Office Leadership Blueprint for Success
Sales Manager Handbook | 1
Ta ble of Contents
Schmidt Core Values.................................................... 1 Job Description............................................................ 2 Sales Manager Duties & Expectations...................... 3-7 Recruiting Agents To Your Office ................................. 8 Retention...................................................................... 9 In the Office........................................................... 10-11 Communication.......................................................... 12 Onboarding New Agents............................................ 12 It’s A Numbers Game................................................. 13 Module 1: Attract Great Talent.............................. 14-23 Module 2: Develop and Retain.............................. 24-35 Module 3: Focus on the Five................................. 36-39 Module 4: Operations............................................ 40-49 Module 5: Financial/Reporting.............................. 50-67 In Conclusion.............................................................. 73
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Schmidt Core Values
Collaboration
Positive Outlook
Loyalty
Initiative
Servant Leadership
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Congratulations! You are now a Coldwell Banker Office Leader We are looking for a person who is looking for an opportunity, not a job! This person is a top producer and has a track record of leadership. They have risen to the top of leadership positions in every area of their business, career, and personal life. They are dynamic and highly impressive. They are assertive, passionate, people-oriented individuals who operate with a high sense of urgency. They have strong communication skills and naturally connect with others. When people who know them describe them, they point to their energy and passion as their most dominant characteristics. Their burning desire is to build the dominant real estate company in their market. They possess a strong desire to have a position where they lead and influence others. They are natural leaders who embrace succeeding through others, bottom-up leadership, and building a team. They possess a track record of relationships. They view learning as the foundation of their action plan. They have at least 2-3 years of real estate sales experience and are/were in the top 5% of their office. They understand basic financial reporting (e.g., P&Ls) and how to use these tools to make the right business decisions. They have extremely high goals and are looking for a vehicle to achieve those goals.
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Sales Manager Duties & Expectations
Overall, the Sales Manager position is responsible for managing and growing a profitable real estate sales office by leading and cultivating a successful team of sales associates.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS • • • • • • • • • •
State Real Estate Salesperson License required Minimum of 3 years of real estate sales Minimum of 3 years of management experience and/or management training Ability to articulate a unique Value Proposition to attract and retain productive agents Must be able to recruit and adhere to minimum company standards for growth and retention Strong and timely communication skills, both verbally and written Ability to organize, prioritize and adapt to constant change Strong conflict resolution skills Computer and MLS experience Track record of success in past jobs/tasks
JOB DUTIES AGENT DEVELOPMENT • Recruit, acquire, and retain productive Sales Associates using Coldwell Banker’s tools and resources. • Coach, motivate, and develop sales talent to peak performance through business planning, accountability, and engagement. • Conduct and promote weekly sales and business development meetings, workshops and training designed to engage agents and grow their businesses. Minimum of 2 per month. • Quarterly reviews and annual business planning with agents to assist them in setting and reaching their goals.
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Sales Manager Duties & Expectations
JOB DUTIES CONT’D OPERATIONS • Manage day-to-day operations to maximize profit and growth for office. • Manage employee relations including hiring, terminating, training, etc., where applicable. • Create weekly and monthly reports to review key performance indicators (KPIs) and identify areas of opportunity. • Review and manage financial statements where applicable. • Able to make decisions that have a positive impact on profitability. • As applicable, auditing all deals for compliance and signing off on commission distribution forms. • Company training on all tools and programs; become proficient on how to use them and where to find them, and encourage our agents to use them. • Align and maintain the office culture to the company culture and core values. COMPANY & BRAND INITIATIVES • Embrace the company’s visions and values. • Promote company’s full-service offerings to real estate consumer. • Understand, utilize, and promote company initiatives/resources including technology, luxury, marketing, relocation goals, etc. • Promote and support affiliated business relationships (e.g., Title, Warranty, Mortgage, Insurance, and various other vendor partnerships). • Support and implement company guidelines and policies.
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Sales Manager Duties & Expectations
A high-performing, top manager is operating at peak performance: increasing revenue and market-share, recruiting and creating adoption of core service affiliates, and successfully retaining their agents and building successful cultures. Here are the common characteristics you can emulate to be on top of your sales management game for high performance and wildly successful results:
1 | TAKE OWNERSHIP. As the leader of your office, it is important that you take ownership of your office—not only taking responsibility, but owning everything that happens, good and bad. Things are going to happen, and how you handle them says so much about you. A quick admission of a mistake shows humility and teaches your team to also take ownership of their work. At the end of the day, when you jump in to take ownership of a situation, and then solve the problem for an agent or client, you are in that very moment exhibiting leadership by owning the situation, even if you didn’t cause it. It’s really a great way to diffuse situations, create solutions, serve, and help lead your organization or team to success.
2 | KNOW YOUR NUMBERS—RELENTLESSLY. As the sales manager, you must know your numbers, and know them every day. How many sales do you bring in daily? How much revenue is coming in as new written business? How much revenue has closed? Where are you month-to-date, year-to-date, and year over last year? Know your break-even number of what it takes monthly to run your operation, so you know, to the day, when you’re in profit. Knowing your numbers and focusing on them increases your improvement of those numbers. Tracking and reporting these numbers will help you implement and execute plans to increase them, and accelerate your results. Knowing your agent’s numbers is also most important. They feel so amazing when you know their numbers better than they do. In sales, your numbers are your pulse—it just has to be. Top-performing sales managers are obsessed with their numbers, and so should you be, if you want to grow.
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3 | KNOW YOUR AGENTS PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY. Building relationships on trust and confidence is what makes a top-performing manager successful. They know that their relationships are the key to long-term retention and partnership with their agents. Personally and professionally knowing your agents helps you have a special relationship with them that they don’t have with anyone else. You are their coach, their confidant, their rock. You help them through tough times and celebrate with them during the great times. Continuing to build on the relationship year after year is key and makes for continued success. Top-performing managers continually foster the relationships with all their agents to keep them mutually beneficial and real. Relationships are the key to retention and culture.
4 | ADD TREMENDOUS VALUE. Top-performing sales managers are constantly adding value to their agents and consumers. Adding value is an absolute must in being a successful manager. When you are adding value, you become invaluable. Agents need coaching, training, information, guidance and direction. If you show your agents how they can use your tools to make more money and grow their business, you will be adding value to the relationship. When you help them use marketing tools to generate more listings and close more sales you are adding value. So, go add tremendous value to your agents every day.
5 | DRIVE LISTINGS AND SALES WITH ENERGY AND MOMENTUM. Top-performing sales managers know that their number one job is to drive listings and sales from their team. Every sales agent needs and thrives on positive energy, momentum, motivation and inspiration. Challenge your team to do more than last month. Remind them where they can go make a difference and grow their business. Consistently ask for monthly forecasts from your team, and hold weekly sales meeting to help drive listings and sales activity in your offices.
6 | RECRUITING IS A PRIORITY. Top-performing sales managers are always growing their office and team with more new agents. Whether new or experienced, they are always recruiting new blood to their operations. With new recruits comes an increase of company dollar, increased marketshare, increased profits, and so much more. Keeping recruiting a priority means you are actually growing your office in net gain of company dollar, and with more people. Top managers recruit on purpose, with a plan. You can make a significant difference to your bottom line by making recruiting a priority.
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7 | OVERCOMMUNICATE INFORMATION TO YOUR TEAM. In today’s environment, information must be given to a person seven different ways, seven different times. Top managers keep their sales agents informed of what’s going on with the company, the marketplace and the community. Make it a point to use face-to-face, MBWA (Management by Walking Around) and Management by Objectives to attain the trust and confidence of your team. They will more than appreciate your timely communications of what’s going on when they hear it from their leader: you.
8 | BE PROACTIVE AND SOLVE ISSUES. Make sure you address situations and resolve conflict. Top and effective managers have a track record of solving issues quickly, so they don’t fester and create an undercurrent of toxic behavior. Resolving issues between agents or offices makes you a leader that is fair, trusted and respected. Bringing people together to help them resolve their differences is part of your job as the manager/leader. Make sure you build trust, and remain fair and hear all three sides of a story when resolving issues, whether between agents or between a client and an agent. Being proactive and not reactive creates a very positive environment of mutual respect and teamwork in your office or organization.
9 | BE MAGNETIC AND A LEADER, AND PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW. When you’re magnetic, people are attracted to you and your energy and want to follow you. Top-performing sales managers lead their teams and create environments that people thrive in. You will attract people to you when you are leading them to success and providing value, tools, coaching and support. Be the leader that people want to follow for success.
REMEMBER: YOUR OFFICE IS A DIRECT REFLECTION OF YOU. Top-performing managers should bring out the best in their teams and provide the environment for agents to thrive and grow. Adopting these characteristics and examples, you can dramatically increase your effectiveness as a sales manager leading top-producing agents in a successful environment. Create the momentum, drive listings and sales, and build a culture where people want to be a part of your winning team!
