Learn these real estate manager training techniques for training new leaders of your real estate team or brokerage for better retention & recruiting.
Training real estate managers is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of business growth. Many brokers and team leaders hire managers and expect them to jump in and take charge. However, the training they receive is usually limited to administrative tasks—how to use the office systems, log into MLS, and manage compliance paperwork. While these tasks are necessary, they do not equip managers with the leadership skills they need to guide agents effectively.
If you are not actively training your managers to lead, then you have to ask yourself—are you leading them, or are they leading you? Developing leaders within your organization is critical for scalability. A thriving real estate business, whether it’s a team, brokerage, or national brand, needs multiple strong leaders to sustain and grow. The better your leadership pipeline, the more success your business will experience over time.
Listen to this episode of The Brian Icenhower Podcast.
VIDEO: Real Estate Manager Training – How to Train a New Manager
The Three Pillars of Real Estate Manager Training
To ensure that your managers are not only capable but also actively contributing to your company’s growth, follow this three-part approach:
Motivation through Activity Tracking
Accountability through Retention Meetings
Diagnosis through Recruiting and Retention Analytics
1. Motivation: The Power of Activity Tracking
One of the first steps in real estate manager training is ensuring that your managers understand the importance of activity tracking. Just as real estate agents need to track their lead generation efforts, managers must track their leadership activities.
Tracking activities accomplishes two key objectives:
Motivation: When managers track their actions, they feel a sense of accountability to complete their tasks. Just as a workout buddy keeps you accountable at the gym, tracking activities pushes managers to follow through on their responsibilities.
Leadership Development: If managers are expected to lead agents effectively, they must understand the importance of setting measurable goals and tracking progress. Whether agents are prospecting, following up on online leads, or growing their referral database, managers must lead by example in tracking activities.
2. Accountability: Holding Managers to Retention Standards
Once managers understand the importance of tracking activities, they must also be held accountable for key leadership tasks—especially retention meetings. When a new manager starts, you can’t just tell them to “meet all 40 agents” and hope they get around to it. Many managers will delay or avoid meetings, and as a result, agents may start to feel disconnected and seek opportunities elsewhere.
Implementing Retention Appointments
To ensure retention efforts are effective, require new managers to schedule one-on-one meetings with every agent in the office. These retention appointments should be tracked and reviewed regularly. The goal is to ensure that no agent goes without personal attention from leadership.
This is critical for agent retention because:
Agents who don’t feel valued or connected to leadership are more likely to leave.
If managers don’t actively engage with agents, they won’t have the opportunity to influence and support them.
Structured retention meetings allow managers to understand agent needs and provide meaningful solutions.
The 10-10-80 Rule
Real estate leadership training follows a principle I call the 10-10-80 Rule:
10% Knowledge: Managers know they should meet with agents and retain them.
10% Action: Some managers take initiative to schedule and hold retention meetings.
80% Accountability: The majority of success depends on ensuring these meetings happen consistently.
This principle also applies to agents—knowing what to do and even doing it once isn’t enough. Success comes from consistent execution, which requires ongoing accountability.
Developing leaders within your organization is critical for scalability. A thriving real estate business, whether it’s a team, brokerage, or national brand, needs multiple strong leaders to sustain and grow.
Brian Icenhower
3. Diagnosis: Recruiting and Retention Analytics
Once managers have established a habit of tracking activities and retention meetings, the next step is diagnosis. This involves using data to refine and improve their leadership effectiveness.
Needs Analysis Conversation: The Key to Recruiting & Retention
One of the most powerful tools for a real estate manager is the Needs Analysis Conversation. This structured conversation helps managers quickly build rapport with agents and understand their motivations.
The Needs Analysis Conversation follows four key steps:
Past: Understand the agent’s background (education, first job, previous brokerages, experiences in real estate).
Present: Evaluate where they are now in their career and what challenges they face.
Future Pleasure: Identify their long-term goals and the positive outcomes they hope to achieve.
Future Pain: Discuss what happens if they don’t reach their goals and the consequences of stagnation.
By documenting this information for every agent, managers create a personalized coaching plan. When agents face obstacles, managers can refer back to their goals and remind them of what’s at stake. This shifts leadership from reactive problem-solving to proactive coaching.
Tracking Recruiting & Retention Metrics
To develop a high-performing real estate team, managers must also track their recruiting efforts. Recruiting should be approached with the same structure as retention, using the Needs Analysis Conversation to understand potential recruits’ pain points and aspirations.
Key metrics to track include:
Number of contacts made (How many agents did the manager reach out to?)
Number of appointments set (How many recruiting meetings were scheduled?)
Number of appointments held (How many agents showed up for recruiting meetings?)
Number of follow-up meetings (How many recruits engaged in a second meeting?)
Number of successful hires (How many agents joined the team or brokerage?)
This level of tracking allows managers to identify weak points in their recruiting strategy. For example, if a manager makes 10 calls but only secures one appointment, they may need coaching on improving their pitch. If they hold multiple meetings but fail to close recruits, they may need help refining their conversion strategies.
Conclusion: Developing Leaders for Growth
Real estate manager training is not just about teaching systems—it’s about developing leaders who can inspire, motivate, and hold others accountable. By focusing on motivation, accountability, and diagnosis, you create a culture of leadership that drives both retention and recruitment.
A well-trained manager doesn’t just manage transactions—they build relationships, support agents in achieving their goals, and create a high-performance environment. When your managers are skilled in these areas, your business will grow naturally as agents stay engaged, perform at higher levels, and attract others to your team.
If you want to build a scalable real estate business, start by investing in real estate manager training—because great leaders don’t just appear; they are developed over time with the right training and accountability structures in place.
