
“And so culture for us is a lot of things, but ultimately, it comes down to the same things I’m sure we were going to hear again and again, which is they have to trust you. They have to be proud of what they’re a part of and they want to be part of building that. And so for us, that has woven lots of chapters throughout the years, but I know that our agents, whether they’re the newest agent or the returning agent, when they’re thinking about where they want to stay, have to relate to that culture in a way where it’s of value to them. And so listening and being out with our teams, that face-time, that in-person time, that connectivity, that’s priceless.”
Samson echoed those sentiments.
“It’s a corny line, but I always say that Samson might not always be your first home, but we want it to be your last home,” he said. “And we try to focus on it that way. Every decision that I make when it comes to leading a company is, ‘What’s going to be best for our REALTORS®? What’s going to be best for them to hit the grind?’ They’re the ones getting the home inspection done, dealing with 58 items at 9:00 p.m. and the stress level of not having gotten paid in three months. What’s the best that we can do to help them along the journey?
“If you’re thinking that way, they’re going to feel that in our culture,” Samson added. “We have 37 offices, and I’m going to be in all of them multiple times every year. And when they see your face all over the place, they know that you care. They have to know you care. We talk about money and obviously we have a pretty good deal, but I think that everybody can always have a better deal, but they’re going to go somewhere that they feel cared for and they feel like you care. And I think if you lean in on that and lean on putting the REALTORS® first, the money will take care of itself. But every decision you make has to be about the REALTORS®. And one by one that piles up and it becomes a great culture that people want to be about.”
Young closed the session putting emphasis on the importance of being truthful and authentic with agents.
“Craig Groeschel has a great quote that says, ‘People would rather follow a leader who is always real than one who is always right.’ And I think in times of turmoil when there’s fear and trepidation, and we’re not sure where our businesses are going to go, you have to get ahead of the fear and you need to quell that fear with education and being present and being there,” Young said. “Even if you don’t have all the answers, you can be real about that and say, ‘you know what? I don’t know how this is going to turn out.’ So for us, culture has meant that they can trust me, they can trust that I’ll show up and that I can be real with what our challenges are and know that I’m working behind the scenes in order to create a clear way for them.”