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Recruiting Agents to Your Office
This is by far is the most important part of your job. There is an old saying that recruiting cures all ills, and it is true. If you need more income, recruiting experienced agents is the answer. If you have an office with a culture issue, you can fix that by recruiting agents who think and feel in a way that aligns with our Schmidt office culture. Recruiting can be done in many ways using different methods. The traditional way is by making many phone calls and scheduling appointments and then doing presentations to those you are able to meet with. Another method of recruiting is conversive recruiting where your focus is on building a friendly relationship over time with various agents of different companies by casual meetings and conversation. This can be accomplished by making co-broker thank you calls, attending broker open houses, board events, community events, etc. Once a relationship is forged and you feel they will be a good fit for your office, you would move forward with an actual recruiting presentation. The method that you use does not matter, if you have a comfort level, can be authentic and recruit agents to build the office and the company. A great manager will recruit two or more agents per month. This may seem like a lot, but if you do not consistently recruit agents, over time, your office will begin to decline. Agents retire, move away, have health or family issues, get married or divorced and yes, sometimes they go to other brokerages. The truth is that they will leave, and it is your responsibility to keep the office growing and profitable. Leverage your support resources by bringing in the President of the Marketing Group or the team leads for design and digital marketing on your recruiting appointments. You can also include our Luxury Ambassadors, another manager and/or the President or Vice President of the region. They are happy to help tell our story and represent that we at Coldwell Banker all work as a team to support each other and the company as a whole. The manager is required to participate in any and all recruiting tracking, pipeline reports, and training on best practices.
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RETENTION You retain agents by building office culture. If you build an office culture on the winning differences of our company and not solely on your leadership, it will allow you to work with all of your agents and perform all your management duties by creating a culture of collaboration. An office of top producing agents is a challenge. Your job as the sales manager is to keep everyone going in the right direction, keep agents and the company out of trouble, and keep agents selling and listing homes. The question is always how to keep them happy and productive and feeling appreciated. In today’s day and age, staying connected is challenging, as a lot of agents work from home. You will need to find ways to connect with your agents. Have a call schedule where you talk to every agent at least once a week, even if it is just to say hello and ask what you
can do to help them. Every time they get a listing, a pending, and a closing, you should call to congratulate them! If you want to get the most bang out of your buck from email, try a BombBomb account and send video emails. Think of your agents as your customers in a small farm area that you are trying to sell to. You will always be trying to inspire them in some way or another to do something, list more property, work with more buyers, use a certain tool and or program, etc. They are independent contractors, so we cannot dictate or require them to do anything above and beyond our policy manual and the law, so our job is to inspire them, not to require them. How do you inspire independent contractors? You have to be creative and fun!
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In The Office
Agent Service Coordinator The Schmidt Family of Companies provides an Agent Services Coordinator, or ASC. Their job is exactly what the title says — they are not a personal assistant to the sales manager or to individual agents. You can work together with the ASC as a team in the office. The agents should be made aware that ASCs cannot and should not do any deal doctoring for them. It is important that the agents contact you directly for any questions regarding legal issues, contracts, etc.
Office Culture It is important that you set the tone in your office culture to that of the culture of the Schmidt Family of Companies and our Core Values. We must always remember that we are part of a Real Estate family.
IN-OFFICE TRAINING The managers should attend the training classes so they are aware of what their agents are learning. As the Sales Manager, you should know our tools, know how to use them, and know the value they bring to the agents, so you are able to help your agents. A great way to do this is to put yourself in the shoes of a new agent, of a medium-experienced agent, and then of a top producer, and know which
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tools would most benefit them at this level of their experience. There are also many tutorials available for you on SchmidtResources.com. It is recommended that the sales managers have a small gathering of agents after attending the education/training sessions to work with them in a workshop setting to engage in what they have learned. Whether it be entering their contacts in MOXI, sending out their announcement cards through the Marketing Group, preparing a CMA and more. Your job is to teach them how to perform and grow their business on their own. These agents will stay with you as they will have high respect for you and your vast knowledge and the fact you have brought them to this point. If your agents are not engaged in our technologies, support resources, or the brand, they do not need us, and they leave. Do not do these tasks for the agents — show them how. At Coldwell Banker, we have an ever-changing, ever-growing collection of resources to help our agents. As new technologies and tools come and go, it is up to you to portray a positive outlook and excitement about the changes.
OFFICE SALES MEETINGS It is recommended to have two sales meeting per month (one minimum) to keep the agents engaged. You can hold these meetings via Zoom and/or in person. It is of the utmost importance that these meetings bring value to your agents. Do not have vendors come to your meeting and go on about what they do and how they are better than anyone else. Think of what your agents need most and focus the meetings on that. Price reductions, getting listings, seller/ buyer objections? Pick a technology and do a 5 minute overview on how it can positively impact their business, show them how to engage with the Marketing Group, connect them to strategic partners like mortgage and title that will help them close business. You can always have a prize at the meeting, ask someone to stand up and give their two-minute elevator speech, or do a value proposition without feature dumping. Market updates, new listings in the office, and resume caravan, when possible, always following the safety guidelines. Good Schmidt News. It is important not to schedule your sales meetings or events on top of the company-provided trainings, meetings, and events.
Company Training To participate, the managers must be team players, be able to facilitate training for all agents, commit to the calendar, and stick to the material that is provided. All this training is under the direction of the Director of
Career Development. Some of these entail a commitment of 4 weeks (e.g., AMP). It is important that the managers encourage all to participate in coaching and trainings that are offered to ensure their success. It benefits not only our agents but also the production of the individual sales offices.
Coaching Coaching for new agents and experienced agents is available. The Coldwell Banker® brand provides “Real Coaching” that agents can choose to take advantage of. Real Coaching is systematic — our approach is a combination of the Real Coaching and situational coaching. This enables our agents to set their goals and put together a plan to reach them. The coach makes it noticeably clear to the agents that every great team has a manager and a coach. A manager manages the office, does the deal doctoring, and is their first contact when they need assistance. The coach helps them set goals and put a business plan together to reach them and hold them accountable.
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they’re doing. — DALE CARNEGIE
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COMMUNICATION
In every company, if you ask what the main issue is or the biggest complaint, you will always find it to be communication and lack thereof. We are not different. Communicating everything to all the right people at all the right times is a challenge, one that we continue to strive to improve. We ask you as the sales manager to be on board and excited about everything that is being offered, and we ask you to forward communications to your agents with a note of encouragement and excitement. As a manager you are challenged with getting these communications out to your agents. With agents often working from home, this can be difficult. We recommend you poll your agents and find out how they like to be communicated to. Do they check their email, or do they prefer text or a phone call? You will have to adapt to each agent’s preference. You drive the culture in the office — inspiration and participation are key.
Onboarding New Agents
Once the paperwork is signed, it is particularly important that you meet with the agent and demonstrate how to get into SchmidtResources.com, how to navigate it, and know the calendar and career development tiles. Follow up each week to be sure they are engaged. Have the ASC (or you) help get them familiar with office procedures regarding floor time, answering the phone, closing up, etc. Giving them immediate attention is a must for them to understand our core values and culture. They don’t know how much we care until we show them. It is important that you assist new agents in getting ready for their presentations and go on listing appointments a couple of times with them to help them feel confident. At no time does a manager share their listings or buyers with the agents to collect a referral fee or compensation.
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It’s a Numbers Game
While we are a very generous company in everything we provide to our agents, always be mindful of spending in the individual offices. Any monies being spent on supplies, entertainment, charities, advertising, and other miscellaneous items must always be pre-approved by your regional leadership before an obligation is made. Being mindful in the utilization of core services and the collection of our Broker Fees, it adds up to help with the profitability of your office. It is the Schmidt Family of Companies policy if the agent does not collect these fees at closing, the agent is responsible for payment of the fees to the company. The mistake of the agent is not the company’s.
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Module 1 Attract Great Talent
Roadmap to Growth
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Roadmap to Growth
JOIN THE BLUE Prospect and attract talent to your office by: • Mastering the language and scripts when engaging existing agents you have a relationship with. • Understanding and utilizing the tools/resources available when engaging existing agents you have a relationship with. » e.g., Join the Blue book, cooperating broker thank you cards, social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn). • Completing the activities to engage agents you have a relationship with or with agents you wish to build a relationship with. » e.g., Recognizing agent accomplishments, thanking cooperating agents, interacting with agents via social media, visiting agent open houses
DISCOVER THE BLUE Interview and select talent to your office by: • Mastering techniques, questions, and language needed to set and conduct an interview. • Understanding and utilizing the tools/resources available. » e.g., Discover the Blue • Completing the follow up on lead opportunities in your effort to secure the interview communicating. • Completing the interview. Close.
