Step Up to the Plate and Recruit a World-Class Team

"To be a team leader," according to James Colburn, "you need to be a rainmaker, a haymaker, a leader." Your team "can be as little as you and your assistant," or include a full roster of players. Discover who to recruit for your team with tips shared by Jim Remley and James Colburn in a recent Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinar taken from their upcoming book, Teamify. As you start planning, keep in mind that, according to Remley, "This isn't going to start from day one; of course, this is going to be a build-out."

Team Leader (You)

Every team needs its heavy hitter, and in most cases, that's going to be you, the team leader. Your team's success starts with you, so when building your team, Remley suggests you "Start saying to yourself, 'If I was going to pay myself $500,000 a year, what would I have to do? How do I have to look? What do I have to dress like? What do I do every day?' and hold yourself to that high standard."

Create a "team leader" job description for yourself that takes into account "what you would require of someone you're paying that kind of money to." If you would want your team leader to be at the office at 8:00 a.m., hold listing and buyer presentations, and actively use the CRM to incubate and follow up with leads, add it to your job description and hold yourself accountable to it.

Team Administrator

The first player you'll likely recruit to your team is an assistant. As you team grows, your assistant's role can shift to that of the team administrator.

"The way I look at a team administrator, it's just like a medical office," said Remley. "When you have a medical office, you usually have a front-office manager who manages every aspect except the patients...a great administrator is just like that; they're running a whole ship and kind of making sure that the doctor is doing what they should be doing...that the administrator is putting you in position to be operating at your highest and best use."

Buyer Agent / Showing Agent

Eventually, your team is going to need some extra help in the lineup to show homes to potential buyers.

"Some [team leaders] are really resistant to having a buyer's agent," Remley noted, "so they start, and I encourage this, with maybe a showing agent. And a showing agent is different in the sense that [when] a buyer comes in, I qualify them and get them up and I say to them, 'Hey, I'm going to hand you over to a showing agent. They're going to work with me hand in hand. They're going to go out and show you homes. When you find the home you want, I'm going to come by, I'm going to go over there, look at it with you, and we'll write an offer and strategize.' Most people are okay with that as long as you're touching back."

Transaction Coordinator

Most teams won't have a dedicated transaction coordinator right off the bat. This is a role your team administrator can handle until your team gets big enough to warrant a dedicated transaction coordinator. This player is, according to Remley, "someone who's going to be running your transactions. I look at that as kind of like an escrow officer to some degree, in that they're handling all the details."

Listing Coordinator

Once your team makes it to the major leagues, it may be time to consider recruiting a listing coordinator. According to Remley, "the team leader goes out, takes the listing, and the listing coordinator comes right behind them, coordinates signs and showings and coordinates virtual tours and all the things that have to happen to make that listing successful." If your team has enough incoming leads that you can't take every listing, this player could also move up to become a full-blown listing agent.

Inside Sales Agent

Once your bases are loaded with an incredible all-star team, it may be time to consider an inside sales agent, or as Remley calls them, "a lead generating machine."

This player's job is to "do nothing but get on the phone every morning and incubate leads." These leads may be coming from online platforms and lead generators, expired listings, geographic farming, or anywhere else your team likes to draw their business.

If you want to add even more players to your team, consider a tech specialist, marketing expert, and social media manager to your roster. For more ideas on bringing in the leads your team needs to make it big, register for Joe Sesso's Secrets of Top Selling Agents Webinar. Sesso will be discussing "Unlocking the Power of Homes.com; Essential Tools for Real Estate Success."

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.