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Use Mentoring to Help New Agents Be More Productive

— Michele Watson


Welcoming newer or less experienced agents is a wonderful way of adding some diversity and fresh energy to your growing team. However, it is no secret that newer agents often struggle to get up to speed and become productive. While some brokers sit back, wait and watch to see who will sink or swim, smart ones are driven to take an active role that facilitates success.

The Impact of Mentorships In Brokerages

As a busy business owner with limited time for experimental programs, you may be wondering if a mentorship program can really improve agent productivity. The short answer is that yes, it does, and in fact this strategy has benefits for both the mentor, and mentee.

When implemented correctly, a brokerage mentorship program will:

  • Enhance skill development of new agents
  • Make onboarding more effective and efficient
  • Keeps new agents more engaged
  • Helps mentors manage their workload as part of training
  • Improve customer service which maintains your brand value
  • Leads to better agent retention and brokerage loyalty
  • Makes new agents produce sales faster

Furthermore, by appointing your more experienced agents as mentors, they will be grateful to see that you recognize them for their accomplishments and prior success and consider them a valuable partner.

Types of Mentorships

Not all mentorship programs are created equally. When implementing your own program(s), it is important that you select a program that is best suited for the agents in your brokerage. Here are three of the most common and proven models:

Group Mentorships: In this model, one mentor takes on several mentees. Although it can be an efficient method, it is important that the chosen mentor can handle the demands of multiple mentees and embodies the kind of character that is positive and enjoys helping people.

Peer Mentorships: In peer mentorships, new agents are paired with peers of the same experience level. For some, this is an effective way of encouraging collaboration, healthy competition and support, and may be a quicker way for each new agent to realize some commission revenue.

One-On-One Mentorships: The most popular model involves pairing an experienced agent with one new mentee. Even in this model, the mentor must have a coaching mindset and not consider it a burden. To really make this work, the parameters of the relationship really need to be set up clearly by you, the broker, as a win/win for both parties.

Tips for Success with Your Mentorship Programs

Unfortunately, you cannot “set and forget” a mentorship program within your brokerage and expect optimal results. Here are some ways that you can ensure you are setting your mentors and mentees up for success with their new relationships:

Match Personalities and Skill Sets: It is not enough to simply match your agents up by their personalities. You should also take into consideration professional strengths and weaknesses to ensure both parties get the most out of their work together.

Act As Middleman: Occasionally checking in to make sure that both sides are getting what they need from the relationship can help keep things on track. In some cases, complacency or unrest can creep in and checking in from time to time can uncover any underlying issues preventing progress.

Don’t Use Them As A Crutch: Mentorship relationships are not meant to be used to supplement poor performance or put the mentor in an overly dominant leadership position. This will only undermine you as their true leader.

At Weichert, our business coaches teach our franchisees how to leverage mentorship programs within their brokerage. And this is one way to support your new agents’ productivity as they enter the real world, smart brokers will provide additional training and coaching opportunities to ensure that the right practices are instilled. Weichert, for example, offers its Fast Track training to bring new agents up to speed on proven techniques and tools to help them be productive quickly. Its online University provides 24/7 online training on almost every real estate subject imaginable. Weekly webinars provide regular tips on trending topics and new tools. Plus, our service team is there to guide brokerage management on any questions they may have and our network of owners around the country are always very ready to share information on what has been successful in their companies.

For more information about the full suite of coaching and training programs and the support available through the Weichert system, visit our website at https://www.weichertfranchise.com  or call us at 877-567-3350.

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