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Recruiting Presentation & Value Prop
You have a team of support people behind you every step of the way. We provide unparalleled resources in technology, lead generation, relocation/referrals, and personalized marketing to help our agents reach their sales and revenue goals in an environment that is geared toward success.
WORLD-CLASS SUPPORT IS OUR SPECIALTY! • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
President of Marketing Digital Marketing & Technologies Manager Digital Marketing Specialists Continuous Improvement Manager Graphic Designers Print Specialist Luxury Ambassadors Sales Managers Regional Service Coordinators Agent Service Coordinators Commission Specialists Regional Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Directors In-House Attorney President, Commercial Real Estate & Property Management Commercial Coordinators Property Management Specialists Relocation Services & Referral Coordinators Mortgage, Title, and Insurance Services and MORE!
Click to check out our Recruiting Presentation!
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join the blue
Drip Campaigns for Recruiting, Scripts, and Role Play
Drip Campaigns are used to engage with and keep in contact with potential agents we wish to affiliate with. In this case, we are referring to an email campaign which can be customized using I-Prospect and/or Moxi Talent. Bring your recruiting efforts to the next level with our Mobile Scripts Library!
Engagement has to be human, because people trust people more than they trust brands. — ANA ALONSO
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Real Estate Salesperson Licensing
The criteria and requirements for obtaining a Real Estate Salesperson’s License is different from state to state. In Michigan, you must: 1 | Complete your real estate fundamentals (prelicensure) course: Your school will submit your certificate of completion to the State of Michigan. Always keep a copy for your records. You must apply for licensure within 36 months of completing your prelicensure course. 2 | Complete and submit your real estate salesperson license application: Log onto the site www.michigan.gov/icola to apply for licensure. You don’t need to have a broker at the time you submit the application; broker information may be supplied to the State of Michigan at a later time using the Employing Broker Notification form, found at the Forms and Publications link at www.michigan.gov/realestate. Your license will remain in “pending” status with the state until broker sponsorship is confirmed. 3 | Receive authorization to test: If no additional documentation is required, your application will be approved, and you’ll receive an email from the State in 2-5 business days notifying you of your authorization to register for the exam. This email will include your six-digit exam candidate Michigan Real Estate (MIRE) number and examination registration instructions. NOTE: You must complete all licensure requirements within one year of applying on iCOLA. Exam scores are valid for one year. 4 | Contact PSI to schedule exam: Provide PSI with your MIRE number, then schedule and pay for your exam. The MIRE number is used only for scheduling your exam; this is NOT your license number. Your license application will remain in “pending” status with the State until broker sponsorship is confirmed and you have taken a passed exam. 5 | Take and pass exam: If broker sponsorship is confirmed at least 48 business hours prior to your exam date, you will receive the photo pocket license at the PSI Examination site upon successful completion of your exam. If you didn’t name a broker prior to passing the exam, the receipt of your photo pocket license and subsequent paper licenses will be delayed awaiting the submission of a completed Employing Broker Notification Form. 6 | Licensure: Typically, exam information will be imported into your iCOLA record within 48 hours after successful completion of the exam. Once your exam score is received by the
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Real Estate Salesperson Licensing
Department and broker sponsorship is confirmed, the State issued paper wall license and pocket card will be mailed to your employing broker’s main office. Please note: Broker applicants must complete 90 hours of courses and pass PSI exam prior to applying for a broker’s license. At this time, broker candidates are not able to use the iCOLA site to apply for new licenses.
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Module 2 Develop & retain
Roadmap to Growth
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Roadmap to Growth
LAUNCH THE BLUE Onboard and train agents in your office by: • Understanding and utilizing the tools/resources available. » e.g., Launch The Blue, onboarding checklist, Launch Pad, Schmidt Resources, CB Desk, CB University, Schmidt Education Calendar • Ensuring completion of the activities to onboard agents.
ELEVATE THE BLUE Coach and support agents in your office by: • Mastering techniques, questions and language needed to engage your agents. • Understanding and encouraging your agents to use the programs/resources available » e.g., Elevate coaching program, transaction coordination, marketing strategies • Completing the activities to engage your agents in your effort to lead them to success. » e.g., Business planning, sales meetings, recognizing agent accomplishments, interacting with agents via social media, visiting agent open houses
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Business Planning with Agents
One of the most important things an agent can do to grow their business is to have a plan. A business plan. In its simplest definition, a business plan sets out future goals and the strategies to achieve them. As a manager, one of your responsibilities includes helping your agents with their business plans to ensure their success. Most agents in real estate have goals, like financial freedom and being their own boss. Yet, sources in the industry estimate that upwards of 85 percent of agents fail out of real estate in their first few years. The key to success in real estate goes deeper than the goals — it’s the strategies. And in Team Blue — Business Planning, we take it even further — down to the specific suggested activities you can choose to do on a daily basis to ensure you and your agents have longevity. On SchmidtResources.com, we offer a variety of resources for business planning, including a budget template, agent biography writing assistance, and the workbook linked below. Click here to see the other business planning resources we’ve provided for you and your agents!
Click to check out our Business planning workbook!
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Birthdays / Anniversary Dates
Paying attention to our agents and our staff helps us stay connected and aids in retention. The little things make a difference — a little bit of recognition can go a long way! Keeping a log of your agents’ birthdays and work anniversaries will help to make sure that no one is missed. It can also serve as a reminder for license renewals, which will alleviate stress when it is time to complete the required Continuing Education courses.
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Recognition: Agent Ranking / Showcase
Look for opportunities to publicly recognize agents as often as you can. Genuine encouragement and support goes a long way. Recognize agents in each office meeting for achieving: • Quarterly/monthly awards • Milestones: each $Mil YTD, surpassing goals, surpassing prior year’s production, lifetime volume, trending ahead of prior year, anniversary with the company • Big deals closed • Association election • First listing (for new agents) • First closing (for new agents) Equally as important is 1-on-1 recognition of effort, results, or market position. This can be done with hand-written notes, a drop-in to their office, or an email to them copying senior leadership.
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ENGAGE SYSTEM Employee next goal and growth experience The purpose of the ENGAGE system created by Schmidt Family of Companies is to promote communication and provide useful feedback about job performance, to facilitate better working relationships, to provide an historical record of performance and to contribute to professional development. These reviews are purely performance based and not tied to compensation. ENGAGE reviews will be conducted at least once a quarter to give employees and their managers the opportunity to outline priorities and objectives, and to ensure continuous check in with progress and performance. The conversation shouldn’t end when the meeting is over. After the conversation concludes, you and your manager/employee should review notes, define next steps, and follow up with shared comments and feedback.
PART 1 | CORE VALUES The first portion of ENGAGE is the Manager’s portion, based on the Schmidt Family of Companies core values. Our company hires, evaluates, and promotes its employees based on our core values. This section of the performance review is based on the employee’s cumulative alignment with those values.
PART 2 | COMPANY INITIATIVES Whenever possible, the Schmidt Family of Companies tries to make the company and its employees measurably better. The second portion of this system is for the Manager to evaluate the employee’s alignment with the company’s goals and initiatives, and how they tie to your specific region.
PART 3 | PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL INITIATIVES The first portion of ENGAGE is based on the Schmidt Family of Companies core values. Our company hires, evaluates, and promotes its employees based on our core values. This section of the performance review is based on the employee’s cumulative alignment with those values.
PART 4 | DIRECT FEEDBACK In the fourth portion, the Manager gives direct feedback to the employee. This feedback can be based off of a 360 review. We want to provide direct feedback, both positive and constructive.
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ENGAGE SYSTEM Employee next goal and growth experience PART 5 | GOALS, OBJECTIVES, & TRAINING NEEDS This portion is for the employee to reflect on their own performance. What goals do they have to improve themselves? Do they have any objectives they want to accomplish? Any training needs? Designing an employee’s goals should be a joint effort between you and the employee. Employees who help set their own goals are more motivated to achieve them. Use the SMART formula to write goals and objectives: • Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve? Good goals are clear and defined. • Measurable: How will you know when you’ve achieved it? You’ll need to be able to track daily progress. • Achievable: How can the goal be accomplished? List the specific tasks you’ll need to complete. • Relevant: Why is this goal important to you? Does this goal help add to your plans for the future? • Time-bound: When do you want to achieve this goal? Set your target date so you can guide your work toward a successful completion.
TIPS & TRICKS Your success is our success! The review process doesn’t need to be a painful or uncomfortable experience. Your growth and development as an individual contributor is essential. • Show your adaptability. One way to demonstrate this attribute is to become more proficient in the latest software or to attend seminars, webinars and courses. Explain how you’ve shown initiative to build your job skills. • Be innovative. This could be anticipating an upcoming task and tackling it beforehand, mentoring or providing assistance to a colleague, or doing something for the greater team, like volunteering to lead a project not yet assigned to someone. Have you had an idea that was successfully implemented, or did you find a way the department’s budget could be used more effectively? Bring it up.
