Real estate coaching for new agents presents many unique difficulties. Watch as Brian Icenhower explains where most brokers & mentors fall short & how to correct it!
When it comes to real estate coaching for new agents, most leaders fail because they don’t align coaching strategies with personality strengths. New agents aren’t all wired the same way. Some thrive on rejection-heavy lead generation methods, while others completely shut down. As leaders, brokers, and team owners, our job is to recognize these differences and coach accordingly.
I’ve seen too many leaders apply a one-size-fits-all approach. They push new licensees into cold calling or door knocking without considering whether their behavioral style is suited for that path. The result? Frustration, paralysis, and ultimately, agent turnover.
This is why effective real estate coaching for new agents must be customized. It’s not just about telling agents to “make the calls.” It’s about helping them operate in their strengths, holding them accountable, and giving them a path to succeed without burning out.
VIDEO: Real Estate Coaching for New Agents – Where Most Leaders Fail
The DISC Factor in Coaching New Agents
The DISC behavioral assessment is one of the most powerful tools leaders can use to coach new agents. DISC breaks down into four main profiles:
D – Driver: Assertive, direct, thrives on challenge.
I – Influencer: Outgoing, people-oriented, fears rejection.
S – Steady: Loyal, dependable, prefers relationships over conflict.
C – Compliant: Analytical, detail-oriented, likes structure and accuracy.
Most people are a blend of two or more, and the secondary profile makes a huge difference. For example, a high D with a high I is a different animal than a D with a high C. That’s why coaching must take nuance into account.
Where leaders fail: they ignore DISC altogether. They shove every new agent into the same activities, regardless of personality type.
Why 80% of New Agents Fail
The real estate industry already has a high failure rate. Conversion rates for online leads can be as low as 1%. Door knocking takes 30 doors for one potential lead. Cold calling expireds or FSBOs often means dozens of rejections before one “yes.”
Here’s the hard truth: 80% of agents quit because they never make it through that initial rejection curve. Without coaching, accountability, and proper alignment with strengths, they get discouraged, bounce between strategies, and eventually give up.
-
Quick View
DISC: Understanding Behavior in Real Estate
ICT Online CourseDISC: Understanding
Behavior in Real Estate
Understand people better and close more deals with DISC.
Learn the DISC behavioral model and how it applies to real estate
Identify client personalities to tailor your communication style
Build stronger relationships with buyers, sellers, and teammates
Strategies to resolve conflict and improve negotiations
Use DISC in recruiting, coaching, and team management
Downloadable DISC charts, worksheets, and training tools
Communicate Effectively
Adapt your approach to match client and team personalities for stronger connections.
Improve Sales & Negotiations
Use DISC insights to build trust, reduce conflict, and close more deals.
Lead with Awareness
Apply DISC in recruiting, coaching, and managing agents to boost team performance.
Designed for all learning types
Video Training
In-depth video training walking you through each module of the course, explaining the strategies, tips, and best practices for using Canva for real estate agents.
Written Workbook
Detailed and downloadable written workbook that provides you with a bullet point outline, summarized text, action steps, key takeaways, as well as space for taking notes.
Instructor Materials
Teach this course at your organization with the help of our downloadable presentation notes, presentation files, and Instructor's Manual.
Course curriculum
Enrollment includes access to the following course materials for 6 months
Module 1: What is DISC?- Video: What is DISC?
- Workbook: What is the DISC?
- DISC Profiles
- DISC Behavioral Assessment
- Workbook: How to Identify DISC Profiles
- Video: How to Identify DISC Profiles
- DISC Style Identification
- Graphic: DISC Quiz
- Workbook: Mirroring & Matching
- Video: How to Mirror and Match
- Mirroring and Matching Cheat Sheet
- Workbook: Using DISC with Clients
- Video: Using the DISC with Clients
- Workbook: Using DISC with Lead Generation Methods
- Video: Using DISC with Lead Generation Methods
- DISC Behavioral Assessment
- DISC Lead Gen Tendencies
- Workbook: DISC Profiles for Different Real Estate Team Roles
- Video: DISC Profiles for Different Real Estate Team Roles
- Workbook: Training Team Members Using DISC
- Video: Training Team Members Using DISC
About this course
- $299
- 26 lessons
- 2.5 hours of video content
Immediate Takeaways
Here is what you can expect to gain from taking this online course.
- CHARTS that demonstrate the differences between the DISC profiles. Learn what makes a D behavior, I behavior, S behavior, and C behavior, and what makes them different from each other.
- GRAPHICS to illustrate key concepts as they relate to learning about DISC behavioral profiles. You will be able to visualize the differences between the profiles, which will help you identify them as you learn through the course.
- CHEAT SHEET on mirroring and matching DISC behaviors to help you learn how to better communicate with all behavioral styles.
- OPTIONS for how you learn best. Each module provides a downloadable PDF chapter as well as a featured video of Brian Icenhower, teaching the topic at hand. At the beginning of the course, you are also provided with a full audiobook to listen to. So however you learn best -- we have an option for you!
