Buyer’s Agent Production Standards on Real Estate Teams – Learn how much business buyer’s agents should bring in for real estate teams versus leads the teams provide them, and how to source and track buyer’s agent production for accountability & motivation. Buyer’s agent production standards start with setting clear expectations up front. Accountability is then maintained by tracking the sources of all buyer’s agent business and regularly communicating the number of team and agent generated transactions that buyer’s agents have closed on a year-to-date basis. Without these controls in place, buyer’s agents are not empowered to develop new business themselves, and often begin to exhibit victim-like behavior. Buyer’s agents operating without production standards frequently demand more leads, better quality leads and/or higher commission splits instead of lead generating for new clients on their own to increase their income. This creates an unhealthy and dependent relationship that is often the cause for high turn-over of buyer’s agents on real estate teams. Watch as Brian Icenhower explains how to set proper buyer’s agent production expectations, and how to source and track buyer’s agent business in this video.
Buyer’s Agent Production: Defining Expectations
Although real estate teams come in different shapes and sizes, a standard rule of thumb is to require buyer’s agents to individually generate as many new clients as the team provides for them. For example, if a buyer’s agent closes a total of 40 transactions in a year, with 25 coming from the team and 15 being generated by the buyer’s agent’s own activities and relationships, the buyer’s agent would be failing to meet the team standard by the difference of 10 transactions needed to match the 25 provided by the team. The key here is to clearly define what are team generated leads versus leads generated by buyer’s agents. A team generated lead is any lead that passes the “But For Test”. So to determine the source of any particular transaction, just ask: “But for the existence of the team, would the lead have been generated?” For example, clients that are converted from sign calls, online listing internet inquiries and open houses all would not have been generated but for the team’s listings, these leads are considered team generated. Conversely, clients that come from a buyer’s agent’s own center of influence (COI) or by prospecting activities like contacting For Sale By Owners (FSBOs), expired listings or making just listed/sold calls are deemed to have been generated by the buyer’s agent since they did not arise from the team’s listings or presence. So transactions that come from a buyer’s agent’s own COI or prospecting efforts are typically considered to have passed the but for test since they could have been generated without the team’s existence.
Buyer’s Agent Accountability & Empowerment
These defined expectations empower buyer’s agents to avoid sole dependence on the team for increased income. Holding buyer’s agents accountable to matching the leads provided by the team also keeps them focused on the activities required to meet their personal income goals. It is imperative to maintain this accountability by showing buyer’s agents weekly or monthly scoreboards of pending and closed transactions that are sourced as either team generated or buyer’s agent generated clients. For example, if a buyer’s agent is not meeting his or her income goals with 15 team generated transactions and only 5 transactions generated by the buyer’s agent year-to-date, the team’s lead agent might ask “What activities can you do to bring in more clients to hit your goals?” This develops into a much more empowering and productive conversation than discussions over increased leads and commission splits that don’t ever make a significant difference in the buyer’s agent income anyway. Providing systems, accountability and administrative support for buyer’s agents to hit their goals must always be values teams add to their buyer’s agent’s businesses, and never just leads alone.