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ENGAGE SYSTEM Employee next goal and growth experience • Speak positively. Talking energetically about the company and the people you work with contributes to a positive workplace. • Listen. Remember, the goal of feedback is not to make you feel bad. Rather, it’s intended to help bring out the best of your abilities. So actively listen to what your manager is saying and consider how you can apply the words to your responsibilities. • Dig deeper. If you have questions about the reviewer’s feedback, don’t hesitate to ask them. After all, you can’t improve unless you completely understand what areas need improvement and exactly why you’re not meeting expectations. Also, many managers will see your active interest as a positive sign indicating that you’re planning to act on their feedback. • Be engaged. Performance reviews are a conversation between you and your manager, which is why you need talking points. “Winging it” is rarely effective and could waste the allotted time you have each period for this one-on-one.
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Showcasing ASC
Our Agent Service Coordinators are the “feet on the ground” in our offices. Although we don’t expect them to be masters of all of our technologies, we do want them to be knowledgeable of what is offered to increase the success of our agents. To this end, we train them on how to connect an agent with a need over to either a support person, the Marketing Group, or a technology. We have a weekly training cadence for the ASCs, RSCs, and Managers on Thursdays at 9:30 am. This training is always recorded and loaded into the BlueSync playlist featured on SchmidtVideoClassroom.com. The following Monday, the content is shared to the general Agent population via Blue Matters Monday. We then ask the ASCs to attend the Sales Meeting for the week to share the topic that they trained on the previous Thursday. This gives the agents the content in email format and “live” format via the Sales Meeting. Further training is provided to the ASCs every first and third Wednesday at 3 pm. This training is also recorded on SchmidtVideoClassroom and is available on the 1st & 3rd @ 3 playlist. Positioning our ASCs as the “go-to” for our agents is important to us to service the agent in the best possible way with local support and the power of our full suite of technologies and company-wide support.
Click here!
Click below to check out the entire collection of training videos on SchmidtVideoClassroom!
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Module 3 Focus on the five
Listings To Leads
Listings To Leads (L2L) is a technology that allows agents to automate their property marketing. Every tool provided in this program is designed to generate leads while your properties are marketed. L2L includes unlimited customizable single property landing pages, seller lead generation pages, home buyer/seller guides, and more. All of these are ready to go wherever you want to share them — social media, email campaigns, print marketing, you name it. Automated YouTube video creation, Craigslist posting tool, eFlyers, and short codes (text messaging) for every listing. Click below to watch our company training on L2L!
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CB Desk Desk is a one-of-a-kind product that combines everything you love about an intranet, news site, and search engine into one easy-to-use application. It’s your virtual desk where you can access every product and program you need. Programs like Exclusive Look allow you to leverage the strength of your Coldwell Banker® network and promote your listing before it goes live on the market. Products like BrandSrv and Social Ad Engine help you automate your marketing, easily and stylishly promoting yourself and your listings. Tools like CBx Buyer Locator harness big data to help you price properties and profile likely buyers. And CBx + Moxi Present makes it simple to give stunning multimedia presentations to new clients, while Prospect Square helps you stay in touch with your contacts with automated, customizable reports and an e-marketing center. Click the image above to check it out!
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Schmidt Resources
Here at Schmidt Family of Companies, we have a wealth of knowledge and resources at our fingertips, and we want to share those resources with our agents to ensure everyone’s success. That’s why we created Schmidt Resources! At SchmidtResources.com, you’ll find tons of tools to help you, your agents, and your staff. Here are just a few of the things you’ll find: • Marketing resources, including a project request form that gets sent directly to the Marketing Group • Digital listing presentations • Business & Marketing Planning tools • Schmidt Family of Companies Directory • Resources for RSCs and ASCs • Downloadable, ready-to-go social media graphics
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• Marketplace where you can purchase branded swag, name badges, hard copies of listing presentations, lock boxes, and more! • Resources specific to your region • Digital Accelerator Program • Order form for For Sale signs and accessories • And much more!
Google Workplace
The Schmidt Family of Companies offers the full Google Workplace product line to our agents and staff free of charge. Learning to use the Google Workplace product suite is fairly straightforward for those who have used a consumer Gmail account or web-based email application before. We offer regular training sessions that focus on the basics, ensuring participants leave with all the essentials. We also offer other great self-help content to support you in the transition to Google Workplace. Just a few of the things covered in these training sessions: • • • • • •
Chrome and the benefits of Chrome Profiles Google Mail and Contacts Organizing your mailbox and contacts Google Chat Calendar — navigating, creating events, settings Google Meet
Watch Now!
Click below to watch our company training on Google Workplace!
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Social Media Platforms
Social media is big, and it’s here to stay! Within our company, we encourage our agents, managers, and offices alike to leverage social media to their advantage. Whether you’re running your own social media pages or you’re investing in your business through the Digital Accelerator Program, there are some best practices to keep in mind. • Always write something with a post! Never post a listing, graphic, or video without any accompanying text. • Consistency is key! Posting 5-6 posts per week is ideal. • When appropriate, tag agents’ business pages, not their personal pages. • Be mindful of the things you post. If you’re consistently too pushy, or your posts aren’t providing any value to your audience, they will unfollow/go elsewhere. Many of our offices find it beneficial to have a Facebook group that focuses on their specific area. These offices can leverage closed office groups, meant for internal announcements and discussions, involving staff and agents only. They can also use public-facing regional pages where consumers will see posts, and the content should involve or interest them. Content for consumer-facing social media pages should include things like new listings, open houses, listing status updates, agent recognition, video, and brand graphics/info.
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The main social media platforms that we recommend using are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. None of these are mandatory, and you should leverage whichever works best for your business.
Our Social Media Pages • Coldwell Banker Corporate » The official Facebook page of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC • CB Schmidt Luxury » Showcases the finest luxury properties from our agents in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and USVI. • CB Schmidt Family of Companies » Our consumer-facing Facebook page that represents all of our Coldwell Banker offices and regions. • SFOC ASCs » A place where ASCs from all over our company can communicate and share documents, best practices, and anything else useful to their offices. • Generation Blue: CB SFOC » This is a private group for all our employees and agents to communicate and keep in touch. Marketing and Leadership will post announcements, agents can ask questions, and overall we can stay connected! Click on any of the group titles above to visit the page on Facebook!
Get to Know Moxi
In this day and age, if you’re not leading, you’re at a major disadvantage. That’s why at Coldwell Banker®, our finger rests firmly on the pulse of technology. We leverage the latest trends and developments to keep our agents in the lead, turning Silicon Valley tech into indispensable tools that are simple to use and understand.
consultations, creating virtual open houses, sharing neighborhood insights — endless creative opportunity! Second to none, MoxiPresent is the most widely adopted presentation tool in the industry and is proven to increase transactions for agents by 43%. Built for real estate — by real estate — MoxiPresent works.
Start with Moxi, our all-in-one platform. We want you to be successful, and we’re giving you the tools to get there. Click on each product title below to learn more about them!
MoxiWebsites
MoxiEngage Customer relationship management (CRM) software should nurture real estate sales, not just any sales. MoxiEngage was built for real estate agents, so it aligns with an agent’s workflow, leverages property data, and encourages long-term lead nurturing. Agents using MoxiEngage see 54% more business, on average.
MoxiPresent MoxiPresent is more than a top-notch Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) tool; it’s a feature-stuffed, versatile real estate presentation builder. Easy to use, MoxiPresent gives you the power to take your audience on a journey: from selling guidance and pricing
People begin their home search online, looking at properties and finding a real estate agent to partner with. It’s essential that you have a strong online presence that communicates your value proposition, helps you generate leads, and gain brand awareness in your market. MoxiWebsites is an easy-to-use website builder for your agent website that makes putting your brand’s best foot forward a simple task. It enables you to easily build a professional-looking website to help you get found, sell homes, and grow your brand.
MoxiTalent MoxiTalent helps your recruiters and managers to recruit and retain agents for your brokerage, giving you a competitive edge in your market. Its intuitive interface reminds users of task due dates, prioritizing tasks for highly valued recruits. Recruit the right people and encourage agent loyalty and retention with MoxiTalent.
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Get to Know Moxi
MoxiImpress The MoxiImpress suite makes marketing simple. These marketing tools enable agents to increase productivity by easily marketing their listings and their businesses, reaching more people, building stronger relationships with their prospects and clients, and driving more business.
