How To Choose The Right Real Estate Coach

March 23, 2017

Esther Lee

right-real-estate-coach

In a recent Inman Special Report, respondents were most likely to have found their real estate coach through a colleague (53 percent), followed by online search (20 percent) and advertisements (16 percent). But this should not be a quick decision. After all, you’ll likely be spending a lot of time and money with this individual. Not to mention that they can influence the future of your business. Here’s how you can make sure to choose the right coach for you and your business.

Identify Struggles and Problem Areas

Before you start researching coaches, sit down and make a list of what you need coaching for.
What areas of your business do you need help with? Do you have trouble making calls? Is it difficult to keep yourself accountable? Do you need guidance with your business or marketing plans? Do referrals get you enough business? Do you know how to position yourself online?

Once you identify where you need improvement, you can refine your search for a coach based on the qualities you’re looking for, much like searching for a home!

Look For These Qualifications

Respondents of an Inman Report on coaching said they chose their coaches over others based on criteria including experience, ideas, personality, passion, authenticity and charisma. It’s important to vet coaches before hiring one to see if they have the qualities to help you reach your goals. Here are a few qualifications to look for when interviewing your potential coach:

1) Real Estate Experience And Proven Track Record

There may be nothing new under the sun, but that doesn’t mean even the most experienced of us can’t learn something new if we remain open-minded and teachable.

However, our advice is to hire an experienced, reputable coach. We recommend looking for a coach who has run a successful real estate business before. Surprisingly, there are many coaches out there with no hands-on real estate experience, and don’t carry a license. We think a coach who has been through and dealt with everything you’re going through now would provide the best guidance for your career.

Feel free to research the backgrounds of potential real estate coaches to gauge their experience. You should even interview your candidates to determine if they have the right business acumen and a proven track record for helping other agents achieve their goals.

2) Up-To-Date On Real Estate Technology and Marketing

Avoid hiring coaches who haven’t leveraged online marketing to grow their business. While offline marketing methods still produce good results, it should be a supplement to your overall strategy, not the heart of it.

Find a real estate coach who stays relevant with the shifting trends in online marketing and real estate technology. You cannot survive in this industry (or any industry) for long without an optimized website and a CRM to generate and manage your leads.

Coaches need to be much more than just motivational speakers. Basic business and organizational skills can be found for free online. Real estate coach Tom Ferry says, “Our job as coaches is to stay ahead of the curve for the newest trends and technologies.” A coach can be your technology expert who filters through the noise and identifies which products are best to grow your business.

For this reason, many prefer to work with a coach who is still in the business, as opposed to a retiree or someone no longer actively selling real estate.

Tom Ferry’s Blueprint to be a $700k Top Producer

3) Can Identify and Improve Your Strengths and Weaknesses

A coach with enough experience helping other agents succeed will be able to pinpoint what you’re doing well, what isn’t working, and how to develop a plan of attack to improve. Coaches can provide an outsider’s perspective and see your business without the distractions or busyness that you may get caught in.

It may help narrow your search to ask potential coaches to do a quick assessment of your business. Give them your recent sales numbers, an overview of your marketing strategy, and how you’re generating leads. If they can easily point out areas of improvement and provide specific tips and strategies, they may be a viable coaching candidate.

It’s important to have a coach who can give you specific tactics and strategies to implement. Avoid coaching programs that have a broad, “one-size-fits-all” feel. While you may be facing similar struggles as other real estate professionals, your coach should be tailoring strategies and plans to fit your specific needs and business style.

4) Find a Good Fit For YOU

While it’s common to ask around for recommendations on who others are using, a coach that is good for your colleague may not be good for you. You want to find a coach who shares your vision and values when it comes to both business and life.

If having a good work-life balance is important to you, you may not be happy with a coach who teaches a workaholic mentality. If you value providing excellent customer service, a coaching program with a churn-and-burn model would not be ideal.

Coaches are more than just people who can help you navigate your business’s success. It’s important to note that certain coaches may specialize in agents of different levels. Some coaches have a high success rate of launching new agents’ businesses off the ground, while others specialize in helping agents expand into new markets.

Figure out where your business is at, and what you need to take it to the next level. Then you can interview for coaches who can fit both your business model and lifestyle.

Make It Collaborative

No matter who you choose as your real estate, it’s important to remember that coaching is not a short-term fix. Genuine coaching is about connecting with the agent–you–and understanding your vision for where you want your business to be in the future, whether a year or ten years from now. It’s not about learning quick-fix tricks that force you to become overly dependent on your coach.

In fact, about 72 percent of the Inman study respondents said that the payoff of coaching depends most on the agent’s level of commitment. It’s easy to dismiss coaching programs as not being effective if you expect the coaches to do all the work for you. It should be a collaborative journey focused around your business, where you and your coach work together to remove the hindrances blocking you from your goals.

Nearly all respondents said they receive regular counseling from their coaches, with 95 percent indicating they talk to their coaches either once a week (45 percent) or twice a month (49 percent). If you’re going to be spending this much time with a coach, you’d better make sure to hire one you like!