DISC: Understanding Behavior in Real Estate
More about this real estate training course
Reviews
"I use ICT systems, the Icenhower Institute, and the coaching program to coach and train my team of over 30 agents. I use the ICT dashboard systems to keep my entire team accountable for their activities and set proper expectations."
Jake Rockwell
Over 500 Units Sold Annually
"I have coached with ICT for over five years. ICT has helped me quadruple my luxury business through marketing strategies so that I receive listings and sales through lead generation and multiple pillars of income."
Dennis Adelpour
Luxury Agent - West Los Angeles
"When we started coaching with ICT we worked all the time with some degree of success. Now, seven years later, we have grown to have the #1 market share in our area, we more than tripled our income and production, while also improving our work-life balance to enjoy our personal life with family and friends."
Tammi Humphrey
#1 Market Share & 100 Million in Annual Sales Volume
InstructorBrian Icenhower.
Discover the crucial relationship between human behavior and every facet of the real estate business.
This course, DISC: Understanding Behavior in Real Estate, gives invaluable insights into the nature of behavior and how to apply it to everything you do in real estate. You’ll learn to identify different behavioral types and modify your communication style to effectively build relationships with all types of clients, as well as vendors, stakeholders, and all the other people you'll meet in the course of doing business.
Not only will the client leads that you generate significantly increase, but your level of customer service and lead conversion rates will dramatically improve as well. You’ll gain insight on which types of business marketing and lead generation methods are the best fit for your behavioral style, and even how behavior impacts hiring and training within real estate teams.
This course will show you how to harness your strengths while overcoming the behaviors that are holding you back from success.
Harness your strengths.
Understand the people you interact with, and use that information to your advantage with this DISC: Understanding Behavior in Real Estate course.
Add to CartTalk to a coach
If you've been considering hiring a coach, now's the time. Book a FREE coaching consultation session with your purchase of this course! Book Your Call
See all courses
-
Quick View
1×1 Solo Agent Weekly Coaching Program
This 1×1 Solo Agent Weekly Real Estate Coaching Program designed to help you increase your production and your commission income with strategies and systems for sustainable business growth.
Matching Lead Generation to Personality
Here’s how DISC maps to common lead-generation activities:
Drivers (D): Can tolerate rejection. Best for door knocking, cold calling FSBOs/expireds, and circle prospecting.
Influencers (I): Thrive socially but hate rejection. Better suited for SOI marketing, networking, and events.
Steady (S): Relationship-builders. Strong with SOI, referral marketing, and long-term nurturing.
Compliant (C): Analytical and task-focused. Often excel with online leads, database management, and systems-driven prospecting.
Coaching new agents means guiding them into activities where they’ll succeed faster. This doesn’t mean avoiding hard things altogether, but it does mean starting with a plan that builds confidence instead of crushing it.
The Dual Strategy for New Agents
One of the biggest failures in coaching is focusing on either:
Long-term business building (SOI and referrals) OR
Short-term lead generation (door knocking, FSBOs, expireds, online leads).
The truth is, new agents need both.
SOI should always be the foundation. Building relationships and staying top-of-mind creates a steady pipeline for the future.
Immediate income requires active lead generation. That means getting uncomfortable, pushing through rejection, and finding motivated buyers and sellers today.
As coaches, we must teach agents to move both balls forward at once. SOI for stability, prospecting for immediacy.
It’s about helping them operate in their strengths, holding them accountable, and giving them a path to succeed without burning out.
Brian Icenhower
Why Leaders Struggle With Coaching New Agents
Most team leaders and brokers are high Ds or high Is. These personalities make them natural starters, but poor sustainers. Ds push hard but lack patience and systems. Is love people but often lack organization.
That’s why so many teams plateau at 100–200 transactions per year. Without leadership coaching, leaders get stuck. They haven’t built the systems for onboarding, accountability, and scalable growth.
Where leaders fail with new agents:
Forcing them into activities that don’t fit.
Lacking the patience to build proper systems.
Jumping from tool to tool or strategy to strategy.
Neglecting accountability once the initial excitement fades.
The Coaching Solution
If you want your new agents to succeed, you must:
Leverage DISC. Assign lead-generation strategies that match their strengths.
Set accountability. Track metrics and require reporting, or they’ll stop after the first wave of rejection.
Balance long-term and short-term. Push them to grow their SOI while also prospecting for immediate business.
Provide systems. Scripts, checklists, CRMs, dashboards—don’t make them reinvent the wheel.
Coach the leader. If you’re a D or I, get leadership coaching yourself to avoid burning out your people.
Conclusion: Real Estate Coaching for New Agents
Real estate coaching for new agents isn’t just about teaching scripts or lead-generation techniques. It’s about aligning strategy with personality, providing accountability, and creating scalable systems.
Most leaders fail because they either ignore these differences or lack the patience to implement systems that support growth. If you want your new agents to succeed—and if you want your team or brokerage to scale—you must coach smarter, not harder.