Moxi Training We offer Moxi training sessions regularly — we’ve created both a 101 course and a 201 course for each of the three major branches of Moxi. MOXI PRESENT: 101
• Logging in: how and where • • • • • • • •
Account Profile Review Preview of completed presentation Show presentation library Creating a new listing presentation in 5 steps Navigation panel options: edit, delete, move order, turn on Zillow reviews, add brokerage pages, save as template How and where to send your presentation Full presentation review, page by page Mention of what’s in the 201 course
MOXI PRESENT: 201
• Brief overview of 101 content 42 | Focus on the Five
• • • •
Reminder of Account Profile Review section Quick preview of existing presentation Adding a co-presenter option Adding custom blank page — add text, video, and/or picture • Creating blank presentation for newsletter MOXI ENGAGE: 101
• Logging in: how and where • • • • • • • • • • •
Account Profile Review Overview of CRM / importance in business Setting goals Dashboard Adding people — Google Workspace contacts with labels Making sure email is Moxi sync email Adding a contact to Engage manually Using Categorize Wizard Using tags and labels Tasks/task manager overview: adding and removing Mention of what’s covered in 201
MOXI ENGAGE: 201
• Brief overview of 101 content
• Account Profile — overview of where feeds, editing, and account permission connect to Dotloop and Zillow • Client/contact individual profile — overview of left options: info, favorites and saves, neighborhood news, just listed/just sold • When in final stage — where to connect property to MLS and Dotloop
• Connecting to Dotloop to see transaction folder created • Campaigns overview — homepage overview, adding campaigns and emails to My Library and My Emails, adding contacts, running campaign MOXI WEBSITES: 101
• Logging in: how and where
• Account Profile Review • Website examples — standard/as is, basic customizing, fully customized • Webpage admin — View Website option • Common tasks — site appearance • Header (left navigation bar) • Back to common tasks — personalize home page and run through common tasks • Testimonials — how to add and make them show in Site Pages • Complete site activation • Mention of what’s covered in 201 MOXI WEBSITES: 201
• Brief overview of 101 content
• Creating custom pages to add Blue Book, Black Book, or CB Blog content • Location of copy/paste codes • Creating custom page using templates • Widgets and template categories/options • Creating a custom page • Editing sections — change photos and text, add video or widgets • Merging page/append page option
I don’t think there’s a better tool...Very easy to use, and the customer finds it very helpful. — CB AGENT
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HomeHub powered by ThisIsOurList.com
We take great pride in delivering an exceptional experience when it comes to home and recommending exceptional service providers, which is why we are super excited to announce that we have paired our amazing trusted service provider program, ThisIsOurList.com, with its own app called HomeHub! Our HomeHub platform allows our brokers and agents to give their customers a truly personalized and pain-free moving experience, backed by powerful technology — and the entire system is automated! A seamless, branded experience will be provided to each broker and agent with their contact information built right into HomeHub providing you with the ability to promote this as your own custom app. You will be able to provide your client with a live concierge to help set up internet, cable, and utilities, update their address, or get a new driver’s license. They can also get a mortgage, title, and insurance from your recommendations! Additionally, they will be able to find trusted professionals for any home maintenance or projects they have over their entire real estate journey. This will be your client’s move and home assistant for life! The best part is this tool is complimentary for both you and your clients. You can provide exceptional white glove service after you close this transaction and beyond.
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Referrals, Relocation, & Leads
The Schmidt Family of Companies is able to increase the number of buyers and sellers to our agents and offices through many different channels including Relocation, Referrals and Lead generation activities. As a member of the Realogy Network, Schmidt Family of Companies is linked to a national network of over 3,000 offices. Additionally, we are Associate and Principal Broker (based on region) for Cartus Broker Network, which ties us to hundreds of other brokers across the country. Furthermore, our Relocation and Referral Department, along with Leadology, actively target and
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Referrals, Relocation, & Leads
pursue opportunities from a variety of sources including: • • • • • • • •
Relocation companies Independent brokers Affinity (membership) groups Referral Network, Inc. Local corporations transferring employees Mortgage companies Referrals from our Schmidt Family of Companies offices Online lead generation activities
Some of the referral customers and clients that we have serviced in the past year include but are not limited to: • AiRES Relocation: Aires provides 39 years’ experience in corporate relocation services. Their people and technology help manage the relocation of employees. (38% referral fee) • Altair Relocation: Quality relocation and assignment solutions. (40% referral fee) • Berkshire Hathaway: They help the world’s largest companies manage everything involved in relocating employees. (25% referral fee) • Brookfield Relocation: Trusted leader for the design and management of domestic and international relocation and assignment services throughout the world. (40% referral fee) • CAP Relo: Offers flexibility and customization of relocation programs for corporate, government, and international clients using cutting edge technology. (38% referral fee) • Realogy (Cartus) Relocation: Cartus is the trusted industry leader, guiding clients through thousands of corporate relocation programs. Includes affinity programs and broker-to-broker referrals. (B2B: 35% referral fee, Affinity & Corporate Relocation: 40%, Affinity AGR: 25%) • Cornerstone Relocation: Offers high-touch corporate relocation services to top companies in various industries. (40% referral fee) • Fannie Mae: Consistently maintain and offer best-in-class, market-ready properties. • Freddie Mac: Each year, HomeSteps sells thousands of single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes, and duplexes in areas across the country. As part of the sales process, HomeSteps utilizes the services of listing brokers and third-party vendors. • Graebel Relocation: Serving the industry leaders of the Fortune 500 & Global 100 in 165 countries. (40% referral fee)
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Referrals, Relocation, & Leads
• Home Depot: Top employer that relocates hundreds of employees each year. (35% referral fee) • NEI Relocation: Full service, global relocation and assignment management company whose employees partner with their clients and carefully selected service partners to help the clients’ relocating families transition to their new locations, while consistently providing service that exceeds expectations. (38% referral fee) • NRI Relocation: Top corporate employee relocation company for corporate relocation services and global relocations of companies. (35% referral fee) • Plus Relocation: Ultimate global mobility program with the perfect blend of high tech and high touch support. (39% referral fee) • Relo Direct: Full-service relocation management company, offering a wide range of mobility management services to support clients. (38% referral fee) • Sibcy Cline: Real Estate Services in Cincinnati Ohio, Northern Kentucky, Dayton Ohio and Southeast Indiana. A major family owned real estate brokerage. (37% referral fee) • Signature Relocation: Manages over 1,000 moves every year. They provide domestic relocation and global mobility services in over 150 countries. (30% referral fee) • SIRVA: A leading global moving and relocation services provider offering solutions for relocation programs of any size, frequency and complexity. (39.5% to 41% referral fee) • The Villages: Relocation assistance across town or around the globe with employee relocation services. (25% referral fee) • The WHR Group: Their flexible and client-centered relocation assistance allows companies to achieve their talent management and business initiatives. (38-40% referral fee) • Veterans United: They help veterans become homeowners. (30% referral fee) • Weichert Relocation: Corporate relocation and workforce mobility services that make it faster, easier and more cost-effective for companies to deploy talent. (40% referral fee) • Xonex Relocation: Third party relocation services company that offers the right solutions for corporate clients – solutions that meet the demands of relocating families in today’s hectic business climate. (38% referral fee) Other referral opportunities available to our agents: • RocketHomes: Engages and leverages brokers across the country to ensure they are providing clients the best real estate experience with the right agent. (35% referral fee) • Opcity: Gathers real estate leads from around the web. They call, filter, and continually follow up with inquiries until the perfect client is ready to speak to our agents. ($150,000 or less:
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Referrals, Relocation, & Leads
30% referral fee, $150,000 plus: 35% referral fee) • Leadology: Leadology was formed by the Schmidt Family of Companies to further support our agents by generating lead opportunities through our investment in strategic digital marketing initiatives. We triage the leads and set up a long-haul nurturing program with the ultimate goal of getting the consumer ready to schedule an appointment with one of our agents. OJO acts as our Virtual Leadologist and by leveraging AI, we are able to engage with far more lead opportunities than humanly possible, improve efficiencies and gain a competitive advantage. (35% referral fee) Our agents also have other ways they can receive lead opportunities without a referral fee attached to the opportunity: • MoxiWebsites through MoxiEngage: Website builder for agent websites that enables you to easily build a professional-looking website to help you get found online, sell homes, and grow your brand. » Lead opportunities generated from Agent Websites are routed direct to agent and leads are synced to MoxiEngage for lead management • ListingsToLeads: A comprehensive marketing and lead generation platform that generates motivated buyers and sellers for agents with or without listings. » All lead opportunities generated are routed direct to agent cultivating them on social media outlets or to sphere of influence • LeadRouter via Zap: CB Zap is a single, integrated, end-to-end solution to run your real estate business and drive results. Besides a brokerage-branded consumer website that is synchronized across all devices (desktop & mobile), it also offers business management tools to help you drive your business. » Listing agent gets all listing lead opportunities with a 6 minute window to accept, all cobroke leads go in a round robin offering within the assigned zip codes. Calls received from (970) 660-5323, press 1 to acknowledge answer, press 1 again to accept lead.
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CB University
The Coldwell Banker University® Learning Center is your connection to countless opportunities to learn and grow your skills and your business. Agents who attend CBU® Learning Center courses earn 10% more listings, 15% more closed units, and 21% higher sales volume compared to agents who do not. Discover powerful programs, virtual training and self-paced options designed to help you throughout your career — with topics like maximizing productivity, negotiating skills, listing presentations, team-building, businessbuilding, lead generation and conversion, and more. Click below to check out the CBU® offerings!
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Schmidt Community Fund
We’re proud to say that our agents and offices leave their mark on their communities in incredibly positive ways. Our charitable initiatives make it easy and rewarding to get involved. Servant Leadership is a core value we all live by and feel empowered by — seeing the world as a place filled with unlimited opportunities to create extraordinary value and change through serving others. In 2019, Ken and Mike Schmidt founded the Schmidt Community Fund — a place where we can all give to those that need it so much. Our guiding philosophy is to invest in our youth, programs, and initiatives in the communities in which we all live and serve that further. By doing this, we further the lifework of the Schmidt Family and the purpose of the Schmidt Community Fund, where together, we can do more. Click below to get to know more about our story, philosophy of how we serve, annual meetings, and more.
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Productivity Coaching
Achieve Maximum Productivity! How did our agents set 10.5 appointments in 4 weeks? AMP! is the Coldwell Banker® agent productivity training program. Consider this: the average participant in the course successfully set four client appointments, while those who actively followed the AMP! course model set 10.5 appointments in just 4 WEEKS! The program includes live classroom instruction, self-paced modules, and online and interactive learning, all designed to turbocharge agent effectiveness through the tools and strategies that the “best of the best” use to drive ever-stronger results. Click below to sign up for the next AMP! productivity training program!
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Digital Accelerator Program The Digital Accelerator Program is a digital marketing and brand reputation package to help increase your digital presence, advertise your services and listings, attract buyer and seller lead opportunities, and more. DAP is focused:
50% ON BRAND REPUTATION This is how you’re viewed by the consumer digitally. Do they trust in your brand? Are they confident doing business with you? This is where you work very closely with the Marketing Group to build these assets, and where your unique selling proposition shines!
40% ON MARKETING A large focus is on marketing listings, solds, open houses, agent videos, local market stats, etc. You are responsible for delivering this content to your Digital Marketing Specialist.
10% ON LEAD OPPORTUNITIES When we’re effective with these first two areas of focus, especially marketing listings, this is what generates lead opportunities — consumers that have expressed some type of interest in a home or learning more about what you and your brand have to offer. A lead is an unqualified consumer — you must be savvy in working these opportunities through the sales cycle to convert them to a prospect.
Oh. My. God. You made it so easy — where have you been all my life? Don’t change a thing. — DAP CLIENT
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Luxury Magazine & Marketing Campaign
LUXURY Magazine is our flagship publication which is proud to publish the most distinguished properties represented by our Coldwell Banker Global Luxury brand. Coldwell Banker Global Luxury is the world leader in luxury home sales, and this publication highlights the real estate firm’s extensive portfolio of luxury homes. Each listing in LUXURY is complete with stunning photography, information on pricing, design, and regional locations, and contact details for each agent affiliated with the residences.
MARKETING CAMPAIGN DIGITAL MAGAZINE
• Updated monthly to act as the current version of the magazine. • • • •
dvertisers can change their advertisements monthly at no additional cost. A Your ad page includes a live link, taking the reader to your website for more information. Distributed across all brokerage social media sites and websites. Robust social media advertising campaign (Facebook & Instagram) to boost magazine monthly with a targeted focus of over 150,000 people in the greater Chicago area, MA, NY, IN, MI, OH, FL, TX, CA, the Carolinas, and Canada. More than 139,000 click-throughs to the magazine from the social media campaign.
EMAIL • Emailed monthly to proprietary high net-worth email database of over 12,000 addresses.
COLDWELL BANKER GLOBAL
H O M E S
A N D
L I F E S T Y L E S
PRINT • 40,000 print copies direct mailed to: » Homes valued OVER $500,000 throughout the state of Michigan, greater Cleveland, Ohio area, targeted markets on both coasts of Florida, Chicago area, and northern Indiana. » Distributed at Coldwell Banker Schmidt offices in Michigan, Ohio, Florida and U.S. Virgin Islands.
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THE FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION OF
E-Marketing
Exclusive Look Exclusive Look is an agent-to-agent in-network marketing tool that allows you to share upcoming listings, consistent with MLS rules, with the Coldwell Banker® nationwide network.
Prospect Square Nurturing your sphere of influence is an important way to grow your business. Staying connected with your existing sphere and expanding your contact list leads to new opportunities and new clients. The challenge is consistently generating content that your friends and family will actually appreciate receiving. Prospect Square is built to help agents easily provide interesting and valuable content that their contacts will enjoy. The reports and campaigns in Prospect Square are automated so agents can set it and forget it, while knowing that they are staying top of mind with their sphere.
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Module 4 Operations
Agent Service Coordinators Main Responsibilities • Signing for deliveries, collecting mail, sending outgoing mail, etc. Training new Agents on our technology. • Study/learn new systems then train/answer questions about those systems. • Process and train new agents in our office following our onboarding systems. • Work with Marketing on our resources for Agents: business cards, postcards, etc. • Communicate with Accounting and Relocation as needed. • Maintain agent and office yearly production. • Retention: keep a list of birthdays, renewals, CE due dates, etc. • Process new listings, pendings, closed, and canceled deals in Excel to always maintain confidential information for all agents and their clients. • Audit files and escrow instructions. • Keep updated on all title/lender status updates as well as escrow instructions. • Update office phone/email rosters as new agents/staff come on. • Prepare new agent/recruiting packets and have readily available for manager. • Input and maintain active sales in AccountTech. • Submit Home Warranties and data collection forms. • Advertising: work with Marketing on all print ads and social media/Facebook boosting, etc. • Office training on our company systems,
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• • • • • • • •
including Listing2Leads, CB Desk, ListHub, Moxi, Dotloop, Schmidt Resources, Testimonial Tree, Google Workplace, and HomeHub powered by ThisIsOurList.com. Weekly and monthly office reports. Ordering office supplies and signs with the approval of the manager. Update and maintain our voicemail system. Maintaining the floor schedule if applicable. Setting up and cleaning up the training area for meetings and events. Secretarial duties like phones, mail, email etc. Making coffee for the agents and clients. Maintenance of the kitchen, refrigerator, trash, etc.
Secondary responsibilities • Weekly BlueSync attendance (watching recording if you cannot attend live). • Bi-monthly 1st & 3rd @ 3 attendance (watching recording if you cannot attend live). • Bi-annual in-person ASC training attendance. • Weekly huddles as requested. • Assist Manager in whatever additional tasks need to be done. • Assist Agents in whatever they need to embody a Servant Leadership mentality. • Understand, utilize, and promote company initiatives/resources including technology, luxury, marketing, relocation goals, etc.
Dress Code • It is recommended to wear slacks or a skirt, blouse, dress shirt, or polo shirt (or other shirt that is not a t-shirt). • Ties are optional, but not required. • Dress shoes are appropriate year-round. Summer sandals are appropriate in warmer weather. PLEASE AVOID WEARING THE FOLLOWING TO THE OFFICE: • White cotton tank tops (muscle shirts). • Clothing with foul language or obscene images on it. • Shorts. • Jeans – unless approved for a “casual day” by your manager. • Sweat pants or sweat suits. • Flip flop shoes (thong casuals). As a company, we enjoy an excellent reputation among the brokerage community. While there are many reasons for this reputation, one of the ways to help maintain it is for all of our staff to present a professional image to the public. It is important that the public and our agents have confidence in our company and the support that we provide. This policy is meant to be representative of the values we present to our agents, their clients and the consumers we serve. Let’s show that we care about how we present ourselves.
Dress that is extremely casual could be interpreted to mean that we don’t care. — TRINITY COLLEGE
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Holding Effective Business Meetings Learning Effective Presentation Skills — Passion & Energy We’ve all attended (or conducted) meetings that were less successful than they might have been because the presenters lacked energy. While some people seem to be naturally outgoing and gregarious, others are not. A few hints about presentation skills will not make you a great presenter, but if you apply them, they will definitely help. Here are three aspects to consider:
1 | YOUR VOICE: • On a scale of 1-10, keep your volume at about a 7 or 8. People will hear you, and you will sound confident, competent, and in control. • Too low and you’ll sound weak and timid. • Too loud and you’re shouting and hard to listen to. • Pace yourself: go too fast and people can’t follow and absorb; go too slow and they lose focus and attention. • Vary your speed and inflection for emphasis and dramatic effect. • Pitch: avoid monotone. • “Punch out” words that you want to emphasize.
2 | YOUR STANCE: • Stand still — don’t move around unless you’re moving for a reason. • Get close to the audience — space creates barriers between you and your audience. • Avoid rocking in place and pacing.
3 | HAND GESTURES: • Don’t wave your hands around when you speak. • Keep your hands still, except when using them to make large, emphatic gestures to illustrate your words. • Gestures are important for conveying word pictures, passion, and excitement. It’s important to show passion, sincerity, excitement, and energy when you speak. If you aren’t excited, neither is your audience! 60 | Operations
Holding Effective Business Meetings Five elements to consider as you build meetings 1 | PLAN. Do you give the associates the opportunity to plan the agenda? Why or why not?
2 | PREPARE. How do you prepare for a successful meeting?
3 | PROMOTE. What information do you include in your promotions for the meeting?
4 | ENJOY. How do you build fun and engagement into your meetings?
5 | RESULTS. How do you track results?
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Holding Effective Business Meetings Five essential meeting components 1 | RECOGNITION. • What is the purpose of recognition? • Other than the usual production achievements, what could you recognize? • How could that benefit your independent associates?
2 | PRODUCTION. • What might you discuss?
3 | INFORMATION. • What types of information might you present?
4 | EDUCATION. • Who leads the education component at your meetings? • Why? • Who might do a more effective job?
5 | MOTIVATION. • How do you track results?
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Holding Effective Business Meetings What do great meetings look like? In your opinion, what characteristics and skills must an effective meeting leader possess?
Name a person you feel consistently conducts effective business meetings.
Give examples of the characteristics and skills that person demonstrates that makes them a good meeting leader?
What makes their meetings so effective?
What does that person do that you will emulate to make your own meetings more effective?
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Holding Effective Business Meetings Three Phases of a meeting The three phases of every meeting that need to be considered are the pre-meeting, the meeting itself, and the post-meeting. Think about each phase in relation to a meeting that you conducted recently. List one thing that you did well and one thing that you could strengthen in each category.
1 | PRE-MEETING: • Did well:
• Need to strengthen:
2 | THE MEETING: • Did well:
• Need to strengthen:
3 | POST-MEETING: • Did well:
• Need to strengthen:
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Hiring Process
1 | Need for staff arises. 2 | Human Resources approves the hiring of a candidate and posts ad for the position in Paylocity. 3 | Resumes are reviewed by HR, Operations, the Regional Service Coordinator (RSC), and the Manager. 4 | Interviews are conducted by HR, Operations, the RSC, and the Manager. 5 | Letter of Intent is extended to the chosen candidate. 6 | Candidate accepts offer through Paylocity. 7 | HR is notified by Ops/RSC/Manager of the candidate’s hire date, rate of pay, and location. 8 | HR launches New Employee paperwork in Paylocity. 9 | Employee completes paperwork. 10 | HR notifies RSC/Manager that paperwork has been completed.
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Module 5 Financial/Reporting
Transaction plan: Running reports
The instructions below provide details for managers to generate various reports for their office. These reports may include a multitude of information such as Office Production Analysis Summary, Agent Closings by Office, Office Pending by Month, Profit and Loss, and much more!
OFFICE PRODUCTION ANALYSIS SUMMARY This is a report where you generate information for all active listings, canceled listings, new listings, and all pending and closed deals. • Begin by logging onto TransactionPlan. • Click the Reports tab, then Analysis, then the report name. • Once you click on Office Production Analysis Summary, it will bring up the next screen: » Enter the date range you want to review. » Your office will be the only one you can choose. » Scroll down and click Run. • Save the report as an Excel file — it will download to your computer. • When the Excel spreadsheet is opened, click Enable Editing. In the top left corner, you’ll see the numbers 1, 2, and 3. Click on each to see: 1. a summary of all transactions 2. a line breakdown including the address and status of each property 3. a more detailed breakdown with each property AGCI, Co$, list or buyer side, and volume.
CLOSINGS BY AGENT This is a report is where you can generate information for all closed deals for your entire office or just a specific agent. • In TransactionPlan, click the Reports tab, then Closings, then the report name. • As before, set the desired time frame and your office. » Choose either Predefined (Last Month, Last Year, etc.) or enter a specific date. » Choose your office. » Click Run. • Save the report as Excel, open it, and click Enable Editing.
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Transaction plan: Running reports
• On this report, you’ll see AGCI, Co$, E&O, agent net, transaction fee, and sides and volume per agent or deal for the date range selected. • It will also reflect the totals of each item at the bottom of the report.
OFFICE PENDING BY MONTH With this report, you can generate information for all pending deals for your entire office or for a specific agent. • In TransactionPlan, click the Reports tab, then Custom, then the report name. • As before, set the desired time frame and your office. » Choose either Predefined (Last Month, Last Year, etc.) or enter a specific date. » Choose your office. » Click Run. • Save the report as Excel, open it, and click Enable Editing. • If you choose This Year in the dropdown, you will be able to see all pending deals on the books by close date. This report includes close date, AGCI, service fee, Co$ and agent net.
PROFIT AND LOSS With this report, you’ll generate information for all income and expenses for your office. • In TransactionPlan, click the Reports tab. Find the report by searching “Profit and Loss” in the Find by Name field, then click the report name. • As before, set the desired time frame in which you’d like to see all the income and payments for your office. » Choose either Predefined (Last Month, Last Year, etc.) or enter a specific date range. » Choose your office. » Select $ YTD, $ YTD LY, and $ LY, then click Run. • Save the report as Excel, open it, and click Enable Editing. • To access the detailed information regarding all the office’s income and expenses, click the 3 in the top left corner. This will expand the report for all amounts, and you can scroll down for more information.
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Profit and Loss: Office P&Ls Understanding your office P&L 1 | SALES OR GROSS COMMISSION INCOME Sales income is the amount of money collected at closings by the broker; it consists of the commissions and the transaction fees. All sales income is subject to a 6% franchise fee and a 2.5% national ad fee.
2 | OTHER REVENUE (N/F) & ANCILLARY INCOME The amount of money collected outside of a buy or sell side transaction is considered to be other revenue. N/F means non-franchise; in these cases, no franchise fees are applied to the income.
3 | COST OF SALES The percent of gross commission income paid out to the brand or the agents based on their split. 1
4 | FIXED EXPENSES Fixed expenses are expenses the office manager has little to no control over month to month. The target for fixed expenses is less than 15% of sales. These expenses include: • Payroll (target <6% of sales): The total payroll cost of all employees directly assigned to that office. This includes overtime, health benefits, and payroll taxes. • Facilities Expenses (target <5% of sales): Items such as rent, property-liability insurance, and property taxes are basically fixed per the terms of the lease. Know your lease terms — where you are may not be the best long-term fit for your business.
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2 3
4 5
Profit and Loss: Office P&Ls Understanding your office P&L Work with your regional VP or President if you feel there are better options. Utilities, building services, and standard maintenance items need to be monitored. Make sure you are not overpaying for these items, and check with regional leadership for assistance if needed. • Shared Regional Expenses (target <1.5% of sales): Your office belongs to a sales region that provides certain leadership and assistance to you, your office, and your agents. Those costs are allocated to all the sales offices in your region, taking into account sides closed, GCI, and agent count. They mostly include payroll, along with regional events, training, advertising, and professional services. • Shared HQ Expenses (target <3% of sales): Your office belongs to Schmidt Family of Companies. The company attempts to use scale and specialization for its functional departments that are used across the company. This includes Marketing, Human Resources, Payroll, Accounting, IT/Operations, Relocation & Referrals, and Legal and Insurance support. Combined, these departments make up the company Headquarters.
5 | DISCRETIONARY EXPENSES We want our office managers focused on agents, their markets, and the rest of the variables in the business model, so these amounts are quite small (target <1% of sales) by design. However, they should be viewed as investments. If there is financial return in those investments, then we are interested in those ideas. • Advertising Expenses: Nearly all office advertising should be run through the Marketing Group and be in sync with your region’s overall advertising goals or strategy. • Special Marketing Agreements: This is unique to a select few recruiting and retention programs for highly impactful agents. Discuss with your regional leadership. • Promotional Expenses: Used to promote the culture of your office and your agents in your local markets. • Travel Expenses: Occasional office support of events, training, and recruiting. • Office Expenses: Primarily office supplies and certain equipment and hardware. Internet, phone, and video support are included in this as well. • Professional Expenses: Very limited, as most of these services should be run through the HQ or the region, not the individual office.
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Profit and Loss: Office P&Ls Managing your office P&L COMMISSION INCOME HOW TO GROW CORE SALES COMMISSION INCOME • • • •
Recruit more productive agents Improve existing agent productivity Increase average sales price per side Increase commission % charged to consumers
KNOW YOUR MARKET & COMPETITION • • • • •
Is my market’s (population’s) need for agents growing? Are home values in my market increasing? Are more brokers entering my market? Where does my office rank in my market? What business models am I competing against?
ANALYSIS • You should always be trying to grow your office’s sales. Your competitors are, and if you don’t have a good plan for both offense (recruiting and productivity) and defense (retention and countering your competitors), your office will struggle in the long run. Understand the impact on your office of growing the top line 10% and also the impact of having it shrink 10%. Adjust the 4 main levers listed above to see the impacts. • Use the P&L template to roadmap improvements.
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Profit and Loss: Office P&Ls Managing your office P&L GROSS PROFIT HOW TO GROW OFFICE GROSS PROFIT • • • • •
Grow and convert increased commission income Increase your mid-tier agent base (80/20 splits or better) Improve amount and capture rate of transaction fees Improve amount and capture rate of professional fees Increase participation and capture for ancillary income
KNOW YOUR CURRENT PERFORMANCE • • • • • •
What is my retained Co$ % after FF and agent splits? What is my capture rate and dollar amount on transaction fees? What is my capture rate and dollar amount on professional fees? What is my participation and capture rate in Title? What is my participation and capture rate in Mortgage? What is my participation and capture rate in relo & leads?
ANALYSIS • Once you know your current performance, you can set roadmaps to improve in each area. Unlike growing your commission income, which is subject to splits and FFs, growing these line items pretty much goes straight to your bottom line (net profit). Set your roadmaps based on both company and competitive benchmarks.
EXPENSES HOW TO MANAGE OFFICE EXPENSES Because a significant amount of your office’s expenses are fixed or semi-fixed, the first thing to do is find out if your Co$ from closings is enough to cover all the expenses over a 12-month period. If it is, were you in a great market, a normal market, or a slow market? In other words, put this gut check in context. If Co$ from closings does not cover your expenses, then we need to determine if you have a top line problem or an expense problem (or a combo of both). A top line problem means your office is under-performing in your market. The market and cost structure is okay, you just need more productive agents contributing Co$ to cover your costs.
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Profit and Loss: Office P&Ls Managing your office P&L HOW TO MANAGE OFFICE EXPENSES (CONT’D) An expense problem comes when your market is too small, or in some cases too competitive, to cover your costs. In this case, you need to look at all discretionary expenses, total facilities costs, and possibly payroll. Maybe you need a cheaper lease, less or more efficient advertising, or a shared payroll resource. Once you’ve confirmed your business mode, the next thing to look at is the effectiveness, or return on investment, of all your discretionary expenses. If you spend $1,000 on a promotion or agent training, can you reasonably expect to return more than that amount in net profit over the next 12 months? If not, this may not be a wise way to spend/invest your limited resources. If the return is clearly there, share with others to consider expanding.
NET PROFIT HOW TO MANAGE YOUR NET PROFIT The real key to superior profitability is hitting on all cylinders. Below is a high-level roadmap to double digit net profit %: • Does my retained Co$ from closings more than cover my fixed, allocated, and discretionary expenses? 4% margin • Am I collecting and capturing an aggressive but competitive amount in agent professional fees and transaction fees? 4% margin • Am I getting solid participation and capture in both Title and Mortgage services from my agents and consumers? 4% margin • Am I able to scale my expense, cut out waste, and see real returns when I do invest in the office? 4% margin • Sure, this is easy on paper, but we have offices that excel in all 4 areas and produce net profit percentages in the mid-teens (4% x 4 = 16% net profit). As a company, we want our offices to meet or exceed 8% net profit when the markets are good. That way, when markets are average, you might be around 5%, and when they are below average, you can avoid losing money. However, these are by no means ceilings — we can, and do, perform well beyond these targets. Talk to others in the company about your business model and challenges. There is a ton of help available!
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Run a Smarter Business with Dash Dash is a web-based application that connects you to your franchise network for easy reporting, business intelligence and marketing so you can run a smarter business. It is used to manage data for residential and commercial listings, transactions, and sales associates and brokerage information. Dash data feeds to a number of sources including the brand website, marketing and promotional tools, and Listing Syndication websites. In addition, Dash provides royalty information on closed transactions and enables our affiliates to make electronic payments to corporate using ePay. It provides a wealth of information about the overall health of a company through various reports and business planning tools, allowing affiliates to make informed strategic business decisions with a deeper understanding of their business and local market. Click the image above to check it out!
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ATRs and CDFs Agent Transaction Report and Commission Distribution Form
This form is utilized by the ASC for every pending transaction. The form provides a summary of the gross commission, fees paid to the company, and commission paid to the agents. Once completed, it is added to the property loop in Dotloop, where it is then utilized by the Accounting Department when the commission arrives from title. The actual form may vary by region.
Closing Cover Sheet
Instructions to Escrow Agent Date: 01/01/2022
Property Address: 123 Example Street, Cleveland OH 12345
To Title Company Name
(Broker)
Escrow Officer Email Email: __________________________________________ ***Is this a Relocation or Affinity Sale
_
Escrow Officer Name (Escrow Company) Attn ____________________________________________
From: Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty
Buyer: Buyers Names Seller Sellers Names
(Check Yes or No)
_____ YES _____NO
You have been designated as the closing agent in the above transaction. In connection therewith we are furnishing the following information and instructions. For Buyer/Seller/Broker contact information refer to the Purchase Agreement.
(select the option that applies to the earnest money for this transaction) Earnest Money: 1) ܆The $__________________ stipulated on the Purchase Agreement has been deposited in our trust account and may be deducted from the commission due: Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty upon title transfer. 2) ܆The Listing/Selling Broker has the earnest money deposit of$ 3) ܆The Title Company Title Company Name has the earnest money deposit of$ amount 4) ܆Other
Here is a little blurb about the Closing Cover Sheet. It is a very important piece of information, and that’s why we’re including it here!
Home Warranty:
(complete hw information)
A Homeowner's Warranty from Home Warranty Company It is being paid for by the
is being issued for this property.
( ) ܆Buyer ( )܆Seller ( )܆Other in the amount of$ amount
.
Commission Due…
200,000 $________________
Sales price Commission Due per the Purchase Agreement / addenda
$ 12,000.00
_
Plus ܆Seller Brokerage Fee
_
Less Earnest Money on deposit with Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty
$ 295.00 $
Less Home Warranty fee paid by Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty
$
_
Less Commission Due Co-Broker (if this is our listing)_____________________ Co-Broker Name
$ 6,000.00
Less ___________________________________________________________
$________________
Total amount due Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty
$ 6,295.00
܆Buyer Brokerage Fee
Additional Notes:
6% commission per listing contract, with 3% to buying broker
_ _
_
Disbursements which alter or modify these instructions without prior written approval of the Broker or Office Manager shall not be deemed the correct payment to Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty__________ and any balance due shall be the sole financial responsibility of you as the Escrow Agent. If there are any conflicts between this letter (Instructions to Escrow Agent), the Purchase Agreement and/or attached addenda to the Purchase Agreement please contact:_______________________________ at _______________________________ (Prior to Title Transfer) ASC Name ASC Email Please forward a copy of the Settlement Statement/Closing Disclosure for review, Before closing to _________________________________ or email Agent Name it to Agent ________________________________________________Attn: _____________________________________. Email Agent Name Upon closing, please forward the closing statement and check to: Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty Attn: Commission Check Enclosed 30400 Detroit Rd, Suite 105 Westlake OH 44145 Manager’s or Agent’s Signature
Date
Please print and sign your name below with file # and return to This will show as confirmation that instructions have been received.
Escrow Officer Name Print Name
Signature
Date
File Number
E-Mail Address -----------------
Revised 4/17/2020
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(fax number)
(e-mail)
Success Tracker / Scorecard
Keeping a daily, weekly, or monthly Success Tracker and Scorecard helps you to stay on track and alerts you to trends by measuring your office’s or region’s current business, your pending business, your ancillary income, agent count, productivity, and more. Staying connected to the numbers you are managing is the key to your success and the driver to making key decisions that impact the profitability of the office or region.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. — PETER DRUCKER
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In Conclusion
It is our intention for this manual to give you a good idea of what your duties are to the office and to Leadership. It is important at any time if you have questions or there are situations regarding company policy, legal issues, office policies, recruiting, retention, expenses, sick days off, vacation time, planning of events, etc., that you reach out to your regional leadership for clarification and/or direction.
Congratulations again, and welcome to the Schmidt Family of Companies!
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